Back to the Planet X

Planet X - the Liverpool club-cum-venue that was, for a while in the 90s, the most Liverpool musicy thing in the Liverpool music scene - revives tonight at the Magnet on Hardman Street.

Of course, unless they're planning to pour piss onto the floor until it hits ankle-depth, it won't be quite the authentic experience, but it's exciting to hear the mighty force is returning. If you're near Liverpool, you probably should go along.

And, yes, it's still Doreen running it.

I'm now going to lay down from the Proustian rush of it all.

A chance to see a senior economist on the decks

If you're in London - and chances are you're not, so, sorry - Amelia Fletcher is guest dj tonight at How Does It Feel To Be Loved? Canterbury Crescent, Brixton from 9pm.

Venuewatch: Fabric rips

Who knew there were any superclubs left still going? Apparently Fabric is still churning away, although now in administration and up for sale.

There's something exciting about the prospect of going to a nightclub being run by PriceWaterhosueCoopers, isn't there?

Both PWC and the club's management are both quite chipper about the prospects for someone taking on the whole thing and keeping it going. At least until the property market picks up and they can turn the whole thing into luxury flats, anyway.

Liquidation changes top floors

Liquidation has seen some changes in the time it's been delighting the prettier, more discerning end of Liverpool. Hard to believe, but the night it started, there wasn't a Ted Baker or a Nandos in the city.

There are changes afoot, though. Or, more accurately, ahead. Overhead. Long-serving top floor flavour Uptight is being stood down:

After many years of faithful service, Uptight has been put out to pasture, and upstairs every Saturday night from January 16th we'll be hosting Adult Books and the music policy is: GLAM/PUNK/ELECTRO/NEW WAVE/NOW

They say "Adult Books is an all out glitter-orgy of really quite glam-licious proportions, for the great and good in Liverpool to get out and go crazy to!" and who are we to disagree?

"If we'd had a third dancefloor in Le Bateau, Adult Books would have joined the party on Saturdays a long time ago, so it's great to finally have them on board."

In Uptight's absence, downstairs Liquidation will be playing a selection of 6Ts big hitters alongside the usual blend of sonic guitars, dirty disko and lost classics.

There's also to be a resurrection of the live acts that punctuated Liquidation back in the day, starting from February 6th. And drinks specials but use alcohol wisely, yeah?

Factory offices reopend

Because there's no end to the ways to lose money in Manchester, the old Factory offices are being reopened as a nightclub.

The club is being named FAC251 - or renamed - and has Factory-related backers including Ben Kelly and Peter Hook. Hopefully one tradition of the old company - that of spunking cash up the wall - won't be getting carried forward into the new one.

Glasgow: a million twees bloom

Earlier, news about one of Marine Research. Now, news of an indie club opening in Glasgow. This is only going to confirm the suspicions of those Slayer and Iron Maiden fans, isn't it?

Anyway, Glasgwegians and those prepared to travel, prepare yourself for Half My Heart Beats, on the second Saturday of every month. The team behind it are affiliated with the indie-mp3 blog in some way, which is a guarantee of the quality of what you'll be hearing. And dancing your pretty little asses off to.

Venuewatch: Turnmills ground down

London club Turnmills, a fixture on the scene for nearly quarter of a century, is to close in March:

Turnmills closing means that it is falling foul of a similar fate to that of Kings Cross clubs up the road (The Key, The Cross and Canvas). Turnmills lease is up and the landlord wishes to redevelop the site although in typical Turnmills style there's no hard feelings as the landlord has accommodated the club until they felt it was a good time to hang up their hats.

Home to Sister Bliss and Tall Paul, the club has hosted sets from nearly all the big names in UK clubbing - The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, 'not a real' Judge Jules; it's going out with a bang over the Easter Weekend.

[via Lipstick Vogue]

Secret dancing

Secret Shine are going to do some djing (or, as they put it, "play[ing] records in a ‘Dave Lee Travis kind of way’", at Big Pink Cake at The Crown, Bristol, February 6th. It's three quid in.

The cake has a MySpace

Fourteen years in a smokey boat*

Some of the best Satruday nights of our life have taken place in Liverpool's Le Bateau, hope to the double-punch of Liquidation and Uptight. Liquidation, in fact, has been around so long it's well into its teenage years - having seen off attempts at clod-hopping cloning of its formula across the city, the rise and fall of the 'super-indie-club' Stomp and people asking the DJs 'got any Kasabian?'. Oh, and Cream.

In fact, the club turns 14 on Saturday with a special bunch of treats, as the club's MySpace describes:

Doors open as usual at 10.30pm, and there'll be a free glass of Liquidation punch and candy floss to greet you. Then playing upstairs @11.30pm will be a 30 minute set from local heroes "28 Costumes" (they've got a single out right now on Invicta Hi-Fi too).

All the residents will be out in force to play past, present and future floorfillers, then our special guest DJ downstairs is Richard Colburn of the mighty Belle and Sebastian. He'll be playing selection of his dancefloor mastercuts, ranging from indie, funk, dirty electro and reggae.

It's £5 in for everyone, but we're not doing tickets, so please just pay on the door.

It's probably best to not ask what's in Liquidation Punch.

* - we know, strictly speaking, the first Liquidations took place in Hardys rather than Le Bateau, but that looked a bit like a boat.

