Liverpool’s North Docks are home to a new club built around a vintage rig that once toured America. We caught up with founder John MacGregor about the building, the residents and the system itself.
Kapsule opened in May 2025 in the industrial North Docks, in the belly of a former wind turbine factory beside the Mersey. The club has a low ceiling, a modest lighting rig and a vintage sound system that has toured the US, survived a warehouse fire and ended up in Liverpool via Kentucky. At the centre of it is John MacGregor, who has spent the last decade studying and working across the city’s live music sector. We started by asking about his connection to Liverpool and how Kapsule came to life: “My connection to Liverpool comes from my Dad’s side of the family. My Dad was born in 1956 just in time for Beatlemania and Merseybeat, growing up in Croxteth and later moving to Norris Green. I myself moved back to Liverpool to study and have since spent the last ten years both studying and working within the live music sector in various capacities.”
He goes on to explain what brought the project together: “Kapsule came to life through a number of different reasons and factors: a vacant basement, a sound engineer with an insatiable desire to revive sound systems and a collective desire throughout the city that had been brewing for some time surrounding making a home for a scene of parties and partygoers in Liverpool. As I often say to people, go to any dance floor in the world, whether you like it or not, the likelihood is you’ll find someone from Liverpool, so it made sense to give it a try.”
The building itself is part of the story. Before it housed a club, it manufactured parts for wind turbines, and we asked John how Kapsule came to be there: “Our home is in the North Docks of Liverpool close to the river within the industrial area of the city. The building itself was previously used to manufacture parts for wind turbines, with some of those original features still present and visible within the fabric of the building, probably most notably the large crane you walk under when you enter the club; the smallest of three in the building.”
The team has been on site for some time, and the building is far more than a club. John explains: “We’ve actually been here for some time, this year being our 10th year, and the building itself plays host a number of different creative entities. Those being The Invisible Wind Factory, a large multi-faceted music & arts venue, Kazimier Productions, an interdisciplinary art and production collective, 20+ studio spaces and practice rooms for independent creative businesses and musicians, as well as the newest addition, Kapsule.” As for the room itself, “Kapsule lies in the belly of the building, a low ceiling, a great sound system, a modest lighting rig and a passionate and professional team is the sum of its parts and of course the artists that we play host to across our programme.”
Next we asked about the club’s ethos and booking policy, and John was quick to push back on the idea of a formal one: “The ethos is nothing new in the sense that all we’re trying to do is platform music, artists and promoters we believe in, in our respective city. There is and always has been an appetite in Liverpool for quality underground music, something outside of the conventional. Counter-culture is in the city’s DNA, and Liverpool punches well above its weight in relation to the amount of quality parties, promoters and artists that call it home, many of which have been pushing it on much longer than us.”
The programme mixes the club’s own parties with trusted promotional partners, many of whom John now calls friends. He adds, “We owe a lot of our ‘success’, for a better word, up to now to this cohort of dancers, promoters and artists who have been with us since the start when we opened in May 2025. It’s an amazing feeling to see the same faces on the dance floor, at the bar, running their own parties and on occasion sharing their music collection through our sound system week after week. Community is a word dashed around a lot, but it absolutely fits here and is fundamental to what we do.”
On the booking side, he explains, “There is no real booking ‘policy’, which makes it sound very formal; I’ve never thought about it in this way, to be honest. The main thing is that we are platforming artists, music and creative endeavours that possibly aren’t getting the recognition that they deserve. One thing we are working on as a priority this A/W is diversifying our musical offering, introducing a live element to our programming as well as widening our scope of electronic music.”
Two names anchor the club’s programme: Aerofunk and BOBBY. We asked John why he chose them as residents, starting with Courtney, who plays as Aerofunk: “Courtney has been a constant fixture in Liverpool clubland for approaching 10 years. His first gig in the club was warming up for Prosumer and the second playing before BOBBY. & Mariiin, a testament to his range and record collection; one of the many reasons we asked him to come on board with the project.”
He goes on to describe the night that sealed it: “His first party as a resident came on our 1st birthday, warming up for Raresh and an impromptu closing set into Sunday morning; if there was any doubt in our minds about his appointment, this night categorically affirmed our decision, as I’m sure everyone that was there will attest to. Since then he has been an integral part of everything we do, not only for his work in the booth but also the programme and the trajectory and direction of the project.”
BOBBY. is the newer addition, having joined at the start of the autumn/winter campaign. “BOBBY. joined us as a resident at the start of this A/W campaign after previously playing for us with his long-time musical partner Marinella (Mariiin) and later hosting his own party ‘Pleasure Club’ alongside fellow Fabric resident Craig Richards. It goes without saying BOBBY.’s experience both as an artist himself and as a creator and curator is invaluable, but what sealed it was the energy for the project. From the first time he played for us, he’s been nothing but a constant source of encouragement and positive energy for the club; he understands what we are trying to do in Liverpool and is behind it.”
