Crasher to open in Newcastle ????

Crasher to open in Newcastle ????

Anybody else seen this in this months mixmag ???? apparently in the next five years they are opening up in Newcastle, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and Glasgow.

Yeah, heard bout this a while ago, do you think it'll really take off?? I mean Promise struggled, which goes to show its not exactly a booming trade atm (altho it has obviously kicked offf with it being monthly ). They aint gonna be popular to which ever trance etc clubs are in these areas tho, are they.

crasher hasnt always been trance tho- used to be house an all sorts if i remember rightly...

GC1 still has nights on nearly every night of the week ... think if they did open in these cities (gc2, gc3 etc.) the clubs would be more of a chain of clubs than a venue for crasher every week/month.. so the trance factor wouldnt really matter..

Plus it wont be a Crasher, it'll be a GC1 so it'll play shit cheesy stuff like they do at S1 1DJ and it'll be a huge success with the charvas of the Bigg Market.

Just what we need then.

The only thing i can think of that may be in "Gatecrasher's" favour is its name, maybe because its such a big name in the dance scene more people from around the region would travel to nights they put on then say a Promise night.

if they put many trance nights on that is... gc and crasher are seperate brands now...

I think the name will do alot for it.

Twas a bit clear when the re-open'd the republic as Gatecrasherone.... Look forward to it if it happens but itwillalwaysbeinSheffield realy.

Don't you think it would effect Promise at all Mark?
Is Promise going to end up being a prog night again?

It would/may effect Foundation more than Promise.

In what sense?

Gatecrasher6 or whatever it is called will be a club & not a clubnight.

Ah right, I wonder where then?

wats the point...??!! newcastle hasnt got a big enough clubbing community for gatecrasher as well as promise to be holding events here other hard house/trance nites hav bin set up and where are they now, none existent cos no-one used to go 2 em, i know crahsers crasher at the end of the day but just dont see how its gonna work!!! how often r they gonna be holding events on cant see it bin a good thing if its gonna be on a regular basis, yeah fair enough ones every couple of months or so but not every month or anythink like that!! xxx

The Gatecrasher that is talked about coming to Newcastle is a nightclub, not a trance night.
PLEASE READ:

Gatecrasher has been an intrinsic part of the UK dance scene for over a decade. With plans afoot for an expansion of a brand which is known to millions wordwide, the club's spiritual home in Sheffield - formerly known as The Republic - gets the ball rolling with a name change and major refurbishment. Night speaks with Gatecrasher MDs Simon Raine (above left) and Simon Oates (above right) to find out more on the philosophy behind the brand's reposition and their expansion plans....

Much of the fallout from the decline of the so called 'superclub' surrounded the changing face of the dance music scene, the position of the clubs within it and the increasing demands and changing tastes of the consumer. With some players having moved on to different projects, others have taken time to re-assess, take stock of the clubbing landscape before them and begin to reposition themselves in order to keep up with changes that have inevitably forced the evolution of the entire sector.

Whether you buy into the furore which surrounded the rise and fall of the superclub phenomena or not, the time has most definitely come for dance music's major protagonists to move on an redefine themselves - a philosophy which has brought about the dramatic reinvention of one of the sector's most prominent names - Gatecrasher.

Now a worldwide dance brand, Gatecrasher has been at the forefront of the dance music scene in the this country for over a decade, ever since their glammed up parties of the early nineties offered a touch of hedonism to droves of beautiful people who travelled to Birmingham from far and wide to experience their legendary events.

In 1997 Gatecrasher frontmen Simon Raine and Simon Oates purchased The Republic in Sheffield - a venue which had, at that time, played host to their events but which finally become a permanent home to a name which would eventually grow well beyond the Steel City into a global phenomena, complete with all the trimmings of a major brand.

More recently, the trance sound which had become the signature tune for the club as a whole, and the day-glow, fridge magnet wearing 'Crasher Kids' which had become the embodiment of the club, began to wane in tandem with dance music trends generally.

