Dance music and darts: Social club embraces DJ culture

Ibiza-headlining DJs and Elvis impersonators may seem an unlikely combination, but for one unassuming social club it is proving a winning mix.

As the thundering basslines rumble, hundreds of people dance with wild abandon.

Downstairs, away from the din of the four-to-the-floor beats, a different group of clubgoers take aim on the snooker tables and dart boards while others chat merrily over cut-price pints.

The idea to bring these two worlds together at the King Street Social Club in North Shields came from Geoff Kirkwood, aka Man Power, a DJ who has taken to the decks across the globe but calls Tyneside his home.

“We managed to talk people into coming and doing something crazy – playing a working men’s club – and they all absolutely love it.

“Now we have a reputation of being one of the best parties in the UK,” he explains proudly.

“The club members can’t really see much of a difference between us having something on in the concert room and the fact they’ve got an Elvis impersonator another night.

“Ours is a bit louder perhaps, but it’s the same principle.”

Launched in 2022, his Are You Affiliated events now run half a dozen times a year and have drawn big names from the dance music world such as Caribou, Skream and Leftfield to a town once famed for its shipbuilding, fishing and mining.

Musically it is perhaps better known as the birthplace of singer-songwriter Sam Fender who performed a secret gig at the club in 2019 to mark his album Hypersonic Missiles hitting the top of the charts.

According to media reports, Fender “upset a few regulars” with the show forcing the cancellation of one of their regular nights.

Kirkwood, for his part, has tried to avoid such conflicts.

“We’ve had to turn down international superstars because we couldn’t find another room to move the bingo into,” he says wryly.

While many club promoters might bristle at being unable to accommodate such acts, for Kirkwood, who is subletting the building’s main events space on a 10-year contract, it neatly symbolises the collaboration.

“It sounds hilarious until you start looking at things from the point of view of the members and their experience.

“Social clubs are member-owned, no-one’s in it to maximise profits. It’s the only place I’ve seen notices plastered on the wall warning people the price of a pint is going to go down 50p in the next week.

“That’s the attitude they come with and so that’s the attitude we have to have too. We’re just guests.”

Posters pinned to the noticeboard in the foyer advertise upcoming acts, including the aforementioned Elvis Presley tribute and a medium promising the opportunity to communicate with lost loved ones.

The juxtaposition with performers who have rocked the likes of London’s Fabric nightclub, as well as the Glastonbury and Coachella festivals, is striking.

Paul Yellop, King Street Social Club secretary as well as Northumberland branch president of the Club & Institute Union, reveals the DJ nights’ success and subsequent media attention led to an “annoyance” among some of the roughly 600 members who feared their favourite spot may be “taken over”.

But at a time when large numbers of nightclubs, pubs and other venues across the country are closing down, he says the money the agreement brings is hugely important.

“A lot of places are struggling. I think Covid has a lot to answer for as people got used to staying in with a couple of cans from the supermarket.

“We have snooker and pool teams, a darts team and put bands on too, but a lot of the time it’s hard to get people though the door, even just paying a few pounds for a ticket to see a band.

“The DJ nights work well alongside what we do and the income helps us keep running.”

Speaking in the main bar, where a draught beer will cost members £3 and visitors an extra 50p, he is adamant the venue will not move away from its roots: “We’ve always been a social club and will continue to be one.”

The parties’ success has not gone unnoticed at a regional level and Are You Affiliated was recently awarded nearly £40,000 by the North East mayor to help develop a wider offering.

Kirkwood is aiming to use that funding to help rescue a grassroots entertainment scene he describes as “dying”.

Having already hosted the Mercury Prize-nominated art-rockers Django Django, as well as a symphony of music Kirkwood himself composed, he is now hoping to diversify “with gusto”.

Describing electronic music as “just one strand” of what is possible, he is looking to stage nights focusing on other genres, from indie and rock to folk and hip-hop.

“Something like 70% of small-to-medium clubs have closed in the last two years,” he says.

“And a lot of bands are missing out the North East on their tours because it’s become a lot more cost-effective for them to play multiple nights at the same venue.

“I want to turn this room in a social club into somewhere that’s as well resourced and professional as any other similar-sized venue that bands would normally choose to go to.”

But does such a move risk losing the qualities that have helped shape the feel of the King Street parties?

Kirkwood is confident it will not.

“I’ve been involved in conversations with people who say ‘how do we make this more like Manchester’s Northern Quarter or Brighton?’

“You don’t have to. It’s already North Shields. Why do we need to copy other places if what we do works well?

“I’m proudly North Eastern, this venue is an exemplar of this area. It’s not pretending to be anything it’s not. It doesn’t need to look like anything else.

“It’s a genuine, working-class spot that’s existed in one form or another for decades and this is just the latest way it’s being utilised.

“When venues are under threat because of the search for profit, it’s nice to find somewhere we can share mutual goals that protect the two club cultures.”