I've just had an email to say that, yes, Venom has finally closed.

Apparently it will undergo a refurbishment and reopen but will no longer be called Venom.

Big ups to the Mighty V... the place where I first discovered clubbing, grubby disease-ridden women and cheap booze at the delicate age of 15!! It was also the first place that I DJ'd at and was the home to the first Thump event with Aquasky + Broadbeatz...

Massive shout to a decade of clubbers, DJs (yes, we know some of you played the same tunes week-in, week-out), Bar Staff and monkey-doormen - you shall be missed!!

*sniff*

Whats hot n cold?

its a description of heat....

It had hot and cold running water...

It WAS called the Liberty Ballroom. I went there once. It was alright.

The liberty ballroom is a different place right? I used to do streetdance there with this black guy called Dave.

I thought he was the coolest man on Earth because he wore a leotard and doc martins and he could break like nobodies business.

The liberty ballroom is a different place right?

Yes, it was in a different unit on the airbase.

Full of mirrors n model planes. they do private parties in there.

"The liberty ballroom is a different place right? I used to do streetdance there with this black guy called Dave."

LOL. I used to do Latin American Ballroom Dancing there, when I was a nipper. :P

Yea see. It was the place to be..

bring back the Greenham thing that could work now!!!!!

Think it was '96 or '97, Martin Rushent (producer Human League/Stranglers) put all his money in to it, it was a state of the art club, really superb, but it failed miserably and poor Martin (who wasn't really in a good place mentally at the time) lost the lot, they still owe me money but I forgot about that years ago. I was working at the Holy Rumes, Castle St, Reading at the time, they had loads of top DJ's playing there (Boy George/Carl Cox/Paul Oakenfold/Tony De Vit/Goldie and so on), Martin Rushent used to frequent the place and was a good friend of Isaac (the owner, along with Joe Hallett), Martin's attitude was 'I want that Trannie' so I ended up at Gush as well, and 'yes' Prodigy did play there on the opening night.

Think it was '96 or '97

It was about then, ahead of its time for Newbury but wrong location :-(