World Headquarters: The History and Evolution, Part 1

We'd always collected all genres of Black music & alongside showcasing all our tunes in the Trent House, we followed Public Enemy around on their early UK tours. Music was everything & from the 1980s the concept of making a proper living from sharing it, was the dream.

By the mid 80s, we began staging large underground parties, as the risk of racism and violence, made the city centre scene too risky for us. Pre 'rave era' this was our chance to share our music with people who were sick of mainstream music and violence in clubs.

By the late 80s the rave scene and gangsters landed. Parties became way too dangerous, so we skipped to Clubs. Rockshots on the Gay scene welcomed us and we ran great nights there for years. Then, 80s House music exploded & we rode the wave & grew stronger.

Once we started to DJ in clubs, we formed a company called Determination Inc. Posters for a lot of the nights we ran in crazy places back in the day,  hang framed in the lobby of the World Headquarters Club today.

So, with luck and hustle, we eventually bought a tiny venue that had gone bust.  From day one, we set out to offer a credible and cosmopolitan alternative to the city's mainstream clubs. We finally had our own club and control over every aspect of it.

It was the dream realised. Our transition from being 'outlaws' into actual legitimate Nightclub ownership. We initially closed it for 6 months & plotted for WHQ to be the opposite of the drug fuelled insanity, that by the early 90s had the rest of the city in its grip

The club finally opened in 1993 and the police raided it on opening night. Typical... We just wanted a safe place to play Black music, separate from them and all the mayhem in the rest of the city

As time progressed, we seized this golden opportunity to run things exactly as we saw fit. No more having to play places with violent door staff or racism. Our music, in our place, for our own crowd. A mixed and multiracial one, who could all feel safe.

From day one it was on & soon the queues stretched right up the block. It was a magical place, where welcomed all the friendly dancers. A separate and unique underground subculture, totally under the mainstream's radar.

Suddenly in 2002, we heard the club was to be flattened, to make access for a bus station. We needed new premises, so acquired a 6 storey warehouse on the far side of Newcastle. We named it Curtis Mayfield House and this was to be our new home.

We had just a year to get it all fitted out and ready, as we'd pre-sold our old place and could only remain open for 12 more months. As the ominous clock of impending demolition ticked, never did pure hassle, dust and mess, take so long, or cost so much to turn into a Club.

By March 2003, Curtis Mayfield House was ready and it was time to say farewell to the Old Club. What an amazing home it had been. We covered it in woodland clippings for the final, emotional night and partied it back into the earth. It was demolished the very next day.