Due to continuing disagreements with the owner of Escape, Danny Slade leaves one of the most successful dance organisations in the UK and one that he was instrumental in setting up.
Escape started in 1995 and was based on Danny’s highly successful ‘Up For It!’ night that ran in Tenby. Escape owner Jonathan Wignall visited ‘Up For It! looking for a new direction for his ‘Vallebonne’ Club in Swansea which was an over 25’s night. He first tried to start Escape on his own but his nights were not well received. He eventually approached Danny through another promoter and they struck a deal. Danny then secured Pete Tong for the opening night on July 8th and the rest as they say is ‘dance music history’!
In 2000 ‘Escape Into The Park’ was started as Wales’ only dance festival and for the last 6 years it has reigned supreme! Against insurmountable odds and pressure from all of the other dance festival organisers, Danny secured the services of some of the biggest DJ’s on the planet, including; Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk, Erick Morillo, Sasha, Ferry Corsten, Kenny Dope Gonzalez and Ronni Size.
Things started going wrong last Christmas after Danny was told to block DJ’s playing at other dance nights in the South Wales area. This was after some major errors of judgement by Escape’s owner, which led to a number of rival clubs and nights starting in the locality. After having to book extra DJ’s in the venue, Danny was then told to cancel them just as the flyers were being proofed for the following months which caused a great deal of annoyance to certain DJ agents and management companies, who quite rightly were annoyed and frustrated at what was going on.
Eventually disarray ensued in the Escape organisation, which led to the owner taking over the bookings. This was greatly fuelled by the behaviour of one of the other resident DJ’s who was so desperate to get rid of Danny that he would try anything, including; handing in his resignation and saying he would only come back to the club if Danny was sacked and even trying to get a court injunction against him over a flippant and comical comment posted on the Escape forum.
When Danny was asked to comment he said the following:
“Things have been hard for me at Escape in the last 10 months. I have poured my heart and soul into Escape for over a decade now. It hurts me that it has had to come to this but I couldn’t go on anymore. Escape was once a clubbing institution in Wales but with the door and bar prices being greatly inflated and the venue not having any real money spent on it for many years, it has lost a great deal of respect from the Welsh clubbing community.
I would greatly like to thank Sue Lewis for her support and all of the agents, press and most importantly clubbers for their loyalty over the years. I have been lucky enough to bring some of the biggest names in dance music to Swansea and indeed Wales and have helped the careers of a number of welsh DJ’s.
My biggest find must have been ‘Big Al’ who I first met when he naively put on an event in a Go Kart ring with a big name guest on the bill who I knew wasn’t even booked. He couldn’t afford to pay me but I felt sorry for him so I gave him a monthly slot at my “Up For It!
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