Alex Lloyd on the club which plays the best of everything.

LOOKING for an alternative to the usual clubbing fare on offer?

Fancy a bit of rock, a dash of hip hop and a dollop of indie, washed down with a cheap drink or two?

Tuesday nights in the basement at Ziggy's is the place for you.

Blackout Rock Night is the longest running club night in York, offering a feast of alternative tunes.

Bryan Stubbs, 33, promoter and DJ for Middlesborough-based Ten Feet Tall, started the night, then called Vinyl Explosion, when he was 18.

These days, he also runs Play at The Empire, in Middlesbrough, and this week launched Sweet N Sour at The Welly, in Hull.

Add to that bringing names such as Kasabian, Har Mar Superstar and Radio 4 to stages all over the region, and booking the line-up for Middlesbrough Music Live, and you have a man of an impressive musical calibre.

"The night has changed in 15 years as music evolves," says Bryan, who DJs single-handedly each week. "Goth stuff was massive back at the start and in the early nineties I played a lot of indie and Britpop. Nu-Metal has been and gone."

The Blackout playlist is one mixed bag, incorporating dance, emo, rap, rock and the odd surprise.

If Bryan rates it, he'll play it, whether it's Metallica, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beastie Boys, Outkast or Muse. His long-standing reputation means he is on the mailing list of many labels and can be relied on to be playing records that are destined to become big hits, well before the likes of MTV and Radio 1.

"A great example was back in 1996, when No Doubt brought out Tragic Kingdom. Two years before that, I had been playing Just A Girl as it was obviously going to do well in the clubs," he says.

One of his big acts to watch at the moment are Newport hip hop collective Goldie Lookin' Chain, and he is predicting big things for the as-yet unheard of Kill Hannah, The Infidels and Black Velvets, all of whom you will be able to hear him playing.

To see pictures taken at Bryan's nights, or chat to likeminded music fans, visit his website www.haxed.co.uk/york.

Blackout Rock Night with DJ Stubbsy, Tuesdays, 10pm-2am, at Ziggy's, Micklegate, entry £2 before 11pm/£3 after

Updated: 15:49 Thursday, July 15, 2004