Bouji is not a phrase readily associated with Morley, but a swanky new nightspot and live music venue is aiming to add some glitz and glamour to the historic South Leeds market town.
Vibe Bar & Club opened its doors last Saturday after taking on the town centre premises on Commercial Street, which for many years housed the popular JD’s nightclub.
When JD’s closed, Kelly Davey, who also runs the nearby Commercial pub, decided to buy the venue and invest a five-figure sum into a major refurbishment.
The transformation was revealed at last weekend’s grand opening which attracted around 300 revellers.
Vibe, though, promises to be much more than a bar and nightclub with a 4am licence and 500-capacity establishment.
It will also be used as a live music venue, with plans for daytime parties and other events also pencilled in.
Kelly, who hails from Morley, told Leeds Living: “When we knew JD’s was closing, we saw an opportunity to bring some good nightlife back to Morley and also create a great live music venue.
JDs was popular but very dated and we’ve made the place a lot more modern – we’ve brought it back to life basically.
We’ve had live music at the Commercial, which is the pub I’ve run for the past four and a half years, but we’re limited to holding those gigs outside in the summer months.
At Vibe, we can stage live music all year round and have daytime parties, so we’re hitting every demographic and providing something for everybody in Morley and the surrounding areas.
We’re thinking Vibe might become more widely known for our live music events and we have some exciting plans in the pipeline.
It terms of the nightclub, it can cater for people from places like Middleton and East Ardsley who can come here rather than going into Leeds or Wakefield.”
Last weekend’s opening was hailed a success and Kelly added: “We had a really good, fun night with no issues – we threw out one drunk person but that was it.
People have just been excited to get the place back open and live music will start from next month.
We’ll see then just how popular we are, but so far the response has been amazing.
We’ve only had the keys for seven weeks, but everyone has been blown away by the transformation.
It’s very much been a family affair, with my husband, brother and son doing the refurb over the past two months.
When we finally opened last weekend, I could have cried through the relief of getting everything finished and also sense of pride in what we’ve created.”
Morley has seen an explosion of new bars opening in recent years and Kelly believes the opening of Vibe can benefit the town’s whole nightlife economy.
She insisted: “Vibe absolutely compliments everywhere else in Morley.
I’ve heard people say Vibe is quite ‘bouji’ (slang for high-class, fancy or luxurious) and that’s the word which is flying around at the moment!
We’ve got a very diverse nightlife in the town, with small wine bars, traditional pubs and Heist Bar & Grill, which is a more modern-day bar.
We fall more in line with that, but we have a huge capacity and are putting live music on as well.
The hope is that we bring people to Morley for the events that we put on and the rest of the venues in the town can benefit from that extra trade.
If we’ve got a Ska band on but we’re not opening until 6pm and people want to be out from 4pm, then they can drink elsewhere.
We want to help other businesses keep the footfall in town and are already working with venues such as the Dog House Bar, where wristbands for Vibe are available to buy.
We have a staged entry fee for the nightclub, depending on what time you come and customers from the Commercial can buy the cheapest £5 wristband price, so we’re giving back to our local community as well.”
Kelly concedes opening up any business nowadays is a gamble but believes that diversifying into other areas can make Vibe a commercially viable.
She reasoned: “We need to make Vibe appeal to a bigger audience than just Morley to make it successful.
The live music will hopefully be as successful as other places such as Venue 23 in Wakefield have been.
We want to be as well known for that as we are for being a nightclub.
Yes, it’s a risk but I’m very much of the mindset of nothing ventured, nothing gained.
It’s the only venue that is licensed until 4am in a big area around us and that has to draw people in, so we’re excited about where it can go.”
With Kelly’s knowledge of the dynamics of the hospitality business in and around Morley and Leeds – and her obvious drive and determination, we’re really feeling that positive vibe (I know, I know) and wish her and her team every success.
Check out what’s already on at Vibe here, starting with a Psychic Afternoon on Saturday 8 August.
