As Manchester bathed in the incredible sunshine over the last few days, the atmosphere in our awesome city has been on fire. Gorgeous outdoor venues at Spinningfields, Castlefield and beer gardens from Didsbury to Oldham have been packed, with people enjoying the Mediterranean climate. With this in mind, Venus provided a club night suited as much to Ibiza as Deansgate, with DJ after DJ raising the roof with red-hot tracks, bootlegs and remixes.

Friday’s The Bitch Show on Unity 92.8 FM started our weekend with an incredible injection of excitement, our speakers actually fell off the shelf during one of the bass heavy tracks but we weren’t complaining one bit. Pixel Cheese, Mr Cheese to us mere mortals, smashed his mix on air, topped off the already buzzing enthusiasm for Bitch, so DMM were excited to head down to the club.

With the mercury hitting 25/26 degrees over the weekend, the guys behind Bitch Events & the Venus management decided to relax the usually strict dress code, opting to go with an Ibiza club look, it was hotter in Manchester than it was in San Antonio yesterday after all! What a decision this was, the crowd still looked smart but at least this way we were cool and could focus on the party rather than the heat!

When DMM arrived at the Blackfriars Rd venue, the legendary Lempo was already smashing out the beats, playing a variety of tracks, several from his own label, Applique. Getting the early revellers dancing to the Lempo & Japwow tech house release, “Mercy Kill”, their brilliant dance bootleg of Far East Movement v Missy Elliot & Ciara – G6 Step (a DMM favourite) and their recently released and aptly named remix of “Funky Beat” by U.M. Project. One thing we love about the Bitch nights at Venus, is the fact that whoever starts the night off, always has the first clubbers on the floor dancing.

Joshua Roberts, the man behind the incredible “15 Minutes of Madness Minimix”, took to the decks and as usual, he didn’t disappoint. Having the privilege of seeing his setup in the DJ booth, we were fascinated by what was referred to as “The Starship Enterprise”, a mad collection of unmarked buttons that Joshua seemed to actually feel, rather than play. Technically great, different and crowd pleasing, Mr. Roberts’ set went down nearly as well as the free ice-pops, circulating around the club!

The first section of Pixel Cheese’s set, although cracking in it’s own right, didn’t seem to be right for the Venus crowd. We were enjoying it ourselves but the lack of familiarity from the Venus faithful seemed a little too much. However, the sign of a quality DJ is the ability to switch a set around completely and do what is commonly referred to in the club scene as, “smashing it”. Very, very well played, doing his native Poland proud.

Bitch resident Martyn Russo followed the young Pole, using his Venus experience to have the crowd enthralled by every beat. With the atmosphere in the club being as hot as it was in Spinningfields on Saturday afternoon, Russo had a tough job of turning the heat up but as we’ve come to expect from Martyn, he made it look easy. We lost track of the amount of people who complimented Russo after his set, testament in itself to his ability to please the clubbing masses.

Paul Nag finished off the night, filling in for Chris Frater and kept the 6am clubbers on their feet until the end of what was another great night at Venus. Definitely the right call with the Ibiza dress code, a top lineup of DJs and the freindly, open atmosphere that really defines the nightspot’s culture and a reason in itself to head up to the top of Deansgate.

Bitch returns to Venus on the 30th June, with the incredible Felix Leiter and the remix genius of Kim Fai gracing the booths for what promises to be an absolute cracker. Adding to this, Bitch are dubbing the night their “Music Label Launch Party”, so we’re very excited to find out what’s in store.

On Sunday, Venus hosts Take That’s very own Howard Donald, a talented, respected and crowd pleasing DJ in his own rights, independent of his boy band fame. As always, DMM will be covering the best club nights in Manchester, so we’ll see you on the floor!