3 years on, and Freak is stronger than ever.

Easter Sunday, April 16th see's Freak take over the entire Central Station /Yales for 3 rooms of the best in cutting edge electronic music.

This is going to be the biggest dance music event even witnessed in North Wales!

Starting life in the basement of Chester’s City Bar, the very first Freak debuted on a Thursday night in March 2003 and featured Mark and his selection of the finest local DJ talent. Somehow operating on a budget of less than £30, the promotion involved a stack of photocopied flyers and some outrageous A0-sized posters being splashed around the city. Mark managed to achieve notoriety almost immediately with the authorities and his approach to advertising, while reminiscent of the early acid house parties, was not appreciated by the suits to say the least!

Despite Mark’s brush with the law, the popularity of Freak grew steadily as they hosted events on the first and third Thursday of each month and the summer saw a move to the coveted Saturday night slot.
This is where the momentum really picked up and Freak’s Summer of Love dawned. The regulars became like a family and the debauchery would carry on all weekend long, the legendary Freak parties were the cause of more than a few Monday sickies! Mark realised that he had tapped into something much bigger than he could have ever dreamed of, uniting people under the banner of house music and instilling a sense of belonging to the movement.
This didn’t go unnoticed by the local authorities, who began to cause problems for the boys as the summer drew to a close, apparently incensed that such hedonism was taking place in their fair, upper-class city.

The city council acted swiftly and informed the City Bar that they did not have a license for dancing on their premises, which in turn would result in the inspectors making an appearance at the August Bank Holiday party that was planned. Panic amongst the venue management ensued, and in the time-honoured fashion of shedding a backbone, they pulled the all day event on that very morning.

With no venue, and the Tribal Sessions resident Greg Vickers booked for the upcoming October event, the situation was far from rosy.

September arrives and Mark manages to arrange a venture at Loaf. While the interior was far from ideal, the bar was willing to host them and the lads set about decking the place out with reams of camouflage netting for their opening party at their new home.
The affair was hugely successful and saw 400 people ram the place, making it the busiest Thursday night ever at Loaf! A riotous shindig saw Mark joined by Sonny Wharton and Leon Roberts to rock the scene to its foundations.
Freak was back in true explosive style, and with such an amazing re-launch appeared to be stronger than ever before.

The October instalment was a total roadblock; queues stretched down the road as people scrambled to see Greg Vickers and the resulting chaos his set caused. Freak’s first headliner loved it so much he asked Mark for a residency!

2004 – Next Level Freakiness

With so much promise and potential, the reputation of Freak spread like wildfire through the North West. Tales of the atmosphere and quality of the music soon reached the ears of the promoters in Liverpool and Manchester, leading to offers to host rooms at both Chibuku Shake Shake AND Sankey’s Soap!
As the crowds grew in size, the headline acts grew in stature. Medicine 8 made their first of many Freak appearances and were blown away by what Mark had created from nothing but his own determination and hard work, along with of course the amazing support of the Freak regulars. It seemed that the future was perking up once again after the near disaster of the City Bar fiasco, and the ever-growing encouragement of new members joining the ranks would continue to push the venture skywards. However, as we all know, life can really bite you in the ass when you least expect it.

The following tale is of greed, corruption and general dodgy-ness that reads more like a literary nightmare than the reality of what took place……

The legend that is Mr C was booked to play Freak’s birthday event on April 8th as a thank-you from Mark and the team to all the regulars who had supported them through all of their tribulations. The party promised to be out of this world, a real celebration of what Freak had achieved and hoped to offer in the future. The gig happened to fall on the Thursday prior to Easter Friday, and with the promise of a full house, the fiscal eyes of Loaf’s management lit up with pound signs. In a similar move to that of the City Bar’s they pulled the plug with just two weeks to go, citing head office’s orders as their reason for doing so.
Mark was furious and despite many arguments with the management, along with uncovering revelations that included Loaf’s head office having no inkling of Freak having a residency and the manager pocketing their rent money, found no quarter for compensation or an alternative. With Mr C’s fee already paid in full, Freak was without a venue and in serious trouble.
Thankfully, this tale does have a happy ending. With Chester lacking any other suitable (or willing) locations, the huge decision of relocating to Liverpool was taken. The Masque (home of Chibuku) was to play host and frantic last-minute preparations were made to arrange buses to ferry the regulars across the water.
Disaster was narrowly avoided and despite being hugely out of pocket, the birthday celebrations were yet again another resounding success story for Freak.

Croeso I Wrecsam

Freak was now in need of yet another new venue, and with Mark determined to keep the night in the area it appeared to be a question of finding a suitable home.
Wrexham’s Central Station had long been a strong house for live music and alternative entertainment in contrast to the town’s lifeless club-and-pub scene. It seemed like a dream opportunity when they offered a one-off event in June to see what Freak could do and Mark set about enlisting the help of some friends from Aztec, based in Liverpool. In addition to a new venue, a promoter from Wrexham joined and shared the same passion as Mark for the music Freak represented. His name was Paul Harvey.
Layo and Bushwacka! were set to headline Aztec:Freak and in true acid-house fashion, the venue’s gamble paid off for everyone involved. The party was a massive hit and the follow-up offer of a residency was snapped up without hesitation. Freak had finally found a home to do justice to the blood, sweat and tears that had gone into forging its reputation as one of the most exciting underground nights in the area.

