Walking through a shopping centre at night will always have a whiff of Dawn of the Dead about it, thanks to the indelible images of George A. Romero’s 1978 zombie classic, set in a besieged Philadelphia mall.
It’s weird. Slightly unsettling. But in a good way. In a way that feels like it belongs in the late 80s and 90s, when, if you knew a nightwatchman who’d turn a blind eye for a few quid, you could cram a few thousand ravers into a warehouse and then not leave for three days.
This summer, a soon-to-be demolished section of Stretford Mall – or locally known as the ‘Stretford Arndale’, a place where Muhammad Ali once bizarrely did a promo appearance for Ovaltine – had more than a bit of that spirit.
The likes of Irish tech titans Bicep, Man Power, Luke Una, PBR Streetgang, James Holroyd and local crews Rainy Heart, Elody and Nite School were among those to help turn this ailing, outdated shopping centre into one of the very coolest places to be in the city. Hundreds of people danced under strip lights and were handed beers where pharmacists once handed out prescriptions in the old, long-emptied branch of Boots, or bought and sold jewellery at the pawn brokers.
Rainy Heart kicked things off, a collective of DJs, artists and general music heads and scenesters, founded by school gate chums Dan Hope and Simon Hindle, aka DJ and producer Ruf Dug. Ruf, long known for his globe-trotting DJ career, unmissable slots on NTS Radio, and his infamous, very-much-out-there Wet Play parties, installed a hefty vintage soundsystem into an old mod-themed chippy, one of the empty units of the section of the mall running along Chester Road.
They didn’t have a booze licence, so the place became a listening bar, makeshift screening room and occasionally breaking into a rave every now and then, with the likes of Mr Scruff – also a proud Stretford local – coming down to play records, alongside a host of others, with alcohol-free IPAs and warm Vimto on the menu.
Word soon spread of plans for a bigger party, in a bigger unit, the details kept purposely vague, illegal-rave style (it was Boots). Luke Una, the Electric Chair stalwart, took to the controls and despite some Herculean efforts behind the scenes – throwing art installations into the mix too – it went off so smoothly as to appear effortless.
“It feels weirdly illicit – like you’ve broken into the mall for a rave – except it’s completely legal. That tension excites people,” says Ruf.
“It’s quite exciting when these things happen. I come from a DIY background. I’ve always got involved in things. And I really like that’s what’s happening in Stretford at the moment. All of it is very DIY. It’s Stretford people doing Stretford things.
“I’m interested in growing things here on my doorstep. I can’t speak to the concept of gentrification, or regeneration, whatever you want to call it, but what I do know is that this is my own doorstep, and I like what’s happening on it. I can’t speak for any other doorsteps.
“I need that community neighbourly thing. And what I really love more than anything is dancing with [his son’s] teacher at the rave. But you know just seeing all my neighbours really matters you know? I’m from the generation where we grew up not knowing any of our neighbours, so to be a part of what feels like an actual neighbourhood where I know lots of people that live nearby is something I really like and so to have the opportunity to celebrate that beyond simply having a conversation over the garden fence is really good.”
Rather than having to bribe a nightwatchman, developers Bruntwood, who for the past few years have undertaken the complete redesign of Stretford’s town centre and high street, were the ones needing persuading. But not that much, as it happens.
Abigail Barker, the developer’s events and community manager, spotted the chance to do something different and engage the local community in a different way.
“The different kinds of shops in the mall, they kind of work like theatre sets,” she says. “You’re given this pre-existing space that everybody’s got a relationship to in some kind of way. So you reposition that and then invite the community back in to experience it in a completely different way.
“It feels quite illicit, very much like a night at the museum. There was definitely a leap of imagination involved. Not all developers would do this. But when it comes to regeneration, your relationship with the community is vital. Rainy Heart had a really good relationship already, and people were desperate to get into the mall after dark. If we were in a position to make that happen, and create something people in Stretford could feel proud of, why wouldn’t we?”
She won’t pretend it’s been smooth sailing. “It was a lot of work to take on, but I strongly believed it needed to happen. Insurance policies don’t cover late-night raves, it turns out. You’re looking at fire exits, capacities – we even physically knocked down a wall in the back of Boots to get more people in for the second event. Once we committed, everyone worked to get it over the line. And the morning after, you wake up and see people still talking about it. That makes it worth it.”
