Ahead of the Defected In The House event at Sankey’s Manchester 03 May – the second stop on the Defected15 Club Tour – Defected’s Ben Lovett caught up with the club’s owner David Vincent to discuss 20 years of the North England music mecca.
Our interview with David Vincent, ‘Godfather’ of the seemingly unstoppable club empire Sankeys, has moved back a few times now. But it’s forgivable considering the sheer volume of work he has on his plate; and that, remarkably, is a lot less than last year. Vincent has, at last, found us a few minutes on Skype between pressing meetings to finalise plans for Sankeys Ibiza this summer. “It’s a rollercoaster” he breathlessly exclaims. “This life, I mean. There are highs and there are lows but I love all of it. I love to be involved.” Involved he most certainly still is. Alongside Ibiza rumbles Sankeys dancefloors in New York and, of course, home city Manchester, as well as a regular stream of standalone parties around the world. Vincent oversees everything, if not as close to the day-to-day as once before.
It was about this time last year that the relentless, utterly exhausting demands of directly managing multiple venues finally prompted him to close down in Manchester and take stock of Sankeys’ unbridled, occasionally chaotic growth. “A few people thought that the closure was a PR stunt” he reflects. “It wasn’t. Others said that we were done. I clearly said at the time that we were closing indefinitely and that whilst I focused on our third year in Ibiza who knows what might happen next in Manchester. There are haters out there with an agenda.”
In reality, Vincent was burnt out. He needed to recuperate. “It was as simple as that, I just couldn’t manage two clubs [Manchester and Ibiza; New York hadn’t yet opened] at the same time” he explains. “I tried to keep Manchester going and let Ibiza stabilise but soon realised I needed to let one club go so I could ensure the other one, the new one, exploded. While the cat’s away, the mice will play. I came back to Manchester in time and people had been taking the piss, buying cars in my name and stuff. In just a short time everything was a mess; there were financial and legal difficulties to sort out. I saw that I needed some control back and, to be frank, to clear out the shit. So I closed the club down.”
That seems a million moons ago, such is the hectic pace of Vincent’s life. Sankeys Manchester actually reopened last December and, today, is ably negotiating the first thrusts of an impressive spring schedule encompassing everyone from quirky groovers Soul Clap and Wolf + Lamb to techno heavies Adam Beyer and Ben Klock via Jus-Ed, Apollonia and Defected. Elsewhere, sun-seeking revellers are keenly rubbing their hands at the prospect of another stellar Sankeys season in Playa d’en Bossa and, across the Atlantic, Vincent’s embryonic New York operation – which launched last Hallowe’en – has bedded snuggly in with locals. So how is Vincent juggling things now?
“I needed the right partners around me who could take some of the strain whilst interpreting my vision for Sankeys in the right manner” Vincent offers. “It was important that those partners had their own, different takes on each club but guidelines still needed to be followed, and still are being followed.”
Hence, whilst Vincent has fully taken the reigns of Sankeys Ibiza, capable lieutenants Antonio Piacquadio and Paul ‘Fletch’ Fletcher are running the shows in New York and Manchester respectively. Cannily, Vincent has also enlisted Pacha’s former Brand Director Danny Whittle - well respected among industry professionals – as consultant on his latest White Isle plans. “The set-up is awesome” Vincent enthuses. “It’s giving me time to develop this thing we have with Sankeys...I hate the word brand, it’s a movement really. The team is pushing things on whilst respecting the traditions that have gotten us this far. The balance is there now.”
What will ‘Fletch’, in Vincent’s opinion, bring to Manchester? How different will the original Sankeys become on its latest run? “The main thing” Vincent calmly cuts across, “is that he has so much passion for Sankeys and electronic music. He’s a Mancunian and has a deep connection to the club. He’s never managed a club but has a lot of knowledge and experience of this scene and promoting the Hacienda concept.”
Vincent continues: “It was actually Fletch who convinced me to bring back Tribal Sessions [Sankeys’ legendary, long-running party] last New Year’s Eve. I was always like ‘you what? Don’t be silly!’ I thought you could only reinvent something so many times. But Fletch pushed and pushed. He really didn’t think we could lose Tribal. He told me that Manchester had already lost too many iconic musical institutions, like the Hacienda, and shouldn’t be losing anymore. He feels that way about the club too. And that’s beautiful really. That Paul is speaking from the heart about what he’s doing, and not from the pocket or anything thing else...I know the venue and its operation is in good hands.”