Both residents will be programming their own series of nights. “Courtney’s will be on boxing night inviting 2 good friends to accompany him all night long in the booth, with Bobby’s being in November inviting friend and collaborator Binh celebrating his latest release on Time Passages.”
Then there’s the sound system, which has quite a history of its own. We asked John how the team came to learn of its existence, and he credits the engineer who runs it: “The sourcing and acquisition of the system is in its entirety down to our engineer Barney, who runs and maintains our beloved system. What that guy doesn’t know about vintage hi-fidelity sound and everything surrounding it, isn’t worth knowing.”
John explains that Barney’s expertise centres on a particular period: “Barney has an encyclopaedic knowledge of sound systems and their component parts from the 1970s to early 80s, an era many define as the golden era of club sound and in large part defined by audio engineer Richard Long of Richard Long & Associates (RLA). As a result of this, Barney has spent the majority of his working life tracking down components, cabinets, drivers and amps from this era, culminating in our system, which now sits proudly encasing our dance floor.” The rig runs in four-point, something John says “was fairly common across clubs in this era but more of a rarity these days.”
The cabinets are the real centrepiece, and their history is hard to beat: “The cabinets were developed through a collaboration between Carlo Sound & Eastern Acoustic Works in 1984 and were one of the earliest three-way horn-loaded boxes and the world’s first modular touring rig. They were custom-built for American band ‘The Oak Ridge Boys’ originally, travelling all over America and back even as far as the White House South Lawn in 1984 as part of a high-profile gig for the band, something I only found out recently…. quite the change of scene for them to where they are now.”
A fire in Nashville nearly ended the story before it began. “Unfortunately, in 1984 the Carlo Sound warehouse in Nashville burnt to the ground along with their first newly manufactured set of the cabinets. Fortunately for us, one separate system survived as it was safely out on the road touring with the band.” Getting the survivors to Liverpool took some persuasion. “The cabinets stand at 6 feet 3 and weigh ~200 kilograms each, so that crane came in handy when they first arrived at the club. They were shipped to us from Kentucky after Barney spent the best part of 3 years pleading with the previous owner to let us take them off their hands.”
The rest of the rig has travelled just as far, as John explains: “Our sub stack has again travelled quite some way to get to us, sourced by Barney from Montreal in 2021 and built by the late Angel Moraes, who famously built the iconic Studio Montreal Club. Its design is based on the classic sub design that powered dance music institutions like Paradise Garage and Studio 54.”
He goes on to add, “Half of our amps came out of Contact and Space Lab Yellow in Japan, and the other half were part of a custom PPS system designed for the first IMAX installs, ours coming from the install in the London BFI Science Museum. Finally, the monitors….. JBL 4726s made famous by powering the iconic Ministry of Sound DJ booth.” He knows many will skim the specifications, but insists: “I appreciate many will gloss over this, but it really is the beating heart of the whole club, so it deserves its recognition, and we really haven’t had the chance to tell the story like this yet.”
We asked whether there was a bigger story in the system arriving in Liverpool and being put to use at Kapsule. John ties it back to the city: “I think it’s also important to recognise Liverpool generally is a city steeped in musical history and takes great pride in that collectively. You only have to look at the list of artists, musicians, promoters, venues and other creatives that have paved the way; so it’s important that we try and pay our respects to that and continue in that same vein.”
With so much new-generation kit on the market, we also asked whether sourcing a vintage system was always the plan, and what made him choose it over something modern: “We were lucky enough to have Barney on our side, which made our choice a lot easier, but absolutely sourcing that system and breathing new life into it was always the way we envisioned it. Without being too philosophical, there is a warmth and fullness that you get to the sound which I don’t think you experience on new systems. Of course I would say that, but I think many of the people who come to the club would agree.”
He finishes the thought with a smile: “There is also the added romance and charm of the system having its own life beyond our four walls. I certainly haven’t made it to the White House Lawn, and I doubt I ever will.”
To close, we asked what’s next for Kapsule, and whether a booking, a project or a change to the room had him most excited. John returned to the live programme: “One of the priorities for us is to start developing our live programme and being more creative when it comes to programming and the intersection between the different mediums.” He adds a less glamorous update: “A not-so-glamorous but important note is that we are, as we speak, building new toilets in the club; it turns out they’re quite expensive, but the people have spoken, and we listened. All being well, they’ll be good to go by the end of the month.”
As for dream bookings, John isn’t chasing any particular name: “From a booking perspective, selfishly of course there are bookings we would all love to make. We all have, as I’m sure every music enthusiast does, our ‘Mount Rushmore’ artists who we would love to bring to play for our party/club, but I think the progress we’ve made in the past year and a half since we opened is testament to the saying ‘trust the process’, so I’m not chasing any particular booking.”
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