Brixton's Getting a New Night Club, and it Sounds Seriously Promising

Guess what! A story about a club in London opening instead of closing!

A little while ago we brought you the news that Brixton night club Plan B was set to close. The closure came about with very little in the way of warning, yet was accompanied by the announcement that the venue had been purchased by the Colombo Group, the development collective that already own XOYO, and the Nest. While a club closing could never be considered a good thing, the news surrounding Plan B was a little less clear. Something was leaving, but it seemed from the offset that something else would be arriving in its place.

Well, we now know what that something else is. Phonox will be taking the Brixton Road slot, and is already setting out to be a more than promising venture. Announcements of new clubs more often than not come with a string of high profile bookings, just to fully sell the idea that the new spot is going to be worth visiting. Refreshingly, Phonox's opening statement appears slightly different. While exciting line-ups will follow, as well as the revelation the club's resident DJ who will be named on the 3rd of August, the chief concern here is the experience. Taking the club back to the principles of one dance floor, and a great soundsystem.

You don't need us to remind you how stifling the current climate is for clubbing in the UK, which is why news of somewhere new opening is both exciting and intriguing. We wanted to find out more about Phonox, and exactly what the developers behind it think will ensure its survival, so we spoke to its new owner Andy Peyton about his plans. As the name behind XOYO and The Nest, he's clearly got a pretty good idea as to running a club, but if our conversation about Phonox is anything to go by, he seems pretty keen on taking these ideas to the next level with his latest venture.

With reference to his over-arching motivation, Peyton said, "It's got to be about the experience from start to finish. I used to be a promoter, and in those days I would only worry about ticket sales. Constantly thinking, which DJs shall we book and how are they going to sell. Now, as an owner, I spend the whole of Friday and Saturday in the club, and I now realise how much the entire experience affects the night. For example the door staff, and the bar staff have to be friendly. You have to walk through the club and imagine the experience step by step, not just who is on the top of the bill."

Peyton is also building an environment that differs from the original layout of Plan B. "I visited Plan B a couple of times on my own when the deal was close to being made, and thought, this is great but there is so much we can do with this. I like really dark spaces and intense lighting and I want the experience of the dance floor to be sensory, but that can be intense. It's nice if you can step out of that. So the basement, which was room two, we've taken out completely and we are putting seating in. Just to add that extra dimension to the club."

Finally on the subject of music, Peyton was clear that Phonox is going to be a space for the up and coming, or esoteric, rather than relying on major names to fill the venue. "We won't be slaves to any one genre, so we have got varied bookings, but the common thread is that it is underground. We've already had acts offered to us that would sell the venue out but we've said no. A lot of acts, we've been in the office and looked at each other and said 'no, that's not us'."

Rejecting the tried and tested formula of big headline acts is a risk in many ways, but long term, it sounds like Peyton and team Phonox are looking to build something more sustainable, more characterful, and crucially more exciting. "We are working around the clock to get the lighting, the layout, and the team perfect. We really want to get this right."

It's early days, but it sounds like they are off to a very promising start.

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