#ONETOWATCH – HEAR HEAR EP 8 – ANTON STEVENS (HIDDEN, MCR)

ANTON STEVENS – DIRECTOR OF HIDDEN CLUB (MANCHESTER) is next in my line of men you should know about. He’s a music loving Mancunian born and bred, a Leeds University graduate, a techno dj, an events organiser and promoter, a club director, a blindfold-level nappy changer and a grafter who eats hard work for breakfast. He is the Director of Hidden Club in Manchester aka Anton Fitz (DJ) with a 360 understanding of clubbing from artist to promotion, marketing and events and he gives a deep insight into where his natural affinity to the job comes from and the behind the scenes graft required to take him from being a 13 year old schoolboy handing flyers out for his birthday party to maturing into a keen business man who can keep one of Manchester’s finest underground clubs running like clockwork even during the pandemic.

We talk about being raised by women, male role models, school successes and failures, life studying in Leeds, work in Ibiza, internship, becoming a business man and a father and running a tight ship. He is as steady as a rock and as sound as a pound. I found him to be surprisingly zen, calm, focussed and realistic under the current circumstances; he reads every situation with a philosophical level-headedness that is both surprising and refreshing. He totally represents as a positive black role model and he’s a bad ass mentor too. This interview was recorded on Zoom in early April 2021, before lockdown was eased and before the First Dance event in Liverpool took place.