#10 Deeper Into Outer Space | Man Power

The DJ, producer, composer and label boss Man Power goes deep on clubs in the north-east and the power of real community connections…

“Community” is a word that’s bandied around by clubs, cultural commentators and increasingly, brands, particularly following the lockdowns of the pandemic. 

But what does it actually mean in the context of a nightclub? And where does the concept of community become blurred with commerce?

It’s a broad term and one that has different layers of meaning - if you look at a dictionary, then it’s defined as “a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common”. You can see this in evidence in collectives dotted around the country - from Sister Midnight in Lewisham to the Friends of the Joiners Arms in North London, Gut Level in Sheffield and Cobalt Studios in Newcastle, these groups are leaning on those in their environment, who attend their events and breath life into the spaces they occupy, to help them keep the doors open. 

DJ, producer, label boss and composer Man Power (aka Geoff Kirkwood) hails from the north-east and is all about the power of communities, bringing brilliant international DJs to the region as well as providing a platform for great local talent to do their thing too. 

We were in touch earlier in the year for this Disco Pogo piece I put together but the full Q&A was too good not to feature here. More recently, Geoff has set up a social enterprise in North Shields Fish Quay to make what his Instagram post says is “some affordable space for people to do cool shit in North Shields”. 

Have a read below and get behind his new venture One Three One - also dig his new music too…

I'm interested to hear your take on clubs and how to foster communities around them - this seems to be an increasing concern for nights/clubs particularly in the wake of Covid - do you think deepening connections with crowds/audiences has become more important in recent years? 

Depending on how recently you mean, I think it’s become less important to the majority of bigger clubs, venues and labels etc.

The ‘In-Real-Life’ version of connection and community got supplanted by a kind of simulated version of it through social media and corporate brand policies that draped themselves in the themes of community but repurposed them to create customers and subscribers instead of genuine community members.

For me, this new, simulated version of community is exactly why it became important that I started working in ways that balance the scales by promoting the real thing. 

This community pretence in the service of rampant capitalism only serves to deepen the divide between what they see as useless art and essential commerce, and pushes things in a direction where the value of something is determined solely by its popularity.

“I found my way into the dance music community because I felt like an outsider, and it allowed me to connect with other people who felt the same in different ways, or who felt different in the same way. That ideal is something that’s being eradicated by metrics and algorithms.”

In lots of ways, the thing I’m involved with has been getting pulled in the direction of being the ultimate ‘insider’ phenomenon of mass entertainment. As someone who likes things that other people don’t enjoy, and who wants to grow creatively by making things that aren’t for everyone, or even as someone who wants the space to make things that are viewed as creative mistakes, it’s essential for me to be able to create spaces where that’s possible.

The only way I can do that is by creating communities of like-minded people who feel and see things in similar ways to me, and doing what I can to enable other people to do the same.

How have you gone on about developing these kinds of relationships with crowds at your nights and clubbing ventures? 

There’s never been any masterplan, but the general rule of thumb has been to avoid bullshit and salesmanship, and to try and not copy what other people are doing.

Communities rely on legitimate and authentic connections, so there’s little-to-no point in presenting yourself in anything less than a wholly authentic way. When people have been going bigger and bolder on art and design, we’ve opted to go basic.

When people have been pushing big online ad campaigns we’ve opted to go physical, in-person and word of mouth to push what we do. When people have presented themselves as cool, fashionable and edgy, we’ve shared how inclusive and diverse the people are who attend our parties.

We’ve avoided paying big names too much, and small names too little, as the concept of ‘Big’ or ‘Small’ in that sense is really only something that applies in terms of the things we don’t care about.

We’ve engaged honestly and directly with the people who participate in what we do, and we’ve never seen them as fans or supporters or followers, they’re just other people who come to party with us and we all play an equally vital role at those parties, because I can’t think of any DJ who feels like they’re mega important when nobody turns up to dance to what they’re playing. Sometimes it works. Sometimes we go back to the drawing board. We rarely make much money, if any, but I’ve also been paid obscene amounts of money DJing over the years too, and that’s never a guarantee of a rewarding experience. 

“I kind of think when I die and my life flashes before my eyes a lot more of it will be related to great parties than it will be to enjoying looking at my banking app.” 

