New club to open in Glasgow city centre

The news was announced last week by La Cheetah, the parent club of the new venue called 'Room 2' set to open in Glasgow in the coming weeks. Situated just off Buchanan Street the venue will be run by the same core team who have been manning La Cheetah across many years having booked some of the most innovative, forward thinking parties in the city. The new space is situated in what was once Chambre 69, a much loved Glasgow venue with a short lifespan and a unique basement space just off Nelson Mandela place. The first few parties have already been announced with JD Twitch, Moodymann, Levon Vincent and Loefah just some of the upcpming guests set to play at the new venue across March. 

We pitched some q&a to Grahame Ward, aka Wardy, about the new space as he revelas his hopes and expectations for the new venue. 

Can you explain the concept behind the new space? What do you feel it can offer to Glasgow as a city?

We’ve been on the look out for a larger space in the city for years. There’s so much going on in Glasgow and not that many places to do it in. This will offer the club side of things that we’ve launched with initially but will expand into a live venue and art space over time. It will be a real multifunction venue with a lot to offer the people using it and attending it.

How will the space differ from La Cheetah at present? Does it offer an opportunity to explore something new?

Definitely, from a club perspective, it’s a bit of a blank canvas. We’re doing our best to make the programming as diverse as it can be. Initially this will entail some of what the city is used to seeing from us but as time goes by and we bring more people into the fold, we think the space will be very different from La Cheetah and most other things going on in the city at the min. The venue aspect is really the part of this that is allowing us to explore something new here. We’ve already had a lot of interest from people wishing to use the space for bands and live shows that suit earlier set times. We’re also hoping we can have events that start as live concerts and run through into club events. The space has so much scope for this, especially with the new set up going in.

The space has previously operated as a club, is there a refurb in the offing?

The physical layout of the space will remain the same as it was while it operated as Chambre 69. It was a great club back then and there’s really no need to change the layout. Outside of the layout, everything is changing. There will be a fully modular staging area built into the space which can be used for live bands and more elaborate electronic live shows. A fully customisable LED screen will be a big feature with regards to production. The lighting set up will also be fully modular with a focus on promoters being able to come in and set the place up differently should they wish to. The standard set up will of course be very impressive but it’s good to be able to offer options. The sound system is a Funktion One set up, who we’ve used in La Cheetah for years now with various upgrades along the way. In this case though, the system we’re using contains many components that have never been used anywhere with the rest being made up of there most up to date tops and subs, parts of which have never been used in Scotland / the UK ‘til now, all in all it means it’s a completely unique Funktion-One system designed specifically for Room 2. We’ve just found out the one of the founders/owners of Funktion-One, John Newsham will actually be flying in to time and tune the system for us ahead of the launch. Reassuring to know they’re taking it as seriously as we are!

Why do you feel Glasgow needs a space such as Room 2? Club closures, licensing risks etc?

Pretty much everyone we’ve met with has said that Glasgow needs new spaces. It’s been the same places for a long time and it’s good to see a few new places opening, pretty much at the same time. It’ll change the landscape in the city for the better, looking forward to seeing what comes of it all.

Room 2 implies a slightly more diverse approach to programming and promotion, is this the case?

It’s certainly going to be something we try our best to achieve and what we’ve put together so far is certainly moving in the right direction. Keeping the place as diverse as possible will always be a work in progress and the cities wants and needs within these spaces change a lot. One thing we will say is that we’re open to speaking to anyone that wants to talk to us about how we plan to stick to this objective.

Follow the new space on Facebook HERE. Tickets HERE.