It began as a group of friends meeting in a Marsden club … and is now one of the best ever value dance nights out.
Pool Club Presents is a group – including experienced DJs who have played in Manchester – that have bought a 90s rave sound system and are using it to play all kinds of music in a series of great events lined up at The Royal British Legion in Marsden.
The music veers from ska and reggae to house, techno, disco, soul, jazz and Motown. Pool Club Presents is run by Gareth Wood, Matthew Arrowsmith, Dean Firth, Jimmy and Higg.
Entrance to the dances is either free or ridiculously cheap at just £5 on the door to make sure it’s fully inclusive for anyone who wants to attend.
Gareth said it all started very differently.
“We began as a weekly meet up of friends, including some new dads who wanted to share experiences of parenthood,” he said. “We still meet every Thursday night at the British Legion in Marsden to play a bit of pool – hence the name Pool Club – have a beer or two and a bit of a chat.
“Over the years we often talked about putting on parties as we have a collective love of all kinds of music from reggae through to techno and everything inbetween.
“Some of us had experience putting on club nights and gigs in the past so we thought it would be cool to bring regular music events to the Colne Valley.”
Gareth, 39, of Slaithwaite, said the Legion venue on Grange Street is ideal for the music nights.
“Another thing we were really keen on is supporting a venue that had supported us for the last eight years,” he said.
“The Royal British Legion in Marsden is a brilliant venue with an excellent team behind it but we think it’s a criminally underused space. Their back room has a sprung dancefloor and a stage so it’s all ready to go. All we were short of was a sound system.”
When the chance arose to buy an original 90s rave sound system they took it, with five of them clubbing together to buy the system.
“We’ve invested a lot of time and money bringing it up to spec and we now believe we have one of the best sound systems in Huddersfield,” said Gareth.
In April they started putting on monthly reggae dances and even brought legendary Huddersfield DJ Paul Huxtable and his hand-built Valvatron Soundsystem to the Colne Valley for the first time and he’s back again in September. Paul usually stages reggae nights at the Northern Quarter live music venue in Huddersfield.
The number of people attending the nights has been growing every month and Gareth added: “We are now working with other promoters to bring a busy schedule of events to Marsden and our aim is to keep these events free or very low cost because we don’t want to exclude anyone from coming for a dance and getting involved.”
Gareth has been a techno, house and indie music DJ in Manchester for many years along with friends Lawrence Kitson and Mark Webster – known as Bucky – and they have been holding monthly early doors events featuring chilled house party disco music at Zapato Brewery between Slaithwaite and Marsden.
He said: “We hope that what we are doing will inspire others to hold events in Marsden too. We’ve already had couple who stage dance nights in Wigan contact us to hold one here in September.
“We really want to build something special in Marsden.”
The upcoming events are:
Saturday, August 3. Early Doors Social Club. Free entry. 7pm until late
The chilled house party vibes – usually only heard monthly at Zapato Brewery – will be brought to the big sound system for the first time. Expect house, disco and techno vibes from their resident DJs that have held residencies across Manchester, including Sankeys, Funkedemia, Cutloose, Robot Soap and more.
To grab your free entry go to Skiddle at https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Huddersfield/The-Legion/Early-Doors-Social-Club/39236406/
Saturday, September 7. Dub Yoga. It’s £5 on the day and runs from 5pm until 7pm.
Ellie will lead a yoga class through deep stretches and even deeper dub music.
Saturday, September 7. Pool Club Presents with free entry and it runs from 7pm until late featuring their in-house DJs playing dub, reggae, roots and ska.
Saturday, September 14. The Valvatron Grown Up Disco. It’s £5 on the door and runs from 7pm until late. The Valvatron sound system is back at the Legion and this time Paul Huxtable is bringing the full range of his vinyl collection. All types of dance music will be played including reggae, funk, 60s beat, disco, ska, rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, soul, Motown, African and Latin.
Saturday, September 21. Have Yourself. It’s £5 on the door and runs from 7pm until late.
Ross and Steph are coming from Wigan to bring the best post-punk, new wave, synth pop, punk, ska, glam and goth, all aimed at the dancefloor.
For more information go to www.poolclubpresents.com
Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.
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