The Escape Club - Cardiff Profile 1996

The Escape, Cardiff. Home to some of the Welsh capital’s biggest parties, is undoubtedly a beautiful club. A chill out room decked out in lush red velvet, bar areas aplenty with more sofas than a Courts superstore, great lighting on two floor areas, fabulous sound… everything you could want from a club and more.

The only thing it lacks at the moment is a solid reputation, that ability to pull clubbers from the street every weekend without fail simply because it is The Escape, Cardiff. That’s probably to be expected from a club barely two months old. But if you take a peek at the past, you’re left in no doubt as to how and why The Escape will become one of the biggest clubs in Britain in the very near future.

About 1992/93, when house music was first gripping the clubbing population of Wales, there were three wicked clubs operating with similar music policies. In Cardiff there was Time Flies, promoted by former Cardiff Students’ Union man Henry Blunt. In Tenby, there was Up For It, promoted by a bleached blonde ex-punk rocker called Danny Slade. And in Swansea there was Essence, promoted by local lad John Parry. All three nights, and all three promoters, aimed to bring the best house music to the clubbers of Wales, halting the weekly flow of house-hunting traffic which would leave Wales and head for Bristol or Birmingham.

They soon succeeded, with Time Flies eventually taking residency in Cardiff’s prestigious City Hall while John Parry and Danny Slade started co-promoting the biggest and best bashes Swansea had ever witnessed before setting up The Escape, Swansea in 1995; Wales’ first Superclub. Danny’s motto had always been ‘By The People For The People’, and he took this attitude with him into The Escape Swansea, putting on the biggest names in the business (Carl Cox, Jeremy Healy, Paul Oakenfold) without hiking up door prices.

It was only a matter of time before the idea of taking Escape’s success into the Welsh capital was hatched. Henry Blunt was asked to look after The Escape (Cardiff) doing Time Flies parties there on Saturdays and harder events on a Friday under the name of Substance. Which brings us back up to date with Darren Price behind the decks giving it what for.

It’s not as packed as it could be tonight, but then the Friday before Christmas was never going to be a big one on the clubland diary; those mega-costing New Year’s Eve parties are far too close! Nevertheless, the brilliance of Escape’s pumping sound system (crystal clear and absolutely booming), combined with the deck-skills of resident Rich Hitchell (one of a cluster of residents up and down the country who look set to break in to the big league in ’97) means that those who do show up have a good one. Especially when Darren Price comes on to top the night off in his own inimitable hard ‘n’ fast style. All in all, I’d definitely come again. I just hope that the people of Cardiff do so in their masses as well!