In Manchester, nights promoted by the resident DJs are among the best clubs the city offers: 'Spellbound', 'Sub Tub', 'Eyes Down' and two of the most well-established nights in the country, 'Tangled' and 'Electric Chair'.
'Tangled was founded by Terry Pointon and Phil Morse, massive clubgoers, inspired by nights like 'Freedom', who drifted into running clubs rather than via any formal career plan. In 1994 they'd been DJ-ing at parties in houses for a while, and decided to try a 'Tangled' night at the Dominion Hotel bar. This was the first of many venues, including the Underground at UMIST, the Attic, the Boardwalk and finally the Phoenix, their home since 1997. They've had problems in the past, including violent incidents when they were at the Boardwalk, but they've pursued a steady music policy, playing progressive, Euro house even when it was ignored by the press.
Other places may be about dressing expensively or feeling smug, but like most nights run by DJs, 'Tangled' is centred very much on the music. According to Phil, 'Our strength has always been that around eleven-thirty, just when things are ready to move up a gear, we kick off the dancefloor with records the crowd get into, but probably don't know and can't get hold of. "Tangled records" we call them; records we break on the dancefloor.'
More than anything, you sense that Terry and Phil care about the music and the quality of the records, and, as a result, they get an audience that does the same. Phil has a theory: 'I always say that if a record isn't good enough to get people travelling from Liverpool or Preston all the way to Manchester to hear it, then it isn't worth playing.'
'Tangled', being weekly, has plenty of space in its calendar for guest DJs. Phil and Terry tend to go for people they know and trust, preferably not through agents, but on a personal basis. Phil is always falling out with agents: 'Agents for the so-called big names always treat us like they're doing us a massive favour, but I see it the other way round: we're giving the DJ the chance to have a great night and play to a great crowd.'
Phil and Terry use two other residents, Herbie Saccani and Steve Thorpe, in a second room, and book a lot of unknown guests from around Manchester. One of their regular guests a few years ago almost gave them some problems, though. He ran occasional nights locally and always got two or three hundred people to them, so they started booking him at 'Tangled' and he always turned up, worked well and brought a good crowd. But then they started hearing rumours that he was a policeman; someone knew someone who had seen him arrest somebody in a car park. This didn't bother them, but when they asked him he admitted he had been a policeman but claimed he had given up the job. Then, one weekend, the DJ's picture was in the News of the World alongside a story not just confirming he was a policeman, but alleging that he was a drug dealer. He'd been seen and photographed by the newspaper at a party in a flat above the Dog and Partridge in Disley. A warrant was issued for his arrest. The 'Tangled' boys haven't seen him since.
'Tangled' has overcome hard times and the ups and downs of the Manchester vibe, but the only thing that seems to bother them is keeping ahead of the big comercial clubs and getting their music right. Through 2001, even after seven years of 'Tangled', they are still reinventing, moving ahead, having realised that the world is catching up with them: 'Records we used to play that were one year ahead of the game are just two weeks ahead now the scene has gone overground.'
...Music is a lifeline, but clubs bring people together. At worst, it's a tasteless cash-in, but at best a club night is a focus for a community, and a celebration. Phil Morse: 'The people who come to "Tangled", they feel it's their night, their music, that they can talk to us when they see us in the street, that they're a part of "Tangled", and they are, we all are; and that's what the word "club" means.
...Phil Morse is exasperated by the business ethos, especially when it's often the lesser known names rather than the big names that rock 'Tangled': 'Most of the big names bore the crowd; the night is based around big records, rather than a DJ playing a clever twenty-minute mix going nowhere.'
Phil doesn't just fall out with agents, he sometimes falls out with the more aloof DJs, and the ones who do more than one gig a night: 'DJs who just turn up and then go. We can't be bothered with them.'
DAVE HASLAM