Rav Singh: showbusiness journo or spokesperson?

Is it us, or is this item from Rav's showbiz column in today's News of the World so slight as to suggest there must be some other reason that a gossip-journalist's impetus for its inclusion:

WATCH out for new club Studio 4 in Covent Garden, London. The venue was once home to the legendary Browns Nightclub.

The opening is in a few weeks...watch this space.

We've got a fridge we need to sell... do you reckon we could get Rav to include an advert for that in next week's paper?

Is Jay-Z stealing music?

That's what's claimed in a lawsuit launched by Broadcast Music Inc. The company has issued a lawsuit on behalf of Kanye West, Michael Jackson and others claiming that J-Zed's 40/40 club is playing records without paying royalties.

The club haughtily denies doing any such thing, says TMZ:

A rep for the 40/40 Club says the club hasn't been served with legal papers, and adds that "under no circumstance" would songs by R. Kelly, whose tune "Thoia Thoing" is mentioned in the suit, be played in Hova's house.

Oddly, they don't seem ashamed at the idea of playing Jackson's music.

The offspring should spring off

Neither Kimberley Stewart nor Damian, Ziggy and Julian Marley have achieved very much besides having origins in famous sperm¹, so it must have been a difficult choice for the management at London club Prophecy when both tried to claim the best table in the house. It's a pity someone who had actually achieved something in their own right - like, I don't know, Maureen off Driving School - wasn't there to stake a stronger claim and solve the conundrum.

Apparently glasses got smashed, harsh words exchanged; eventually, the Marleys won the table. They did keep an eye on the door in case Bill Oddie's daughter swung by.

1. Please, don't even think of saying 'what about the Melody Makers' here. Thank you.

Together at last: Cuties, swearing, dancing

Raiding Sarah Records' back cagoulogue, the stuff Alan McGee used to do before he started turning up on News 24 and putting on bands that tip their hat to the tweescene, from next month, London will be offering a Twee As Fuck clubnight.

Lily Allen adopts act for American market

Last time she went to the US, it all ended in tears, but this time, Keith Allen's daughter is making an effort. She knows that childish spats with Cheryl Tweedy mean nothing in Boise, so she's trying to start something with Lindsay Lohan instead:

“We went to this club called Les Deux and that was really fun until Lindsay Lohan arrived and had us thrown off our table.

“I know she’s a huge star and all and famous people deserve to sit down especially when they’ve been working so hard, but whatevs.

“Lindsay, our thoughts are with you as you go through this difficult time in your life (she got arrested this weekend). In the words of Timbaland and Timberlake, ‘What goes aroun . . . ”

Fate issued a statement at 6.30am this morning, British time, confirming that, yes, it did arrange the arrest of Lohan as a counterbalance for her taking Lily Allen's table in a nightclub. "It seemed the only way to rebalance the universe" explained Fate, "after all, can you imagine how galling it must be going to some celebrity-stained nightclub only to discover you're trumped as soon as someone people in America have heard of turns up?"

Concrete facts

A quick mention for the Keeping C86 Alive-affiliated club night Swiss Concrete, which happens at Port Mahon in Oxford. It does lose half a point for utilising the done-to-death wartime poster of a woman rolling up her sleeves saying "we can do it" on a flier - has there even been a club night which hasn't cut and paste that onto promo material at some point? I mean, I know everyone who picks it to promote their gigs or clubnights means it in a "strong, feminist" leftist/liberal way, but it's still a picture that was commissioned to encourage working-class women to help make bombs to kill other working-class women, which makes it a bit of an odd choice to promote an evening of dancing and a sense of sisterhood.

Still, many thousands of extra points for their line-up:

The Evenings - 30/05/07
The Rosie Taylor Project - 10/06/07
Martin Stephenson - 10/07/07
The Brights - 31/07/07
Space Heroes Of The People - 18/08/07
Monkey Swallows The Universe - 02/09/07
Callous - 22/09/07

Re-living The Legend!

We're not quite sure if Everett True realises or not, but his guest dj slot at How Does It Feel To Be Loved (March 2nd, Canterbury Arms, Brixton) is being promoted under his old indie-pop/NME name, The Legend!

We're using the word "under" in the same sense as "a pile of unsold CRE001s under Alan McGee's bed", of course.

Put the blame on you

It's nice to be able to write about a clubnight which isn't in London, so welcome back to Lipstick on Your Collar, returning to The Hatchet on Frogmore Street in Bristol this Saturday.

The music? It's total girl-powered frenzeticness.
The cost? A measly four quid.

Five years? What a surprise

Next Saturday, after five years and fifty shows, Glam-ou-rama has announced next Saturday's Club Bohemia is to be the last:

As Bowie says "We've got five years, that's all we've got" and indeed he was right. You may already have heard the rumours but this will be the last ever Club Bohemia. Our beloved child shall ascend to the stars at the end of the night to seek out a brighter future in another galaxy. For us this is the end of a chapter. It's been an amazing time doing Club Bohemia, but with Preston no longer in the country and myself very busy with other commitments we cannot give the club the attention it needs. So after our birthday we will be closing the doors on Club Bohemia forever. We realise as the last night and our 5th birthday it might be quite busy so we advise people to get there early.