Introduction
The Park was established by the brothers Singh. Formerly a retail and warehouse premises, the building was redesigned internally to provide maximum flexibility as a leisure venue.
Since opening its doors on 10th December 1999, The Park quickly built up a reputation for providing a diversity of music in the form of live music and club nights.
Live Music - The Main Stage in Peterborough
Working with local promoter Chris Lovell, The Club With No Name moved to The Park in January 2000 and helped put the city on the map in terms of live music scene. Bands such as, Kasabian, Keane, The Kaiser Chiefs (Parva), Hundred Reasons, The Cooper Temple Clause, Wheatus, The Damned, The Fall and The Beat have all performed at the venue, along with hundreds of others. The Park has also given local bands with the opportunity to share a stage with signed headliners and to promote their own nights. More recently the venue has been working closely with Jon Morgan of Just What You Want Concerts. Jon has bought an array of emerging talent to Peterborough including, The Datsuns, The Answer, Roadstar, Firewind, 3 Inches of Blood, Shiny Toy Guns, Breed 77, Lorraine and Raging Speedhorn. Eight years on and the venue is still hosting some of the best signed and unsigned live music talent in the world.
Urban Music - Pioneers in Peterborough
In creating a truly diverse music venue in 1999, the brothers Singh chose to champion minority music styles with their club nights. The easy option would have been to copy other local clubs and provide yet more dance and cheesy pop nights. Instead The Park quickly established itself as the best place in East Anglia for regular urban music nights featuring the best local, national and international, RnB, Hip-Hop, Reggae and Drum & Bass DJ's and artists. The Park's flagship urban club night - Suite Chocolate became and still is recognised around the UK as a top club night. DJ's including, Trevor Nelson, Tim Westwood, Chris Goldfinger, Dreem Team, David Rodigan, Grooverider and Shy FX have all visited Peterborough to play at Suite Chocolate. More recently BBC Radio 1Xtra have broadcast live across the UK and Europe from The Park. Add to this a roster of International artists including, Coolio, Shola Ama, N-Dubz, So Solid Crew, Aswad, Gregory Isaccs, Freddie McGregor, Dawn Penn, The 411, Stone Love, Tony Matterhorn, Bass Odyssey, and you can see how The Park has been instrumental in putting urban music on the map in the region.
The Park has also helped local urban music DJ's realise their full potential, taking many out of the bedroom and putting them in front of a crowd of hundreds. Is it any wonder that DJ's from as far a field as London, Leicester, Birmingham and Nottingham are willing to travel to play at The Park. The Park Posse is a collective of some of the best urban music DJ's and includes; DJ Tee, Cryer DJ, T-Rex, Supa T, DJ Firestarr, DJ UK, DJ Lion and KJC.
Seven years down the line and The Park's innovative style in promoting urban music has now been copied by other local clubs. They may have split their venues to accommodate an "RnB Room", and they may even have tried to poach The Park's DJ's, but their urban vibes are a million miles from the genuine urban underground scene that is The Park.
The Park - Eight years on and still keeping it real!
