Trade (nightclub)
Trade was an influential gay London nightclub started in 1990 by Laurence Malice. Trade was unlike any other club at the time as it opened from 3am until 1pm on Sundays at Turnmills, Clerkenwell Road. The club was touted as "the original all night bender". The door policy was: "You don't have to be gay or a member to get in, but your attitude and look will count".
Early Years 1990 - 1995
Trade was the second clubnight Laurence had run at Turnmills; his first was Xanadu, which he co-hosted with the club promoter Robert Pereno. Laurence was a member of the electronic music duo Big Bang when he opened Trade. Trade initially took around 3–4 months to grow in popularity. At the time, other clubs such as Heaven, G-A-Y and The Fridge closed at around 2am to 3am on Sunday mornings, an hour or so before Trade opened at 3am. It took a while for clubbers to cotton on to the fact that they were able to go straight on to Trade to continue clubbing all night after the other clubs had closed. Once they did, Trade exploded into the phenomena it became.At the time many guys went cruising in the parks after leaving other clubs. The name 'Trade' and the opening hours was to encourage guys to go to the club as a safer alternative.
Turnmills was the first club in the UK to be given a 24-hour "Music & Dance" licence. This was gained after Laurence Malice had for a long period of time tried to convince Mr Newman that there was a need for people to be able to party in a safe environment after 3am.
Due to this licensing advantage, the venue's role was crucial to the success of Trade.
Soon after Trade launched, the small original sound system had to be rapidly improved to cope with the tough demands being made of it. Each improvement made resulted in more people enjoying the music, that was the ethic. The sound system played an important part in the club's success, there were multiple sound systems, each to cover an area and it was equalised in real time for each record to maximise sound quality and enjoyment. This was a unique approach at the time and paid great dividends.
An air cooled, single colour laser was installed to complement the dance floor. John Newman, the owner of Turnmills, was often seen in the DJ booth operating the light show & laser with a wide smile on his face.
Turnmill's dance floor was originally constructed of metal and the walls where covered in Athena and film poster. Laurence would spend all week washing and fire-retarding heavy black wool fabric, which was used to cover the tacky décor of the venue. Mr Newman would turn up at his venue prior to the Trade party, produce a lighter from his pocket and try and burn the fabric. This was a tedious weekly ceremony. After many many months, Mr Newman ditched the ceremony, dumped his kitsch decoration and painted the walls with black paint to create a "theatrical" background. Using this blank canvas, Trade produced fluorescent banners and wall hangings illuminated by ultra violet lighting. These were created by Tim, Martin Brown and TradeMark. The banner and decoration themes changed regularly, usually on the special events parties held at Easter and on the Trade birthday party each October with spectacular fluorescent mobiles and effects projections.
Small video clips of the Trade dance floor appeared in the 1993 video 'Trance Vision Dance Volume 1' to accompany the 11th track on the video 'Let's Rock' by E. Trax.
Around 1993/4 a water-cooled white-light laser was installed. This was a substantial investment. With a 3-phase 415-volt electricity supply and a constant supply of cold water running through it from the water mains. The term "white light" can be confusing. It actually means that the light generated can be filtered to provide the full colour spectrum.
1995 - 2001
From about 1995 onwards Trade started to export their brand of music and clubbing experience and over the next few years, held events throughout the UK and worldwide, in addition to releasing a number of CDs.Trade were unable to hold their New Year's Eve party at Turnmills in 1995. This was because New Year's Eve 1995 fell on a Sunday and the usual Turnmills Sunday night club - FF - held their NYE night at Turnmills. Trade held a successful New Years Day party at the Leisure Lounge in Holborn, London instead.
