Angel Lane, Limerick

Angel Lane

Limerick

Angel lane

venues, June 2008, COMMENTS

The roar of the Celtic Tiger may, like the global economy, be a little less fierce than it has been over the last four years, but the remnants of its glory days remain to be enjoyed by the people. Limerick, a town often given less than a fair coverage by some of the Irish press, has flourished into a vibrant city, complete with a neat mix of traditional and contemporary; bars, hotels, café culture and clubs. In response to the city’s development, which has seen a significant growth in the nighttime circuit, Powton Company Ltd closed The Market for 18 months, to carry out a complete overhaul that has reaped stunning results.

Re-launching on Thursday 12 June as Angel Lane, the 18-month transformation entailed transition for both the venue, and Danny O’Connell, who began the project with audio and visual installers, Performance Audio & Light and wound up as operations manager at Angel Lane.

“I’d been with Performance Audio & Light for quite a while and I felt like I’d done everything I could with sound and light. This is the industry I want to be in. I felt that this venue was the one that had most potential if it was redeveloped and done right, which as you can see, it has,” states Danny.

The project, predominately a collaboration between Performance Audio & Light and designers The Deluxe Group, revolves around a technologically driven design that incorporates a feast of LED and moveable lighting, as well as the infamous Funktion One (F1) Dancestack and some Acoustic Line kit for good measure.

Performance Audio & Light’s, Derek O’Sullivan explains the coming together: “As a customer of Performance Audio & Light for a number of years, Powton looked to my experience to point it in the direction for the Angel Lane concept, not only for sound and light but for the appointment of an interior designer. We’d just completed a F1 installation in a venue with Deluxe, I had no hesitation in recommending them.”

The 1,000-capacity venue spreads over three tiers, with six toilets, four bars and two smoking areas. Entry, from Robert Street, takes customers into the ground floor, housing two bars, one to the left and one on the back wall. Moving into the main body of the club, the epic front wall of the club that houses the DJ/VJ booth, becomes apparent, as does the haloed dancefloor.

The front wall, brainchild of Derek at Performance Audio & Light, has 16 Studio Due Shark 150/C moving heads facing the crowd, with a further eight positioned to the sides; four on each. The captivating array of technology continues with two Hitatchi CPA100s with rear projection flanking both wings, providing one of many opportunities throughout the venue for screening visuals.

Sitting on the floor, towering above head height at either side of the booth are the formidable F1 Dancestacks (DS3 Configuration) that are a real talking point. Danny explains their impact: “The obvious reason for going with F1 is the sound quality and for the sheer levels you can attain without distortion. One of the things we say about F1 is you could be reading 110dB, but you can still turn to the person next to you and have a conversation without screaming because it has such a true response. The other reason, for me especially, Cian and Willie felt the same, is the visual impact of F1, it’s a status symbol.”

Deluxe has incorporated a massive amount of LED lighting throughout the design. This includes the colour-changing LED halo above the dancefloor, which encircles eight JB Lighting Varyscan P3 moving heads, and four colour-changing arches that shoot back across the ceiling towards the front wall of the club, further adding to the visual spectacle. LEDs enhance the semi-partition that bounds the dancefloor, on both the inside and outside, combining in uniform with all the other LED formations throughout the main room.

Danny comments: “Everything is LED from start to finish, even the lights in the toilet are LED. Adrian at Deluxe came up with the lighting plan and expanded on it with Powton. I suppose he [Adrian] is like any designer; he’s going to give you a design with the best of everything. In most jobs I think a lot of things get stripped out, but here if anything, it’s been expanded.”

The second tier, or mezzanine level, has seating areas upholstered in faux fur at either end and a central bar that backs onto the main room, leaving the main floor area clear for passing traffic going between downstairs and the private club above. Again, LED lighting is prominent, decoratively washing over the ceiling. Views down over the main clubbing space maintain the coherence of the venue, whilst providing more intimate surroundings.

The private bar, although exclusive in its aesthetic, is not restricted in its availability. “Limerick’s a small place. How many VIPs do you think there are in Limerick? There are clubs that have a VIP section, but we don’t feel they serve a purpose for our market,” explains Danny.

A loungey feel is created with a mixture of seating; adjacent seating around a small dancefloor and DJ booth, complemented by high chairs and seating set in front of a glazed champagne display. The bar is situated on the back wall, past which there is more seating donning a variety of different upholstery styles. From here the private smoking area that looks over the main smoking area can be entered. Acoustic Line kit has been chosen to cater for the subtleties of the space.

The smoking areas are talking points in themselves. Upstairs, the private smoking is an almost enclosed space with fixed translucent seating, lit by LED. The main smoking area is relatively expansive in terms of size, and visuals. LED colourwashing across the architecture is again prominent, as well as screens for visual displays.

Angel Lane comprises a contemporary, trend-setting design from Deluxe, the technical know-how and expertise of Performance Audio & Light, cutting-edge kit, and a hard working operations manager, who’s poured many hours into the venue’s turnaround and is now committed to a new career path and in using all of the above to the fullest.

“It’s different; it’s bright, warm and inviting. With the lighting theme, you can see one end to the other, but there’s still an atmosphere; it’s not lit up like somebody’s kitchen. We’ve the facilities to make it feel any way we want,” says Danny. And on the direction of the club: “It’s not all about the DJ, and it’s not all about this or all about that. It’s about the club, the atmosphere and the way people are treated. On top of everything else, we feel that’s what’s going to make people coming back.”