Billy Reilly

Billy Reilly

controlling interest

billy reilly

features, March 2008 , COMMENTS

NIGHT meets London club owner Billy Reilly after time is finally called on his Kings Cross nightclubs The Cross, The Key and Canvas. He looks back on their success and discusses future developments with Pacha, politics and his frustration with local authorities.

For someone who was labelled as “destined to achieve nothing” in his last school report, Billy Reilly has done pretty damn well. Not only did he come to own a group of leading London nightclubs, but he also started several other businesses, including a 200 fleet taxi firm, an event company and a catering company.

But, as Billy says, that’s just typical of the British education system. “It’s down to common sense,” not academia, he states, “and I’ve always been an opportunist.” It was this trait that inspired him to launch a wine bar in the Kings Cross depot back in November 1993, with the idea that he would capitalise on the pre-club drinks market created by ravers attending nearby new club Bagleys.

When advised that he may as well take out a nightclub licence the venue evolved into The Cross, which was to become one of London’s longest running club ventures: opening in the ‘90s and running successfully until it was forced to close in January this year.

When NIGHT met Billy at his self-designed Camden house, his manner was as down to earth and raw as the industrial surroundings that enveloped his early clubs. And so it should be. The history of the Kings Cross depot is ingrained in his blood. Originally a distribution hub in the 1870s, the area became a freight distribution channel for the railway post-war, which is where his grandfather worked as a lorry driver and his grandmother delivered parcels. His father later owned a family haulage company on the site, where Billy once worked as a mechanic. Little did he know that the area would later become the spiritual home of three of his own nightclubs.

But, after 14 years hosting countless pioneering parties (as well as a who’s who of the world’s leading DJs), the long promised Kings Cross rail development called time on The Cross, along with 4-year-old sister venues The Key and Canvas. Billy was surprisingly matter-of-fact when recalling the news. “I’d been on that site for 25 years operating various different businesses. Throughout that time there has been a six-month break clause on the area, in case British Rail wanted to do development. I found out in January last year they were going to be building, but the planning approval has been there for the last three years.

“I’ve always taken an optimistic attitude on the situation,” he continued. “I struck a very good deal with The Cross because when I approached British Rail with my idea they laughed at me and thought I was mad. But I took the opportunity to basically say ‘well if you think I’m that stupid then you may as well give it to me for next to nothing’, which they did.”

In these early days Billy and business partner John Pannell had put their own money into The Cross (pictured above) driven by a strong instinct that Billy says was much like buying a house. “The Cross had all those little ingredients that make something come together,” he explained. “Some places are just like that, aren’t they, like an oasis in the desert.”

When the partners bought the venue Billy was no expert in the club business; at the age of 32 he had already left his clubbing years behind (unlike his brother Keith Reilly, who had a passion for music and went on to own Fabric). In stepped musical programmer Lisa Gellender who, Billy says, was instrumental in elevating The Cross to its highly regarded position.

In later years The Cross gained notoriety for its Friday gay night Fiction and for hosting a variety of great club nights. But it was the quirky, creative input from the operations team at the club that first drew attention to it. NIGHT reminded Billy of the time they suspended goldfish in plastic bags from the ceiling of the club. Billy laughs: “I remember going to buy about 200 fish and the idea was to have them in plastic bags like at the fair. We spent ages screwing hooks in the ceiling and hanging all these fish on. They looked really cool in the light, but when we put the music on the water spilled out, so we threw them back in the canal before the night started!”

Above all Billy believes it was the people that gave the club its legendary status, many of whom had been visiting the club for 14 years. “You don’t realise how much it influences people’s lives. When I first started, I got into the party scene. No-one wanted to know me when I had a garage but they did when I had a club!” But despite the nights out, Billy never lost his clear head for business. “I realised that if I wanted to make it successful I had to stop partying. But it worked well because John enjoyed the front end and I enjoyed the business side.”

A driven character, Billy thanks his upbringing for his strong work ethic and ambition, but stands by the belief that everyone is born with a drive to succeed, that England provides everyone with the opportunity to do something with their life - if they have the right approach.

