CHESTERFIELD

ESCAPADE

VENUES, NOVEMBER 2006, COMMENTS

Since the first Escapade was opened in Darlington in 2004 the brand has garnered a reputation for exporting the best of the high street to satellite market towns. The original Escapade boasted three rooms and a weighty entertainment offer that aimed at putting real value back into nights out for the regional 18-40 year old age bracket. Boasting weekly celebrity PAs and big name DJs, the continual capacity crowds made the unit a flagship asset for Nexum boss Paul Kinsey.

Since then, the weight of Nexum Leisure’s portfolio has shifted dramatically. In 2005, newly-appointed BEDA chairman Paul acquired Blackpool’s legendary Syndicate club from the Norwind family, beginning its roll out with the successful opening of Syndicate Bristol in key areas around the UK.

Where Syndicate offers a high powered music policy to a cool, inner city crowd, Escapade is geared towards a market town sensibility, with a range of music policies, a party oriented atmosphere and inclusive decor. “Escapade sits nicely within our developing portfolio,” says Paul. “It’s unintimidating and unashamedly mainstream: and is a place for entertainment and socialising for people of all ages, rather than a purely music lead venue with enormous dancing spaces like Syndicate - places that will be favoured by a younger, music-focused crowd. It has some things in common - such as a great sound and light show - and I would say that the degree of technology at Escapade is unheard of in the market towns where we trade. Ultimately, we’re having to up our game in environment and entertainment, and the way to do this is investment, making sure that the lighting, sound and décor is right from the very start.”

A revamped former Zanzibar unit, the Chesterfield site continues to engage with this market, albeit adapted to suit local tastes, with two ground floor venues (the 800 capacity eighties disco and the 550 capacity R’n’B room) a mezzanine level chill-out venue, and a 1,700 capacity dance arena upstairs. The club also operates two private party ‘pods’ for functions of up to 25 people in each, whilst a VIP area provides members with a bird’s eye view over the dance arena dancefloor.

Local fans of Zanzibar were quick to embrace the new-look venue, says Nexum Operation’s Director Julian Stones, but the club will also draw back some of the footfall that has been lost to out of town, late-trading bars. “Trade had diminished at the Zanzibar, although we had been doing well for five years, trading healthily through the week despite the fact we’re not in a student city. Nonetheless, we had two new venues open nearby, and with the later licensing, customers were staying later in bars. This mainly affected our out of town trade, who would stay in the bars till 2am, and decide that it was too late to make the trip to Chesterfield. We knew we had to invest or continue to suffer, and to be cuter with our trading options, offering discounted entry for early-comers. Since opening, Escapade has helped us draw trade from a 15 mile radius, from Sutton and Ashfield across to Derby and Matlock.”

The Chesterfield crowds have a lot to be excited about at the 3,350 club. The venue’s interior, for which CCI handled the lead contracting duties, has contributed to a superlative cache of entertainments. The eighties disco room, unique to Escapade Chesterfield, is an exciting indication of how the brand may develop. Playing a mixture of seventies and eighties hits, the room has an authentic eighties feel to it, which has been expressed in both the décor and the reconditioned eighties lighting rig. The walls and furniture are fleshed out in chrome, mirrored tiling and Tivali, while the lighting rig includes parcans, a range of whirling, eight headed Helicopter fixtures and a real 1980’s Astro-Spider, a multi effects moving head which has all the kineticism with which entertainments lighting in the 80s became synonymous. Even the staff wear eighties style uniform, provided by workwear specialists Working Wardrobe.

The 1,700 dance arena is dominated by a huge dancefloor - around which is stationed two bars and a stage area for live acts. The stage has been installed in line with Nexum’s commitment to providing live entertainments alongside the regular mix of dance, house and trance, and has been graced in recent weeks by the likes of Angie Brown and Michelle Marsh, with a set from Dave Pearce pencilled in on Boxing Day. On the opening night, Fran Cosgrove (fresh from his appearance at the BEDA Awards 2006, no doubt) played a headlining set for the returning crowds. A 6” by 10” screen, onto which Escapade logos and graphics are projected via a Phillips projection unit, forms the backdrop, with audio equipment provided by Dare.

Above the dancefloor, the huge void of the roof has been filled with an impressive truss of lighting that extends across the dance floor to the bars. The centrepiece consists of 18 parcans with raylights trained on three 750mm revolving mirror balls, around which a series of Silver Star moving heads, Clay Paky Tiger Scans and 1500w strobes have been artfully arranged. Eight Robe 250 CT scans and six Eurolite 250 colour changers complete the lighting install, which is controlled via a Showcad Artist control box. The rig required a significant power supply, which was specified and fitted by DES Electrical.

The whole venue features nine bars across its five rooms, each of which were painstakingly constructed by CCI over a period of ten weeks. CCI also looked after the joinery package, carpeting and soft furnishings for the venue, delivering the venue safely into the operators hands within deadline and budget.

The future for Escapade, confirms Paul, will remain firmly in market town Britain, and Paul believes that there are plenty of sites which could provide the right conditions to allow the brand to flourish. The first Escapade in Darlington was followed by an opening in Croyden and a smaller version in Newport, with four other units expected before spring, all of which are in various states of arrival.

Says Paul: “We are looking at around thirty potential locations, both new builds and existing venues. The likelihood is that we will have three or four more by Easter. One of these planned units is close to completion, one is close to exchange, and the other two are in advanced negotiation. We have also completed an acquisition in Rotheram, which I am personally very pleased about.”

Words: Leo Batchelor

Images: Jim Ellam

From: November 2006 Issue

Subscribe to NIGHT magazine

comments

	No comments yet

Add Comment