Day Fever will launch at BAaD in April, a day-time club for over 30s.
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00:00 I think people like to dance and it's a purposeful thing.
00:04 I know that sounds silly, you go to a nightclub to have a dance.
00:07 And actually like Johnny was saying, I'm not into going nightclubbing nowadays,
00:11 but I do love dancing.
00:13 I love that fact you said it's to create the community.
00:15 I want people to have this once a month, they always know it's there,
00:18 they can rely on it, they can go to it, they can have a good time.
00:20 OK, so Johnny and Vicky, a nightclub in the afternoon for over 30s,
00:25 that's the basis of this idea.
00:27 What is it all about?
00:28 How did it start and what's it been so far?
00:31 Well, it was kind of my idea at first.
00:33 I've been going on about it for ages, and people weren't listening.
00:36 I think they thought it was mad, but I just had this idea that I wanted to do
00:39 what I wanted to do and what my mates like to do on an afternoon,
00:42 you know, especially on the weekend, have a few pints, dance to some music,
00:46 maybe get a bit of food and be home in time for dancing on ice or match of the day.
00:51 But I took it to some lads, Jimmy O'Hara, who's the co-founder of Tramlines in Sheffield,
00:56 Johnny McClure and his brother Chris.
00:58 Johnny, of course, is the lead singer of Reverend and the Makers,
01:00 and they really liked the idea.
01:02 And they were the ones who said, "Look, let's try it in Sheffield.
01:04 "We know the perfect venue, you know, the old town hall,
01:07 "in the middle of Sheffield itself, let's give it a go."
01:09 And then we put tickets on sale, hoping we could sell a few,
01:13 and they all sold out within, like, 48 hours.
01:15 So we were like, "Oh, hang on, there's something up here."
01:18 We might have thought, well, we did think it might have been a Christmas fluke,
01:21 but it turned out it wasn't.
01:22 We tried again in January, tried all over the country,
01:24 and the tickets are selling out straight away.
01:27 So here we are now with, I think it's seven cities,
01:29 another one to be announced this week, another one next week.
01:32 So the plan is to get 10 cities up and running if we can.
01:35 I saw the reaction in Glasgow when you announced,
01:39 and it was instantaneously, you know, people that had never heard of this concept,
01:43 it really resonated with them.
01:45 And it feels like you're kind of creating a bit of a community
01:48 across all the different cities.
01:50 Vicky, what do you think the reaction is?
01:52 What do you think that people see in this as an idea?
01:54 I think people like to dance.
01:59 And it's a purposeful thing.
02:01 I know that sounds silly, but when you go to a pub,
02:03 it's not designed to have a dance.
02:05 You know, you go to a nightclub to have a dance.
02:09 And actually, like Johnny was saying,
02:10 I'm not into going nightclubbing nowadays,
02:12 but I do love dancing.
02:14 And I think it's the same concept for Day Fever.
02:17 It's just people going, "Yeah, I still want to have a dance.
02:20 I still want to go out and enjoy myself.
02:22 But, you know, it reaches out to lots of different,
02:24 like you were saying before, to communities,
02:26 where there's people that have really wacky, you know, shifts at work.
02:31 They have children.
02:32 They have different responsibilities.
02:34 Weekends, you know, can sometimes feel like they don't,
02:37 you know, they just disappear.
02:38 Whereas at least with this, you do get to get up in the morning,
02:43 get dressed to go out, and you've still come back,
02:45 and you're home at a decent hour to make sure that it doesn't ruin your Sunday.
02:49 You know, so it's just, to me, it seems like,
02:52 like Johnny was saying, it's a very simple concept,
02:55 but I think it's something that a lot of people will get a lot from.
03:00 - I suppose when you think about cities
03:02 and the type of spaces that are available,
03:05 and, you know, especially with pubs and nightclubs,
03:07 they can feel a bit kind of excluded.
03:10 They can feel like it excludes certain sections of people.
03:14 And I feel that what you're doing with Day Fever,
03:17 it's making it a very accepting space.
03:19 And basically it's like-minded individual,
03:20 and the music is at the core of it.
03:22 So, you know, you've got this environment where you can come to something,
03:25 and you can meet new friends, and you can have a dance,
03:27 and you can, you know, if you want to come on your own, you can do that.
