It was a first night for house giants Progress to practice the ever more popular concept of ‘Club Promotion Franchise’. Tracking down the promoters, however, was not easy and it was clear that answering machines will one day take over the world.

Arriving slightly later than planned, we paid the price by missing Bobby Langley, who has apparently worked out how to mix old tunes with new – perfectly! One other pleasant discovery (perhaps a minor detail for some) was that there was a name and times list for all the DJ’s appearing on the night.

After chatting to nearly half the club, (by the time the night had ended we had met more promoters than there were coats in the cloakroom, which incidentally shut at around 12.30am). However, Justine (the most important person in the club, the one with the guest list, who had graduated from Barperson to Assistant Manageress/God in a very short time – Congratulations Just!) assured me that there was another one outside. What do you mean outside? It’s raining! Then again it’s always sodding raining in Manchester, especially when you’ve just washed and dried your barnet! Sankey’s Soap is a different type of club. It’s actually an old brick clad ex-soap factory (you mean you hadn’t worked it out already) and has a courtyard, a veranda, a gate instead of a door entrance and has an open area which in the Summer gets busy, busy, busy! Sankey’s is situated in a ‘a club wouldn’t work in this kind of area’ kind of area, surrounded by old mills and things.

The idea was put together by Rupert and Andrew (who are primarily musicians from a band called ‘Secret Society’), designed by Judge Jules and Kevin Gills it is a strange marriage of Art’s and Manchester’s dreary industrial past. The club has managed to defy and surprise all pessimists. Situated only a short distance from ‘Home’, it has had none of the problems associated with Manchester’s clubs. With a capacity of around 800 (which is soon to be increased to 1,000 with an extra room being added), the club has fitted in quite comfortably with the ever expanding club scene in Manchester.

Inside, it looks a bit like a wadded stockbrokers Dockland’s pad, mainly brickwalls with smart lighting and clever design, it’s kind of two in one job, the dancefloor and DJ box are in one corner and the two bars at the other end, this being divided by a mega mixing desk with lots of knobs on. As the sound system mainly surrounds the dancefloor, the other side of the club is almost ambient room where you find the conversationalists (not easy to say after 2 bottles of Stella Artois, which at £1.70 was reassuringly inexpensive). Although the sound system is excellent when firing on all cylinders, the other part of the club is quieter, which is not a bad thing as it helped me to track down the promoters.

The main man was ‘Sally’ (only joking!) who along with peter and Russell had travelled all the way down from Derby, where they are based, having worked with Renaissance, they got together with Akai (yes, that’s his real name!) and Andy (local promoters) to bring ‘Progress’ to Manchester. Russell made it clear that this was not a franchise but a team effort and they planned to take the night to Paris and Ibiza in the future.

The music itself was a mixture of Happy House, a kind of vocally European, nice drum beats, snare crescendos, discoey kind of, blah, blah, blah, but all the same it was good enough for everyone in the place, and it was already full of women showing plenty of buttocks and buns and a few hanging out C & A checked shirt kind of guys.

You know the one’s I mean! It’s probably not for me to say, but maybe it’s not a good idea to have so many DJ’s on the night, because every time there is a build up and flow and the DJ gets in the groove he has to make way for the next man.

Pete and Russell (promoters/DJ’s) grinned broadly, which is not often a common sight as DJ’s are usually miserable. Tony de Vit was not an unpleasant discovery. Farley Jackmaster Funk didn’t come on until around 2.00am and played like only a Jackmaster can play, in that American style where they spin the tune nearly all the way around and create seamless mixing. I couldn’t help but wonder that if Jack and Vera Duckworth learned to play half a decent set they’d probably draw just as big a crowd, look at any flyer of any night hoping to attract to big crowd and they will inevitably feature the chosen few who stroll up and down the country earning big dollars. It’s not for me to say, but aren’t personality cults getting bigger than the music.

Anyway, back to the night, ‘Progress’ will be happening once a month and their first Thursday went really well, it was perhaps another step for Sankey’s Soap, which, although created mainly for live music, it becoming a successful dance club, with established nights ‘Bugged Out’ on a Friday (Manchester’s only successful weekend techno night with the likes of Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Kenny Larkin having played there and Carl Craig on 1st March) and Golden (Tough House), it’s not bad going for a club that nearly went up for sale before it opened.