Brixton

B-Low

venues, july 2007, COMMENTS

Second room for Brixton’s favourite underground dance venue

Five years have passed since James [above right] and Andrew Campana [left] converted an old Wimpy restaurant on Brixton High Street into the underground DJ bar Plan B. The two Manchester brothers wanted an enclave of Mancunian 90s house with a high end Funktion One sound system and an industrial look, giving local music lovers an alternative to Fabric, Neighbourhood, Cargo et al.

They also put a premium on customer service, with simple bar food done well and a West End-style cocktail menu devised by Drinks Director Andrew. On opening the venue attracted many accolades, including Best Bar London at the BEDA Awards 2003, and a great deal of hype from the press. But longer term success has allowed the team to expand their portfolio in 2007: building a new room, B-Low, beneath the original venue and an entirely new club, Plan B Clapham, opening later in the year.
The impetus for developing a second room at 418 Brixton Road, James explains, came from the Friday and Saturday night “road block” queues and an increasing demand from private events organisers, as well as artists playing at the Academy, to hold their parties there. The company were also keen to expand musically:

“With one room and one sound system you’re limited to the number of different nights you can put on,” explains James Campana. “London’s club scene is getting more and more fragmented. The licensing laws have meant that local clubs can also have late licences, so the crowds aren’t all disappearing off to the same place, by which I mean Fabric. But musical genres are also fragmenting, and in some case crossing over, so that you have the option of doing many different kinds of nights. Smaller venues are quicker to adapt to new musical tastes, and with our new room we’re going to push the boat out.”

The look of the venue has been created by DTwo Designs, who were involved in a great deal of enabling work - upgrading the steel work, installing drainage and new fire exits, pouring a new concrete floor - before the designs could be fleshed out.

The room’s aesthetic is a continuation of Plan B - simple but stylish black leather furniture, polished industrial features overhead and exposed brick work at the bar and walls.

But the heart of the new room is a brand new Funktion One sound system installed by Electracoustic - the firm behind the original sound spec at Plan B.

With Funktion One upstairs, James Campana was keen to maintain the quality of audio for their range of in house nights. These include the immensely popular Friday night Fidgit - a weekly hip hop, funky disco and soul event - and Saturday’s Compact Disco, renowned for having some of the best line ups South of the Thames (think Norman Jay, Joey Negro, Giles Peterson, Rob Da Bank, Robert Owens and XPress 2).

The sound cover is delivered through four Funktion One Res 1 speakers flown in each corner. Bass frequencies are provided by Funktion One’s new F221, and the system is powered by an MC2 E25 and two MC2 T200 amplifiers with control from an XTA DP446. A Bitner 400 amplifer is used to power the DJ monitors, while the final sound is filtered through an LA Audio BCL20 analogue compressor.

The importance of the sound install warranted a meeting with Funktion One to try out various configurations of the kit at their Dorking head-quarters.

“We looked at a few different approaches to the downstairs space,” says Electracoustic’s John Trotter. “We talked about an old school ‘big stereo’ set up along the far wall, using two stacks of Res 4s and two bass units. We tried mock set ups in Funktion One’s demo room, and settled in the end for Res 1s flown at each corner - to be consistent with the layout of the upstairs installation - and the new F221, which proved itself to have a good depth of bass and a great upper bass articulation. It seemed to fit well with the relatively small Res1s. The final install sounds really live and fresh, and the kit didn’t need any tweaking depite the exposed metal structures.”

The new system has allowed the Plan B team to successfully diversify their Friday and Saturday nights, and the venue has already hosted a livey range of mid-week after-parties for the Scissor Sisters, Hard-Fi and The Mighty Boosh.

“It’s worked out really well,” concludes James. “I think the Plan B concept will keep growing so long as we find the right venues and continue to place substance over style.”

Words: Leo Batchelor

From: July 2007 Issue

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