03:30 If you want to come in a huge group, you can do that.
03:32 Is that kind of the experience that you've seen so far
03:34 in terms of like how people have been interacting around these things?
03:38 - Yeah, I mean, one of my favorite stories about it so far
03:40 was somebody in Sheffield, you know, was a little bit older,
03:43 was not really sure of the apps, you know, all these dating apps.
03:46 And they went, and they said, you know, they met somebody at a dance,
03:49 you know, and they've kept in touch, and they've started seeing each other,
03:52 because that's the world that we knew when we were growing up, you know.
03:54 I do think there's a generation of us, you know, the term is Generation X.
03:58 We went to youth clubs, and we went to nightclubs.
04:00 We listened to certain kind of music, you know.
04:02 So we were very aware of how we lived, you know, our social lives,
04:05 and they were brilliant, you know.
04:06 And I think there's a big generation of those people
04:08 that will feel instantly at home at these kind of places.
04:11 You know, I've got a film playing of old stuff.
04:14 It's on a loop that they'll remember, whether it be adverts,
04:16 sporting events, political events, clips and films, all sorts.
04:20 And the music, the music's really important.
04:22 I think you're right, we touched on that, Paul.
04:24 I don't want it to be a snobby thing.
04:26 You know, the things that go on at the moment, which are brilliant,
04:29 and I respect, like your Northern Soul or your specific Ravers nights,
04:32 they're great.
04:33 But my thing was, I want people to be able to recognize the music.
04:36 I want them to get along and not feel in any way intimidated.
04:39 Nobody's going to be playing a rare B-side they've never heard.
04:42 They're going to be playing songs they recognize and want to sing along to,
04:45 they want to dance to.
04:46 And that's been really important to me.
04:47 I want it to be really inclusive.
04:49 There's a Welsh word called 'cwtch', a hug.
04:51 And it's got to be, you know, and I want to give everybody a really big 'cwtch'.
04:54 You know, when they arrive, they feel at home.
04:56 They know the world, they know the music, you know, they're safe.
04:59 There's a bar there if you do want a drink, like Vicky said,
05:02 you can dance if you want to.
05:03 You can stand on the side with a pint in your hand if you want to.
05:05 That's what we used to do.
05:06 Plenty of us did that, lads especially.
05:09 So you can do all those things and you can feel very much at home.
05:11 And that's what I wanted to create.
05:12 And you mentioned earlier on, Paul, just quickly about Glasgow.
05:15 Glasgow City, Fragments, that I know and love really well.
05:18 Been going there since I was a teenager.
05:20 Got an amazing history, you know, musically, clubbing, all those kind of things.
05:24 I really wanted to go there and I was hoping, you know, we could sell a few tickets.
05:27 We sold out there in 12 hours, was it?
05:30 You know, that sums Glasgow up to me.
05:32 Like, and I can't wait to get up there and put a party on for everybody up there.
05:36 - What about the music specifically in terms of the playlist?
05:39 I mean, what kind of genres do you dip into?
05:42 And is there a sing-along element to it, I suppose, as well?
05:47 - Yeah, there is. Go on, Vick.
05:48 - Yeah, I mean, the music, it sort of, it varies.
05:51 It's one of those, somebody sort of described it as like a pick and mix,
05:56 like a bag of sweets.
05:57 - Yeah.
05:58 - Do you know what I mean?
05:58 So one minute you've got Common People, the next minute you've got Whitney.
06:02 And there's no great sort of like way in which we're going from into diva pop.
06:07 It's just a, they've created, sorry, a really amazing playlist that, you know,
06:14 we have spoken about the fact that maybe we're in different cities,
06:18 we might sort of include songs that we know were really popular there back in the day
06:22 between '75 and '95.
06:25 But the music is important.
06:27 And, you know, you never, it's trying to please everybody.
06:29 That's always, you know, a big challenge.
06:31 But the great thing about Day Fever is, like Johnny says, it's not snobby.
06:35 You're all going to know the tunes.
06:36 You'll all be able to, everybody knows Night Fever.
06:39 I mean, we play that obviously because, you know, it's a bit of a play on the
06:42 words of Day Fever.
