Ministry of youth matures

Ministry of Sound, the original "superclub" of the Nineties, has reinvented itself. It will reopen tonight with cocktails on the menu and tables that can be booked by the older clubber in need of more sedate entertainment.

As dance music suffers a crisis, the south London club is not alone in rebranding itself. In the past year, one of the biggest super-clubs in the world, Cream in Liverpool, has closed and sales of Britain's most popular dance magazine, Mixmag, have declined by 30 per cent.

Mark Rodol, chief executive of Ministry of Sound, said the rethink came as dance's hard-core fans have grown older and younger music lovers seek something different. The club has also embarked on a new venture with the owner of the Classic FM radio station.

Ministry of Sound opened 12 years ago in a former bus depot at unfashionable Elephant and Castle. It grew rapidly and founder James Palumbo released a compilation CD of music played in the club. The market for dance music spiralled and by 2001 the Ministry business was valued at £120 million.

Fans would travel by the busload from across the country to see their favourite "superstar" DJs who were flown to cavernous nightclubs like Ministry of Sound at great expense.

But now dance music is battling for survival as rock becomes fashionable, with people more interested in the Strokes, White Stripes and the Darkness. Ministry of Sound magazine recently closed after its circulation fell below 50,000. Clubs and promoters were forced to rethink.

Tom Whitwell, a former deputy editor of Mixmag and now deputy editor of The Face, said: "Dance is not dead, but it is resting.

"Dance music didn't evolve in the mainstream as much as it could have done. It became strange having all these DJs on Radio 1 who were all over 40, and there is a big gap between those playing the music and those that are listening to them. It is going underground now, back to more of a niche thing."

Now Ministry of Sound has teamed up with GWR, owner of Classic FM, to create a new dance show that will be broadcast across the network's 31 local radio stations.

Starting tomorrow, and replacing VibeNation, Ministry of Sound will be a new show broadcasting on Friday and Saturday nights.