With nearly nine years behind him running some of the most famous and exciting parties that London has seen Will has now ventured into a new dimension of clubbing for promoter to club owner…

Studio 33 as it was formally known was a half heatedly run club at best, after a string of misbehaviour's the club it was finally closed leaving it empty and ready for a second chance as the new trending club ‘HIDDEN’… Firmly in the hands of the people who launch Frantic to the success it is today and a complete overhaul of the club decor, sound and lighting systems ‘HIDDEN’ is now host to a string of successful events such as Total Mayhem, Freeformation, Nu Religion and Hard Dance Mania, with London’s top Djs tearing up whether it’s House, Electro, Hard House, Freeform or Hardcore you desire HIDDEN is the place to get your vital music injection…

Firstly Will thank you for taking some time away from Frantic 9 to answer a few questions...

What made you change from club promoter to club owner?

When my business partner Lee and I took over Hidden we had actually been looking for a venue for nearly 3 years week in, week out.

My motivation was I really wanted the chance to book in other promoters and help them to improve their attendances. After running in excess of 800 gigs in 9 countries I wanted the new challenge of working on 2 -3 gigs at the venue every week as well continuing my own promotions at other key venues.

It was always about working on both Hidden and working just as hard on my Hard House, Rave and House promotions at external venues.

Frantic have/will only be running 7 events in 2006 is that because you’re focusing more on hidden?

A little...

Its also because I'm concentrating on 3 new smaller Hard House brands, NuReligion, LoveMuzik, Forever, rave events like Moondance and Freedom 2 Dance, Frantic Tours across the UK, managing Andy Whitby, Cally Gage, Greg Brookman and Technikal and working with Slammin Vinyl on the UK's biggest Arena shows all across the country.

Ive also set up a new marketing company, E99, with the guys behind the SW4 and Get Loaded Festivals, Heat, Gallery and Turnmills.

What does the day to day running of a club entail?

Where do I start...lol!

We have 2 full time managers, Amanda and Mal, and they look after a lot of the day to day running of Hidden. This involves:

-Ordering stock

-Employing and booking staff

-Dealing with the Council, Police and Fire Service

-Refurbing the venue; we have recently made lots of changes to our wicked outdoor terrace.

-Looking after the alarms, fire precaution, air con etc etc

My partner Lee and I concentrate on booking in the promoters and of course managing Amanda and Mal. I'm very lucky in that Lee has been a venue general manager for nearly 20 years and has run Ministry, Hippodrome, Camden Palace and now Scala.

How does this compare to say the running of an event such as Hard House Academy?

Its different in one crucial respect. With HHA its success or failure is almost totally down to you, but with the venue you are in part dependent on the services of the promoters you put into the venue.

To alleviate the risk of working with external promoters at Hidden we tend to do a lot of joint promotions so we are more likely to achieve the numbers we would like.

How do you go about choosing which promoters/promotions to let host events in what is arguably becoming one of the hottest clubs in the London scene?

The first thing I look for is a recognisable brand that has achieved at other venues.

Secondly I look at the line up they are proposing.

Then I always meet them and try and get a sense of whether or not they know their audience and if they are prepared for the hard work involved in making a promotion successful.

With 9 years of promoting under your belt do you still get involved in helping or parting words of wisdom on other promoters or is it a case of sit back and let someone else do the work for once?

Helping other promotions is, for me, one of the best parts of my job.

Taking over Hidden has allowed me to be involved in parties every week and I'm loving it. I relish sitting down with younger promoters and helping them to avoid some of the mistakes Ive made down the years.

I'm also lucky in that with the new marketing company I share an Office with Danny from Turnmills and Anton and Damian from Heat and the discussions I have with them really inform what I do with my own events and the advice I give to less experienced promoters.

Funnily enough helping the younger promoters definitely makes me a better promoter as when I'm explaining potential solutions I often come up with better ideas for my own events.

Where do you think you will go from here, will we be seeing more clubs popping up around the country?

I have 3 very clear goals:

1) Develop these 3 new Hard House promotions while continuing to develop the bigger Hard House parties I help run eg Frantic, Tasty, Timeless, HHA.

2) Continue to improve and develop the service that Hidden offers promoters and the general clubber. We try very hard to look after both sets of customers and are always looking for ways to improve the venue eg we recently really boosted the sound system in the Red Room.

3) To grow and improve the marketing company E99 so that it is offering services to existing clients like Slammin, Big Beat Boutique, Warner Brothers, Nukleuz, Ministry of Sound and many more, while capturing more and more clients in the clubbing market.

We offer every service a promoter needs from graphic and web design to Internet and print PR and of course printing itself.

If you haven't been to HIDDEN yet then your missing out on one of the hard house venues of the century so why not stomp on down to Hard Dance Mania for a free taste of what this club has to offer....