Sean McLusky is a British music promoter, nightclub impresario and film producer.
Early life
The early 1980s saw Sean McLusky as a professional musician, first as a member of Switch, with his brother Graham and friends then original indie band Subway Sect and then with beat outfit JoBoxers, scoring two top ten singles at home and touring a debut album across Europe and the USA. McLusky cut his teeth as a music promoter in the mid 1980s with soul all-nighters and a weekly live night called 'Club Left' in Soho, London.
Career
The Brain Club
McLusky's first foray into venue makeovers and take-overs started with The Brain in 1988 with partner artist Mark Wigan. Finding a forgotten drinking den in Soho, McLusky and Mark Wigan transformed the interior and re launched it as The Brain. This new club was to be one of the first in the West End to host regular house music nights and fledgling electronic bands like Orbital, Adamski and A Guy Called Gerald gave some of their early live performances there. McLusky produced two compilation albums out of this venue for his label Brainiak Records – Live at the Brain and Live at the Brain 2 featuring artists such as Orbital, Nexus 21, Sheep on Drugs and Mr Monday.
Love Ranch
By 1991, McLusky and partner Mark Wigan with his ever-widening cast list of like-minded followers had found a new home at Maximus in London's Leicester Square. The 'Love Ranch' club night was created, renowned for its popularity and unpredictability with a cast of resident Djs that included, Andrew Weatherall from Boys Own / Sabres of Paradise at the time, Paul Daley from Leftfield, Darren Emerson from Underworld, Danny Rampling from Shoom and Al Mackenzie from D-Ream. Following Love Ranch, in 1993, McLusky also re-launched and promoted the recently re-discovered Cafe de Paris with his flagship 'Merry England' club night.
Club UK
In 1994, McLusky's prowess and innovative reputation as a venue consultant and promoter led to his appointment as the creative heart of a new venue in South London, which he designed and programmed, christening it Club UK, soon successfully challenging the dominance of the well-established Ministry of Sound, drawing over 3,000 people every Friday and Saturday. Featuring the regular DJ talents of Andrew Weatherall, John Digweed, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, Justin Robertson, John Kelly and Laurent Garnier. The experience of creating a large club venue from scratch, and the bureaucratic challenges associated with a wholly new venue, further added to already well-developed administrative and diplomatic skills.
Leisure Lounge
In 1994, McLusky instigated the conversion of the Old Paddocks snooker club in Holborn, which he designed and launched as the Leisure Lounge, ‘a voracious pace-setting and attitude-free venue’ that like so many of his other projects became part of the collective consciousness of London night-life. The Leisure Lounge featured a mix of dance music club nights like Goldie's Metalheadz and live music events, plus arts events like Rankin's first major London photography show.
The Complex
At the same time, McLusky began a long-term annual collaboration with the Mean Fiddler organization, programming the dance stage Reading Festival and organizing the festival aftershow events, which, in early 1996, led to him being asked to once again open his bag of tricks and launch their new Islington dance venue, which he named The Complex. Around the same time as The Complex was seizing a substantial share of the market, McLusky amused himself with a more radical and intimate club night, ‘Fantasy Ashtray’ at Soho's Madame Jo Jo's. Called by Time Out ‘...a rockin’, punky, thrash night with live acts’, Fantasy Ashtray was founded on genuine musical variety and featured classic live acts like Jayne County and the Electric Chairs alongside new live underground talent.
After a six-month stay in New York, the pioneering attitude returned when McLusky was the first promoter to discover the 333 club in what was then the very run down, quiet district of London called Shoreditch, it was there McLusky created his bastard offspring the ‘Sonic Mook Experiment’. Sonic Mook pioneered the practice of multi-room, multi sound, eclecticism, becoming a runaway success, drawing hoards of disaffected youths to this forgotten quarter of London. Unconventional and debauched Sonic Mook Experiment attracted a ‘stunning mix of loyal radical chic cognoscenti’ but with awful/ ‘ironic’ Djs playing power ballads and rock anthems plus an eclectic mix of dance music DJ's and guest musicians like Mark E Smith, Jerry Dammers, Jimmy Pursey, Dee Dee Ramone, Alan Vega. People dispensed with the pretensions and conventions of the West End and came to sample the new East End in what has been cryptically described by Loaded magazine as ‘an eclectic Capri of madness - driven by the insane’. Sonic Mook Experiment grew in infamy at the 333 Club in Shoreditch from 1996 to 1999 before moving to the Scala in Kings Cross.
The Scala
The next major project was two years in the making; the conception, design, conversion, programming and launch of The Scala in Kings Cross London, eventually opening in March 1999 to critical acclaim, this project was the product of ten years of Sean McLusky's experience. A derelict cinema infamous for its all-night films in the eighties was transformed under McLusky's guidance into a spectacular music venue hosting club nights featuring DJs including James Lavelle, The Chemical Brothers, Mr Thing, Fabio, Storm Bailey, and diverse live music programming including shows from Royal Trux, Coldplay, Roni Size, Moby, Pavement, Foo Fighters, Johnny Marr, Sigue Sigue Sputnik plus eclectic film events like a Russ Meyer retrospective with guests including Hugh Heffner. Sean also programmed in arts events and exhibitions like shows from Mick Rock & ex Warhol photographer Nat Finkelstien. As with all of McLusky's previous projects the Scala was an expression of unconventionality, promising sanctuary to a multitude of Londoners who demanded more from their nightlife.
