Sound Division lap it up at Wildcats
When young entrepreneur Matthew Haycox first met Sound Division Group's David Graham at the Bar Show several years ago, he was still in the early stages of developing his chain of Wildcats lap dancing clubs.
But in little more than three years the 26-year-old has developed a portfolio of eight prime sites. This includes his most recently-developed, two-storey flagship site in Leeds — which Sound Division have fitted from the ground up with an advanced, integrated JBL sound system and Panasonic plasma displays distributed across 11 zones.
Because of the complex nature of the installation — with sound relayed to 16 small private dance booths (five enclosed within a Bedouin styled tent on the first floor), four larger ones and the girls' changing rooms, as well as the general areas — clever digital source switching was required. This has been provided in the shape of the Soundweb London BLU DSP networking device, with local source and volume selection at the bar. Sound Division have also supplied a fully-equipped DJ booth on the ground floor, designed specifically for this style of operation, with a Denon DN-D6000 twin CD player, Allen & Heath Xone:62 professional mixer and the much used Shure SM58 handheld microphone for show calling.
Matt Haycox has established a winning formula since opening his first Wildcats in Wakefield back in 2004, and today his company, The Provocative Group, turns over £4.5 million.
"Our criteria is to operate in prime locations — since this is a high street activity, which is very circuit led. Ideally I look for 5,000 sq ft sites operating on one floor."
As the estate developed two separate operating models were established: The A model functions in secondary towns where the company owns the freehold, while the B model is rolled out in primary cities such as Leeds, Bristol and Birmingham … and ultimately London
Typically, an 'A' venue will cost around £400,000 to fit out and a B club £750K, although the former Baby Cream in Leeds has cost in the region of £1m.
Matt Haycox says he "lived in lap dance bars for five years" before seeing it as a commercial opportunity. "I had had a couple of unsuccessful forays into bars but lap dance clubs ticked all the boxes. I could see the opportunity for a national brand that would be profitable on a local level."
David Graham's team had already demonstrated the speed at which they could respond when an urgent/last minute call came from Matt requiring cable and a Cable Schedule; they also showed their strong business ethic in renovating, reprogramming and reconditioning all the existing Martin Audio sound system in Wildcats Bristol, to make the former Velvet Lounge serviceable.
Working alongside architect Jenny Bedell-Harper of InHaus Design in Leeds, Sound Division recommended a JBL sound reinforcement throughout to reproduce the type of lounge music appropriate to the concept. Either side of the pole on the main stage SDG has flown large AM4215/95 speakers, complemented by Control 28's in the bar and Control 29AV's upstairs to cover the restaurant which has its own a pole stage.
The private booths are serviced by Control 25's (with the smaller booths and upstairs dance rooms on a distributed 100V line system). Further Control 25's are found in the ladies' changing rooms while discreet Control 24CM recessed ceiling speakers pump music out to the toilets.
The entire system is driven by the Soundweb London BLU-80 DSP (on an 8 x 8 matrix) with power provided by Crown XTi series amplifiers.
The venue's clientele is never very far from the Wildcats AV promotional show reel, looped from a Denon DN-V100 DVD player onto eight Panasonic 42in plasma screens, with a Kramer VS-88 8-way switcher providing up to eight separate feeds.
The installation was project managed by JLC Project Manager Richard Astley, and completed on schedule and to budget.
Commented David Graham, "Both Bristol and Leeds ended up completing within a month of each other so it was important that we had a professional workforce who were able to maintain tight control. That we were able to run these two projects simultaneously also says much for Matt himself, who is a great client to work for."
Graham is particularly pleased about the integration at Leeds. "We have EQ'd the system to produce a rounded, warm sound; this has been complimented by the dancers, who say they like to work to good-quality music."
The next port of call for Provocative will be Birmingham's John Bright Street, where Matt Haycox has taken over the former Spearmint Rhino (as they did in Harrogate). Here the technology will evolve further, with creative use of LED lighting.
And with other contracts already at an advanced stage, the aim is to have ten Wildcats open and trading by early in 2008.
December 2007