Well, where can I start. The first thing that I would like to make clear is that I don't usually go to this type of club, what with being a hardcore raver and all, or something like that anyway. Not that I've got anything against more commercial clubs, I just don't go to them. End of story. So, the reason that I found myself in Ikon and Diva was that my girlfriend lives in York, and after much research we found out that there are only four clubs in York. After asking around a bit we found out that the other three establishments (Toff's, Ziggy's and The Gallery) are meant to be even worse. So, after being assured by the flyer girls that it did play some trance and stuff we decided that we had to keep on drinking somewhere, and that somewhere was to be Ikon and Diva.

The club is actually situated in an out of town shopping/leisure complex, about 15 minutes bus ride from the town centre, luckily there was a free bus running to the club, and it even took us home again at the end of the night, which was nice. I think without the bus service the club would not do very well at all as it is a long way from the town centre, and there’s only one (family) pub on the leisure complex, not really the best place to get in the mood, but never mind. The point is, they do have a bus, we got on it, and a while later we arrived at the club.

The club is purpose built and from the outside it resembles a big warehouse, but not in a good way, if you see what I mean, which you probably don’t, but never mind. After short queue of about 5 minutes we gained entry to the club, we had flyers that we had picked up around town to get £1 off admission, but it was still £4, about average for that sort of club I should think. After paying off the cloakroom staff to the tune of a pound we continued into the club…

The club is divided into two rooms, Ikon, and Diva, understand? Ikon plays all kinds of ‘party’ music, what you an
d I know as cheese, and Diva plays the more dancey stuff. I didn’t venture into Ikon, apart from when the toilets overflowed in Diva and I was redirected in there, so I can’t really comment on the layout or music, but I’m sure if you like dancing to Steps etc.. then it would be ideal. Anyway, back to Diva.. The room is quite large, with a high ceiling, it set out with the raised dancefloor in the middle, with the DJ booth at the far end. The lighting was quite good, they even had a laser! But they let themselves down with the soundsystem, it couldn’t handle the bass and at peak volumes there was quite a bit of distortion, it was quite loud though, so if the sound engineer did a bit of tweaking, then sorted out the levels, it may well all be ok. The booth is underneath a balcony that allegedly contains lots of seating, I didn’t manage to experience this for myself as it remained closed all night, but I’ve been told they open it when it gets too packed downstairs. To either side, and behind the dancefloor there are bars, with limited seating at each one, on the night that we went they had a 2-4-1 deal on VK bottles, but only the watermelon and blackcurrant flavour, I could see why they had a deal only on these because they were unbelievably horrible, especially as they didn’t bother to chill them first, mmm, warm alchopops, just what you want. These weighed in at £3.20 each (or for two, depending on how you like to look at things), quite expensive if they hadn’t been on offer, but there you go, and the run out of them at 1 as well, it’s a disgrace if you ask me. A pint of heineken was £2.50, which seems a bit steep to me, but I remember the days when you could go out with 10p, have a blinding night out and come home with change, or is that just my imagination, I wonder.. After getting a couple of jars down our necks our attention turned to the music, I’d love to be able to say the DJ took us on a journey thro
ugh all aspects of dance music, seamlessly blended to satisfy even the most hardened of clubber, but if I did, I’d be lying, instead of John Digweed we got Dave Pearce. Oh dear. He started off with a bit of commercial funky house, Modjo and the like came out of his box of tricks, he then moved it up a gear, on to the trance anthems, and then on to the obligatory hard house, all the time talking over the top in a true wedding DJ fashion. His mixing, as you may have guessed, was also not up to much, but it seems I was in a minority in thinking this, the crowd (mainly underagers or overagers) were loving it, and I suppose that’s what matters. The only other notable incident of the night was when a fight broke out on the dancefloor, the bouncers were very slow to break it up, but as they blokes involve looked about 12 I’m sure there was no real damage done.

Overall I would say that Ikon and Diva does what it sets out to do quite well, it’s a cheesy club for cheesy people (don’t forget your Ben Sherman) and quite a popular one at that. It seems York is very lacking in the clubbing department, so keep away if you are looking for a large one at the weekend, with Leeds just up the road it’s always looking a better bet, but if the worst comes to the worst, you’re stuck in York and just need to go out, I’d grudgingly say get yourself down Ikon and Diva, it’s the best of a bad bunch. Unless you are a cheese monster, and then you’ll love it, go on I think I can hear S Club 7 now…

INFO:
Mondays: Student night (term time only). Cheap drinks (£1 a pint). Dance in one room, indie in the other.
Thursdays: School Disco Night. Cheap drinks. Free entry for those who dress up. £2.50 otherwise.
Fridays: Dance in one room, party in the other. 2-4-1 on selected drinks. No blue jeans or trainers. Open til 2.30
Saturdays: Same as Friday but more expensive and no drinks offers.
Address: Cl
ifton Moor Retail Park, Sterling Way, York YO30 4XZ
Phone: 01904 693999
Website : www.ikondiva.co.uk