INTERVIEW: King Street Social Club

Image: Man Power and Rosie

“I’ve reached a point now where If I’m DJing I want it to be somewhere really fucking good or somewhere doing a lot of good. Ideally both.”

Man Power and Rosie are two musical kindred spirits brought together by this shared artistic and cultural vision; they had an unconventional journey to bring them together, and then eventually towards a dimly lit side room in North Shields’ King Street Social Club. The venue is exactly as its name suggests; charming, warm, homely, somewhat shabby, and (surprisingly) home to world class musical performers.

Are You Affiliated is the brainchild of one of the region’s most vital artists, Geoff Kirkwood (aka Man Power). Following the success of his Me Me Me label parties, the unassuming social club has become the centre of his most ambitious project to date. We sat down among the clatter of pool balls, affordable Stella and inflatable bunnies to discuss what brought them together.

“Rosie previously applied for one of the mentorship programs I run. Everybody who got through was excellent, but Rosie was the standout for my own personal tastes despite not being one of the people the panel ultimately chose. Her own perspectives and ambition really stood out. So it was like that thing you see on the X-Factor, okay you didn’t get through to Judge’s Houses, but we have something better for you….”

It’s a sentiment Rosie agrees with, even if she didn’t at the time. “I remember being gutted at the time and thinking I wouldn’t get to where I needed to be. I came round to being fine with that eventually, and now thinking maybe it’s best it didn’t work right away. I’d always been very into music, but people had tried to teach me to DJ before and it just didn’t click. I needed some space to figure it out for myself, and then I was lucky to have a partner who had access to equipment so I could practice by myself. Before it was titled LADS, which was a workshop that used to be at Star and Shadow aimed at women and gender minorities. When I was there I always felt a bit more confident than other people. That made me realise that I had a base level, like I had some sort of musical ear.” It’s that musical ear that first stood out, as Man Power explains: “There’s something below even having a musical ear, which is just having taste. I wouldn’t want to work with someone who wants to be a DJ for the sake of it, just like how I don’t always want to talk to someone who needs to fill every silence. I’d rather work with someone who DJs because it’s an outlet for their taste in music.”

Aside from Sam Fender’s secret pop-up set back in 2019, the venue hasn’t been accustomed to hosting the sorts of acts that you might see at Glastonbury or Coachella. Until now.

“We’re lucky to have a very legit pocket of artists who care about this culture and want to play to good crowds in interesting places. I suppose they trust what I have to say, but by the time they see any of the footage there’s no need to take my word for it. There’s sometimes an element of lip service sometimes, where artists will undergo a slacker reinvention, like they’ll say they’re interested in playing but then quote you £5,000. They use these sorts of things because it becomes fashionable. That’s not the case here. Everyone plays for the exact same fee, and they come with the right intentions.”

It’s an initiative which had its genesis back in 2023 but has since become something more permanent. Having hosted the likes of Artwork and Rex the Dog in its earlier days, the duo explained Are You Affiliated’s recent past and long-term future.

“It’s a fairly unique model really. As a social club it benefits from the extra income, otherwise some developer comes in, breaks it up into parts and sells it. We had a vision where we could be partners, increase the amount of events we do and help turn this into a sort of incubator for local artists and traders.”

We had a vision where we could be partners, increase the amount of events we do and help turn this into a sort of incubator for local artists and traders

As you’d expect, it’s not all been plain sailing. “It’s been a big learning curve. We’re not just hosting a club night, we’re running an entire venue. The Skream night was the first one where we’d officially taken over the venue, and we’d just spent 50 grand on a soundsystem which was installed that day. At some point during the night the whole sound just blew. A trainee had plugged the entire system into one 13-amp fuse and all into one single socket which was from about 1972. The entire board had just melted. People were booing and jeering. It felt like it was off forever, but when I looked at my watch it was only 8 minutes. This whole thing felt like a great idea until I was carrying an amp rack on my back across the dancefloor.”

Our chat fell on the eve of a Bank Holiday special which featured the likes of CC Disco, Jordan Nocturn, Ben Caldwell and, intriguingly, a b2b between Rosie and Man Power themselves. The diary for the rest of the year includes a nearly sold out show with Luka Unabomber on 5th July, before John Talabot on 24th August, Midland on 6th December and (as we can exclusively reveal) Leftfield stopping by for a special Halloween show on 1st November. The success of the previous parties and innovative future plans have given them room to breathe, and the chance to leave a mark on a clubbing landscape which is increasingly deserted. Sadly, this trend stretches far beyond the North East, with Rosie explaining: “63% of venues have closed in the last two years. Newcastle is great, but personally I want more of the small, ideally grassroots clubs, or if not fully grassroots then independent. There is a difference there really, what we’re doing is fully grassroots.”

This lack of smaller venues is something which troubles Man Power, as he looks to help address the lack of accessible and local places for people to play and hear music. “The idea of having separate spaces, like bars or social clubs, is so important for DJs. Nowadays a lot of people’s first experience of DJing is in a club, and it removes having any breadth or scope to just play whatever you want. Playing music for people specifically not to dance to is so important when you’re starting out. We want to give people that opportunity to play to a proper receptive crowd. A nightclub should be like a sports club, a fucking cricket club, a chess club, a dungeons and dragons club. The idea of being a member is the same. It’s not about coming to an event, it’s about seeing the same groups of people and being part of a community.”

Ultimately, that’s what King Street Social Club is all about. The venue remains largely the same as it ever was, save for a chunkier soundsystem and some rather more illustrious names on the line-up posters. There are plans to take things further, but instead of bigger crowds and higher ticket prices, this means making things wider. Plans for more diverse musical performances, with bands like Django Django having recently played the main room, and for pop-up restaurants in the venue’s more unassuming second room. Whatever comes next will keep moving in the same direction. Accessible, inclusive and collaborative. Which is just what the region has been crying out for.

“You aren’t part of something bigger going to these mega gigs, the sorts of crowds they pull are indistinguishable from the queues going into Disneyland. It’s not that we got lucky with timing when partnering with King Street; it’s that we saw this was necessary and so we did it. We want it to work with the people that come here. We don’t want to beg, we want to have a dialogue. It’s the people’s party, they contribute the money to get the DJ, and I contribute my time and effort. We aren’t selling a service, the logic is the same as a bunch of mates getting together to chip in for a soundsystem and putting on a party. This is the sort of thing that colours everything I do, which is probably why I’m not rich, but I am happy.”

Keep up with Are You Affiliated at King Street Social Club via Instagram.