The recession isn’t all bad. Without it Manchester’s Warehouse Project would have gone the way of the Hacienda long before this, their fifth and best year yet. electronic music’s finest, it’s a welcome contrast from mirrored hallways and backlit bars. “I actually had an argument about this with our licensee about the bars,” Sacha smiles. “When you queue up at Store Street, you can see the police, the security, the medics – it’s all official and done by the book – but as soon as you walk through the doors, we want it to feel like an illegal rave. They wanted to start making the bars look like nice bars, as opposed to the bars you could knock up in a few minutes, and we weren’t really having any of it. It just wouldn’t feel right.” Establishing and stamping the project on the Manchester map hasn’t been without its tribulations. Issues with planning and excess sound threatened to curtail the night in its infancy, but with a bit of a penchant for sweet-talking, Sacha (and his business partners, Sam and Kirsty - pictured right) always found a way to keep the event alive. “When we were given the license, environmental health and the police came down, checked everything out and they were fine with it. But no one picked up on the fact that the brewery had a corrugated roof, so the first night Public Enemy came down and started screaming down the microphones, and because Boddingtons is right next door to Strangeways prison, we had the prison governor on the phone telling us that as good a DJ as Richie Hawtin was, we couldn’t have this because the prisoners were literally raving. “Of course by this time we’d booked all the artists, so we had to beg, borrow and steal from Manchester city council to let us stay there until January 1st. I was on my knees because otherwise we would have been in financial ruin.We still get letters from prisoners asking us if we can return.” Moved on from their first, albeit brief, home at the brewery, the only alternative was to find a suitable venue that satisfied everyone’s demands, so where better than their current residency at Store Street Manchester’s largest ex air raid shelter. But even that move across town wasn’t without
In a climate that’s seen some of UK clubland’s biggest names and venues close their doors, the Warehouse Project, contrastingly, is in remarkably rude health. Celebrating its fifth year since the old Boddingtons brewery tentatively opened its doors to remind Manchester’s revellers of the reckless hedonistic rave spirit, it’s a bit of a miracle that WHP ever got this far. A resident, stalwart and share holder at the iconic Manchester club, Sankeys, Sacha LordMarchionne spent six years at the venue putting on nights that, despite the high calibre of DJs, “got a bit boring”. So, in 2006, Sacha sold up. A few drinks with two friends, and a consequent night out later, the rough blueprint of the Warehouse Project was born. “I remember we spent our time driving around Manchester trying to find a space to do something special and we came across Boddingtons brewery,” he explains. “If you remember, Boddingtons had that ad line ‘the Cream of Manchester’ and all the guys that used to work there, we’re talking generations, they had all been kicked out, and the place was just lying there, dormant. “So we organised to meet the owner and kind of sugar coated the fact we wanted to put on raves…you know, dropping words like ‘bands’ and ‘producers’ and ‘family events’. He came down as a customer on the first night and realised we’d pulled a fast one.” Born from a desire and staunch belief in reviving the glory days of the dance scene, WHP stays refreshingly true to its roots. In a modern age of health, safety and political correctness, the entrance to its current Store Street car park venue is one of reassuring organisation – police, medics and security are all present and correct – but inside, it’s directly back to basics. A world away from the stylised pandering and bling of the super-clubs, exposed, industrial brickwork and makeshift bars give WHP its rough and ready atmosphere but with a booming sound system cranked to bring decibel shattering noise, and an enduringly premier roster of
P h o t o g r a p h e r : M a n o x P h o t o g r a ph y W r i t e r : REE F YO U NIS
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