“It’s Bicep in Boots,” laughs Rainy Heart’s Dan Hope. “Which is absolutely bonkers.”
Taking on the mantle from Rainy Heart, fellow local promoters Nite School put on a series of parties in the old pawn brokers, across the way from Boots, culminating in a set from Bicep, a party which sold out all its tickets in a few minutes.
“It’s the perfect example of ‘meanwhile space’,” Dan goes on. “These are units that don’t yet have a commercial tenant – they’re empty, but developers would rather have something happening there in the meantime.
“Historically, the most important thing for artists has always been the availability of cheap, meanwhile space to do interesting stuff in. Places like Berlin thrived on that. Stretford looks like its hook has been music, which is really interesting because it differentiates it from somewhere like Stockport, where it was food that played the central role. It doesn’t have to be music, but what it does need to be is creativity.”
In this spirit, Rainy Heart have bagged their own unit in the new King Street development, available for everything from a recent visit from the Manchester Camerata orchestra to parties being put on by up-and-coming promoters. They don’t know how long they’ll have it yet – could be two months, could be two weeks. But they hope to pack it with enough happenings to make it memorable. There’s already a dub techno chess night (which is exactly what it sounds like), a community zine club and a party from Def By Stereo.
When Callum Parton talks about Nite School’s events, he still sounds slightly dazed at the scale of what they pulled off. Callum, who DJs under the name Aural-B with Nite School co-founder Richie Ferguson (aka RichieNS), explains it was a trial by fire, particularly when they put on Bicep – which ended up second only to Fabric in London on Resident Advisor’s global party rankings that weekend.
Many of the things that could have gone wrong did so, and were then further compounded by a torrential storm on the night. Much lesser storms than this have been given names by the Met Office.
“It wasn’t just about booking DJs,” he says. “You’re running a whole operation – artist liaison, bar, ticketing – and when you’re scaling up from a smaller pawn brokers unit to something five times the size, it’s another level of complexity.
“We had a literal fountain of water shooting out from a manhole cover in the middle of the dancefloor because of blocked drains. Tiles were lifting off the floor. The sound guys who’ve been doing this over 20 years were like ‘we’ve never seen anything like this before’. It was action stations. We had to grab mops and shovels and force the water out the back door. It kept coming and coming. Mike, one of the security guards from the mall, an absolute hero, climbed onto the roof and started bailing water off with a bucket which had pooled up to his knee. An insane collective effort to make the party happen.“
Miraculously, all this only delayed the doors opening by an hour or so. “The euphoria of actually going ahead with minimal impact was incredible,” adds Callum.
The pawn brokers that Nite School first took over wasn’t much easier, to be fair. “Someone snapped off a tap in the back toilet and the water was jetting so hard against the wall it was stripping paint. We had to cut the mains and get a new spigot. It was a proper baptism of fire. But facing those challenges has been so valuable. It’s galvanised us and shown the strength of the crew we’ve built.”
Those hardships make the moments of community connection all the more powerful. “My good friend Andy, the town crier of Stretford, came to one of our pawn broker parties with three generations of his family. For him, the place used to be where he’d buy prescriptions for his mum.
“Suddenly he’s buying a beer there instead. Someone else told us their mum used to pawn stuff there to put food on the table. There’s still a value exchange going on – but now it’s musical and cultural value. That’s why reimagining these spaces matters.”
Does this kind of thing work? Can it change existing communities in any tangible way? After all, raves aren’t for everyone (though everyone is welcome at them). It’s not just raves, of course. “We’ve had immersive cinema screenings, art battles, local food pop-ups. The raves have grabbed people’s imagination, but they sit within a much wider programme,” Barker says.
It’s tough to quantify. But let’s say there’s some anecdotal evidence to suggest maybe there’s something in the air, whether it be the very existence of excellent restaurants like the Stretford Canteen around the corner, much-loved dive bar Head or Rainy Heart’s ‘meanwhile space’.
“More people have been coming to Stretford to see what’s going on,” says Dan. “I actually know two people who, since that first Boots party, have moved to Stretford. And it’s very much related to what’s been going on. Two people who literally hadn’t been to Stretford before. Then they probably went to Stretford Canteen, the [pizza restaurant] Bakehouse, and have chosen to move there. That’s not nothing.”
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