As Simon Raine puts it himself: "Dance music plateaued about three years ago - certainly for us anyway, and certainly from a commercial point of view. Gatecrasher nights changed from weekly to monthly about 18 months ago and everybody at the time said it was over, it was finished. It wasn't over and it wasn't finished - there had basically been a change to the supply and demand of dance music - there was too much supply, too many DJs taking enormous fees, too many clubs charging too much for too little and, as a result, numbers were dwindling. As we went to monthly we could see the end of dance music as the sole reason for a night out - I remember saying at the time that 'dance was still part of a night out but not a musical genre per se'. People are always going to want dance music when they go to a nightclub but it's not the sole reason for going out anymore.

"So we sat down and looked at the next four years in clubland and, with the advent of every shop corner turning into a bar and the changes in licensing which were, and are, taking place, we asked ourselves what was the future of nightclubs?"

To answer this, Raine and fellow MD Simon Oates, looked at the way the rise of bar culture had affected clubs across the country: "Late night bars have ruined quite a few clubs - not the Republic because it was a great venue - but many have struggled to keep up," says Raine. "We quickly realised that the future for Gatecrasher involved continuing to run great venues but changing the clientele coming through the door. We wanted to continue to operate and develop new clubs but we were very aware that we could only do this if we moved with the changes.

There has been a change in culture and a change in people's perception of what value for money really is - not least because of the competition form bars."

Simon Oates believes that a general shift in culture has also been a driving force behind the changing face of clubland. He comments: "People generally want more out of life these days and that includes there late night venues. People are settling down later in life and that means there is a larger percentage of the market which are increasingly mature - the venues they attend must meet their demands. Bars always tended to cater for the late twenties and thirties crowd whilst clubs were always aimed more at the younger end of the market. We've tried to create an environment that wont alienate the maturer clubber and provide surroundings within which they feel very comfortable. Not that this club is aimed purely at an older customer - we still have nights here which attract the 18, 19 and early twenties crowd - we have basically ensured that this venue appeals to more people, across a broad age range, more often."

Oates continues: "The modern entertainment space has to be more than just about the dancefloor - you need sophisticated zones that allow people to relax, have a drink, chill out if they want to. The target we have with Gatecrasher One is a late night entertainment concept for a stylish and upmarket crowd. As much as there are a lot of bars out there, bars cannot compete with nightclubs, clubs have a lot more to offer than most bars if they are put together correctly."

Allied with this self awareness is a sharp marketing campaign strategised by Gatecrasher's 'brand architects' Team Saatchi. This particular facet of the brand's repositioning has been vital to altering people's opinion of Gatecrasher as a sound as well as a club. The strong, catchy slogans produced by Saatchi have helped communicate Gatecrasher's new thinking to customers both old and new in seamless fashion. "We've worked with Team Saatchi successfully in the past," explains Raine, "and they really hit the spot. It is important for us to let people know that Gatecrasher One as a venue will mean more than trance music."

Raine continues: "I think in '97 we were the planet's most influential club and we reaped a lot of publicity from the 'Crasher Kid' thing of the time. However, like anything, it changes and moves on. We are very proud of our heritage and very proud of our trance connection but we are now doing a lot more besides - we will continue to run those nights but don't want to be pigeonholed as purely a trance club because Gatecrasher One won't be that."

Also vital to the club's new format is a brand new design scheme from the man responsible for the venue's previous guise - Matt Rawlinson of Raw Design. The scheme has taken the industrial feel and sweeping architectural lines of this stunning building and complemented them with a softer, funkier, sophisticated edge to create a real sense of 'boutique'.

"We've taken a lot of inspiration from good quality bars and hotels and the way social spaces work within them," explains Simon Oates. "We wanted to take the best bits and add the entertainment concept - the result is a venue which still has a big sound and lighting system but feels like a plush hotel environment."

Alongside the cool cosmetics is an upgraded and flexible sound system from Opus Audio - capable of handling the club's new, eclectic music policy and packaged into what will eventually become a Gatecrasher signature sound system soon to be launched onto the market. Specialist DJ equipment from Vestax graces the venue's two booth areas whilst a powerful lighting show based on products from Martin Professional completes the tech package.