“This will sound really awful,” he says, “but I think education institutionalises a lot of people. When you come out after 21 years, well, then you’re a very good employee. You’re like a battery chicken.”
Ever the entreprenuer, Billy capitalised on opportunities where they felt right - an attitude that led him in the Pacha project in 2001. After The Cross was up and running, Pacha promoters Debbie Lee and Mark Sanson approached him about the project, which would see the legendary Ibizan club brand land in London for the first time.

“At first I said no,” recounted Billy, “because I didn’t see the sense in building someone else’s brand, but after a rethink I changed my mind.”

He subsequently bought them out of the project. And he bought Bagleys too, the club that had prompted him to open The Cross, closing it down and re-opening it as multifunctional entertainment space Canvas, “a blank canvas”. Not wanting to compete with his brother’s venture Fabric in nearby Farringdon, and knowing development was in the air, Billy played with the 2,500 capacity venue on a small scale, hosting some memorable parties.

But the most significant thing to come out of Canvas was electro/indie/urban festival TDK Cross Central, a dance cross-over weekend-long event that took off after a 2004 launch and featured the likes of Goldfrapp, Grace Jones, 2manydjs, LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip. Billy took a back seat from TDK in its fourth and final year, handing responsibilities over to Operations Director Gemma Ross (who he describes as his right arm and voicepiece), Marketing & Brand Manager Richard Newport and Musical Programmer Richard Smith. “I was entrenched in TDK it was successful and financially good, I knew the team around me would deliver a quality event and let me concentrate on other parts of my portfolio.”

These other business interests include catering company Le Supper, which provides corporate hospitality for prestigious events such as the Pirates of the Caribbean film premiere, Superman and Versace parties. He also set up Blonde, an event management company with 80% of its work outside of his clubs. There’s also his pub, The Driver in Kings Cross, which is undergoing a refurbishment, and his mini cab firm that covers around 12 clubs in London.

Billy seems to have it all: a business empire, a beautiful home, a wife and four children, including a son who is the British junior champion at go-karting. He has succeeded in the nightclub trade throughout a tough climate where others have failed. But he still feels a huge amount of frustration at the changes taking place not just within the late night trade, but the country as a whole. He blames the tightening of regulations for negative changes in the late night landscape. He explains: “London’s about businesses, multicultural society and residents all living together and, on a personal level, I’ve realised that as a resident in London you have to live with the good and the bad.

“But the fact is that residents have much more influence over councils than businesses. As a business - and particularly a late night economy business - you have no say.”

He also holds local authorities to account for what he describes as the ‘booze Britain’ effect. “In their infinite wisdom back in the ‘90s, councils started to grant late licences to highstreet pubs, creating oversupply, off the back of which came happy hours and cheap booze. In addition, town centres in places like Romford and Wigan were pedestrianised, effectively turning them into ghettos.” This would not be the problem it is, he says firmly, with some forthought and decent planning.

Billy is happy to hold court on a range of political issues - from Thatcher to the influence of supermarkets on Government policy.

But bringing the conversation back to more immediate issues, and conscious of his inability to sit still, I ask him what’s next up his sleeve.

Billy tells me he has “bigger and better” things in his sights and is determined not to become a “one hit wonder”. Part of this plan involves Pacha - the club he helped launch in Victoria in 2001 and owns today.

A timely and substantial refurbishment is on the cards, creating a rooftop garden that will bring the venue’s smoking facilities up to scratch. And the roll out plans he outlined at the Pacha’s launch have resurfaced: Pacha bars in London and around the M25 are apparently on the agenda.
“We’re looking at re-engineering the brand and making it a little bit more Cross-esque, raising its game slightly,” he says. “The music policy and the interior will have an upmarket lift and the roof gardens will have brand identity through marketing flyers and associations with promoters and certain DJs.”

Billy is also going down the licensing route with another “interesting space” in Camden, but when pushed won’t reveal any details. His gastro pub The Driver in Kings Cross is also undergoing refurbishment. He says: “Turnmills closes next month; London’s gaping some big holes in the club market. In the last year you’ve had Hammersmith Apollo, The Cross, Canvas, The Key, Turnmills and the Astoria close their doors.

“But I’m a firm believer in destiny. The new Billy Reillys need to come in and I need to find new spaces to reinvent myself.” If the result is anything like the Billy Reilly of The Cross years, then we’re in for some surprises yet.

Words: Rachel Esson

From: March 2008

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