Manchester's lost nightclubs we loved despite the sticky floors and sweaty walls
Remembering those chaotic nights when tomorrow's pounding head and queasy guts were an accepted part of a big night out
Most of us remember a time when the only thing keeping us upright in some booming nightclub was its sticky floors. Yes, I'm referring to those delightfully chaotic nights after you'd downed a good few shots, and tomorrow's pounding head and queasy guts were acceptable trade offs for a sweaty night of dancing.
The 1990s and Noughties were a golden clubbing eras for for many of us. Whether we were students or working our first jobs, looking back those nights were extraordinarily cheap and cheerful with venues catering to cheesy rock and pop, foam parties, indoor smoking and necking Bacardi Breezers.
So to celebrate the clubs where your shoes stuck to the carpets and the sweat dripped down the walls and off the ceiling, we've put together a list of the nightclubs we loved for this very reason. This isn't an exhaustive list, so feel free to add any others in the comments.
Fridays
Fridays on Oldham Street was located right in the heart of '90s Northern Quarter clubland. Boasting the 'best weekend party' in the city, the '90s saw regular ladies nights with erotic male dancers.
There were also weekday bar promotions where you could buy a triple for the price of a single.
Fridays was part of the Britannia Hotel chain of bars, and much like its Didsbury counterpart, it attracted crowds looking for cheap drinks, good times and cheesy music rather than cutting-edge cool. Following the club's closure in the late Noughties, it became Sacha's Wave Bar.
One consistent memory of Fridays in Didsbury that has repeatedly been mentioned was the club's exceptionally sticky carpets.
Louise France said: "Yep, sticky floors and wee on the floor in the toilets with a massive queue. Fantastic times had all round."
Donald McGeorge said: "I remember being stood at the bar one night, went to step away and my shoes stuck to the carpet."
Idol's bar and the Lazy Pig
We don't have any photos of Idol's bar - it seems nobody does! - but that doesn't stop it being one of the most notorious of Manchester's cheesy '90s bars. The promise of cheap drinks and scantily-clad barmaids - and barmen - pulled in the punters to Idol's, and the Lazy Pig on Oldham Street that lurked in the basement below.
These were the pre-club venues for many of the Piccadilly 21s crowds. The building later became Moho Live, renamed NQ Live.
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Discotheque Royale
Although rarely called its full name of Discotheque Royale, this enormous venue next to the Free Trade Hall sparks fond memories for those who partied there in its heyday. The huge Peter Street venue peaked in the '90s - and smelt like it too - dry ice, spilt Bacardi Breezers, Lambert & Butler, Joop Homme and CK1.
'Royales' opened in the former Theatre Royal in 1978. An episode of the late-night dance music show The Hitman and Her was filmed there in 1990, which featured the first TV performance of Take That.
It had several reincarnations as nightclubs including Coliseum and M-Two before closing in 2010.
Jilly's Rockworld
If you grew up in Manchester between 1983 and 2010 and liked rock music, there’s a good chance you spent at least one memorable night in Jilly's Rockworld. For more than twenty years, the club attracted punks, rockers, goths, metalheads, skaters, moshers, and indie kids to its dingy, sweaty labyrinth of rooms with sticky floors.
A questionable array of dance moves and air guitar skills were laid bare on the spacious dance floors as the smell of Grolsch and fags hung heavy in the air. Sometimes ear-splittingly loud, the music pumped from the 8-foot-tall speaker stacks ranged from metal and thrash to punk and ska but never strayed from the safety of the rock genre.
A Manchester institution, Jilly’s was originally known as Fagins. It opened in the 1970s on Oxford Road and was renamed Jilly’s in 1983, before adding Rockworld to its signage.
21 Piccadilly
With its entrance just around the corner of Oldham Street next to the Nobel's amusement arcade, 21 Piccadilly was loud, sticky and cheap and had chandeliers in the loos - in other words, it was a proper '90s party palace. Through the '80s and '90s, it was affectionately known by clubbers as 21s.
Luring in the masses with an irresistible combination of cheap drinks and pounding chart music, this was a popular haunt with students and locals alike. It struggled to shake off its reputation for being a bit rough after attracting gangs in the late '80s and mid '90s, but managed to stave off closing its doors for good until 2005.
Roadhouse
Located in the Northern Quarter on the corner of Newton Street and Back Piccadilly, Roadhouse was originally home to Papa's Club which opened in 1975. In 1993 the new owners changed its name to Roadhouse as blues venue, before being reinvented again by a new owner in 1999.
One former employee who worked the door for over four years was no other than Elbow singer Guy Garvey. Roadhouse became a cornerstone of Manchester's music scene, and its intimate stage was where some of the biggest music stars in the world honed their craft, including Coldplay, Muse, Fleet Foxes, The Kills and The White Stripes.
As well as live bands, the venue was also staged a host of club nights, including Electric Chair, Long Live Rock and Roll, Underachievers Please Try Harder, Get a Grip, Chairs Missing and Hoya Hoya.
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Following the venue's closure in 2015, Jimmy Lee from Manchester remembered: "Growing up, many of my friends played their first gigs at the Roadhouse. A great place to discover new and upcoming music from Manchester.
"Also had many a memorable club night there, dancing away. It’d get so hot and sweaty in there that you’d see condensation on the walls and feel drips from the ceiling."
Mat Payne from Manchester also felt the heat, commenting: "Seeing the White Stripes in a packed roadhouse, the heat was incredible with sweat dripping from the ceiling, also saw Coldplay there but wasn’t even that busy!"
Jumpin' Jaks
Based on the corner of Portland Street and Dickinson Street, Jumpin' Jaks was popular in the '90s for playing chart, cheese and dance from across the decades. It had an Australian beach shack theme inside with fake alligators and crocodiles, and was known for its roller disco, which turned the dancefloor into a drunken rink on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The Pubs of Manchester blog remembers Jumpin' Jaks being memorable for its clientèle who were "mainly underage, all p****d and the type who flock to Deansgate Locks these days for a good night out". Although it adds a huge mural of Hilda Ogden on the dancefloor did earn it some credibility points.
Later it became Billie Rox, before closing in 2010.
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