Spotlight on... The Sub Club

The rich and fertile dance music culture in Glasgow exists in no small part thanks to a basement venue in Jamaica Street, just around the corner from the city's main throrughfare. Opening its doors for the first time in 1987, just in time to embrace the wave of acid house culture sweeping the UK, the Sub Club quickly became a well-loved venue, it's square dancefloor and sweatbox atmosphere the setting for some legendary parties.

Two figures who loom large in the Sub Club's story are Harri & Domenic, founding residents of the club's flagship night, Subculture, still going strong after more than twenty years. The residents are as beloved by their loyal crowd as the frequent big-name DJs who regularly grace the Sub Club's decks. This is a common theme with the Sub Club's most successful promoters - they all have top-notch residents who give their nights a strong identity, inspiring loyalty in fans, and often creating globally in-demand clubbing institutions in the process. Many legendary nights at the Subby have come and gone - those from the '90s may remember TEST, Tangent, Atlantis... if you've ever been a regular, you'll have your favourites.

One such success story is Optimo. The Sunday night club, which started in 1997, has seen residents JD Twitch and JG Wilkes adopt an 'anything goes' policy on the turntables, spinning everything from house and techno to film soundtracks, raucous punk to Italo disco, and everything in between. Optimo is now a globally-recognised clubbing brand with its own record label, its residents now long-seasoned fixtures on the global clubbing scene from London to New York and beyond. Optimo still attracts an almost cult-like devotion from its fans, still causing roadblock queues when they come to the Sub Club - this month's residents special on 5 April should be no exception.

In the years since the venue's re-opening, following a catastrophic fire and long period of refurbishment, a select few brand-new and established regular nights have come under the Sub Club's wing - residents Beta & Kappa's bass-music-driven mid-weeker iAM has established itself as a student-friendly, unpretentious and hedonistic highlight of the monthly calendar, while the Numbers collective, one of Glasgow's biggest musical exports of recent years with their own label, and internationaly-acclaimed artists like Jackmaster, Hudson Mohawke and Jamie xx, now call the Subby their home too. Slam have their regular Return to Mono parties at the club, and now Highlife, which sees in-demand residents Auntie Flo and Esa playing a diverse range of house, garage and afrobeat-influenced sounds in association with record label Highlife, has become one of the city's most talked-about nights.

What is it that makes the Sub Club special? Is it the custom-built HIT Bodysonic Dancefloor, with sub bass speakers embedded in the very fabric of the building? Is it the wide range of clubbing tastes to which the club has always catered? These things have all helped towards making the Sub Club one of the best-loved venues, not just in Scotland, but in the world, for everyone from its regulars to international superstar DJs. The Sub Club made Resident Advisor's top ten list of the best nightclubs in the world in 2012, and it maintains its strong reputation, frequently mentioned in the same breath as London's Fabric, or Berlin's Berghain. For our money, what makes the Sub Club special is their focus on and support for club nights and promoters who create strong identities, and have residents whose decksmanship can rival anyone from a Detroit techno legend to a New York house supremo, and then some. And, of course, there is the energy, style and hedonism of its regular punters. The Sub Club - without it, clubbing in Scotland just wouldn't be the same.

MARCH HIGHLIGHTS @ SUB CLUB
Return to Mono with Craig Richards, 12 April
Subculture with Will Saul, Telford and Midland, 13 April
iAM with Juan Atkins, 26 April
iAM with Jackmaster, 30 April
Subculture with Deetron, 27 April