06:44 But everybody knows the Bee Gees, everybody knows Whitney,
06:47 everybody knows, you know, the Stone Roses, whatever it is,
06:51 whatever theme it is we're going on.
06:55 So, yeah, you know when you step to, it's one of those, isn't it?
06:57 It doesn't matter where you are.
06:58 You go to the bar when they're playing a tune that you don't want to dance to.
07:02 And then by the time you've got back from the bar, there's a banging tune on that
07:04 you want to dance to.
07:05 So it's fine.
07:07 - Whenever I'm in a live music space, we've got some of the best live music
07:10 spaces in the world in Glasgow.
07:12 But often I'm conscious of the fact that the crowds these days,
07:17 that they're often paying all that money to go to events but watching it through
07:21 their camera phone and stuff like that.
07:23 I was wondering in terms of like the crowd that you're attracting,
07:26 how do you encourage them to be present and just let their hair down and enjoy
07:31 themselves and don't be self-conscious and don't always think about selfies?
07:35 - Yeah, I mean, I think like one of the big surprises that we've done so far in
07:39 Sheffield is nobody's had cameras up or very few.
07:42 I mean, people want selfies with Vicky for argument's sake,
07:45 which has been great.
07:46 But actually when we're playing the tunes, especially when it gets to sort of four
07:49 or five o'clock in the afternoon when it's like packed, you know,
07:51 the dance floor's packed, I've been amazed by how few cameras you see out.
07:55 You know, I think people are very much in the moment.
07:57 One of the big things for me, Paul, for this from the start has been,
08:01 the lads are really supportive, was I wanted it to be £10, you know.
08:04 I wanted it to be as cheap as it possibly could be.
08:06 I mean, in London, I wanted a ten pound.
08:08 They actually said to me in London, "You can't have a ten pound because
08:10 people take it seriously," you know.
08:12 But I was a bit like, I'm fed up of us living in this cost of living crisis
08:16 where we're squeezed on everything, you know.
08:18 We are absolutely squeezed, you know, tight.
08:20 And I just thought, well, the one thing I can control, I can't control beer prices,
08:23 which I know are on the vast majority tax.
08:25 You know, I can't, things are out of my control.
08:27 But I can't control a ticket to come to Davie.
08:29 And I was like, I only want to charge people £10.
08:31 And everybody said, "Oh, well, you know, you can charge 40, 50 quid in the modern world,
08:35 but, you know, gigs."
08:36 And I was like, I don't want to do that.
08:37 I'm fed up with that.
08:38 I really want people just to go, "It's only a tenner.
08:40 Let's get along," you know.
08:41 And that's what I think has been a big part of it really is like,
08:44 people feel like you can go there, you can live in the moment,
08:47 there's great music and nobody's trying to rip you off, you know.
08:49 It's only a tenner to get in.
08:51 - Yeah, and the thing is as well, because it's not a show.
08:55 Do you know what I mean?
08:56 It's their own personal experience.
08:58 - It's a proper get together, yeah.
08:59 It's a gathering, yeah.
09:00 - It's not like they're coming and they're going to film Johnny and Johnny,
09:05 you know, John McClure on the decks.
09:06 Like, they might take a picture, but that's kind of as much as they're going to want to take.
09:11 There's nothing really apart from their own experience,
09:13 whether it's selfies with their mates or whatever.
09:16 And, you know, because we are encouraging it to be over 30s, we are lesser on our...
09:22 You know, maybe we're not.
09:23 That's probably a complete lie.
09:24 But you know what I mean?
09:25 It is that kind of more a generation where we're not attached to the phone.
09:30 - But they're in the nightclub, they remember how they used to behave.
09:32 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:33 That's what was interesting.
09:35 - Yeah, so you know the modern generation sing to their phones and all that kind of stuff and go live.
09:39 You don't see any of that at all really.
09:41 - I did go live.
09:42 - Did you?
09:43 - Yeah.
09:43 - Yeah, you're one of the youngest there.
09:45 - Well, actually, Vicky, I saw a picture of you, a can of beer in hand,
09:52 dancing on the dance floor.
09:53 I'm wondering how much input you have to the music side
09:56 or whether you're like the official dancer, like the best of Day Fever.
10:00 - I'm the best of Day Fever, innit?
10:02 Yeah, I'm the best of Day Fever.
