This is London Social Club
In November 2005, This is London Social Club was for sale. This club was in the heart of the entertainment district, which was in a back alley. The club was located at 364 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Canada. Many clubs existed in the core, over 100 bars & nightclubs in the entertainment district.
In November of 2005 discussion started for the purchase of the club. The partnership of Jim Kambourakis & Charles Khabouth decides to purchase another nightclub venue for their portfolio. They owned between them Dragonfly (Mondo), Guvernment, Tonic (Mondo), and Ultra Supper Club at the time.
With designers & audio company This is London was now being transformed into a new and updated look. Designers Munge Leung did the interior. Audio Video Methods (AVM) did the audio and lighting.
AVM had done some of the biggest install in Ontario for nightclub and venues, Orchid nightclub (Mondo), Tonic Nightclub (mondo), Stilife which is now Fluid, Phoenix Concert Theater, Pappazzi, Exit to Eden, Club 108, Tattoo Rock Bar, Molson Amphitheatre, Ontario Place, CN Tower and the list goes on.
Jim Kambourakis who also was a partner in AVM, was concerned with the audio gear in the venue. It was lacking in every direction. This is London system was a background system. Its average level was 60db. London was like a bar and a place where people just came out to have some drinks and maybe dance. Well this was not good enough for the new London. With the events and talent that Kambourakis & Khabouth envision, this sound system had to have quality and high definition. Kambourakis decided to use an EAW system. It was made of KF650 top boxes, SB250 for mid punch and SB850 bass bin and lets not forget the custom JBL tweeter cluster, that now made a complete, define audio system. This was only for the main dance floor. Any audio guru would now be in heaven.
Because of the bars design of the club we also had to add a full background system, we needed to make the whole club balance. We used Tannoy system to fill in the blanks. With two floors and a big cut out on the second floor over looking the dance floor it was difficult to match and get it done correctly. But, at the end it was a masterpiece. Audio consistency throughout the whole venue. The background system played 75db and main dance could reach levels of 138db, but the main rig floated around 90db. The reason behind all the power was, if you wanted definition at a high level, you needed to have power behind it. Kambourakis says Power doesn’t mean clear and definition. If you want to hear every note in the music, you must have headroom. Speakers cannot play full out!
With 25 years under Kambourakis belt, he also owed many other clubs in the city and out of town, suggests to his partner we should get a female dj for the ladies washroom. Khabouth LOVED the idea. The ladies bathroom was turned into a beautiful spa and hang out. It allowed the women to have their own little party. With Hair salon attendants and make up artists, to fulfill their experience.
After 5 years with This is London – Kambourakis says “we had some of the biggest performers in the world come to the club – Paris Hilton, Black Eye Peas, Pamela Anderson, Usher, Moby, Hilary Duff, Travis Barker (Blink 182), Dan Aykroyd, Tommy Lee & Vince Neil (Motley Crue) and Dave Navarro, just to name a few. Also some of the world’s best djs have played this sound system – Carl Cox, Deep Dish, Armand Van Helden, Nick Warren, Benny Benassi, Mstrkrft, Dj AM, Robby Rivera, Steve Lawler, Sander Kleinenberg, Cedric Gervals, Steve Aoki, Steve Angello, Fedde Le Grand, Kaskade, Deadmau5, Bob Sinclar, Roger Sanchez and the list goes on.”
This is London is license for 1515 people and the size of the club is just less than 18,000 square feet.
