Venue owners claim fashion title has been pressuring them to change name

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Owners of Vogue nightclub in Burnley claim they are being forced to change the club’s name after being threatened with legal action by the international fashion magazine of the same name.

Rebecca and Jason McQuoid said they disagreed with the challenge and originally tried to fight it but, in the end, managed to buy time to rebrand their business.

“No one’s going to think: ‘I wonder if Kate Moss is at Vogue Burnley this week?’,” they told local radio station 2BR. “Everyone knows it’s nothing to do with the magazine. Bullying, I can’t think of any other word – it’s a big business bullying a small one.

“They’ve made their millions, they don’t care about a little business trying to make something in Burnley.”

According to Licklist, Vogue is “Burnley’s No 1 nightclub, open Thursday, Friday and Saturday every week till 8am”, hosting “the biggest and best DJs and events in the north-west”.

In a statement, Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue, said: “As policy, Advance and Condé Nast Britain do not comment on pending disputes.”

This year, a Yorkshire music venue called the Ritz, dating to 1937, was threatened with legal action by the five-star Ritz London hotel.

Mandy Townsend, the bar manager of the club – a hub for northern soul and rock’n’roll fans – said at the time: “People travel to us from all over the country. It’s been the Ritz for 80 years and it is so well known under this name.

“It’s not like we’ve ever had anyone turning up here thinking they should be at the Ritz in London. It’s absolutely ridiculous and we are really shocked and upset.”