The strength in depth of Sankeys Manchester’s spring line-up is proof in point. This weekend, Defected’s In The House experience rules the roost, featuring Guti, Noir and Sam Divine. The party is a progression for the label from tie-ups with Sankeys in Ibiza last year and, prior to that, smaller collaborations in Manchester. “Simon Dunmore and Defected have been in the game for many years, much like us” Vincent says. “We have a lot of respect for what they’re doing and hopefully they’ll have a good time over the Bank Holiday weekend. We think our audience will.”
Beyond that looms the Sankeys’ 20th anniversary – the third week of June to the corresponding week in 2015, according to Vincent. “We’re working through a lot of plans right now” he confirms. “Some of them might happen, some might not but it’s going to be a memorable year.”
Virtually everything that does happen will have a link, in some way, shape or form, to the number 20. Tours are mooted, so too a UK festival with, if it happens, 20 acts for 20,000 revellers. But such things are not certain yet. What has been confirmed is a 20th anniversary riff on Tribal Sessions (20 weeks of parties in Ibiza) and a commemorative double-CD compilation. Sankeys rarely dabbles in such things and therefore Vincent is keen to make this release extra special. The omens are good, considering one carefully selected, retrospectively-focused disc of Sankeys anthems (“the kind of tracks that have made us who we are today”) will sit cosily alongside another of exclusive material from close associate Darius Syrossian. The DJ-producer has risen quickly, in part, because of Sankeys’ continued patronage; his 74-minute set (to be recorded live at the club this week) is likely to include fresh remixes of Green Velvet, Todd Terry and DJ Sneak.
Sankeys first opened in 1994 as Sankeys Soap on Jersey Street – the crazy, impulsive brainchild of Andy Spiro and Rupert Campbell. Vincent’s involvement came six years later, after several flirtations with bankruptcy, the odd closure or two, the birth of iconic nights like Bugged Out! and impact of stellar performances by Bjork, Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers. In Vincent’s time, things have been similarly colourful. Management rifts, closure and relocation (to nearby Radium Street) have juxtaposed the rise of revolutionary nights like Tribal Sessions, the club’s recognition by the Museum Of Science & Industry as culturally significant to its host city – the only club to have received such status in the UK by a national museum – and DJ Mag’s award of Best Club In The World (2010). Looking back on the eve of anniversary, does he hold any regrets?
“Of course, you wish you could have changed certain things” he states, “but if things hadn’t have run as they did then I wouldn’t be here in this exact moment. I’m happy now. I could have reached this point more quickly and run things with more of a business head but I can’t complain. This has been my spiritualistic journey. I always wanted to live in Ibiza and now I do. The work is good. I’ve never done things for money. Some of my peers cashed out with the clubs they ran after two or three years but I stuck at it, through good and bad. People think I lead this glamorous life but I don’t. I’m still a ‘Professor of Nightclubs’ but I have achieved in terms of my résumé and dance music. Some things could have gone differently but I don’t want to dwell or hate. This has been an epic journey and I’m looking forward to travelling a few more miles yet.”
So what’s down the road? Vincent remains focused on realising, in his lifetime, the previously heralded ‘Seven Sankeys of the World’ – seven highly credible, innovative, life-affirming Sankeys nightclubs in prominent locations around the globe. “There may come a time in the future when I feel too old to do this any longer and look to a younger person to carry Sankeys on,” he reasons; “to push it forward in the right and respectful way. But for now it’s all about going from three to seven clubs whilst I’m still at the desk. I’m in the position now where I can see the overall movement of things – the music programming, the erected billboards, the T-shirts, the AV suppliers, everything... - and steer Sankeys more effectively.”
Nonetheless, that the name has lasted this long in a notoriously fickle, cyclical world obsessed with shedding identity every few years – months even – is hugely impressive. Sankeys has had its blips but 20 years is not to be baulked at. What’s Vincent’s secret? In part, it’s himself. “I’m really not being cocky but I think my resilience has been a big factor. Any successful operation is the same, just look at Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson and what about Defected with Simon? You need someone at the top who is committed and headstrong or else the original vision gets lost.
“I remember our first year in Ibiza. We over-extended ourselves and were a day from shutting. Everyone was against us and said we were finished, but my ex-business partner, Sacha Lord Marchionne, told them that we wouldn’t close because Dave Vincent was indestructible and could always find a way through. It’s not just me though; you have to remember that Sankeys has had some great generals over the years, people like Andrew and Rupert, Sacha and, now, Paul. They’ve helped get it to where it is today. Sankeys has been built up by some great people. The music goes round in cycles and some of the quality isn’t there now like the vinyl and CD days but we’re aiming to keep entertaining in that unique Sankeys way. That’s our fundamental mission.”
Defected In The House hits Sankeys Manchester on 3 May - tickets are available now from Skiddle