10:05 Let's go with that.
10:06 - You know, I actually liked that immediately.
10:09 - Yeah, no, I like that.
10:11 - What about doing something for your own personal communities
10:15 in terms of being able to bring this to Nottingham and to Merthyr?
10:18 Like, is that kind of fun doing this where you actually did go to nightclubs when you were younger?
10:23 - Yeah, I mean, I was delighted.
10:24 Merthyr has actually sold out the quickest.
10:27 I mean, it's the smallest venue, it's about 300.
10:29 But still, you know, as a proportion of the population, it's remarkable.
10:34 You know, and I was delighted about that.
10:35 So I was having some fun with Vicky because Nott sold out really quickly,
10:38 and Sheffield, Glasgow went really quickly, Cardiff.
10:41 But Merthyr is still the one I don't think that has sold out within an hour,
10:44 hour and a half, which I love.
10:46 - It was running around the house, though.
10:48 Oh, my God, it's nearly gone, it's nearly gone, that's under an hour.
10:52 So I'm really proud of him.
10:53 I always say this thing, Paul, where I think the first nightclub you go to regularly
10:57 when you're about 18 is always going to be your favourite nightclub
11:00 because you were 18 when you went up there.
11:02 And mine was called Coolers, which is in Merthyr.
11:04 It's still the same building that they used to call the Kirk House before that,
11:07 that my grandfather went to.
11:08 I'm not making this up.
11:09 It's been in the town for 100 years.
11:11 I think if that place stopped becoming a nightclub,
11:13 there'd be riots in the town because it's an institution.
11:16 There's a great photograph after the end of COVID of a queue a mile long
11:20 for people to go back in there.
11:21 So that's been a passage of rights for me and for millions like me,
11:25 my generation.
11:25 We've all got a favourite club, we listen to certain music,
11:28 we hear the song for the first time.
11:30 I can remember being in Glasgow when I heard the Boo Radley's Wake Up Boo.
11:34 I was in a nightclub right in the night and they played Wake Up Boo,
11:37 it was a place called Fury Murray's, which people will remember in Glasgow.
11:41 And I literally fought my way to the DJ's kiosk and I went,
11:46 "What's this called, mate? What's this called?"
11:48 And he wrote it out for me in a piece of paper,
11:50 Boo Radley's Wake Up Boo.
11:51 He must have had a creation acetate or something or some white label.
11:55 I went back to Wales and I ordered it and I got it the next week.
11:58 So everybody has those memories of great moments in nightclubs
12:00 where you met somebody or you listened to a certain song,
12:03 you had a certain dance and that's what they want.
12:05 And I think the big, big thing about this, Paul,
12:08 that I finally got to is we are going to make it a regular thing.
12:12 People want it at least once a month.
12:14 So we're going to do that.
12:15 You can have the exclusive on this.
12:17 I think all these venues we're speaking to,
12:19 we've sold out, there's a great atmosphere.
12:22 People spend well at the bar, as our generation does.
12:25 So I think there's something there, like you're saying,
12:27 I love that fact you said, it's to create a community.
12:30 I want people to have this once a month.
12:31 They always know it's there.
12:32 They can rely on it.
12:33 They can go to it.
12:34 They can have a good time and they can leave thinking,
12:37 "I've really enjoyed myself this weekend."
12:39 So the regularity is the next thing for us, I think.
12:41 - Okay, so Vicky, how familiar...
12:43 I know Johnny's very familiar with Glasgow,
12:45 but how familiar are you with Glasgow?
12:48 - I'm very familiar with Glasgow.
12:49 I mean, I am a McClure, so technically...
12:52 (laughing)
12:53 - One of our own, Vicky, one of our own.
12:56 - Absolutely, very proud as well.
12:58 We have our own tartan, which I own in a scarf,
13:01 which is the most beautiful scarf I own, obviously.
13:04 No, I did a job in Glasgow called The Replacement
13:08 years ago now, but I lived right in the centre of town,
13:12 right next to Central Station, and I loved it.
13:16 It felt, weirdly, I don't know what, you know,
13:20 sort of was the reason behind it,
13:22 but it felt very similar to Nottingham
13:24 in terms of the people and just the welcome that I got,
13:28 just the realness of it all.
