‘I was completely blown away that a place like this could exist, it was just this feeling of joyous, unbridled happiness.’
Connections owner Tim Brown recounts his first time entering the club as a teenager. Now Brown is celebrating twenty years of professional involvement in Connections. We wondered how the club had changed over the years.
‘What’s interesting is the bones of it are the same, things do change, music changes, the layout changes and the people going through the room change but what’s nice about Connections is the consistency of it. There is still a feeling of that hedonism. One of the newer DJ’s recently described it well saying “It’s like a private party that’s just about to blow out to the point where the cops are called, but it just never quite makes it.‒
‘I like that description, it should be a place to let loose, but I think the reason it never blows out is because it’s self regulating… it has a sense of purpose and ownership by the community… everyone’s looking out for everyone else.
Brown voted Donna Summer’s I Feel Love as the song he’s heard the most over the last twenty years, but also confessed that there is one song that he never wants to hear again. He doesn’t need to worry though, he banned it years ago.
The fact that none of the club’s competitors that were around in the early 1990’s remain is not lost on Brown. We asked why he thought Connections had out lasted Limbo, Exit, Freezer, Berlin, DC’s and all the others places we were going out to twenty years ago.
‘I believe the secret is remembering who your customers are and interacting with them. The fact that I’m still actively visible within the place twenty years on, you work to maintain that, you have to be engaged with people. It’s not about being gay and lesbian; it’s about of group of people… who have a common interest and being custodian of that, it’s my responsibility to understand what they want and make sure they feel like they belong.’
Graeme Watson
