Basement 45, located on Frogmore Street in Bristol – is a club situated in the underground network of chambers that make up the cellars of the historic Unity Street building. With bookings that cover all musical styles, from drum and bass and dubstep to House & Electro, Basement 45 is one of Bristol's finest underground music venues. We caught up with owner and curator Mark Davis to find out how they provide clubbers, promoters and DJ's alike the perfect balance between atmosphere, environment, music and people.

Can you tell me a little bit about your venue, basement 45?

So yeah we opened in 2009, as basement 45 was previously called the mandrake which is Bristol’s oldest nightclub.

Oh really? The mandrake? So what is it the same building just rebranded?

Exactly the same venue, yeah. It’s obviously been updated. But yeah we’ve been here now for nine years and we’ve sort of pushed good underground music of all genres really. Some nights headline DJs, other nights built around local promoters trying to encourage them and help them as much as we can tend to be a breeding ground for new nights a lot of the time. We also do a lot of dance classes, drinks classes for stag dos hen dos, office parties, groups. We do DJ lessons, we do equipment hires so people can come in and use the space as a practice session. Daytime filming for university film clubs, societies in the early evening. We do lots other than just being a club as well.

Yeah, that is a lot. A lot of ground to cover.

So yeah, in a nutshell, I guess that’s what we do. Obviously, we’re slap bang in the middle of Bristol. Yeah, it’s just a good quality underground music venue.

What has been the most memorable event you’ve held at Basement 45 for you in particular?

I think Skrillex.

I saw that on your cover photo.

Yeah, that was crazy really. I didn’t really know much about Skrillex really when it got booked in. This was sort of 2011, 2012. So he was big but probably not as big as he is now. There was an after show party for something he did at the 02 and it was packed, you know? Wall to wall people just standing there. There was a mixture of people; trendy music crowds, goths, punk, chavs. Every background was represented.

That’s a good one definitely. That was probably the one that sticks out.

Are there any other? I won’t make you stick to one if there are any others you remember quite fondly?

Ermmm… that I remember fondly? Dan and I, Eats Everything Dan…

Dan as in, the DJ Eats Everything? Is he involved with Basement 45?

No, not anymore but for the first two years, Dan and I were the residents on Saturdays. They were enjoyable - we had some good nights here. But we changed our Saturdays after a couple of years to hire out some independent promoters. But they were good fun, we had some good nights down here.

I didn’t know that. That’s a great bit of trivia for the readers.

Exactly, yes! So Eats Everything was a resident every Saturday for a couple of years.

That’s wicked. Okay, so who are the people behind Basement 45? 

Well just me really. I’m the owner and I do the promotions, the running of the club. We’ve got a couple of managers here that deal with the club when we open and we obviously have door and door staff. But effectively it’s me that has anything to do with the day to day running of the club.

So would you say you’re there on the days of the events doing the overseeing?

No. Well, it’s very seldom I’m here these days in the evenings. We have a manager that deals with all that stuff. We chat through the week about what’s coming up, who they’re dealing with. They deal with all of that on the night. But effectively I lay out everything that’s happening on that night and they’re there to see it through really.

So you’re the sort of curation and booking side of things?

Exactly, yes.

Wicked. With some many venues in Bristol, why do you think people choose to come to Basement 45?

I think because we are professionally run. Having been a promoter and a DJ obviously myself, I know how a lot of the independent clubs, particularly independent clubs, can be awkward to deal with. Everything from not having the right equipment on the night they said they would have so having to bring your own stuff to being difficult to get hold of, flakey. I think this is a tag that seems to be associated with a lot of independent venues. We’re quite organised, we’re on the ball. A lot of our reviews say this. People generally give good feedback that we’re available, helpful. I always wanted to try running the venue as an underground venue but run in a corporate way, you know?

When I used to promote events at corporate clubs it was so much easier to deal with because they had a management structure and they had people who were just far more organised than most independent clubs I’ve ever worked with. I think there are exceptions to that, there are other clubs that do it well. Unsurprisingly the clubs that do it well; Motion, Thekla, are clubs that are well run but I don’t think any of them respond to customers as well as we do.

Ah, nice. That’s good. Bringing some organisation to the chaos of the underground scene.

Yeah, and it is. Traditionally people are flakey. That’s the best word I can use to describe a lot of independently run clubs. Not all of them, but you know, it’s something I’ve found from experience. People are just difficult to organise things with.

The only difference is I run and own the club and have got a real interest in it doing well. Whereas a manager perhaps wouldn’t be as involved.

Yeah, it’s personal I guess. Personal, but professional.

Exactly. Personal but professional.

You can have that as your new tagline if you like.

(Laughter) Sounds good!

What is your favourite Bristol event or venue that’s not run by you guys, and why?

I think Motion. I think they do a really good job. I know the guys over there. We went over for a 90s party not too long ago and I was impressed with the venue. It’s really impressive. By and large how they organise it, the lineups they’ve got. It’s all built around the lineups. I wasn’t impressed with their drink selection but you know, it’s more a younger crowd that goes. Michelle at Thekla is always generally very good and on the ball. Yeah, those two probably I’d say.

