Sunday 14 October 2007

PARADISE REVISITED



Known to one group of Mancunians as ‘Paradise Factory’ and to another as ‘Fac 251’, the building located at number one Charles Street will re-open at the end of January 2008 while under the watchful eye of the team currently found behind The Warehouse Project.

Gaining notoriety as the new headquarters for Factory Records with a costly revamp of the Victorian shell by Hacienda/Dry Bar maverick Ben Kelly, the debt-ridden label handed ownership to the Manto Group’s Peter Dalton and Carol Ainscow - who were estimated at the time to have paid £500,000 (just two thirds of the cost of Kelly’s industrial makeover).

Initially popular with gay/mixed crowds who abandoned venues like The Number One, Paradise Factory played host to key parties with everyone from Tim Lennox to Justin Robertson at the helm. Sometime stints from Bugged Out followed in addition to re-launches with similarly underground projects like Dirty City Disco. Yet anyone who ventured to the club prior to its last closure can tell you how it was looking a tad tired. Numbers dwindled and it wasn’t uncommon to encounter problems with either the air conditioning or the sound system. A shame really: it was always one of those clubs that you could lose yourself in for hours on end – perhaps stumbling on a selection of dubby downtempo in the attic before again braving some hi-octane anthems playing downstairs from its only marginally less heaving balcony.

Maybe its latest incarnation will be its most notable yet.


3 comments:

Penny Anderson said...

Aah...Paradise Factory. I remember when it opened. You couldn't move for smug Factory-ites in Armani and trainers.
Best off as a club.

DANNY MCFADDEN said...

The other suits of choice used to be the Yohji Yamamoto ones from Richard Creme - yes? And then Yamamoto ends up doing the Hacienda trainer (currently exhibited at Urbis) as part of the Y-3/Adidas range.
Back then, however, the 'suit trainers' of choice used to be Travel Fox (also then stocked by Richard Creme). Do Travel Fox still exist?

Jump said...

Hell yea Travel Fox is back under JUMP.

Check it out.
http://jumpshoes.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/vanquish/

They're available at Bloomingdale's.