Club Violet was an open access club night that ran infrequently between 2002 and 2007 (ish) at that mecca of DIY nights: Retro Bar, Sackville Street, Manchester. The night was started by Michael Coleman after his request for Hole's 'Violet' just kept being turned down at the available gay club nights in Manchester. After the first Violet Michael was joined by an ever rotating band of DIY DJs and the decks were opened up to the punters to play their favourite tunes, in the process any number of DJ cherries were popped! The main trio of DJs across all the events were Michael, vegan poet legend Dominic Berry and the amazing painter dude Christopher Lundie.
Local talent also turned up to play a turn on the sticky, sticky stage and these included electro-pop singer Heaton, performance poet Dominic Berry, Manchester band One Window, Huddersfield's finest female fronted rockers Mary Jane and Leeds electro queers Jean Genet. As a performer you could guestlist as many of your friends as you liked and if enough people paid entry on the night you even got paid for your services!
You never really knew what you were going to get at Violet, punter numbers ranged from 6 to 180, sometimes there was a queue out the door, more often tumbleweed blew across the dancefloor. Some nights the djs in charge would go hard rock to pop to dance to 'Bloody hell what was that?' all in the course of a 30 minute set. Some times you didn't know whether to dance or cry and that was really the sheer beauty of it, combined with a fun loving mixed crowd, sugary treats, cheap drinks and free stuff.
Maybe one day we'll do another Violet but for now we are happily dancing our cares away at our new favourite night, Bollox.
If you would like to know anything more about Violet please get in touch via info@clubviolet.co.uk
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