For young people in the ’90s and noughties, UK superclubs like Cream, Gatecrasher, Godskitchen and Ministry of Sound were a must visit every weekend. With many of the iconic nights no more, we take a look at what happened to the venues that kept a generation dancing
They were the perfect recipe of superstar DJs, iconic venues and tens of thousands of revellers ready to worship at the temples of dance music.
Born out of the 1980s acid-rave scene, superclubs reached their peak in the late ’90s but became victims of their own success. The massive venues and brands behind them became increasingly corporate, putting off dance music purists, while drug problems and struggles to balance the books also weighed heavy.
While many superclubs closed their doors years ago, more recently nightclubs and bars have suffered a similar fate, with the UK’s Night Time Economy Report for this year reporting five clubs are closing each week.
“The main reason we’re seeing nightclubs close is that midweek nights have completely fallen away and it’s mainly down to the cost of living,” says Sacha Lord, night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester, of changing student habits. Generation Z, teenagers and 20-somethings, are known to drink less than millennials and clubs were among the last venues to emerge from Covid restrictions, with 31 per cent not surviving since then.
With the future of nightlife in this country looking uncertain, we take a nostalgic look back at what happened to five of the biggest names in club culture…
Cream, Liverpool
Legendary Cream quickly became a mecca for dance fans when it was opened in 1992 by James Barton and Darren Hughes. The Liverpool club night, held at Nation, attracted thousands of fans each week and live performers in its heyday included Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue.
Cream paid legendary DJ Paul Oakenfield £500 a set in the early days, with five million Cream albums being sold and 1,500 revellers regularly bussed in from around the country each week. The Creamfields festival began in 1998 in Winchester, attracting 25,000 revellers and more than 100 DJ sets, and the Cream name famously expanded to the Balearic island of Ibiza too.
With super clubs on the way out, the iconic Liverpool club night closed its doors for good in 2007 with the Cream group saying they were ‘re-evaluating where we are as a company’. Chief exec and founder James said they were investing more in their TV and radio operations. Creamfields continues to take place every August in Warrington, Cheshire.
Gatecrasher, Sheffield
Just like Cream, Gatecrasher started as an ad-hoc club night and soon became a global brand. Held in Sheffield, the event for trance fans enjoyed a regular home at disused factory Republic from 1997, becoming the Saturday night event in the city.
“Gatecrasher is probably the most fun to play as a DJ,” said Pete Tong of the venue with glittering stars on the ceiling, which had an often oversubscribed capacity of 1,350. There were 26 Gatecrasher albums and sold out venues round the world at the club night’s height in the noughties.
But by 2003, Gatecrasher had been reduced to a monthly event and on Monday, June 16, 2007, Republic burned down in a blaze said to have started in its DJ booth. Gatecrasher Birmingham, the company’s final flagship venue, was closed after a stabbing in 2015 and the management company entered administration with debts of £3.5 million.
Ministry of Sound, London
Britain’s hippest nightclub opened in 1991 and attracted up to 300,000 revellers a year, with legendary DJs including Pete Tong and Fat Boy Slim cutting their teeth there. The house music night was famous for turning away wannabe clubbers who weren’t trendy enough, meaning that while film stars and supermodels were allowed in, soap stars weren’t always so welcome.
The founders of the Ministry of Sound were DJ Justin Berkmann, entrepreneur James Palumbo and his business partner Humphrey Waterhouse. “I’ve had so many people come up to me and say: ‘I met my wife on the dancefloor at Ministry of Sound and now we’ve got three children’,” Justin told the Guardian.
Ministry of Sound became a successful independent record label too, selling up to 55 million records a year. And unlike many of its fellow super clubs, clubbers can still head to the venue three nights a week.
Godskitchen, Birmingham
Godskitchen originated in the 1990s UK rave scene, with club nights taking place around the country before finding a home at The Sanctuary in Digbeth, Birmingham in 1998. In 2000 the multi-million pound super club CODE was opened in the city by founder Neil Moffitt, attracting a record breaking 15,000 partiers on its first night.
Friday night’s at CODE became synonymous with the Godskitchen EDM sound with an outdoor festival, Global Gathering, staged from 2001. Over in Ibiza, the Godskitchen partnered with Amnesia experience was voted Club of the Year the same year.
By 2016, after 20 years, it was all over with the founders saying ‘the party must come to an end’. In 2022, the club night celebrated its 25th anniversary back in Birmingham, with names synonymous with the brand including Paul van Dyk returning to perform.
Hacienda, Manchester
Iconic Manchester nightclub Hacienda was immortalised on screen in movies including 24 Hour Party People. Built by Anthony H Wilson and New Order in a former yacht builder’s warehouse, it was financed by Factory Records and opened in 1982.
The Hacienda paved the way for Cream and Ministry of Sound and birthed the ‘Madchester’ and ‘acid house’ music movements. Madonna, The Smiths and Oasis went onto perform at the club, alongside local legends including A Guy Called Gerald.
A spate of shootings, a drug-related death on the premises and run-ins with the law contributed to the club’s downfall and Hacienda closed its doors for good in 1997. The iconic original site is now home to 130 luxury flats in the city centre.
