The Death of Disco: A Brief History of Nottingham Nightclubs

The Dungeon Club on Stanford Street
While it might not look like the type of venue that once held all-night music sessions with some of rock’s biggest names, don’t be fooled by Nelson’s solicitors on Stanford Street. The unlicensed club which opened under Mick Parker played host to The Small Faces, Stevie Wonder and The Who among many others. In a further surreal twist, Peter Stringfellow was once a DJ at the club towards the end of its days. 

Opening in 1964, The Dungeon was the place to go if you were one of the city’s mods. Playing the latest records, it wasn’t allowed to serve alcohol so many clubgoers resorted to soft drinks, coffee and, ahem, other forms of staying awake. It was like the latter that led to a raid by 100 police officers in 1967 who burst into the club during a set from the Drifters going on to question and search over 600 teenagers. This resulted in the grand total of a forty pound fine for Mick and five people charged for drugs. 

The venues were able to stay open all night by closing for just one hour and then reopening again. Attempts were made post-raid to call a halt to this and while it's unclear if this had an effect or not, the club closed the following year. 

In its later years, it became The Eight Till Late Club briefly in the late sixties before a court case involving the bouncers caused licence issues. The next few decades saw incredibly swift name changes including Mario’s, Shades, Whispers, The Asylum, The Club and finally Venus. 

Media on Queen Street
The end of the hedonistic nineties ushered in a new era of venue: the super club. This was so much more than just providing a space to dance or meet your friends but clubs were now concerned with becoming a brand themselves. This meant cramming as much as you could into the space to entertain clubbers. God forbid people just enjoy the music. 

The Elite Cinema on Queen’s Street has had many attempts to gain a licence since it shut in 1977 although many were unsuccessful. Glasgow nightclub operator, Big Beat made a play for the venue announcing a £1.5 million plan to revamp it into a super club for the Midlands. They were turned down repeatedly for four years before Media was opened in 1999. This was to be unlike anything the city had before. 

Plans included: six bars, a VIP lounge, a multi-media theatre which included internet suites (nope we don’t know either) and Playstations. It even had a seventy-seater restaurant called Magazine. The capacity for the club was huge at 1,250 and it inspired other club brands to take Nottingham into consideration such as Ministry of Sound who began eyeing the Lace Market near Bottle Lane. 

There was a catch: clubbers were beginning to reject big clubs and the arrival of the internet meant people didn’t have to go out to meet others. This only hastened with the arrival of online dating. As business slowed, it became Gatecrasher in 2007 before closing for good in 2016 with rumoured debts of £3.5 million.

Deluxe on St James's Street
It’s hard to imagine the Chemical Brothers once playing on St James’s Street but that’s exactly what happened in February 1996.

Deluxe had a long history in the city as Club ’69, Nero’s, and L’Amour before being taken over by club promoter James Baille in 1996. The club was known for its music and serious DJs. It did employ some quirky advertising strategies though as one for ‘Barbie goes to Deluxe’ allegedly irritated bosses at Mattel who ordered the organisers to withdraw thousands of the leaflets with the doll on them. Or so the legend has it.

Deluxe was home to some of the biggest club nights in Nottingham including Candyland and it played host to Detonate club night in January 1999 before it morphed into a music festival. Sadly, the club didn’t last too long as it was replaced by the Cookie Club, which had previously been located on Pelham Street in 2001. While the Cookie Club welcomed a generation of the city’s goths and rockers, it too eventually closed, becoming the Retro Rooms. Despite a £10,000 revamp, this too has now closed.

The Garage on St. Mary’s Gate
The Garage is another club that has had many different names including Kool Kat and Lizard Lounge before settling down as a studio and offices. It was renovated into The Garage Studios as part of a £1.1 million investment.

The club began its life as the Beachcomber then the Ad-Lib before becoming The Garage in the eighties. The Garage had two floors where you could listen to indie downstairs before heading upstairs for more dance-orientated options.

It was famed for its music and is credited with launching the career of DJ Graeme Park. Park is one of Nottingham’s most famous DJs, often referred to as one of the founders of the rave club scene. As the legend goes, he had been working at beloved music store  Selectadisc, when someone called in sick and he stepped in to DJ, thus launching his career and he moved on to the Hacienda club in Manchester.

The club fell into debt in its later years and was transformed into the Lizard Lounge operated by Andy Bentley. Bentley was also responsible for another beloved club, Beatroot in the Lace Market. Finally, the club became BZR which closed in 2015 after a doorman was violently stabbed inside the venue. Another clubber was stabbed outside - luckily both survived.