Superclub

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This page relates to a form of nightclub. For the article on one of the largest video store chains in Quebec, see Le SuperClub Vidéotron.

Superclub is a term often used to refer to a nightclub owned and managed by a dance music record label. Following on from Factory Records ownership of The Hacienda, superclubs became increasingly popular in the early to mid 1990s, and examples include Gatecrasher, Godskitchen, Mansion, Crobar, Paradise Garage and The End.

More recently, the term has also been used to describe large, multistory, high-capacity high-profile nightclubs. The first superclub Pacha in Ibiza which opened in 1973, still the most famous of all superclubs to this very day with other branches in London, New York City and Buenos Aires. Annabel's in London was also one of the earlier superclubs which has now closed and also Studio 54 in New York City which was also one of the first superclubs is also closed. In recent times there has been a string of new more upbeat House orientated superclubs opening such as Crobar which opened in 1980 and also the Ministry Of Sound in London opened in 1991. In The US Crobar has clubs in the following cities (Chicago and NYC). Other high profile US Superclubs include Vision (Chicago), Sound-Bar (Chicago), Mezzanine (San Francisco), Avalon/ Avaland (Boston/ Los Angeles), Balance (Los Angeles), KING KING (Los Angeles), 1015 (San Francisco), Cielo (NYC) and Centrofly (NYC). UK Superclubs include The Syndicate (Blackpool), Fabric (London), Turnmills (London) the Arc (Brighton), The Zap (Brighton), Gin Rummy (Brighton) and The Egg (London). The Ministry Of Sound has their main club in London, with international clubs in Ayia Napa and as far a field as Sydney Australia, with a new Miami club opening in May 2007.

[edit] Superclubs in Germany

German so called superclubs tend not to follow the trend set in Ibiza, the UK or the USA and tend to play trance or techno music as opposed to the stylish house music played in these places. In Germany, one can find many superclubs in industrial areas, especially in suburbs of big towns or in the proximity of freeways or expressways. These superclubs are in Germany called "Grossraumdiskothek" and are often visited by people coming from larger distances to them by car (therefore a site near a motorway exit is preferred). These German superclubs are known across several regions, but nearly never nationally known. Many of them are well styled with expensive lightshow and are often air-conditioned. In many superclubs one get a pay card, in most cases a chipcard, sometimes also a hole card, at the entrance, on which drinks and meals are booked. Pay cards reduce the necessary amount of exchange money in the discotheque, but their usage often leds to long queues at the exit, because all people in the club have to pay then their fee at the exit. Pay cards are nearly always property of the club and given back, when payed. In order to prevent people drinking without paying, emergency exits of superclubs applying pay cards should be alarm-safed. Nevertheless the danger, that emergency exits are illegally locked in such clubs is greater than in clubs not using pay cards. In most German superclubs in industrial areas no strict dress codes are applied. This is not the case in the fashion conscious fashion capitals London, New York or even Paris where the crowd are top to toe in designer outfits and Jimmy Choos. Clubs in these cities also have pay cards although a tab system requiring deposits of a minimum fee are in place. Clubs in Germany differ greatly form the internationally recognised clubs in Spain, the UK or the USA as German clubs tend to be known only in Germany rather than the internationally known Pacha, Mansion, Rumi, El Divino, Ministry Of Sound and B.E.D.