page_title: Trade (nightclub)
section_title: Early years 1990–1995
hierarchical_section_title: Trade (nightclub) / Early years 1990–1995
caption_attribution_description: English: Outside Turnmills nightclub venue, corner of Farringdon Lane and Clerkenwell Road
context_page_description: Trade was an influential gay London nightclub started in 1990 by Laurence Malice. Trade was unlike any other club at the time as it opened from 3 am until 1 pm on Sundays at Turnmills, Clerkenwell Road. The club was touted as "the original all night bender". The door policy was: "You don't have to be gay or a member to get in, but your attitude and look will count".
context_section_description: Trade was the second clubnight Laurence had run at Turnmills; his first was Xanadu, which he co-hosted with the club promoter Robert Pereno. Laurence was a member of the electronic music duo Big Bang when he opened Trade. Trade initially took around 3–4 months to grow in popularity. At the time, other clubs such as Heaven, G-A-Y and The Fridge closed at around 2 am to 3 am on Sunday mornings, an hour or so before Trade opened at 3 am. It took a while for clubbers to cotton on to the fact that they were able to go straight on to Trade to continue clubbing all night after the other clubs had closed. Once they did, Trade exploded into the phenomena it became.
  At the time many guys went cruising in the parks after leaving other clubs. The name 'Trade' and the opening hours was to encourage guys to go to the club as a safer alternative.
  Turnmills was the first club in the UK to be given a 24-hour "Music & Dance" licence. This was gained after Laurence Malice had for a long period of time tried to convince Mr Newman that there was a need for people to be able to party in a safe environment after 3 am. 
  Due to this licensing advantage, the venue's role was crucial to the success of Trade.
  Soon after Trade launched, the small original sound system had to be rapidly improved to cope with the tough demands being made of it. Each improvement made resulted in more people enjoying the music, that was the ethic. The sound system played an important part in the club's success, there were multiple sound systems, each to cover an area and it was equalised (tone controls) in real time for each record to maximise sound quality and enjoyment.  This was a unique approach at the time and paid great dividends.
  An air cooled, single colour laser was installed to complement the dance floor.  John Newman (AKA Big John), the owner of Turnmills, was often seen in the DJ booth operating the light show & laser with a wide smile on his face.
  Turnmill's dance floor was originally constructed of metal and the walls where covered in Athena and film poster. Laurence would spend all week washing and fire-retarding heavy black wool fabric, which was used to cover the tacky décor of the venue. Mr Newman would turn up at his venue prior to the Trade party, produce a lighter from his pocket and try and burn the fabric. This was a tedious weekly ceremony. After many many months, Mr Newman ditched the ceremony, dumped his kitsch decoration and painted the walls with black paint to create a "theatrical" (infinite) background. Using this blank canvas, Trade produced fluorescent banners and wall hangings illuminated by ultra violet lighting. These were created by Tim, Martin Brown and TradeMark (the artist who became closely associated with the club, later becoming Trade's manager). The banner and decoration themes changed regularly, usually on the special events parties held at Easter and on the Trade birthday party each October with spectacular fluorescent mobiles and effects projections.
  Small video clips of the Trade dance floor appeared in the 1993 video 'Trance Vision Dance Volume 1' to accompany the 11th track on the video 'Let's Rock' by E. Trax.
  Around 1993/4 a water-cooled white-light laser was installed. This was a substantial investment. With  a 3-phase 415-volt electricity supply and a constant supply of cold water running through it from the water mains.  The term "white light" can be confusing. It actually means that the light generated can be filtered to provide the full colour (rainbow) spectrum.
caption: Turnmills - Trade's London home.
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