The Mod Club Theatre
The Mod Club Theatre opened in 2002, taking over a location that had until then functioned as The Corner Pocket pool hall, owned and operated by Toronto entrepreneur Bruno Sinopoli. The area of the city had had some recent live music history, with the Apocalypse Club, a dive bar and live music venue catering to thrash metal, punk, grunge, and hardcore genres, operating next door at 750 College Street during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The new nightclub's theme was inspired by the "Mod Club" club nights, held at several downtown Toronto venues throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s by former Platinum Blonde frontman Mark Holmes and fellow British immigrant Bobbi Guy who managed the Toronto record store Sam the Record Man.
In 1996, with Platinum Blonde inactive for a number of years already, Holmes, along with former Platinum Blonde drummer Sascha Tukatsch and musician Dave Barrett, launched a new musical act—band called Vertigo, later to become known as No. 9. Inspired by the late 1960s–early 1970s London rock scene, the band found no record label interest, so, in 1996, Holmes began to organize monthly club events under the "Orange Alert" moniker. Visually and sonically focused around 1960s British nostalgia, the events got their name from the alert that sounded whenever penal colonists attempted an escape on the 1960s British TV series The Prisoner.
By 1999, attracting consistent crowds, the events were rebranded as "Mod Club" nights and bumped up to weekly frequency, Thursdays at the Toronto nightclub, Lava Lounge on College Street. As their popularity kept increasing, Mod Club events added Saturdays at the nightclub Revival, another College Street venue located in a former Baptist church. Attendees of these club nights dressed in mod-inspired fashions. Mod Club nights incorporated R&B, funk and soul music from the 1960s, music from the mod revival scenes of the 1970s and 1980s as well as 1990s Britpop.
Looking for a larger venue, Mark Holmes approached Bruno Sinopoli about coming on board and converting The Corner Pocket into a nightclub venue together. The Mod Club featured theme nights such as ska nights, and Velvet Goldmine nights featuring glam music. Holmes also deejayed at the club under the name DJ MRK, and from 2003 to 2007 his Thursday night shows were broadcast live from 102.1 The Edge.
The venue opened with a focus on British musical artists and hosted live performances by artists such as Amy Winehouse, Muse, New Order and Keane. Other performers that played at the club included The Killers, Metric, Calvin Harris, The Lumineers, Sia, John Mayer, Florence + the Machine, Cypress Hill, Yukon Blonde, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and Lana Del Rey. The Weeknd referred to the nightclub as "the stage that changed my life," having performed his first live concert there in 2011.
The Mod Club came to an end in 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
