Steve Baxendale created the Niche brand almost 20 years ago, gradually nurturing it into the global brand that it is today. The brand has evolved over the years into a globally recognised symbol of musical eminence.
In 1992, Steve Baxendale opened the doors to a small, unknown backstreet club called Niche in the centre of Sheffield. It soon became a thriving success story on the underground clubbing scene. But, in November 2005, South Yorkshire Police raided the Niche nightclub and forced it to close at its Sidney Street premises for good. This cost the tax payer over £600,000 and resulted in not one conviction. The closure of the legendary Sidney Street venue was a massive blow to the very loyal and extremely dedicated Niche clubbing community. But, little did they know at the time, it wouldn’t be long before they were partying again.
In October 2006, Steve Baxendale opened a new venue called Club Vibe on Charter Row in Sheffield. During the three years that Club Vibe was open, it forged and shaped the bassline scene massively into what it is today. In particular, the now cherished era of 2007. 07’ to the nu-school ravers is cherished just as much as the late 90’s/early naughties are by the original Niche veterans. It was the time when, then little known producers such as T2, Mr. Virgo, TS7, Murkz & TRC, burst out from their bedrooms and on to the main stages of clubs and events like The Limit, Sheridans and Warehouse. These were the new kids on the block, producing the bangers that the new era of ravers were demanding from iconic DJ’s like Jamie Duggan, Nev Wright & Shaun Banger Scott as well as men of the moment DJ Q, Apostle and EJ. It was a time when the producers were commanding almost as many bookings as the DJ’s themselves and this changed the scene forever.
It was a very significant time for Club Vibe too. Due to police restrictions the music policy at Club Vibe was tied down to classics and vocals, with a strict ban on the then infamous 4x4 productions that were taking over. It’s no great secret that when Club Vibe first opened no one really knew how long it would be around. Due to the problems at Sidney Street and Limit, things were on a tender hook with the authorities and everything needed to be run by the book with no mention of the dreaded ‘N’ word or widely recognised laurel leaves. But the crowds still flocked in every weekend and with a lot of hard work, cooperation with the authorities and money spent on state of the art CCTV and security measures, the trust and respect built up with police. This meant that by the summer of 2007 the 4x4 restriction was lifted in spectacular fashion with a guest slot at Lost from Mr. V. The Hanky Panky event at the end of July saw the first full on bassline event with DJ Q, Apostle, T2 & TS7 joining the Club Vibe residents for an unforgettable allnighter.
Summer 2008 was the next big step. With the scene receiving full hype, a call was made to Steve Baxendale about the possibility of the first commercial release of a bassline album. It was from non-other than the mighty Ministry Of Sound. After long discussions with Ministry and the management of Insatiable music, the deal was done and volume one of The Sound Bassline was released and went gold, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. With three disks mixed by Jamie Duggan, Shaun Banger Scott and Nev Wright it propelled bassline into the mass audience. To mark the launch of the album, we approached the police about holding a launch weekend at the club and using the Niche name for the first time in the city for almost three years. A month of planning and with fantastic support from the police, the Niche Bank Holiday Weekender was a massive success and for the first time ever, Niche was viewed as a brand and a music genre in its own right.
Over the next 18 months, Club Vibe opened its doors and built up fantastic relationships with outside promoters. Links with Sidewinder, Lovebugs, Heatseeker and Revelations have created fantastic events, not forgetting quarterly shindigs with Mr. Murkz himself that never fail to disappoint. The biggest working partnership though, is undoubtedly the one Niche has with Insatiable. It seems a million years now since Santi and Bob crawled into our offices begging to do an even; but it was worth all the groveling with Download at Club Vibe still to this day one of the best events we’ve held. Summer 2008 also saw the Niche/Download weekly event in Ibiza.
At the start of October 2009, the contracts were signed for Club Vibe to extend into the unit next door. There was only one real option of what to do with the huge space; create a Niche replica! The brief was simple, to create a feeling as close as possible to walking into the original Sidney Street building; layout, colour scheme, sound system, toilets, chill out area; everything. From then on Niche was destined to be a bassline super club. Three rooms over two floors. It was such an exciting time for everyone involved.
On the evening of Friday 27th November 2009, Niche began to breath once again in the city that created it. The crowds queued for hours to get into the new Niche superclub with a strict one in, one out policy being enforced after only one hour of opening. The night was a huge success, and more importantly, it was the night that Niche reclaimed its rightful place in Sheffield’s clubbing industry. Niche was back, and it was clear from the crowds that the demand for it was bigger than ever! Over the next year, Niche went from strength to strength hosting some of the biggest events the scene had ever experienced. Artists from all over the country performed on the Niche stage creating some of the most memorable nights the steel city has ever seen!
But at the end of July 2010, Niche was to suffer its biggest blow yet. The venue was forced to shutdown and the dream was over. Niche closed its doors for the very last time much to the sadness of everyone involved.
But have no fear, Niche will never die! All that’s left for us to say is…
‘Watch this space’!