The Eclipse
The Eclipse was one of the first legal all-night rave venues in the UK. It opened in a former bingo hall on Lower Ford Street in Coventry and ran until 8am on Friday and Saturday nights.
It was set up by local businessmen Stuart Reid and Barry Edwards. Capacity was around 1,600 across three floors. Opening night featured Fabio, Sasha, Evil Eddie Richards and others. The Prodigy played one of their early live sets there (reportedly for £60).
The nights
People travelled from all over the country. Membership went over 74,000. It was voted best club in Britain in 1992 by DJ Magazine. Residents included Parks & Wilson (later Tilt), Carl Williams, Shock C, Man Parris, DJ Dobbo and DJ Tango.
A lot of the early hardcore tapes that got passed around came from Eclipse nights. If you were collecting tapes around 1990–92, there’s a good chance some of them were recorded there.
What happened to it
In September 1992 the club was rebranded as The Edge under new management. It carried on for another year or so but ran into the usual problems of the time — pressure from the police and local council over drugs, trouble with neighbours, and difficulty getting a drinks licence. It finally closed in late 1993 / early 1994.
The building stood empty for a while, was briefly used as The Planet by Coventry University Student Union, then knocked down. The site is now a car park. There’s nothing left of the original venue.
A couple of years after it closed, Virgin released a two-volume compilation called *The Eclipse Presents Dance ’Til Dawn* (one mixed by Slipmatt, one by Stu Allan) as a retrospective.