Garlands is celebrating its 30th Birthday with a huge party at Camp and Furnace

Liverpool club legend Garlands is celebrating its Dirty Thirty with a huge party this month at Camp and Furnace.

It’s 30 years since the Eberle Street icon changed clubbing in the city and even though it’s been closed for four years, it’s still as adored as ever. Now if Garlands made you do it back in the day, or even if you’ve just heard amazing stories, it’s going to be recreated in honour of its big birthday.

This time clubbers will have to follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Baltic Triangle where some of the original team and residents will be bringing back the magic on Saturday November 25. The night has been put together by Garlands promoter Adam Wilson who worked there in its heyday, from being an 18-year-old flyer boy to entertainments, promotions and DJ.

He says when somewhere is as well-loved as Garlands, there’s a responsibility in keeping the legacy going:

“It had such a big impact on so many people, going there was a safe space where you could be who you wanted to be, so it would be a shame not to do it but you’ve got to do it right. Everyone involved in this has so much emotion tied into the brand, bringing that original Garlands spirit, and we’ve put together all these little elements so when people leave they feel incredible.”

“The smaller room in Camp and Furnace is going to be the Boudoir playing disco classics, funk and Motown like it did before and the main room will be house classics. And we’ll have all those cheeky little Garlands numbers that don’t have any right to be played but were such anthems for us.”

The DJ line-up will have former residents like Adam himself, Ant Chandler, Lil John and Les Calvert playing all the biggest tracks from the three decades plus live PAs including Duke’s So In Love With You which is a massive one from the 90s.

“It is 30 years which is a huge span of time and what I would think of Garlands would be very different to what someone else might so with the bookings we’ve got I tried to capture the core times,” explains Adam.

There’ll also be plenty of dress-up and décor that anyone who went to the club will recognise. “Obviously we’ll have the blow-up microphones and giant glasses, maybe a little Wendy house, and we’re back on the hunt for terrible old people’s clothes again! We used to go to the same shops every week to get them, I’ve spent so many days and weeks going round charity shops and Poundland buying all kinds, but that was what Garlands was. It was very rough and ready, which was the whole point of it.

“Because we’ve got a lot of the original crew, people like Chris Griff, they’re all happy to get dressed up so once they do hopefully anyone who is on the edge will get fully involved too.”

Camp and Furnace was the venue for a Garlands day festival in July and Adam says it was fantastic.

“The mentality and the music, everything came together and there were so many old faces I’ve not seen for years. I did think we might struggle to recreate the atmosphere because it’s not in the same building but the last one really felt like old times. With the Dirty Thirty party I just want everyone to take away the Garlands feeling inside – it doesn’t compare to anything else, from the music to the people, to all the props, I just hope they go home with the biggest smile on their faces. Hopefully we bring back some special memories.”