The story of Funkademia
Funkademia takes place every Saturday at Mint Lounge in the heart of Manchester's Northern Quarter to a consistently full house, feeding a friendly crowd with a diet of pure unadulterated soul-funk. Funkademia bills the night as a 'chronological history of soul' with their dj collective taking you on a journey through four decades of the very best soul, funk, disco and hip-hop with a touch of smooth r and b and big house classics.
1995
Funkademia is Born
In November 1995 promoter Dave Payne launched his fledging night on a cold & blustery Sunday night in the legendary Boardwalk nightclub, Manchester. In an era where Madchester was at its peak and house music dominating the City’s club scene a night based round soul-funk-disco music was something of a gamble. The opening night however proved a great success and a new clubnight was formed. By the time the next Funkademia event took place on Boxing night queues were tailing round the block of the Boardwalk before the doors were opened and the night has never looked back since.
1996
The Attic
The original plan was that Funkademia would become a regular Sunday clubnight. Whilst there was a thriving Sunday night club scene in Scotland Sunday licensing laws in England were restricted to 10.30 however the Government of the day had announced this was going to change. After winging it through the early half of 1995 with ‘special’ licences on various Bank Holiday Sundays at The Boardwalk, which were all sold out events, it became apparent the Government were not going to change licensing laws any time soon. Funkademia was booming and needed to flourish so an offer was accepted to form a regular Saturday residency at the Attic nightclub on Oxford Rd. The week before the night was due to launch in June 1996 the IRA bomb exploded in town and it was feared this would kill Manchester nightlife at least for a while. Mancunians thought differently and the debut weekly event was launched to a full house. By the time the summer was through there was a queue snaking up Oxford Rd by 10pm every Saturday. In 1998 we launched our sister night Northern Funk every Friday in the Attic, specialising in the older genre of soul-funk music, which quickly became equally as popular.
1996
The Attic
The original plan was that Funkademia would become a regular Sunday clubnight. Whilst there was a thriving Sunday night club scene in Scotland Sunday licensing laws in England were restricted to 10.30 however the Government of the day had announced this was going to change. After winging it through the early half of 1995 with ‘special’ licences on various Bank Holiday Sundays at The Boardwalk, which were all sold out events, it became apparent the Government were not going to change licensing laws any time soon. Funkademia was booming and needed to flourish so an offer was accepted to form a regular Saturday residency at the Attic nightclub on Oxford Rd. The week before the night was due to launch in June 1996 the IRA bomb exploded in town and it was feared this would kill Manchester nightlife at least for a while. Mancunians thought differently and the debut weekly event was launched to a full house. By the time the summer was through there was a queue snaking up Oxford Rd by 10pm every Saturday. In 1998 we launched our sister night Northern Funk every Friday in the Attic, specialising in the older genre of soul-funk music, which quickly became equally as popular.
2002
Subspace
Funkademia enjoyed 6 very successful tears at the Attic but by 2002 it was clear the night had outgrown the space and an offer was accepted to move just around the corner to the old Generation X bar which had been refurbished into Subspace nightclub.
Both Funkademia and Northern Funk upped sticks and so began another fantastic residency this time with the ability to escape the hot and sweaty basement dancefloor into the rooftop garden.
During this time our tight DJ stable of Payney, Jon Busstop, Myk Nolan, Trafford Lovething & Dave Booth expanded with the addition of Jason Vereker and Fritz Great lakes joining the fold.
2005
Zumeba \ Zumeroom
2005 saw both nights on the move again, only around the corner back onto Oxford Road and to our own place the Zumeroom above Zumeba.
The first night saw all the power blow on Oxford Road and an impromptu street party kick in along Oxford Road. By this time licensing laws had been relaxed from the 2am curfew and the Zumeroom played host to some very messy, late night parties.
2005
Zumeba \ Zumeroom
2005 saw both nights on the move again, only around the corner back onto Oxford Road and to our own place the Zumeroom above Zumeba. The first night saw all the power blow on Oxford Road and an impromptu street party kick in along Oxford Road. By this time licensing laws had been relaxed from the 2am curfew and the Zumeroom played host to some very messy, late night parties.
2007
One Central St
In February 2007 we got an offer we couldn’t refuse to move to one of the coolest venues in Manchester - One Central Street. The venue had been part of Manchester’s clubbing folklore as its first real hedonistic gay club - The Number 1 Club.
Now run by our good friend Leroy of Hacienda fame Funkademia and Northern Funk was back in a basement space – which all good clubs should be – and saw another two years of sold out weekends we a plethora of celeb heads mixing on our dancefloor with the Funkademia faithful.
Our roster of DJ’s expanded again with the addition of the Good for the Soul team Jamie Scahill & Keith Griffiths plus the very talented David Dunne and Les Croasdaile.
2009
Mint Lounge
Lease issues saw One Central sadly shut up shop in September 2009 when a chance meeting with other good friends from The Electric Chair introduced us to the Mint Lounge.
We’d been fans of the Northern Quarter area for some time and the chance to move right into the heart of it was not to be refused. DJ’s Si Forestiero, Adam Unsworth, Jack Tomson and Adil Khan joined the squad and Mint Lounge has been our longest running residency to date.
After 8 years every Saturday night is as strong as ever and we think all things considered it’s probably the best club space we’ve has in our 22 years under a groove.
2009
Mint Lounge
Lease issues saw One Central sadly shut up shop in September 2009 when a chance meeting with other good friends from The Electric Chair introduced us to the Mint Lounge. We’d been fans of the Northern Quarter area for some time and the chance to move right into the heart of it was not to be refused. DJ’s Si Forestiero, Adam Unsworth, Jack Tomson and Adil Khan joined the squad and Mint Lounge has been our longest running residency to date. After 8 years every Saturday night is as strong as ever and we think all things considered it’s probably the best club space we’ve has in our 22 years under a groove.
In October 1995 our fledgling Funkademia was only supposed to be a one off party for like minded soulful friends. Never did we think it would become Manchester’s longest ever running clubnight. We are truly grateful for the fantastic nights of clubbing we have had. Long may it continue.