IT was the stuff of legend – an innovative music policy which featured a wide range of dance music pumping from four different rooms, a stunning, up-market setting and Glasgow’s glitterati turning out in all their finery.
The event, next Sunday, September 24, brings back some of the key players in the original Mansion House story to the venue which played such an important role, The Corinthian in Glasgow’s Ingram Street . “I thought The Corinthian wasn’t really my sort of place but I went along to see them,” he said. “There were only 2 DJs and two couples there. No one else. The place was empty.Chuff Chuff itself provided some inspiration, as it had staged parties in stately homes and grand hotels all over England.
In 1993, the local licensing board stopped entry into clubs after midnight and insisted they close by 2am. A headline in The Independent newspaper the following year suggested Glasgow’s nightlife had been “clubbed to death”. The newspaper reported “riots in the city centre on the first night of its enforcement”.Even today, when the restrictions have been relaxed, Laurie still believes they “single-handedly destroyed what it had taken so long to build up.
And because the Mansion House nights were held just six times a year, they became recognised as true events, still talked about fondly by those who were there.