DISTRICT: THE HEARTBEAT OF THE BALTIC TRIANGLE’S MUSIC REVOLUTION
District holds a special place in the music ecology of our great music city. Like all great grassroots venues, it is run by people driven by a passion for music. And like all my favourite venues it is a small genuinely atmospheric space that comes alive as soon as someone is on stage. However, the history of this particular venue is also inextricably linked to the story of the Baltic Triangle’s rise to national and international prominence.
The venue is run by Jayne Casey and Eric Gooden – two well-respected music figures in their own right before they took on the challenge of running a small venue. Eric is quiet and understated with a warm welcome for everyone who comes into the venue but he has a long successful career as a musician/producer behind him with some big tunes to his name. AND he was co-founder of Bush Records.
Jayne is an unsung hero of Liverpool’s music and culture and should be celebrated as one of the city’s great mavericks and creative disrupters.
I’ve been in awe of Jayne ever since I saw her on stage at Eric’s club when I was 15. She had an exotic, mesmerising presence, absolutely dominating the stage. This was no mean feat when you consider that Big In Japan, the wonderfully chaotic band she fronted, also contained other big characters in the shape of Holly Johnson, Ian Broudie, and Bill Drummond. After the inevitable collapse of Big In Japan (way too many big personalities for one group), Jayne went on to form Pink Military and Pink Industry, bands which both pushed post-punk musical boundaries to their absolute limits.
The next big musical revolution after punk was house music in the late 90s, and once again, Jayne was at the very heart of it. She was part of the team that propelled Cream and Creamfields into becoming the biggest electronic music brand in the world.
But Jayne was about much more than music. I remember her typically creative and mischievous curation of the city’s first comedy festival in the early 90s. And who could forget the Capital of Culture opening show, including Ringo on the roof of St Georges Hall, for which she was the Artistic Director.
All of this eventually led to Jayne and Eric setting up District in the then largely desolate Baltic Triangle. Jayne first realised the potential of the area when she was working with the visual arts organisation the A Foundation and the Liverpool Biennial. She managed to secure the use of some of these buildings for artists during the 2002 Biennial and like a true visionary saw the potential hidden beneath the area’s ugly exterior.
Jayne was in the unique position of seeing how she and her gang of mates had transformed the Mathew Street area in the mid-70s from a place nobody wanted to go to into one of the coolest streets occupied by Eric’s, Probe Records, the Armadillo tea room and more. Developers then seized on this upturn in the area’s fortune and forced out the ‘weirdos’, Jayne was there again in the 90s when the same thing happened again with the Rope Walks area.
Jayne saw the potential of the Baltic but wanted to ensure that the cycle of developers moving in and forcing creatives out wouldn’t be repeated. It was Jayne’s thinking that inspired me to embark on the journey to set up what became Baltic Creative CIC, where the buildings were owned by and for the creative sector. Jayne was an early mover, and before we, as Baltic Creative, were in a position to buy the buildings, Jayne and Eric had already taken the lease on what became District.
From memory, Baltic Creative completed the purchase of the buildings in 2010, but District, who now became our tenants, had been there from 2004/5. It is hard to think of it now, but in those days, nobody thought of going to the Baltic unless maybe you wanted your car fixed. That was a real problem in the early days of the venue as there was no tradition of going on a night out in the Baltic. If you went to a gig the only places you could hang out before or after were the Brewery Tap or the Coburg pub.
Because of this, many of the early gigs were Dry Bar shows for young people as part of the partnership with the old Picket venue. As Jayne explains, ‘’Young people were the only ones interested in coming down to the Baltic. It didn’t matter to them that there wasn’t much in the area because they were just coming for the Dry Bar gigs and the skate park. It was difficult to get outside promoters to put shows on with us for the same reason- they weren’t sure they could sell tickets for a show in the Baltic.’
‘Looking back now it’s all about the good times because the Baltic was built and it’s working. But we took a big risk and for the first few years, nobody thought it would happen. I never had any doubts the Baltic would eventually work but it was a question of if we could hang on until it took off. ‘
‘Being honest I always knew the benefits would come to the next generation, and not us. But I saw it as a full stop on my career as an artist and as a legacy project – ownership of the buildings meant we couldn’t get moved on.’
Thankfully, Jayne and Eric stuck it out through the hard times, and as the area began to take off, they developed the District brand, which was around diverse programming, a supportive environment for artists and a safe, welcoming space for audiences.
One of the things that has always set District apart has been its ongoing support for Black music, and Jayne explained how this had always been a key part of their programming. ‘One of the first things we wanted to do after we got the building was a Block Party with Trevor Nelson headlining. The police turned us down on the basis that they couldn’t cope with black people coming into the city from out of town. We cancelled the show, but I demanded a meeting with the police and the council as a result and got them into a place where they realised they couldn’t just ban black music. And as an employer, we have always had black employees. We live in a mixed community and our club reflects that.
When I ask Jayne and Eric about their favourite events they pick two which highlight the diversity that makes the venue special. ‘ We loved the Boss Nights here, working on those special nights with a bunch of people celebrating football and music. Jamie Webster came out of those nights. Bongos Bingo was happening over the road at the same time as well so two big things emerged from the Baltic. ’‘The other one is the Eat Me and Peach drag nights, which are still taking place here now after 5 or 6 years.’
As though looking after one venue wasn’t enough Jayne and Eric now have a second operation in the form of District House in New Brighton. It is an area that occupies a special place in Jayne’s heart. She ran away to New Brighton when she was just 14 years old and had fond memories of attending glam nights at the old Chelsea Reach club. District House opened a few months ago on the site of an old bank and currently opens Thursday to Sunday as what Jayne calls a ‘deli arts bar’ with a small art gallery, food, and obviously music.
I’m sure the pair will make a real go of this new enterprise but we finish our chat by returning to District and future plans. Eric admits that like every other venue it has been a struggle since the pandemic. However, bookings are already looking good for 2025 so there is real optimism again. Jayne as ever is looking forward and teases me by saying ‘We have got exciting, ambitious plans that will surprise everyone! It will change the city’. With pretty much anyone else I’d take that with a pinch of salt but when it’s Jayne Casey saying it then we had all better take note!
The Baltic now rejoices in a wide range of great venues including 24 Kitchen Street, Arts Bar Baltic, Jacaranda Baltic, Camp and Furnace, and Content but we should never forget the role played by the pioneering Baltic venue, District.
Written by Kevin Mcmanus