Queue Up And Dance celebrates legendary Bootle nightclub Quadrant Park, the UK’s first legal rave all-nighter. Although the club was short-lived, growing popular in early 1990 and closing at the end of 1991, it played a pivotal role in the evolution of club culture in the North West and beyond. Demolished in 1992, and with nothing at the site now hinting at its rich history, the story of Quadrant Park runs the risk of being lost.

Queue Up And Dance invites those who went to Quadrant Park in its heyday, and young people living in Bootle today, to collaboratively develop an archive, exhibition and new creative projects inspired by the club’s history and the early DIY culture of rave.

Queue Up And Dance is a collaboration between Sefton Libraries, Rule of Threes Arts and lead artists Dave Evans and Melissa Kains. It builds on conversations between Dave and the original Quadrant Park DJ’s, Mike Knowler and Andy Carroll, and the vibrant online Quadrant Park Reunions community on Facebook.

Queue Up And Dance is being funded by Historic England’s Everyday Heritage grant programme, celebrating working class histories. Made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery players.

The aim of Queue Up And Dance is to celebrate the importance of Quadrant Park during its later years, between 1990 and 91.

The project does this through making, sharing, and learning together with people who went to the club, and a younger generation who didn’t. Things like flyers, photos and memories relating to Quadrant Park will be documented to produce a lasting archive of material that will be available for future generations via Sefton Libraries. This will happen both online and in person, through callouts, invitations and events. The archive isn’t an attempt to create an official or complete story of Quadrant Park, as the club was different things to different people.

Do you have a Quad story to tell? Or a flyer in a drawer somewhere? We’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to volunteer to support the building of the archive, or you’ve got memorabilia or photographs to share, please email joe.goff@sefton.gov.uk.

Young People’s QUAD workshops

Are you aged 16-24? Always wanted to produce your own electronic music? Got skills already that you want to develop?⁠

Starting on Monday 10th March, 6pm – 8pm we’re partnering with Scrapyard Studios for a 6 week series of music production skills workshops as part of our project: Queue Up And Dance.

Every Monday
10th March – 14th April
6pm
Scrapyard Studios

Melissa Kains, founder of female and non-binary DJ collective Sisu Crew will lead the workshops teaching us how to mix using different equipment, set up the decks and produce our own tracks.

There’s also a chance to perform live mixing with your own track at a very special Quadrant Park event in May.

Sign up here. *Please note* one booking signs you up for all 6 of the workshops running every Monday from 10th March, 6pm – 8pm.

Queue Up And Dance celebrates legendary Bootle nightclub Quadrant Park, the UK’s first legal rave all-nighter. Although the club was short-lived, growing popular in early 1990 and closing at the end of 1991, it played a pivotal role in the evolution of club culture in the North West and beyond.⁠

Queue Up And Dance is being funded by the Historic England Everyday Heritage grant programme, celebrating working class histories. Made possible with National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery players.⁠

We are looking for volunteers! Would you like to be involved in Queue Up And Dance by doing things like helping to capture Quad-related stories and digitising ephemera such as photographs, flyers and tickets? Helping with these vital tasks means they can be stored for the future in a permanent archive in Sefton Libraries’ collection. No experience is necessary, just a desire to help us tell the story of this amazing venue! Sign up to be a volunteer or tell us what memorabilia you’d like to have scanned or photographed for the archive by emailing joe.goff@sefton.gov.uk.