Around 1995 Turnmills commissioned Peter Lynes again to design a totally new bespoke sound system for the main dance floor and balcony. This was designed from scratch, every last loudspeaker cabinet was hand built to deliver surreal sound quality at unsurpassed volume levels without distortion. The system design was based on the very best recording studio loudspeaker technology, but ramped up in scale 1000 fold & modified to cope. Ground breaking Digital processing equipment was used to enable consistent quality. There was a sub-bass cabinet that used four 21-inch loudspeakers in front of the DJ booth. The result was that the club grew further in popularity as the club took sound quality so seriously.
Trade suffered a setback on 2 July 1998 when popular DJ Tony De Vit died.
Due to the global success of Trade, UK Channel 4 television commissioned an hour-long documentary Trade the all-night bender which was broadcast on 9 August 1998 as part of the Queer Street series of programmes. It featured in the BBC2 programme "Gaytime TV" and also had a regular weekly radio show on Atlantic252.
On 27 May 1999 Turnmills ended Trade's residency due to security problems at the previous weeks event. Trade negotiated a 4-week run at LA2 in the London Astoria. During this time the management of Trade and Turnmills resolved the issues. Trade returned to Turnmills on 3 July 1999 for the post Mardi Gras party. The following month on 7 August 1999 Trade had a dance tent at Summer Rites in Brockwell Park, the first time they had a tent at the festival.
Towards the end of the 1990s, as Turnmills opened up and fit out more space in the venue, Trade was able to open up a second room named the 'Trade lite lounge' playing a lighter funkier style of house music which quickly gained a big following.
In 2000 Trade hosted one of the two main stages for the first UK Love Parade festival held at Roundhay Park, Leeds the event was attended by 500,000 people.
DJs
The original Trade resident DJs were, Martin Confusion, Daz Saund, Trevor Rockliffe, Smokin Jo and Malcolm Duffy, These were followed most notably by the late Tony De Vit, but also Tall Paul, Alan Thompson, Steve Thomas, Pete Wardman, Ian M and Fergie Other DJs who have graced the decks include Sister Bliss, EJ Doubell, Rachel Auburn, Queen Maxine, BK, Lisa German, Rosco, Darren M, Gonzalo Rivas, The Sharp Boys, Steve Haswell, Fat Tony, Andy Farley, Mark Kavanagh, Strawberry K, DJ Big Al, Guy Williams, Ziad, Jon Dennis, Pagano, Nik Denton, Nick Tcherniak, Lady Bianca, Andy M, Gabriele Cutrano Tom McMillan and Russell.Special guest DJ's invited to play at Trade events have included Frankie Knuckles, David Morales and Danny Tenaglia.
Celebrity patrons
Trade has attracted some well-known celebrities over the years including David Beckham and Victoria Beckham, Bjork, Kate Moss, Marc Almond, Madonna, Rupert Everett, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano. The club's policy was to afford them no special VIP area nor could bring in entourages those expecting this such as Cher and Axl Rose were refused entry.2002 onwards
Trade ended its weekly London Sunday slot on 27 October 2002 on the 12th Birthday party but still tours the world and regularly returns to Turnmills in London, for occasional one off events..Last event at Turnmills
On 18 January 2008 a Trade press release announced that the final Trade event at Turnmills would be held on 22/23 March 2008. This was due to the expected closure of Turnmills as a clubbing venue.The news was subsequently confirmed on 24 January 2008 when Turnmills officially announced the closure.
A further press release on 30 January 2008 announced that the final date was being brought forward by one week to Sunday morning 16 March 2008. This was due to "so many 'sell out' events at Turnmills over Easter it would not be practical to run Trade After-Hours over this weekend".
Within a few weeks of the tickets going on sale, the event sold out. Many of the original Trade DJs returned for the final event, including Steve Thomas, Ian M, Daz Saund, Malcolm Duffy, Pete Wardman and Fergie. The club opened its doors at 05:00 and during the night Lawrence Malice made a speech to the main room dancefloor, thanking the clubbers and his associates, and asking everyone 'to really go for it!'. The party continued until the final record, Schoneberg by Marmion, was played by Pete Wardman, finishing at 17:45.