Shaking up the club scene

Marcia Rowe, Gleaner Writer

Familiarity breeds contempt, the saying goes. And when translated in the corporate world, where customers/patrons become exhausted by the same old product or service, this can spell disaster for a company. Often, the solution to 'fami-liarity' of a particular product or service is to reinvent or rebrand it.

The Quad, located in New Kingston, over the years became one of the victims of familiarity. The result was a fall in the size of crowds and the closure of one of their four levels. Under new management, the entertainment complex has embarked on a rebranding mission, to include the renaming of the floors and a complete refurbishing of the interior. New entertainment components are also expected.

Ultimate night spot

"We are transforming The New Quad (its new name) into the ultimate night spot, with a variety of new features," said Andre Minott-Blake, outgoing public relations and marketing manager. And, only two days in the job, Ibraham "IB" Konteh, said, "We'd rather change things before things get worse".

Last Saturday was the second of one of these new features. "Smirnoff Extreme Saturdays" targets college students who, with identification, enter free before the magical hour of midnight. However, it seems that not only those traversing the path of higher education were attracted.

Those who arrived before 12:30 were also treated to complimentary 'Smirnoff Shots'. Patrons also had the opportunity to purchase Smirnoff drinks at a special rate for the duration of the party - thus the title.

The party spanned the three functional levels of the quad, Christopher's, Oxygen and Voodoo. As the night marched on into early Sunday morning, there was a steady stream of party animals heading up to the two main dance floors. However, perhaps due to the DJs playing a wider genre of music or the young females' inability to navigate more steps in their high stilettoes, Oxygen seemed to have been the popular choice for the early arrivals.

On the Voodoo level, the pulsating rhythms of dancehall from artistes such as Beenie Man, Sean Paul and Bounty Killer spilled over to the deck, where some patrons were smoking or just hanging out. Among them were Theo Weller, a University of Technology (UTech) graduate, and UTech student Michelle Tracey.

'I heard it's good'

"I heard it's good," said a smiling Tracey. In fact, she heard it from Weller, who attended one of the parties the previous week, but could not remember if it was Friday or Saturday. He has been an ardent fan of the Quad and has returned "because it was always good; I heard that it is under new management".

Tracey and Weller have noticed the refurbishing stage and cited the change in colours of the interior walls and some objects.

However, before you plan to be at the next weekly 'Smirnoff Extreme Saturday', you need to take note of what happened to college student Kerry.

She arrived at the party wearing the incorrect attire and was denied entry. So, off went the Washington Garden-based resident to her home. She returned later in, let us say, acceptable Quad attire.