Many smaller, more intimate spaces seem to be gaining popularity with DJs/club nights/events - so spaces like the Golden Lion in Todmorden, the nights you've done at the King Street Social Club, the Marina Fountain pub in St Leonards - what is it about these spots that is so appealing? 

They’re just more fun to a certain type of person I guess. The way I see it is you have the mainstream of folks who don’t feel things very deeply but like to do stuff with lots of folks who feel the same, and then you have other none mainstream people who really, really feel stuff and need to be around other people who do too.

There’s less of the type that really feel stuff, so the spaces are smaller, but (with a few exceptions obviously) there’s no substitute for that kind of intensely shared experience for most of them. As someone who makes and does stuff I eventually came to the realisation that I’d rather have 1,000 people LOVE what I do, than a 100,000 merely think it was fine. I’ve kind of turned my back on chasing the huge stuff as a result, and now I’m finding the pockets of those people who feel the same. 

How have you gone about staging parties at the King Street Social Club? Are the team there receptive to your events? As they're obviously a little different to the kinds of gigs/events they usually do?

King Street is a CIU social club that’s run by a committee so they kind of don’t give much of a shit about what we do as long as there’s minimal disruption to the bingo.

I’m fairly certain we make them more money than they’ve ever had before, but we refreshingly don’t have much leverage from that as the socialist structure of a proper working mens club means that there are no shareholders to cream off the profits. All the money just gets pumped back in to keeping the place alive for the local community it supports.

I’m sure they’re grateful obviously, but in most ways we’re just another ‘turn’ that happens a few times a year, albeit one that pays for more repairs and renovations.

“There’s something very Geordie about the whole “well it’s not for me, but as long as its not harming anybody” attitude they have to us, and I absolutely fucking love it.”

How important are these smaller spaces/clubs/venues in terms of retaining creative talent within a community? It seems that they have great potential to have an impact on people that goes beyond the dancefloor? 

This side of things is the most tricky to weigh up if I’m honest. The smaller community stuff is an amazing way to build grass roots support in your own city, but as far as helping propel somebody into a career travelling the world etc, I’d imagine you’re better off getting some nice porcelain veneers and filming your every move for Instagram and Tik Tok. There’s a huge disconnect between grass roots and global event type stuff now, and it’s became more noticeable with the death of a lot of the clubs that straddled the middle pre-Covid, that were neither small enough, or big enough, to get through the pandemic.

The way I see it is the parties I do are necessary and they’re fun, and they bring money back into the local economy. Beyond that I have no idea if they’re something that can launch the career of a local newcomer or provide them a means to stay living in the north-east while exploring their career to the fullest.

I don’t know that they have to cross pollinate though and I can’t see why you can’t do both. I mean for all my talk of the need of community-focussed activity, I still travel and play for big clubs and release on big labels. I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive, I just think if you’re gonna have the big things then you need the small ones to ensure certain essential (to me at least) aspects of this culture will still exist. 

Do you think there's greater appetite from DJs and dancers to visit smaller spaces that are more hidden away/off the beaten track? 

At the risk of being a horrible name dropper, I’ve presented small and off piste shows with Optimo, Prosumer, Special Request, Artwork., A Love From Outer Space, Rex The Dog, Josh Caffe, Ewan McVicar and a bunch more in the course of only the last 12 months, so yes there definitely is a desire for people to come and nearly all of these people scaled their fees to accommodate what was possible because they saw the need and felt a desire to take part. 

One of the recent parties I announced sold out in three hours and features nobody but me playing all night long.  

People want to play these parties and people want to come dance at them, and some of us want to connect both sets of people to make them happen.

My most meaningful lifelong relationships almost all came out of meeting people in these types of spaces, including meeting my amazing and beautiful wife. I can think of a lot people who will say that about the communities they participated in where everybody had a shared purpose or way of thinking. I’m not so sure as many people can say that about going to something like a Bon Jovi concert or any other mainstream type of stadium gig, which is essentially what much of house music has turned into.

People who FEEL things have a basic need to connect with others who also FEEL things, and the spaces to do that don’t tend to be arenas or repurposed sports stadiums.

Connect with Geoff on Instagram - if you’re quick, then you might be able to get a ticket to his Cheap Thrills New Year’s Eve party at Three Tanners Bank. Be quick!

You can also still get a copy of my book ‘Out of Space | How UK Cities Shaped Rave Culture’ from Velocity Press…