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Three men behind drug club Checkmate’s social media can be named today by the Sunday Mail .

Daniel Cameron, Oliver Melling and John Markey have all been involved in advertising drug-fuelled weekly events.

The trio are detailed as admin and moderators on Checkmate’s Facebook page and have each linked it to their own private Facebook pages, putting their names and faces at the forefront of being responsible for the events.

All three promote legal nightclub events on their own Facebook pages and secretly advertise Checkmate events on a private forum

Melling describes himself as a “Groove Mechanic”at WSHOM – We Should Hang Out More – at the Berkeley Suite in Glasgow’s North Street. He studied for an HND in sound production at Ayr College.

(Image: DAILY RECORD)

Markey, from Glasgow, who claims to have recently gained a PhD, promotes the unlicensed night-time activities while Cameron, who studied at Glasgow Caledonian University, keeps his Facebook privacy tighter than the other event admins.

However, his profile picture shows him wearing a sign promoting one of Glasgow’s most popular nightclubs, the Sub Club in the city’s Jamaica Street.

The Sunday Mail investigation found six other illegal secret venues across the city which allow punters to party illegally, sometimes until the early morning.

Organisers behind Commerce events allow under-age clubbers to drink wine, pop pills, snort cocaine and party until 7am on Friday nights.

We attended a Commerce rave on Friday, June 15 at a disused building in Glasgow’s industrial Tradeston district. The unlicensed premises stocked cheap booze and mixers including tonic wine and spirits.

The venue is metres away from Turning Point – a health and social care charity that helps combat substance misuse.

About 200 people packed into the room at Commerce. There was no sign of trouble or bad behaviour and the atmosphere was relaxed and carefree.

In licensed venues, clubbers often take selfies and post pictures on social media but there appeared to be an unwritten rule at Commerce that mobile phones were not to be used. Our investigator watched as revellers dipped yale-type keys into bags of cocaine before snorting the drug.

A reveller at one underground rave told how MDMA pills were openly sold from dealers working the room with plastic storage boxes.

She said: “We got there at 3am and there were a couple of hundred folk in the venue. It was like a really big upstairs room of an old house.

(Image: Copyright Mark Anderson)

“The building looked shabby and had boarded-up windows so no light could get in or out. It’s a wee bit subtle because from the outside it looks like an old council house-type place.”

Organisers at Glasgow club Lunacy go to extraordinary lengths to disguise the locations of their raves.

The club, based at Gower Street in Glasgow’s Pollokshields, is publicised on social media under the category of “dance clubs and nightclubs”, complete with event listings. Organisers tell rave-goers to get a taxi to the industrial estate in nearby Maclellan Street and walk across a bridge over the M77 and M8 to dance the morning away from 3am to 7am every Saturday night and the occasional Friday and Sunday.

Revellers are told not to get a taxi directly to the Gower Street location.

A source explained that events take place on a Saturday night into Sunday morning as they are less likely to be caught, saying: “Some premises at industrial units, where these parties take place, are open on Saturday mornings so people leaving the venue would be seen by workers. But on a Sunday morning, this is less likely.”

Techno club Gallery takes up residence in the headquarters of a charity building that promotes cultural links between Scotland and Africa. Viva Africa, on Hydepark Street in Glasgow’s Anderston, was set up to promote equality and diversity.

But, after hours on some Friday nights, the non-descript office block turns into an unlicensed venue for weekend raves that go on until 7am.

Industry, on North Canal Bank Street in Glasgow’s Port Dundas, uses more traditional methods of advertising its underground parties. PR staff take to the streets of the city to hand out bank card-sized flyers.

(Image: Sunday Mail)

Cyberlive takes up residence in Payne Street, also in Port Dundas, at an industrial unit with shutters.

Organisers use QR codes on their flyers to advertise events. The code can be scanned by a smartphone or a QR reader and details of the club night appear on a customer’s screen.

The club’s Facebook page states it has “temporarily closed” its doors due to a legal dispute but punters have been reassured that pop-up events will be revealed in the coming months.

Other Glasgow clubs such as Cybofreq stay under the radar by only revealing the location of their raves hours prior to doors opening.

For events that run from 3am to 7am, the location is revealed at 8pm on the night of the rave. Organisers advertise a mobile phone number with the message: “Secret location released at 8pm.”

Those who text the number get a phone call at 8pm revealing the details.

Melling, Markey and Cameron could not be reached for comment.

John Markey has requested the following to be published as a right of reply:



The article states that I could not be reached for comment - in actual fact, no attempt was made to contact me by telephone, email or via social media to supply a right to reply.

To be clear, I am not involved in any way with illegal drugs. I am not involved in any way with the breaking of the Licensing (Scotland) Act. I did not organise the events in Checkmate.

As a DJ I promote and perform music in venues across Glasgow and beyond. The event in question was just another event in a music venue. On occasion I relayed information on guest performers at Checkmate using a Facebook group I was allowed access to for

promotional purposes. This does not, as this article heavily insinuates, situate me as being responsible for these events. I have performed at Checkmate before, along with many other committed and talented DJs from across the city and further afield.

My experience of Checkmate reflected the experience of the reporter in this article when she attended a separate venue. It was relaxed, carefree and there was never any sign of trouble.

Drugs are an endemic and long standing global issue. If drugs cannot be kept out of prisons, or the Houses of Parliament, it will clearly be difficult to keep them out of music venues. Underground music is part of the cultural fabric of Scotland and attempts to

demonise clubbing and clubbers and their primarily safe, relaxed and carefree environments will in no way address the many systematic, pervasive and crippling socio-political problems surrounding social deprivation, poverty and criminality which

continue to be the primary indicators and major causes for drug misuse today.

I appreciate the Sunday Mail for belatedly offering me such an extensive right to reply.



Dr. John Markey BMus, MLitt, PhD.