The Den basically offers new and first-time organisers affordable high-end venues which help them get their foot in the door for events. I just want to ask how important you think spaces like this are in cultivating the local scene?

I think they’re really important. Compared to 25 years ago when I started, everyone is a DJ or knows someone who DJs and it’s important to sort of try and provide new people with the space to do stuff. We offer DJ lessons so we get beginners in and we’ve seen people do them. I’ve been doing them for 20 years the courses and we’ve seen people progress on to do practice session than to run their own nights. So I think rooms like The Den are great for us because it’s another space that’s not seldom used and open. It’s not often busy on nights. But by sectioning it off for birthday parties and stuff we can offer it to people and it just seems to work really well at the moment.

It sounds like quite a low-risk entry into the events industry if you only need to fill out 60/70 peopled you’ve only got 120 pounds on the line.

Exactly, so it definitely makes a difference. Promoters were unsure about on a weekend if they’re based in Bristol we would often say try a night in the den, if you can get 60/70 people in and it works for it really well then we could sort of look at filling it up and going from there.

So you’ve been running DJ lessons for the last 15 years - could you talk me through this service?

Well, I trained as a teacher, qualified in a B-ED degree. I taught a little bit but really went into DJing. Alongside promoting I just thought this might be a good way to earn a bit of extra money initially. There was an interest for it. I started doing these courses in school and then I started doing it full time through the week. Employed a couple of people and we did schools as far down as Cornwall and as far up as Gloucester and then when we bought the club I just started easing off on them; not having the time to go and do them at schools. Then just moving it away from schools completely which is obviously 11-18-year-olds and then just working more with adults. Some young people but mainly adults. I found it more rewarding working with adults who had a clear idea of what they wanted to do. Yeah, they’re enjoyable. I like doing them. There’s no shortage of people seemingly still wanting to DJ.

Yeah, I was going to say the demand must be quite endless.

There are always people wanting to do it. We’ve been doing them a while now so it helps definitely.

Have you had any particularly impressive alumni in your DJ school?

There’s a guy called Craig Brown who runs a night called Banjax. He did the DJ course with us. Erm, who else? We’ve had a few people who have gone on to run events locally in Bristol but none that I can think of that have been complete superstars.

Yet.

Yeah but sort of people have just taken it up as a hobby - they enjoy doing it. People have come back to do the practice session as well.

Your bookings really cover an eclectic spectrum of electronic music. Do you think this is reflective of the Bristol scene as a whole?

Well, I just pick out diverse promoters so we can keep the events as interesting as possible. So we try to represent all spectrums of drum & bass, house, techno. We have some hardcore, rock nights, RnB, reggae, soul. So I’ve deliberately tried to have a cross section rather than being heavily weighted on one style or the other. Sometimes you do end up leaning towards one style than another. So yeah, try to work actively with decent promoters.

It might be a bit of a sensitive issue. So, with Thekla under threat from housing initiative and music venues closing at such a rapid rate nationally, what do you think lies in the fate of Bristol’s nightlife?

Well, I think it’s pretty healthy generally speaking. I think I would hope the issue with Thekla that the developers will put soundproofing into their building and it won’t be an issue but it is something that constantly effects a lot of venues. Particularly residential centres in the middle of town. I can’t remember what it’s called but in Australia, there’s a name for the law by where new developers it’s on them to soundproof their own building rather than the venues be quieter. Which I think could be something that could happen to safeguard more venues which is important. I think it’s pretty healthy, places still shut but by and large the well run and well-organised places have kept going and doing well. So I’d like to think that it’s a rosy future. I hope it is, certainly.

Has Basement 45 ever been in trouble like that with a similar issue?

Yeah, we have. We’ve had new crafts built out the back and a resident complained about the noise. We soundproofed one of the doors, in the end, we had to completely move one of the sound systems to another room. In a funny way, it worked out well for us because we turned that room into The Den, which we may not have thought about otherwise. But it was only one resident there that complained. I think some clubs probably do cause some people headaches but we’ve always done everything we could to comply with licensing, police and all the other guidelines and I think it seemed a bit harsh when we were the ones having to change everything when it was just one resident amongst quite a large number of flats.

Certainly, could you tell us about some of the exciting events you’ve got coming up at Basement 45?

We’ve got a night called Lagoon next Monday, it’s been our weekly Monday this term. It’s been really successful. It’s the finishing party before the end of term. We’ve got a charity reggae night on the 14th, Lagoon is on the 11th. The charity night on the 14th is with David Boomah, I think. We’ve got… on the 9th. Which is this Saturday. We have a night called, SOBAD. Which is a guy called Bromley, New York Transit Authority and a few other people playing a house night. That will be good. And then 16 steps record launch the next week, drum & bass thing on the 16th. We’ve got some good things coming up at the moment.

Final question. What are you listening to right now, Mark?

What am I listening to now… Nursery rhymes! I’ve got a one-year-old so it seems there’s constantly round and round the garden or little red riding hood or other things. So it’s nursery rhymes at the moment!