North Pole Clubbing (No, Not Seals) (Tall Trees Country Club (Cleveland))

Member Name: jeff2000

Product:	Tall Trees Country Club (Cleveland)
Date:	15/02/02 (1117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Massive, Good music

Disadvantages: Needs to be quiet full for a good atmosphere

As soon as I came to Leeds I started to hear about a club called Tall Trees ‘up north’ somewhere near Middlesborough, being from the south I didn’t think you could actually get any more north than Leeds, but apparently you could, and apparently it was actually worth the effort to journey to what must be very close to the North pole just to have a decent night out. Well, having heard about it’s legendary reputation and a brief description of the club (it’s massive, the capacity is over 3,000, it’s just unbelievable) I thought I just had to go, and I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way.

So, two and a half years later we finally got round to going. As I said, nothing was going to stop me. Anyway, me and the bird jumped in the trusty (or not so trusty, damn repair bills..) van and hotfooted it up the A1 and then the A19 to Yarm. Now, not a lot of people will have heard of this wonderful village, but it does exist, I can assure you, situated between Darlington and Middlesborough, the home of class you would have thought. Well, you wouldn’t have been far wrong..

Tall Trees is actually a hotel that just happens to have a stonking great club attached to it, it’s about the only thing in Yarm and subsequently was not really that hard to find. As we swept into the massive (security patrolled) car park it looked great and after dashing through the lashing rain (BEWARE: it will always rain here, just like anywhere in the north) we dodged our way through the throng of bouncers and into the warm. The first impression that you get of the place is one of a massive hotel lobby, equipped with two bars, a small café and a DJ spinning some funky tunes, and after we handed over our pretty pennies we scurried off to explore. As we got further into the lobby area we could see a massive great swimming pool down behind a super huge window, apparently you are allowed in it on occasion, but unluckily not tonight
, which, thinking about it, was probably a good job. Anyway, this large reception area has two floors and plenty of comfy seating scattered around, there was a relaxed vibe going off in here and the DJ was slammin some commercial funky house, mmm, nice. After grabbing a beverage we decided it was time to venture into the main room. The first thing that hits you as you walk in was… the cold air, ah, but then the second thing was the shear size of it, probably the reason for the cold air. There are three levels of balconies at one end of the room and then the dancefloor at the other end, situated around the room there are many bars for your alcohol needs and also a number of the most uncomfortable seats in the world to rest your weary legs on. The dancefloor itself is huge (as you might expect) and faces towards the raised DJ booth, either side of the main man there are raised platforms for those who like to seriously strut. Both the sound and light systems were up to scratch and there were even some lasers to keep the punters happy. When we arrived this room was relatively quiet and so we made our way back into the reception area before we caught frostbite. Luckily it soon warmed up and the atmosphere level was raised significantly, this change also probably has something to do with the music selection, moving from some pretty poor commercial house through tribal and ending up at banging trance. The night that we attended only had two DJ’s playing, both residents of the club and although there could be no complaints about either one’s mixing it has got to be said that Matt Cassar performed much the better and got the crowd going a lot more, that man certainly had something going for him and kept us dancing til the rather early closing time of 3, when we jumped back in the bat mobile and sped back to Gotham city, ready to fight crime another day.

So, Tall Trees then? Well, I liked the club, the size of it appealed to me and the music towards
the end of the night was spot on. The décor was lovely and I really can’t find any problems with the night at all. The only gripes that I could have was that it all seemed a bit quiet, atmosphere wise, this was probably because it wasn’t really all that busy and you need a lot of people to fill the main room and so get the up for it atmosphere that I required. I think half the problem we had was that we chose to go on a wet weekend in January, a traditionally quiet time for clubbing, and without any big name DJ’s the massive crowd just wasn’t there. Saying that though we still had a great night and I’m sure that I’ll be returning very soon, maybe when they’ve got some big names on, or perhaps to Retro, their monthly night dedicated to old skool house that has spawned many similar nights all across the north, and even made the trip to Ibiza to entertain the masses, yes, thinking about it, I can’t wait to get back..

Some Information About The Club:
It’s open from 8.30 – 3 both Friday and Saturday but don’t forget to get dressed up, they don’t like scruffy tramps up in Yarm, so no trainers, blue jeans or sportswear. If you’re taking a coach you get one person in free for every other 16 you take and if you’re not the lucky 16th then you’ll have to stump up £10 on a normal night and £12 for Retro, unless you’re a member then you’ll save yourself a whopping £2 each time you make the effort. You can buy tickets in advance from ticketmaster, though I’m not sure it’s really worth it because I’m sure it rarely fills to capacity and you could always spend the booking fee on something useful (like more alcohol). If you’re feeling a bit extravagant you can get a room in the hotel from £115 per room (two people) and this even includes breakfast, WOW. Their Saturday night name is ‘Culture’ and the residents are Matt Cassar and Kare
em and they often have guest slots form the likes of Brandon Block, Alex P and if you’re lucky you can even catch the Dangerous one down there, yen, none other than Dave Pearce himself, be missing that one then. Once a month they have Retro, playing all sorts of house from 1988 – 2000, it’s very popular and they’ve just released an album if you’re interested. On a Friday they do an all you can drink night for £15, which I’m sure would get very messy, the music is cheese but the other info (dress code etc..) is the same as a Saturday. If you still want more information (can never please you lot, can I) then check out www.clubm.co.uk for anything I’ve missed, or you could just go along and find out for yourself.

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