To celebrate the 35th anniversary of legendary Bootle club, Quadrant Park, Sefton’s Library service is hosting an exhibition alongside Quadrant’s Salt & Tar reunion party in Bootle for the first time since the venue closed.

UK’s first legal all-night rave

Remembering the years of the UK’s first legal all-night rave, Queue Up And Dance drops on Friday 24th May alongside the first since the venue closed. It will then be open for the rest of the summer.

Sefton Council’s Libraries Service has worked with Rule of Threes Arts and artists Dave Evans and Melissa Kains, to bring the party Back to Bootle. Queue Up And Dance celebrate the legacy of Quadrant Park and the vital role it played in cultural history.

Video contains flashing images.

Over the past year, those who went to Quadrant Park in its heyday, and young people living in Bootle today, were invited to collaborate and develop an archive of photographs, flyers, leaflets and other ephemera. Young people also took part in had digital music production workshops and interviewed those who donated to the archive.

DJ skills

Young people aged 16-24, over the past year, have been taking part in music production and DJ skills workshops with Melissa Kains, DJ, producer and founder of female and non-binary DJ collective Sisu Crew and partner, as well as taking part in six week music production workshops with Scrapyard Studios CIC. Visitors to Queue Up And Dance can listen to the music made in these workshops. 

As well as the chance to hear the young people's music, there will also be screen printing with Rhonda Davies of Liverpool Community Print Station CIC making t-shirts and other exclusive merch.

Real privilege

Dave Evans, lead artist on the project said: “Working on this project to archive material relating to Quadrant Park has been a real privilege.

“The material that has been contributed really captures the energy of the club and it's great to know it will be safe and accessible for the future with Sefton Libraries. 

“The Quad community has been so generous, and it's given me a real insight into how pivotal that time and place was in so many people's lives.”

Vibrant and active

Queue Up And Dance brings together displays of archival material and a timeline of how the style, graphic design and music developed in Quadrant Park’s short lifespan. It builds on conversations between Dave and the original Quadrant Park DJs, Mike Knowler and Andy Carroll, and the vibrant and active online Quadrant Park Reunions community on Facebook.

Visitors are invited to find themselves in the crowd in the photographs, learn about this explosive moment in the development of club culture and celebrate the memories.

A book will be available later this year, drawing together the archival materials and interviews.

Original QUAD DJs John Kelly and Andy Carroll will be playing alongside special guests for the reunion party on Saturday 24^th May, as part of the as part of the Salt and Tar Bank Holiday Weekend Special.

Visitors to the weekend special can check out the Queue up and Dance exhibition without a ticket, but will need a ticket to join the Quad reunion. You can use this link to buy tickets.

You can find out more about the Salt and Tar and the Fringe festival, which takes place from Friday 23rd to Monday 26th May, at the Salt and Tar website 

Queue Up And Dance has been funded by Historic England’s Everyday Heritage grant programme, celebrating working class histories. It is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage fund, with thanks to National Lottery players.

You can find out more about what's going on at Sefton's Libraries here.