LONDON

THE ARCHES

VENUES, DECEMBER 2006, COMMENTS

Home of the massive night XXL, the success of equally massive underground venue The Arches “is linked hand in hand with the success of XXL”, insists Mark Ames, owner of the club and co founder of the burgeoning XXL brand. Now one of the most successful gay nights ever, XXL spans clothing and lifestyle lines, has two second homes in Birmingham and New York, and holds nights around Europe, especially Barcelona and Madrid.

Mark’s night was borne from a frustration with the existing gay scene in London, which he felt was too broad church. XXL was established in the hope that it would firm up the identity of an emerging strand of the scene: a strand which was initially identified by the organisers as “a mixed following of bears, cubs, chubs, muscle bears and their admirers”. Since its inception, the night has diversified and now the tag reads ‘one size fits all’ - indicating an open policy to people of all persuasions, and specifically of all ages: Ames insists his clientele is “18 to 80”.

“It was basically a case of seeing what was going on,” says Ames. “And no one in or outside of the gay community was providing for older gay men. It was basically seeing what was available, and what was in demand. It was a bit taboo and a bit brave, but we knew we had to do the night. There was a massive gap, and after a few years we suddenly had this international brand on our hands.”

With its dirty underground dynamic forming a contrast to the glitz of Soho and the bustle of Notting Hill, Ames felt that the dim arches of the venue felt edgy enough to make the XXL ethos work - a bit of rough amongst so many diamonds. After an increasingly popular residency at the club, Ames sensed that the building’s low railway arches had become, in the minds of his customers, the natural home for XXL. And so in 2002 he made an offer to the owners and has since, with a bit of architectural lighting and a monstrous sound system, turned the place into one of the most popular gay clubs in London.

With a network of international members, club nights and the attention of big DJs from across Europe, The Arches venue is part of an increasingly global tribe. Despite this, much of the venue is unassuming. The walls of the four arches have been left largely untouched, with a torrent of calcium deposits scaling the exposed brickwork. Oak barrels and untreated wooden surfaces line the space, while tiny connecting passages knit the arches together. Entrance to the club is from a car park on Southwark St, and the punter can choose from the jovial pub atmosphere of the first arch or the pumping atmospherics of the second arch, a stripped back warehouse with a DJ booth and Nexo sound system reaching high into the rafters. The third arch, with its harder edge and underground ethos, is mainly filled with a younger crowd, while the fourth arch features a bar and access to the garden, which is generally packed during the summer months.

“As the promoter of a night I think it was very important to have our own venue,” says Ames. “I think a lot of promoters can identify with that. Promoters will often have a higher level commitment to a single night than club operators. Operators typically want safe and easy to use, whereas promoters want a look and a vibe. I wanted both. And with the previous owners there was this ceiling on what I could do.

“Taking the club over also gave us direction. With your own place, ideas can really take fruition.”

The club nights operate a £12 door charge for non members and and £8 for members. With 15,000 members subscribed to the XXL night, and with each membership leased at £20 a year, Ames finds himself with a significant budget for reinvestment each year. The appeal of XXL relies on renewal of the club, argues Ames.

“I try to renew every year. Three years ago we upgraded the sound and lights to a degree, and added some décor. This year we went all out, sinking £300,000 in a new lighting system and upgraded sound. The membership has given us a secure foundation for investment. There is such a community around our clubbers that it feels only right we should return something to them in the form of investment. This year, we wanted something really special.”

The renewal involved a carefully thought out lighting installation carried out by Light Design Group. 100m of bespoke curved Litetruss from Milos has been bolted flush to the natural curvature of the arch, with each cross-beam lit from each end by colour changing LEDs. The result is five glowing arches of polished aluminium lattice, from which the main entertainments lighting is suspended.

“It always frustrated me that such a cool building was hidden behind our rig, you lost some of the sense of the architecture,” explains Ames. “Now there is an eerie glowing rib cage effect that nicely shows off the building’s structure.”

The rig features four Clay Paky Hp3 scanners suspended from each corner, with eight Martin Mac Kryptons and four Martin 918s distributed evenly across the space. Ten Robe units - four 250ATs and six 575XTs - create a layered pattern of effects to the floor, all controlled through XXL’s LD Scott working on a Martin Lightjockey. Integral to the XXL nights are two 1500mw Aurora white light lasers supplied by Rill - which serve to fill the cavern with stems of animated laser light - a trademark of the nights that is repeated in the New York and Birmingham nights.

“The useful thing about the design is that it suits both the needs of the building and the brand. Part of the XXL brand is that no two nights are the same, and using an exposed rig means that our installers, Terry and the Light Design team, can come down and easily change the fixtures around every so often - just to keep that sense of freshness.”

The lighting design also features a full range of architectural lighting for Arch 1 using 300, 600 and 1200mm LED strips to accent the exposed brick work and add colour to the bar. For the edgy Arch 3, a more traditional circular truss houses four Martin Mac 250 Kryptons and a further four Clay Paky HP3s arranged around a central cluster of four 12 inch mirror balls.

“The whole work was put up in time for our sixth birthday bash. There were a lot of people and a really positive vibe. I like to think the changes we’ve made have gone down really well,” concludes Ames. “The strength of the XXL brand is that it has a degree of uniformity, with the nights having the same atmosphere and sounds whether it’s held here or New York or in Europe, but can also accommodate a bit of tinkering so that we can surprise our customers. Operators tend to go for million pound overhauls every three years, whereas we prefer to change it around every month, and have a hundred little operational tricks to keep the nights fresh.”

The future of the venue will involve expansion into a three story building on O’Mera Street, with a restaurant and bar service pencilled in for 2008. Meanwhile Ames wants to repeat the success of XXL with the launch of a straight version of the night in 2007: “a night for all ages from 18 to 80, playing credible music designed to entertain rather than educate.”

Whether the multi generational appeal of the Arches has been exaggerated or not, the continued popularity of XXL has been ensured by the continual renewal of its home turf, giving Ames a secure footing from which to expand his business.

Words: Leo Batchelor

Images: Jim Ellam

From: December 2006 Issue

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