Sonic Mook Compilations on Mute Records 2001 / 2003
In 2001, McLusky produced some of the best eclectic rock and roll and electronica albums for Mute's Blast First label; 1 Sonic Mook Experiment featuring – Primal Scream, Death in Vegas, Pulp, Clinic, Fat Truckers, Playgroup. 2 'Future Rock&Roll' featuring the new breed of Rock&Roll bands emerging from the UK & US underground, like -Yeah Yeah Yeah's, Liars, The Hives, Whitey, Electralane, Icara Colt, The Beatings and The Parkinsons, and 3 'Hot Shit' featuring – Radio 4, !!! Chk Chk Chk, Chrome Hoof, Ex Models and Erase Errata. With Sonic Mook events at the ICA, South Bank Centre, 93 Feet East, Cargo and the Astoria Theatre in London, plus events in Barcelona and Berlin, featuring cutting edge DJ action and new live talent, always underground always entertaining.
Future Rock & Roll Festival @ ICA 2002
McLusky created a four-day new bands festival at the ICA to be held during the queen's golden jubilee weekend in June 2002. The festival and accompanying compilation album became the catalyst for the emerging new Rock & Roll scene in London. For the first time this scattered collection of bands were brought together in one venue, kick starting the new scene which finally broke the grip of the dance music monopoly in the UK. The festival featured over 20 new bands including The Libertines, 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, The Parkinsons, Liars, The Beatings, Buff Medways, Martini Henry Rifles, McLusky and Earl Brutus. So while the patriotic hordes waved their flags with Liz and her cronies at the palace, next door 500 sweaty kids each day celebrated the birth of their new scene, throwing themselves about to the new breed of Rock & Roll, right on the Queen's front drive.
In 2003, McLusky started taking new UK bands over to Paris to play the clubs Batofar and Nouveau Casino, convinced that there must be a local scene lurking under the surface in Paris and with the help of local rocker & DJ Jean Baptiste Juillot, he started to dig about in the Paris underground, bands were found and booked in as supports on his Paris bills. Soon McLusky was being stalked by a stream of local talent, bands came out of the woodwork that never got to play their home town, word got round that there were people in town with new ideas that were nothing to do with the obstructive French music industry. As momentum built, a deal was struck with V2 France to produce a compilation album named by McLusky Le Nouveau Rock'n'Roll Français.
1-2-3-4 Records
In 2004, Sean McLusky started 1-2-3-4 Records, releasing singles and albums from artists emerging from the new East London music scene like Whitey, Babyshambles, Cazals, Negative For Francis, Twisted Charm, The White Sport, Cosmetique, The Bishops, The Objects, Trafalgar, Lowline, and more recently new bands Arrows Of Love, Bad For Lazarus, Teenage Mothers, Sisteray, Factotum and new material from classic artists Buzzcocks.
Return To New York
In 2003, McLusky teamed up with the DJ / Producer Arthur Baker to create a series of global events called ‘Return To New York’ its London home was the five-star Great Eastern Hotel and the events featured artists like LCD Soundsystem, Peaches, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Tom Tom Club, Debbie Harry, Phil Oakey, Junior Sanches, Erol Alkan and 2 many Djs. ‘Return To New York’ also hosted events at the Miami Winter Music Conference with line ups including The Rapture, LCD, Peaches, Milo, Princess Superstar, 2 Many Djs and they have toured the events at major venues and festivals across Europe. ‘Return to New York’ events were designed to bridge the last 20 years of electronic music, unifying the talents of the originators with the new breed of DJ /producers and live acts.
As a manager of Recording Artists, McLusky works with new bands developing their sound and their positioning in the scene. A brief list of signings to major and indie labels include: The Martini Henry Rifles 2001 / 2004 signing to FF Vinyl. Whitey 2004 / 2006 signing to Universal, Towers Of London 2005 / 2006 signing to TVT records, Cazals 2005 / 2007 signing to Kitsune Records. S.C.U.M 2008 / 2012 signing to Mute Records and touring with The Horrors, The Kills, Saint Leonard's Horses, 2016
Sean McLusky DJ
Sean McLusky has DJed across the globe - Miami Winter Music, Space and Privilege in Ibiza, and at festivals and clubs in Berlin, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Millan, Madrid, Lisbon, Warsaw, Kraków, New York City, Los Angeles, plus a long running residency at Razzmatazz Club in Barcelona, he is also a regular at the Playboy Club, The Scotch of St. James, Tramp, Ace Hotel and the Dog Star in London. Mclusky also consults on hotel music programming - clients have included: the Great Eastern Hotel & South Place Hotel in City of London, The Mondrian Hotel, and Ace Hotel.
1-2-3-4 FILMS
In 2011, Mclusky set up 1-2-3-4 Films with Writer/Director Trevor Miller to develop and produce films. Their first production, entitled Riot on Redchurch Street is a feature film shot on location in East London. It juxtaposes the 'downtown' music scene against a backdrop of Anglo-Muslim racial tension. The cast includes Allyson Paradis, Jesse Birdsall, Sam Hazeldine, Les McKeown, Lois Winstone, with a soundtrack featuring original songs by Siobhan Fahey. Time Out gave 'Riot' three-stars and described the film as "a hybrid between Gangster No. 1 and Stalking Pete Doherty." 1-2-3-4 Films has two more features in pre-production for 2015 ‘This Charming Man’ and ‘Trip City.’
