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.