Sheffield DJ organising 'Kingdom reunion' after thousands enjoy Facebook sets of club classics

Martin Wright, known as Cheggers, worked at clubs such as Pulse, Vogue, Club Wow and Kingdom.

He said: “I was at Club Wow in 1997 and I moved over to Kingdom. I was resident there from 2001-2006, when it closed.

“Last year lockdown hit the entertainment industry and I suddenly found myself overnight out of work. I decided to go on to Facebook because I saw DJs streaming sets.

“I thought ‘let’s do a Kingdom reunion’. I’ll play some tunes we used to play back in the day 20 years ago. A few people who used to go to the club back then were my Facebook friends. I jumped on there and did it one Friday – within a day it got 5,000 views.

"People said, ‘this is good, it takes us back to when we used to go clubbing’. It’s not so much Gatecrasher, which was more a niche market, it’s more the ‘Sharon and Tracey’ market.”

Martin said the feedback was great and people wanted more, so his Friday livestreams became a regular event. “People were dancing in their kitchens – some were doing disco lights and buying smoke machines and turning their living rooms into a nightclub."

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The idea for a reunion came about because people were catching up with old friends and speaking in the chat room, so they wanted a chance to meet up again for one big night.

Martin finished his online sets about a month ago, now that people can go out properly again, and he’s been flat out organising the reunion. “I wanted to go out on a high,” he said.

The original venue is no longer availabl, so the Kingdom/Pulse Reunion takes place at the Leadmill on August 29 from 6pm to 11pm.

Martin’s been selling special Kingdom T-shirts to raise money for the event, which will feature Martin, Big Ang, Harry Hard, Kuta and Mannie, who were all resident DJs in city clubs at the time.

The event has also been extended with a special pre-club West Street bar crawl. Party-goers buy a wristband which lets them into Molly Malone’s and West Street Live, where there will be a DJ. The wristbands then allow them to get on a special bus provided by FirstBus, which will take them to the Leadmill. The bus will make three trips in total.

This is a nostalgic nod to the bus that used to take clubbers from town out to Valley Centertainment to Pulse and Vogue.

Martin is amazed at how things are taking shape: “We’ve gone from doing the stream to doing a reunion night with a bar crawl around West Street.

“It’s not just Sheffield – people are coming from Dublin, Newcastle, Newquay, St Ives and booking into hotels, making a weekend of it.

"They are so enthusiastic about it – they just want to feel 19 and 20 again. Now we’re bringing them all together for this event, they’re so excited about it.”

He added: “It’s gone a bit bonkers, really!”

For tickets, go to www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Sheffield/The-Leadmill/KingdomPulse-Reunion/35803910 and also check out the Facebook page, Sheffield Clubbers Reunion.

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