Superclub
Encyclopedia
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
owned and managed by a dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, such as The Haçienda
The Haçienda
Fac 51 Haçienda was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, England. It became most famous during the "Madchester" years of the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the 1990s it was labelled the most famous club in the world by Newsweek magazine...
club, which was owned by Factory Records
Factory Records
Factory Records was a Manchester based British independent record label, started in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, which featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Northside and James and...
. The term has also been used to describe large, multistory, high-capacity high-profile nightclubs, such as Pacha
Pacha
Pacha is a nightclub franchise with headquarters in Ibiza, Spain. The first Pacha club was opened in Sitges outside Barcelona in 1967. The Ibiza club, located in Ibiza Town, is the best known venue today. During 2009 Pacha acquired El Divino, near the marina of Ibiza la Nueva, which will be...
in Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
or 1970s discotheques such as Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
NYC
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
opened in 1977, The Saint NYC (opened in 1980) and Heaven
Heaven (nightclub)
Heaven is a Superclub in London, England which appeals predominantly to the gay market. It is located underneath Charing Cross railway station in Central London, just off Trafalgar Square.-Early history:...
London open in 1979 were earlier versions of the genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
.
Record label-owned clubs
HouseHouse music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
superclubs such as Twilo
Twilo
Twilo was an American nightclub in operation from 1995 to 2001 in New York City and from 2006 to 2007 in Miami. The New York location at 530 West 27th Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan regularly attracted a crowd of thousands to its warehouse-like dance floor...
in the US opened in 1990, other massive House
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
superclubs such as The Haçienda
The Haçienda
Fac 51 Haçienda was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, England. It became most famous during the "Madchester" years of the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the 1990s it was labelled the most famous club in the world by Newsweek magazine...
in Manchester opened in 1982, (playing house, from 1986), and the Ministry Of Sound
Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound London, commonly referred to as simply Ministry of Sound or MoS, is a nightclub based in London, United Kingdom and an associated record label. It was ranked fourth in the 2010 DJ Magazine top 100 clubs poll 2010. As well as the nightclub in London, there is another in Egypt and...
in London opened in 1991. These clubs became more popular in the early 1990s. Examples include Gatecrasher
Gatecrasher
Gatecrasher is an international clubbing brand made famous by the Gatecrasher dance music events held at the Gatecrasher One nightclub in Sheffield, England during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The event received awards such as "Club Of The Year" at the Ericsson Muzik Magazine Dance Awards in...
, Godskitchen
Godskitchen
Godskitchen is an international superclub brand which is associated with dance music and organises events, particularly in the UK and US. The company runs a club night of the same name at their nightclub AIR, in Birmingham, England and has an in-house music label...
, Mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
, Crobar, Paradise Garage
Paradise Garage
The Paradise Garage was a discotheque notable in the history of modern gay and nightclub cultures and in dance and pop music. It was founded by Michael Brody, its sole proprietor, and was located at 84 King Street, in the Hudson Square neighborhood of New York City. It operated from 1976 to 1987...
and The End
The End (club)
The End was a nightclub in the West End of London, England. Started in December 1995 by DJs Layo Paskin and Mr C, The End was world-renowned. It was also responsible for the label End Recordings....
. Other high profile US Superclubs include Cielo (NYC), Pacha (NYC), Centrofly (NYC), Ikon (NYC), Bungalow 8
Bungalow 8
Bungalow 8 was a nightclub in New York City, created in 2001., and was located on Chelsea's 27th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues.-Background:...
(NYC), Vision (Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
), Sound Bar (Chicago), MIGHTY (San Francisco), Mezzanine (San Francisco), Myth (Minneapolis), The Church (Denver), Pure (Las Vegas
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
),Las Vegas (Las Vegas), Tao (Las Vegas), Mansion, Prive, Opium Garden (The Opium Group) (Miami), Avalon/Avaland (Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
/Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
), Balance (Los Angeles), KING KING (Los Angeles), Vanguard (Los Angeles), Belo (San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
), Nation (nightclub)
Nation (nightclub)
Nation was a live music/club venue, located at 1015 Half Street SE, in the Navy Yard/Near Southeast neighborhood, of Washington, D.C....
