Forgotten music remembered at new Sheffield club night

The group set up La Luna Social Club, based at the DINA arts venue in the city centre, where DJs play a mix of disco, funk and soul of the last 40 years.

The club was started by a group of music lovers and friends, Dean Bargh, Sarah Wilson, Gareth James and, Katie Boulton, who took time out from their banking, publishing and NHS day jobs to bring together like-minded souls.

La Luna Social Club was launched earlier this year, and attracts people of all ages.

One of the social club’s organisers, Dean Bargh, said: “We had a blast at the Fleetmac Wood rave, shimmied the night away at at the Northern Soul night, strutted our stuff at the Bowie experience, threw some shapes in front of Greg Wilson at Festival 23, boogied down at the Botanical Disco at Shambala and generally danced our socks off at anyone’s party.

“We had thought our clubbing days were over but it seemed we still wanted to party.

​”We thought how could we combine all these experiences into one place? We so wanted our own night, a night where we could hear some great tunes, meet up with friends old and new, and still get up in the morning to attend to our grown-up lives.

“So we thought, let’s do our ow and La Luna Social Club was born.”

The DJs play hand-picked forgotten floor-fillers mixing with Fleetwood Mac, Nile Rodgers, David Bowie and Toots and The Maytals.

Dean said: “With familiar tunes and seldom-heard classics, the club nights are perfect for the discerning kitchen-dancer and provide a place where they could put down their iPads and get up to get down to some wicked tunes, while also clocking up a seriously high number of steps on their Fitbits.

“They have fond recollections of the dancefloors of our fine city’s heyday and a yearning for some funky, sophisticated sounds.”

This new venture had to have a heart, it had to be a social club, with a community feel and a true purpose.

It only costs £5 for a ticket to the club night when bought online in advance, or £6 on the door on the night, and half of the money raised for ticket sales goes straight to a Sheffield charity.

Each time there is a club night, the money is donated to a different charity, as chosen by the founding members.

The first three charities to benefit from La Luna Social Club are Roundabout, Sheffield Foyer and Learn for Life Enterprise.

Roundabout supports young homeless people and provide them with shelter, support and life skills.

Sheffield Foyer provide safe and affordable accommodation for disadvantaged young people aged 16 to 25 who are homeless or in housing need.

Learn for Life Enterprise is a community hub looking after vulnerable and hard-to-reach people, including many refugees and asylum seekers.

Dean said: “Our policy is to support Sheffield charities who cater for the Sheffield area. It’s part of our community ethos.

“Both Roundabout and Sheffield Foyer assist the young homeless, which it goes without saying is essential work. Learn for Life is a charity I have volunteered for myself, who support the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach, including asylum seekers. “

There’s also a raffle. Everyone who attends one of the club nights is given a free raffle ticket, with prizes donated by Sheffield independent businesses.

Dean added: “The venue for La Luna Social Club had to be right. DINA is Sheffield’s newest and hippest arts centre, in a building that used to be both a Sunday school and spoon factory.

“It is an amazing not-for-profit venture with the same values as La Luna Social Club, it’s in the heart of the city on Cambridge Street and it looks pretty cool when it’s decked out for a La Luna night.

There’s even a four-foot moon, come and get your photo taken in front of it.”

The next La Luna Social Club, which will be the third, is on Saturday, October 12, from 8pm. The event, which will be raising funds for Learn for Life Enterprise will run until 1am on Sunday, October 13.

Each of the previous club nights have been attended by about 200 people.

Dean said: “The feedback has been tremendous. There’s a community out there who want to listen to some classy old-school funk and disco, have a good dance, socialise at the same time, and still get home before 2am.

“We get told that we’re just what people have been waiting for. Many of our network of people aren’t interested in drum n bass or all-nighters but don’t want to be fobbed off with mainstream hangouts with wedding-DJ music.

“Two of the slogans we use are ‘conscious clubbing’ and ‘partying with purpose’ and those things are really important to our crowd.”

The headline DJ for the October 12 event are Tripping on Sound, who are regulars at Peddler Market among other venues.

Visit www.lalunasocialclub.co.uk for tickets. You can also e-mail [email protected]. You can also search ‘La Lana Social Club’ on Facebook.