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Mondos
Address: Bath Road, Cheltenham.
What happened: Was shut down and destroyed by the revamping and amazingly crap decor that is The Fez club
I was 18 & a half, and still yet to see a nightclub properly.. Mark told me he'd met this DJ called Ryan and he'd take us to this club he works at in Cheltenham.. I went there and it was dark with cracked glass effects on the wall. There was a console where the decks hung from the ceiling so they shouldn't jump if people knocked into the console.. There was cheap beer and the place sooned filled up with students.. I soon got drunk (hey, you know me!) and just couldn't wait to dance and dance we did.. Later on I was backed up against the rised dance floor by a girl.. Mark looked at me being the clubbing and woman expert and mouthed at me, 'JUST GRAB HER' so I did.. Her name was Amy and we still say hello when we see each other..
That night changed my life and they just got better and better after that.. Thanks to Ryan, I discovered Scooter, got an appreciation for singing in chorus with students to Don't Look Back In Anger and danced to banging sets including tracks from Amen, Jx, Baby D and the Prodigy, to name but a few. Ryan sorted us out Staff Passes and we'd be there every week. It convinced me to try other clubs too but none lived up to Mondo's standards. Ryan had the crowd lapping it up - they couldn't get enough and from a young student lad's point of view the female to male ratio was excellent on Thursdays.
I can honestly say that I became a
clubber thanks to Ryan taking me to Mondos.. The place would be so rammed sometimes.. Mark became Ryan's warm up DJ
and I helped out with the lights on occasion too.. There was Monday Student night with Simon Ellis, Dance Your Ass Off
Wednesdays which came later on thanks to Ryan, The Thursday Xperience with Ryan & Mark, which was the only place to be
on a Thursdays, Ladies drink free night on Friday.. Can't remember what Satudray was.. But this place had to be seen
and heard. It had a window at the one end and you could just chill out next to..Fridays & Saturdays were never as good as the weekdays.. Ryan, together with Simon, had Cheltenham's student night life down to a T. Mixing sets of dance hits with the indie hits, was just top notch.. 'Red Light Rush' was another event that would take place - At certain times or when Happy Hour by the Housemartins was played the drinks would go cheaper still and the red police lights would flash.. Oh, and I always remember the boss who didn't like that Cock A Doodle Do It song from the Big Breakfast that Ryan kept playing at the end of the night.. My fave at the end of a Mondo's night was The Rodeo Song (You P!ss Me Off).. And the students would love it and chant to get him play more.. Oh the memories..
I have so many fond memories of this place.. The night when I ran around covering for Mark, meeting the girlfriend of Hard Head Ed (the infamous wrestler) & the impossible mission weeks where the police lights would flash and the bar staff would run around with glass with lights on them and waterpistols squerting poeple in the club all of a sudden.
Dancing to pink panther when no-one else was on the dance floor at the start of the night whilst Ryan explained to those who werent regulars that they shouldn't be afraid of us.. Josh wink week after week with the treble turned up. RAR! Mondos was opened in the day once too for a 6th form party (I think that's what it was), and Mark myself & Steve were there, and that was a laugh featuring the girl who had different name from when Steve spoke (ahem) to her.
Ryans former warm up jock Gary was a good laugh to have around too. The night known as Mark & The Mampy always makes me laugh as they were chucking ice at him and all sorts.. Nick Reynolds later took over as warm up as we didn't go there as much as we used to.. A mistake that made us realise you should always enjoy what you've got as much as you can as you never know when it will end.. Just sitting there chilling or dancing as much as I could, this place will live on in my memory.. It has made me who I am today without a doubt.
It was closed and replaced with the Fez club and they destroyed it. Put riduculously thick egyption walls.. Moved the console.. It sounds sh!t in there so I don't know what happened to the sound system, swapped the toilets over (caused me confusion anyway), blocked the window up.. And inferior DJs mixed badly naff music in my opinion the last time I was there.. And I can't go back there.. It hurts me to think what they've done to what I felt was a 2nd home.. I'd leave work and go straight there with my change of clothes in the good old days and how I long for them to return..
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The Avenue/5th Ave
Address: Bruton Way, Gloucester.
What happened: Moved to bew location and new name as Liquid to make way for new Leisure Centre
I lived about 5 mins away from this place.. I started going here not long after Mondos and I loved it.. You had
Gavin's Giveaways on Thursdays.. Wayne & Dave took over on those nights and played some blinding sets.. Wayne's
Prodigy sets were truely excellent.. In the summer I would turn up in my shorts and people would think I was nuts
but you could do it easily then.. There was the Beat The Clock nights where pints were 10p for the first 10 mins,
20p for the next 20, etc - We'd end up with tables full of pints and gangs of people who didn't even really know
each other would all get along cos they all too drunk to care.. Glasses with beer in stacked up into towers with
beer being poured over them like fountains was 1 image I remember..I can't remember Fridays that well but it usually good whenever I went there..Saturday night, however was Big Rich Edwards night.. Working for Radio Wyvern before hand on his dance show.. The X-Files phinomena came to be popular and he was playing Children into Trinity's The Truth Is Out there and that was just so good.. He'd play Higher State and there was the jungle sets too - they were good.. Big Hard n Heavy and the DJ friendly version of Lighter - to this day, that is such a tune!
