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I have some crazy memories from the Sugar Club. F
irst up is seeing Erykah Badu simply lifting the roof on the club in March of 2018. It was the party associated with the release of my book Ghostnotes: Music of the Unplayed and she showed up in Dublin Airport with a broken foot. Needless to say I was nervous as to how this would work but when she hit the small stage and began, all of our worries were banished. In such an intimate venue, where the front row were all women, almost half Afro-Brazilian, she simply fell into a completely familiar mode. It was like being in her living room sharing music, singing along. I have seen Erykah many many times and nothing came close to this. The Sugar Club offers an intimacy and community that few other venues anywhere compete with. Hearing Thundercat retell stories in Los Angeles of his shows at the Sugar Club and then verifying them on Whatsapp with Murphy makes me homesick. Following Scary Eire reunions online at the Sugar Club makes me homesick. Mark has supported my work for the home audience for many years before the Sugar Club. But since he took over, the club has become a home for all the elements of the culture that are important to me. It encourages and fosters The Sugar Club is a local treasure in Dublin’s increasingly bland nightlife landscape, there’s nothing else that comes close to it. The unerring consistency in their booking policy is impressive to say the least. For me the venue works best in two modes, either in fully seated, intimate concert mode or packed to the rafters, when the whole venue seems to heave along with the dance floor… anything in between doesn’t really do it for me. It’s hard to imagine a Dublin without the Sugar Club, it’s an institution at this stage and that’s no mean feat. It’s got just the right amount of glam red curtain New York jazz club and dirty ‘ol town Dublin City with the lads. Louis Scully Discotekken/Woweembeem I started renting the venue for live shows back in 2004, kind of moving into soul, funk and jazz which was a bit of a departure for the place moving away from DJs to having 12 or 13 people on stage. It gave me a penchant to do more live shows, wherever you were you could always see what was going on in the room. You’d get a crowd that may not go to other venues also. I worked there sporadically putting on 10 to 15 events a year for a decade. I went away around 2012 and when I returned decided I needed to take over a venue. The Sugar Club was on my wishlist. I sat down with the venue. There was a mutual admiration and appreciation from the get-go. I left the meeting taking over basically. From there, it was far more challenging than I ever imagined it could be. It was mid-recession (January 2013), there was no trade and no real value put on hiring the venue. There was no real mid-week business you could rely on. In hindsight I should have closed it to reopen it but decided to get my hands dirty. It took about two to three years to kind of get a grip on what the model should be. And now, I’m in another wave of transforming it. There’s a repertoire of events that people like - cinema events, corporate events, live events, DJs, live podcast talks, kids movies, late night concerts …it’s harder to wake up every day and do something different but it keeps it interesting for everyone. Favourite shows: Charles Bradley, Thundercat, BADBADNOTGOOD, Gregory Porter, Hiatus Kaiyote, James Murphy DJing, Osaka Monaurail, Erykah Badu, Candi Staton, Macy Gray, Shuggie Otis… Mark Murphy The Sugar Club J Rocc, photo: James Keating an audience for music, but in an intimate space that allows you to experience performers, musicians, DJs, spoken word artists up close, amongst peers in an unparalleled way. There’s nothing like this in Los Angeles. B+ photographer Filmmaker What makes The Sugar Club a special venue is the fact that it has hosted some of the world’s most diverse and creative artists. It has been a conduit of music from around the world into the Irish fabric and community, allowing a glimpse of foreign cultures to be exposed in positive and entertaining light. It is a great venue that constantly boxes above its weight in relation to talent procurement, too many names to mention here, but heavyweights like James Murphy, Lee Fields, Sharon Jones and Snarky Puppy stick out in my mind. I hope it continues to open doors. Gabriel Hubert Hypnotic Brass Ensemble The Andrews Sisters Brothers(DJs Przem and Piotrek) would always play Harry Belafonte’s Jump in the Line. The conga would begin on the dance floor, head up the stairs, through the bar and back down the other stairs gaining more and more people till it would double up and the whole room would end up on the dance floor in a frenzy. Anna Taylor Film Fatale IN MEMORY OF VIVIEN CASAGRANDE Vivien worked as a sound engineer with the Sugar Club over the years and sadly passed away this January. When I first got to know Vivien, he’d always turn up whenever my turntables would break or when we’d DJ in the POD or Twisted Pepper, he’d be there. When I took over The Sugar Club, I asked him to work on sound for us when he was available and not touring with Paddy McPoland and the High Kings. Vivien was always extremely friendly, unassuming and a master for dealing with stressful moments and difficult bands. He was a great guy who will be dearly missed by everyone who worked with him as well as family and friends. Mark Murphy Three to catch at the Sugar Club Bronagh Gallagher Gallagher is as comfortable on stage as a soul singer as she is on screen as a leading actress. Saturday March 14, €20 A Celebration of the Life and Music of Andrew Weatherall Some of the Sugar Club’s favourite DJs grace the decks to pay tribute to the colossus that was Weatherall. Ground-breaking in every regard, the event is in aid of charity and features Johnny Moy, Alan & Dennis (Decal DJ set), Kelly Ann Byrne, Glen Brady, Thomas Ryan, Paudi Cronin, Pete Dancer and more to be confirmed. Saturday March 21, €15 Huun Huur Tu Huun-Huur-Tu come from Tuva, on the border of Mongolia and Russia. The fourpiece play traditional folk instruments of the region and employ an other-worldly technique known as throat-singing, in which a drone note and as many as two separate melody notes are produced simultaneously by one human voice. Wednesday May 27, €21 34 photo: Kelvin Hudson