Oates continues: "The sound system works across all music policies - it's what I'd call a proper sound system and is about clarity and not just making noise. I think we've had almost every DJ in the world playing on that system and they love it." Gatecrasher One, as the venue's new name might suggest, is the first in a projected expansion of the brand which will take the Gatecrasher name and philosophy to nine more major UK cities - a major project but one which Raine and Oates are clearly centred on. "The focus of the business now is to create ten of the best nightclubs in the world here in the UK," explains Raine confidently. "A good analogy for the Gatecrasher clubs would be that if they were a hotel chain they would be a Malmaison - all individual, unique and similar at the same time, all in major cities and all with that element of exclusivity. We don't think there's an operator out there at the minute who is catering for stylish, upmarket people who like going out late at night - there are bars but no l
ate night concepts in the UK that caters for this." "There's an audience out there who won't go to mainstream clubs but also wouldn't go to a hundred capacity, really cool, really trendy venue either - there's a real gap in the market for something like this."

Raine is keen to point out that this expansion programme is just that - an expansion of the Gatecrasher philosophy and not a 'roll out' as such. He says: "The plcs, as good as some of them are, take a concept to a city and believe that once they've got it right they can roll it out. We're not doing that. Gatecrasher has got a personality - it's one of the original dance brands and originally started to cater for stylish people who came into the club looking amazing and left looking like they'd really had it, it was very selective, fashion driven but still a full on club." "Our expansion will encompass the best elements of this (Sheffield) project and retain design elements. However, each will suite the city it's in and the size of venue will be determined by appropriate sites. We are currently looking at a thousand capacity venue in Birmingham and are very interested in Manchester - but it's about getting the environment right."

A lot of what Gatecrasher have planned stems from the roots of their operation and, as a result, a personal touch remains important to them. "We've never been anything we're not and an awful lot comes from the roots of our operation," says Oates. "We're still a great night out and now people can do that in a beautiful surroundings."

Inspiration for the Gatecrasher expansion has also been driven by concepts from other operators which Raine and Oates believe offer very little. Not only this, but they are also critical of a plc approach to operation which they believe is also out of touch. "We were inspired by these concepts - but only because they are so bad," says Raine. "We knew we could do it better - offer something that people will really want."

"We even approached a major plc with our initial ideas but they couldn't understand what we were about and where we were coming from. The logical step was to slot into a company who had the financial backing and infrastructure and we bring our strong brand and promotional expertise to the table. On paper it looked like a great idea but we walked out realising that if they couldn't see that then we'd just do it ourselves."

Raine continues: "We've got a worldwide brand which everyone is familiar with and I think we can put a better club together than most operators. There's a lot of directors of nightclub operations out there who don't know what the consumer wants, they don't know what's being played on the dancefloor - they're only interested in what GP they're making at the bar or at the door. If you start running your nightclub as just a business then that'll come across to the punter. There are obviously some rules which you have to adhere to but after that its party time - people are going out to have fun. Gross profits maintain your business and without a business there is no nightclub. I'm not saying it's not important, it's just being aware of where the focus is. We're still realistically in touch with the street and our experience comes from the sharp end of promoting which is something we can bring to this sector." Oates adds his thoughts: "The PLC mentality isn't washing - people want to be individual but still feel p
art of something - Gatecrasher has always had that - it stood for something a little bit rebellious and anarchistic and was off the back of acid house - it has always been aspirational."

This attitude isn't so much born of arrogance but instead a firm confidence in both their brand and their ability to offer something that people want. The expansion of the concept is a brave one but it is underlined by the knowledge that Gatecrasher offers something that can genuinely fill a niche in the market. The seriousness of Gatecrasher's intended expansion is only emphasised with news that the appointment of a non Executive Chairman, who will oversee the expansion and channel the ideas of Raine and Oates into a multi operational development, is imminent. "Obviously for ten clubs there's a significant amount of financing required and some is already in place," says Raine. "We'll take things as the project moves through its paces but won't be rushed into hasty decisions - this is going to be completed in the correct manner."


Look out for more on Gatecrasher's expansion as it happens in future issues of Night as well as exclusive news on the appointment of Gatecrasher's new non Executive Chairman in next month's issue

interesting

Your right, I hate not knowing things though

Can anyone sumarise what Spence wrote in no more than 2 lines plz???

Cookee x