Freak Goes Loco!

No time for resting on the laurels though, as the brand went international that August and held a beach party in San Antonio, Ibiza. The Orange Corner Bar played host to Freak and what was meant to be a single event turned into a sleepless, one week bender that saw over 30 regulars fly over especially to join them!
Meanwhile, Back In Wrexham…

Preparations were underway for the October return of Mr C and the first date of the brand new residency in Central Station. With all that had befallen the crew, they could be forgiven for having reservations about their new hosts, but everything ran smoothly and the relationship blossomed as Justin Robertson made his debut in November. Sensing the potential of Freak, the Central management increased their support and with the boost of Justin Robertson enjoying his set so much he wanted to become a resident, Freak went next level in every sense.
The final party of 2004 saw FC Kahuna rock the crowd good and proper, closing an eventful, memorable and most certainly triumphant year for Mark and co.

Lighting The Touch Paper

If the previous year laid the fuse to Freak’s popularity, 2005 was the explosion all had hoped for. January saw Phil Kieran’s debut along with the introduction of membership cards and newsletter updates to those who signed up. DJ Mag also made an appearance and gave the night a glowing review!
Justin Robertson’s February appearance coincided with a slot on Pete Tong’s House Rules feature on Radio One as the club of the week, including interviews with Mark, Harvey, Leon and Neal from Central Station. Mark also had his track, “FreakZ”, played to the nation!

Much Happier Birthdays

The 2nd birthday celebrations landed once again on Easter weekend, although thankfully this time it didn’t involve any complications over the venue. Bank Holiday Sunday saw the busiest Freak night ever, with 650 people in before 11pm and the masses still queuing to get in! Jon Carter gave the crowd a performance to remember and consolidated Freak’s position as the leading underground night in the area even further. The buzz at this point was becoming incredible; people all around began talking about Freak and spreading the word. Regular appearances in clubbing publications as a “Hot Night” and coming highly “Recommended” kept the news of Mark’s achievements broadcasting around the country. The monthly events continued to attract new people in and kept them there with world-class headline acts and an unrivalled atmosphere and friendliness.
Another celebration came in June as the amazing Mr Robertson had a memorable night after the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to him. Not only did he play one of Freak’s most eclectic and varied sets, he also shared his birthday cake with the clubbers! So much for superstar egos.

Summer of Love No.2

A booking to play the Tribal Gathering festival in Luton was a high point toward the end of June, though sadly the party was pulled at the last minute due to licensing complications, much to the disappointment of all involved.
Wrexham enjoyed the warmer and slightly drier weather that the British summer offers as Jon Carter made his return while Freak expanded further and opened up the back room to be hosted by 2 Many JD’s, another up-and-coming local act. A wild night followed which culminated in Jon being dragged away by his driver as he didn’t want to leave the party! IDJ magazine were also on hand to provide another sterling review for the boys hard work.
August Bank Holiday means only two things to the Freak crowd; Creamfields and Tribal Gathering’s Warehouse party. As Mark was playing the Saturday night of Tribal, he decided to put on a special after party on the Sunday night in the Talbot Bar in Wrexham. A sell-out party featured outstanding sets from Mark and Harvey who both battled through with no sleep for two days to put on an amazing show.

Guest Slots, Geeks and Radio One Again

A new and improved website was launched in September and made information and updates readily available, something which was needed to boost the club’s profile. In addition to this, webmaster Danny began to program visuals for the event and provided live interaction with the music, which added a totally new dimension to the experience.
Freak hosted the bar area at Chibuku Shake Shake’s grand re-opening party which included international superstars such as London Elektricity and Jazzy Jeff. Mark and Harvey caused quite a stir on the behalf on the Wrexham massive, battering the room with some heavy tracks before Mark quite literally brought the roof down playing the Kaiser’s “I Predict A Riot” as the crows went wild and ripped down the camo netting, resulting in the power being cut!

A November date on the ‘Annie Mac Presents’ tour brought the lady herself to Wrexham along with DJ Touché and Rachel Barton. One of the most packed nights ever in Central Station and a truly memorable event with outstanding sets from all of the guests, the magic captured by a BBC film crew for ‘The Culture Show’. With radio and television appearances abound yet again the profile bar just kept on rising in the closing months of 2005.
Sankey’s once again invited the team up to host the bar area for them and they gained such a reaction that the bar was closed early to keep the punters in the main room for the headline acts!

December saw not only Justin’s final appearance as a resident, but also the introduction of an extension of Freak, Bass Freak. This off-shoot introduced a dedicated drum ‘n bass event into the area for the first time with local DJ’s warming up for the biggest name in DnB in 2005, Pendulum. Luckily past experiences have kept Mark on his toes, and the very late cancellation of the headliners was soon rectified by an appearance from Adam F.
And to top off a stunning year, a resident’s party was held in the Talbot on Boxing Day with Harvey tearing it up to yet another packed out room!

The Future of Freak

With so many achievements and such a buzz surrounding Freak, the coming months hold endless possibilities. The introduction of live music from Alloy Mental in March sees the boundaries of the club being pushed further and harder than ever before. The birthday celebrations this April see Erol Alkan making his debut in Wrexham and many more luminaries are set to join the party. As Freak spreads its wings the sky really does seem to be the limit.