(Washington D.C.) Fur (Washington D.C.), and 1015 (San Francisco).
British Superclubs include The Syndicate (Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
), Fabric (London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
), Turnmills
Turnmills
Turnmills was a London nightclub on the corner of Turnmill Street and Clerkenwell Road in the London Borough of Islington. It closed on the morning of 24 March 2008....
(London, recently closed down) Life (Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
), The Zap
The zap
The Zap Club first opened at the New Oriental Hotel Brighton in April 1982. Founded by Neil Butler Patricia Butler and Amanda Scott the Zap was an experiment to mix radical art with cutting edge entertainment...
(now known as Digital) (Brighton), Air (Birmingham), Gatecrasher (Birmingham), HMV Institute
Digbeth Institute
Digbeth Institute is a civic building in Digbeth, Birmingham, England.It is now operated as the hmv Institute, a 2,400 capacity music venue...
(Birmingham), and ISIS (Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
). The Ministry Of Sound has their main club in London, with international clubs in Ayia Napa
Ayia Napa
Ayia Napa is a resort at the far eastern end of the southern coast of Cyprus, famous for its sandy beaches. In recent years, apart from being a family holiday destination, it has become a 'party capital' together with Ibiza, Rimini and Mykonos...
and as far a field as Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
Australia.
German superclubs tend to play trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
or techno music. Superclubs like Berghain
Berghain
Berghain is a Berlin nightclub, named after its location on the border between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. Philip Sherburne described it in 2007 as "quite possibly the current world capital of techno, much as E-Werk or Tresor were in their respective heydays." -Overview:The club is located in a...
are often situated in industrial areas, especially in suburbs of big towns or near freeways or expressways. These superclubs are in Germany called "Grossraumdiskothek" and are often visited by people coming from larger distances to them by car.
These German superclubs are known across several regions, but they are rarely nationally known. Many of them have expensive lightshows in stylish, air-conditioned venues. In many superclubs one gets a pay card
Pay card
A pay card is a notation system or device used in some nightclubs to indicate the value of the drinks or services consumed by or used by a patron...
, in most cases a chipcard, sometimes also a hole card, at the entrance, on which drinks and meals are booked. Pay cards reduce the necessary amount of exchange money in the discotheque, but their usage often leads to long queues at the exit, because all people in the club have to pay then their fee at the exit. Pay cards are nearly always property of the club and are given back to the club after the patron has paid their tab. To prevent patrons from leaving after a night of drinking without paying, emergency exits of superclubs using pay cards may be alarmed. Despite the danger of trapping people inside during a fire, emergency exits are sometimes illegally locked in superclubs that use pay cards.
Spanish Superclubs include Privilege
Privilege Ibiza
Privilege Ibiza is the "world's largest nightclub" according to the Guinness Book of Records, with a capacity of 10,000 people. It is located not far from San Rafael, Ibiza, less than 1 km from the nightclub Amnesia. For fourteen years, Privilege hosted Manumission, one of the island's most famous...
Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
, Space
Space (Ibiza nightclub)
Space is a nightclub on Ibizaowned bi STANCA. It was awarded "Best Global Club" at the International Dance Music Awards in 2005 and again in 2006...
Ibiza, Amnesia
Amnesia (nightclub)
Amnesia is one of several internationally renowned clubs in Ibiza due to Joseph Murphy who created Cream in 1996 and was awarded Best Global Club in the 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 International Dance Music Awards for the respective previous year at the Winter Music Conference in Miami...
, Ibiza.
Large nightclubs
The term "superclub" is also used to describe large, multistory, high-capacity high-profile nightclubs earlier versions include. Pacha in Ibiza, which opened in 1973. Pacha has branches in London, New York City, Madrid, Munich, São Paulo and Buenos Aires. Annabel's in London as well as HeavenHeaven (nightclub)
Heaven is a Superclub in London, England which appeals predominantly to the gay market. It is located underneath Charing Cross railway station in Central London, just off Trafalgar Square.-Early history:...
which opened in 1979 (previously called Global Village 1976-1979) and Studio 54 in New York City and the Saint nightclub (both of which are now closed). Although "superclubs" are rare, currently V Bournemouth is held in "Superclub" status due to the large capacity and high profile bookings.