Ibiza-headlining DJs and Elvis impersonators rarely share the same address, let alone the same building. Yet in North Shields, an unassuming social club has turned this unlikely pairing into a thriving cultural experiment.
As heavy basslines ripple through the concert room, hundreds of dancers move freely beneath strobing lights and lasers. The atmosphere is closer to a festival tent than a neighbourhood club.
Downstairs, away from the pounding rhythm, another world continues undisturbed. Snooker balls click against felt tables, darts thud into boards, and conversation flows over cut-price pints. This is the King Street Social Club, a member-owned venue that has become one of the most talked-about party destinations in the UK.
The person behind the transformation is Geoff Kirkwood, better known in dance music circles as Man Power. An internationally respected DJ, he has played clubs and festivals across the globe.
Despite his travels, Kirkwood has never hidden his roots on Tyneside. When he returned home with an idea to host electronic music nights inside a working men’s club, it raised eyebrows.
“We managed to talk people into coming and doing something crazy — playing a working men’s club,” Kirkwood says. “And they absolutely loved it.” What began as an experiment has grown into Are You Affiliated, a series of club nights launched in 2022. The events now run about six times a year.
Each party attracts up to 750 people, many travelling from across the UK and even mainland Europe. Word has spread far beyond the North East. International dance music figures such as Caribou, Skream and Leftfield have all appeared on the King Street decks. For a town with an industrial past, the shift feels remarkable.
North Shields has long been associated with shipbuilding, fishing and mining. In recent years, musically, it has been known as the birthplace of singer-songwriter Sam Fender. Fender performed a surprise gig at King Street Social Club in 2019 after his debut album Hypersonic Missiles topped the charts.
That show, according to media reports at the time, upset some regulars and led to the cancellation of one of the club’s usual nights. Kirkwood has been careful not to repeat that kind of disruption. His agreement to sublet the club’s main concert room runs for 10 years, but compromise is essential.
“We’ve had to turn down international superstars because we couldn’t find another room to move the bingo into,” he says, laughing. For many promoters, such a limitation would be unthinkable. For Kirkwood, it has become a defining principle of the project.
“It sounds hilarious until you start seeing things from the members’ point of view,” he explains. “This is their club. We’re just guests.” Social clubs like King Street operate very differently from commercial venues. They are owned by their members and typically run on tight margins.
“No one here is trying to maximise profit,” Kirkwood says. “I’ve seen notices warning people that the price of a pint is going down by 50p next week.” That ethos, he adds, shapes everything about how Are You Affiliated operates. The electronic nights are fitted around existing activities, not the other way around.
Pinned to the noticeboard in the foyer are posters advertising upcoming events. Among them are an Elvis Presley tribute act and a psychic medium. These sit alongside flyers for DJs who regularly headline clubs like London’s Fabric and festivals such as Glastonbury and Coachella.
The contrast is striking, but inside the King Street Social Club it now feels oddly natural. Paul Yellop, the club’s secretary and Northumberland branch president of the Club & Institute Union, admits not everyone welcomed the change initially. The club has around 600 members, and the sudden media attention caused some unease.
“There was a fear from a few people that the place was going to be taken over,” Yellop says. Those concerns came at a difficult time for venues across the country. Nightclubs, pubs and grassroots spaces have been closing at alarming rates.
Yellop believes Covid played a significant role. “People got used to staying at home with a couple of cans from the supermarket,” he says. King Street Social Club already hosts pool, snooker and darts teams, as well as live bands. Even so, getting people through the door can be challenging.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get people to pay a few pounds to see a band,” Yellop admits. Against that backdrop, the DJ nights have become a financial lifeline. “The income helps us keep running,” he says. “They work well alongside what we already do.” Standing in the main bar, where members pay £3 for a pint and visitors just 50p more, Yellop is firm about the future.
“We’ve always been a social club, and we’ll continue to be one,” he says. Upstairs, the crowd tells a different but complementary story. Many of the attendees are clubbers in their twenties and thirties, drawn by the line-ups. Some have never set foot in a working men’s club before. Others relish the novelty of dancing above a snooker hall.
For Kirkwood, that collision of worlds is precisely the point. “The members don’t really see a difference between us having a DJ night and having an Elvis impersonator on another evening,” he says. “Ours is louder, maybe, but it’s the same principle.”
The success has not gone unnoticed beyond North Shields. Recently, Are You Affiliated received nearly £40,000 in funding from the North East mayor. The money is intended to help expand the project and develop a broader cultural offering.
Kirkwood says the goal is bigger than throwing parties. He sees the initiative as part of a wider effort to rescue a struggling grassroots scene. “Something like 70% of small-to-medium clubs have closed in the last two years,” he says.
Touring bands, he explains, increasingly skip regions like the North East due to rising costs. Playing multiple nights at one venue has become more economical. As a result, areas outside major cities are missing out.
Kirkwood wants King Street Social Club to challenge that trend. He envisions the room becoming as well-equipped and professional as any purpose-built venue. Electronic music will remain central, but it will not dominate. “It’s just one strand,” he says. “There’s so much more we can do.”
The club has already hosted Django Django, the Mercury Prize-nominated art-rock band, as well as a symphonic performance composed by Kirkwood himself. Future plans include nights dedicated to indie, rock, folk and hip-hop. The ambition is broad, but the setting remains grounded.
Despite the lasers, international DJs and social media buzz, the heart of the project lies in coexistence. On any given night, a club member can ignore the thumping bass upstairs and enjoy a quiet game of darts below.
For others, the appeal is precisely that sense of shared space. In an era when many communities are losing their meeting places, King Street Social Club has found a way to adapt without abandoning its identity.
What started as a gamble now stands as a rare example of collaboration between generations, cultures and musical worlds. In North Shields, the future of nightlife may not lie in shiny new venues, but in breathing fresh energy into the ones that already exist.
