Documentary and exhibition tells the story of Peterborough's Sugar Club

The Sugar Clubbing exhibition, from February 12 to April 4, is inspired by the 2024 book Sugar Gravy Pleasure: An Indie Odyssey in Peterborough by Pete Elderkin, co-founder of the Sugar Club, the alternative music club night, that operated from 1991-2002, originally upstairs at Fifth Avenue nightclub and later at The Met Lounge.

And it coincides with the release of a documentary of the same name directed by Martin Rowe (former Sugar Club DJ) and co-written with Pete, exploring their shared history at the legendary Peterborough venue.

‘Sugar, Gravy, Pleasure: An indie odyssey in Peterborough -The film’ is a feature documentary – aimed at Gen X music fans – chronicling the unlikely rise of one of UK’s longest-running alternative music venues.

In 1990, Pete was a musician in struggling indie band The Pleasureheads and a music-obsessed young man at a time when Peterborough had little to offer. When local alternative music nights began folding, he made a decision that would define the next eleven years: create his own.

Against a backdrop of grunge, Britpop, and nu-metal, the club became a cultural haven for misfits, music lovers, and working-class youth in a hostile provincial environment.

As Pete said in the book prologue: “This is an unapologetic celebration of working- class culture and the amazing, fun times that were created together by everyone involved. It’s a celebration of a great period in alternative music history and the effect it had on a small, but beautifully formed, band of outsiders in a culturally-starved provincial city.”

“Every major music documentary focuses on London, Manchester, or the bands themselves,” says director Martin Rowe.

“Nobody tells the story of provincial venues – the grassroots spaces where local kids discovered these bands before they became famous. Pete’s story needed to be told and told visually. This is about what happens when working-class youth refuse to accept that culture happens elsewhere, in just the big cities.”

The documentary comes with an endorsement from bestselling author and music journalist Tony Parsons, and features interviews with Gizz Butt (The Prodigy/ English Dogs/ Janus Stark) and Spike T. Smith (Morrissey/New York Dolls/Sham 69).

Bringing the story together, the exhibition which opens on February 12 also explores the wider decline of music venues since Covid-19 and the lasting impact this is having on city-centre nightlife and the music industry.