Memories I have of this include no friends patel who just kept doing lap after lap of the place and stopping at the same post on this one night.. We timed him (we were tired, okay!) and he was pretty consistant.. Came back later and he was still doing it.. The TV screens that messages could be programmed on used to have some funny stuff sometimes, but I can't remember that well - I know a big X used to appear over and over when x-files tunes were played..
There was also the time I was trying to pull Yyvone and Mark kept trying to drag me away. He eventually bopped me gently on the head with a bottle and it hurt for a second so I clobbered him with to give him the message to leave me alone whilst I got the lines in. I went onto sucessfully pull but Mark, unknown to me at the time, was out cold on the floor with people look around. Good job "Mr Hardy" wasn't called to the back bar that time!
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Gas
Address: St James Square, Cheltenham.
What happened: Revamped into the Embassy & Knights -now Chemistry
My best memory of this place was the free bar sessions they would have in the summer.. We'd have a couple of drinks and then at 11.30, the bar would be free to those who had glasses for an hour and then we would really start drinking.. It would always end with me running to the loo but I loved every minute of it.. I remember I went through this door and the bouncer was stood right behind it and I just didn't make it, but then realising the bouncer may have heard that, I legged it!
There was student nights where top dance tunes were played upstairs, where if you hadn't been there before you could lose people as there's loads of little different levels, and the darker tunes played downstairs including Wink & The Prodigy..
Not forgetting the hardcore event that took place there with Robbie Dee and Vibes amoungst others.. That was pretty shambolic as the sound system just wasn't good enough for it, but it was a good laugh..
Other memories were when I requested N-Trance - Mind Of The Machines to which the DJ (& Mark) laughed at me but I loved that song when it came out.. And Mentksi seeing us waiting to request something, asking us to ask him if he has any talent.
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KC's
Address: Quay St, Gloucester.
What happened: Revamped into Lansons & The Quay Club - now Envy & Lansons
The King of Clubs.. or so they'd have you beleive.. Others may tell it was the Kennel Club, but it was a great venue with 2 floors.. Upstairs usually playing the cheesey pop, party & oldie tunes, with main floor playing the newer tunes.. We'd try and visit The Brewery next door as you get your tickets cheaper there earlier in the night so what better time to visit them then during their happy hour of 8-9 with Anton, the KC's main floor DJ.
Mark & Ryan took over the running of downstairs, so Anton took over the upstairs floor, but he stayed in The Brewery for a time.. They started this idea where they would open up the side of KC's upstairs where they had 6 pool tables and a little bar as part of the Brewery which was a stonking idea. When KC's then opened, you could then get your hand stamped and go in KC's and then back to the Brewery as much as you liked until 11pm.
Thursdays were a good laugh.. They'd do all pints for £1 and they'd open up the 6 pool tables section and the pool tables so that they were all free until a certain time.. We'd go there and play killer usually with a whole gang of us, usually getting balls from other tables and adding lives onto each others tallys as we got sillily drunk.. Although we tended to go down to The Ave after we were sufficiently drunk..
Fridays & Saturdays really came into there own once Ryan & Mark took the reigns.. I would turn up and Mark would play the tunes he knew I'd have to dance to so often I'd get straight on the dancefloor, even before others had ventured onto the floor and just loved that. I knew there must've been those who thought look at sad bloke on the dancefloor, but I didn't care. The music was great and that's what I did.. I'd still get on the dancefloor before anyone else, if the music was good. I remember the bunch of not very good looking women coming over towards me at the start of the night on the dancefloor: I ended up hiding in the console with Mark, whilst he was in stiches..
The thing about KC's is that you got to know the people there.. I knew half of the staff.. I knew a lot of the regulars too.. There'd be a gang of us dancing later on in the night and when Ryan started the jungle and hardcore sets, this was amazing.. Okay, so it was the cheesey mostly well known stuff, but we loved it.. Heart Of Gold, Toy Town, Bad Ass, Lighter.. There was period of MCs all wanting to grab the mic, including DJ 'LET'S GOT MENTAL' Millsy or Mwarsy as it sounded in there. Not forgetting Ian 'Peter Andre' Didcot with his lyrics.. We'd dance & dance and then go sit outside (1 of the perks of knowing the staff, I guess) to cool off for a bit whilst our sweat soaked shirts got cold in the breeze outside.
This was yet another club that Ryan filled to bursting with his great ability to judge the crowd. Yet the new management in, their immense dumbness, decided that they'd get rid of him and employ someone who was their mate. The place did not take long to empty.. Went there about a year afterwards and there was about a dozen of us in there including the staff and ourselves and this was taking into account both floors.
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No I can't remember this myself but it's amazing what you can find clearing up: I aint that old but I'm told the club is still open now under the name of Crackers.