13:30 You know, it feels like, you know,
13:32 very much a place where people look after one another.
13:35 And I think I remember seeing a tagline
13:37 in the city centre that said, "The people make Glasgow,"
13:40 and it feels completely true.
13:44 So yeah, I'm a massive, massive lover of the city.
13:48 I always have been.
13:50 But when I spent a lot of time there, I just, you know,
13:52 I just felt very at home.
13:54 It was great.
13:55 And I'm really looking forward
13:55 to coming to Glasgow for Day Fever.
13:57 - The other interesting aspect of this
13:59 is because you're tapping into cities and regions
14:02 and parts of the country that do have
14:04 their own musical heritage,
14:06 will you be able to kind of bring that
14:08 into what you put together?
14:10 You know, drop in some Primal Scream
14:12 or Franz Ferdinand over the set and stuff like that?
14:14 - I always say to people, you know,
14:16 because I've spent so much time in Scotland
14:18 and Glasgow in particular,
14:20 if you play "Rip It Up" by Orange Juice,
14:22 it's like the national anthem for Scots.
14:23 You need a man for it.
14:25 So those kinds of songs, I've got that knowledge really,
14:27 which I really want to bring to this as well, you know,
14:29 so we can do regional songs.
14:31 Everybody knows if you play "Loaded" by Primal Scream
14:33 that you've got your own sing-along in Glasgow.
14:36 They sing to that, which has become really famous, you know?
14:39 So yeah, I mean, like, you know, I want to do that.
14:42 I want to bring little regional, you know,
14:44 variances into the setlist.
14:46 John McClure is fantastic, obviously, like I've said,
14:48 on that, but for me, you know,
14:50 there's personal experiences that I've had in Scotland
14:53 where I just go, "Wow."
14:55 I always remember being in Scotland,
14:56 they played "China Girl," the David Bowie song,
14:59 and the dance, like, ran onto the dance floor, you know?
15:02 Like, ran on, and I was like,
15:03 "Oh, they're big Bowie fans up here."
15:05 The other one I always remember,
15:06 this is like, this was the early '90s, it was so cool.
15:08 They played "Sympathy for the Devil" in Fury Murray's,
15:10 and oh my God, I've never seen a reaction.
15:12 And everybody does the, "Woo, woo!"
15:14 I've never seen that before.
15:15 Only in Glasgow was the first time I'd ever seen that.
15:18 And it's interesting, since then, Paul,
15:19 because that's become the stone song
15:21 of the end of the set where it wasn't then.
15:23 Jagger's kind of realized,
15:24 probably that's arguably how great the song life,
15:27 and I seen it first in Glasgow,
15:28 where the place went insane to it, you know?
15:31 So you have got a very specific, you know,
15:33 musical character and taste in Scotland,
15:35 and Glasgow in particular, which is unique,
15:37 and I love that.
15:38 And to bring things back to the founding principles
15:41 of this thing, so you start around three o'clock
15:43 in most places, you're finished by eight,
15:46 so I can get you a laminated list of all the places
15:49 that do fish and chips within walking distance
15:52 of Gill's Art and Design,
15:54 so you'll be able to just spread out.
15:56 Every tippy in the East End won't know what's hit it,
16:01 you'll just have all these enthusiastic,
16:02 happy, smiley people ready for their dinner.
16:05 (laughing)
16:07 - Well, do you know what, folks?
16:08 We are, you know, we realize we've got this massive database
16:11 of people that's built up already on email,
16:12 which has been extraordinary,
16:13 the people that just wanna register.
16:15 We are gonna do stuff like that.
16:16 It's a great idea, we're gonna manage people
16:18 to send in their local recommendations for food,
16:21 you know, where to go later if they did,
16:22 you know, where to stay that night if they wanted to.
16:25 This, I think, makes it, you know,
16:26 much more a community thing, but I wanna do that.
16:28 I wanna build up this thing
16:29 where you can tap into day fever, you know,
16:31 you know there's gonna be people there
16:33 that can help you with all kinds of stuff,
16:34 and, you know, if you wanna travel to Glasgow,
16:36 I would say to anybody across the UK,
16:38 if you've never been to Glasgow, go there for a weekend.
16:40 It is a magnificent city, you'll have the best time ever.
16:43 - Yeah.