“The goal from the start has been to create something new, something different.” Rob Burn is the founder Ten87 Studios in Tottenham, an independent London-based organisation that runs more than 50 recording studios. And in creating his new club and music venue Radial, which opens this Friday, September 4, he hopes to build on the community that Ten87 Studios has cultivated.
“Ten87 centres around a group of around 200 artists, creators and producers who use our recording studios,” he tells Broadsheet. “Neighbours become friends and collaborators. This has always been at the core of what our purpose is. Having an onsite venue has always been a way for people to come together and to open our community up to the local and wider scenes and industry. This was the foundation of Radial.”
The road to opening Radial hasn’t been smooth. Back in 2016, Burn managed to secure funding from the arts and local councils to build a network of recording studios at the Tottenham site – then collaborated with major club owners to open Five Miles, a club which ran for three years until the pandemic forced it to close. It then went through other iterations (a ramen shop, then a music-focussed bar called Moko, the sister venue to Peckham’s Jumbi). When it was sold again, Burn put in a “huge amount of work” to bring it back. “Thankfully enough people believed in the dream and we’ve made it happen,” he says. The community he built around Ten87 will continue to be involved – and have helped make Radial happen.
The result is a 250-capacity club focused around one main space, boasting some serious tech and design cred. Radial’s custom-built sound system has been created by Burn’s mate Nick Whitaker, an acoustic consultant “responsible for building and designing some of the most important venues and recording studios in London (and beyond) since the ’80s,” Burn says. “He was involved in helping with Plastic People on Curtain Road in Shoreditch – a club that really made a big impact on me in my early years as a musician in London.” Together, they decided on a 10-point Martin Audio/Funktion-One rig, fully customised to fit the space.
The design of the club – by Soda Studio (Sessions Arts Club, Soho Theatre Walthamstow) in collaboration with Whitaker – was also led by sound. “Nick and Soda put a huge amount of work into creating the perfect acoustic balance within the space via panelling, absorption and diffusion on the walls and ceiling,” Burn says. “This has helped create a very even translation of sound and (we think) a very special listening experience.”
So what will punters be listening to? Ten87 Studios’s in-house team will work with local promoters offering “interesting and diverse new concepts” and supporting “under-represented people and burgeoning new genres”. He’s also bringing back Situation Dance, a series started by Ezra Collective’s Femi Koleoso at Moko in 2023, for the venue’s first night.
This Saturday will see a six-DJ bill headed by Elena Colombi, an Italian-born, London-based DJ whose sets incorporate jungle, post-punk, cosmic psychedelia, industrial and spoken word. Sunday will see a 12-hour session taking in UK bass, techno, house and garage, with eight DJs including Mixtress, Dean Bryce and Karlie Marx. Beyond that, there’ll be everything from live music to listening events, workshops, talks and performances, with a licence to open until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, and 11.30pm Sunday to Thursday.
Burn hopes that Radial won’t just be “another” venue – he wants to be a place where new ideas are born. “London has always been one of the greatest cities in the world for electronic music and music culture,” he says. “But in recent years we’ve seen too many small/medium venues close. These spaces are essential; they are where scenes and genres are born. Given the state of the world, we need these spaces more than ever.”
Radial opens this Friday, September 4 at 39b Markfield Road, N15 4QA.
