A Concert Square bar that's been keeping Liverpool dancing for 25-years has seen many changes in its lifetime.
Anyone who visits Liverpool city centre on a scorching summers afternoon only has to head towards the suntrap that is Concert Square's outdoor space to find where the crowd is at. This year MODO, the bar serving the square, celebrates a quarter of a century since if first opened.
Things weren't always this way, however. Back before it was transformed in the early 1990s, Concert Square was a derelict scrap of land and a complete world away from how we know it today.
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Before the regeneration the square was the site of a derelict chemical laboratory. It's transformation was the brainchild of Urban Splash - now one of the world's leading regeneration firms.
In partnership with Liverpool Council, developers regenerated the land creating loft apartments, cafe bars, office space and reshaped the square below to make it into a space for outdoor drinking.
MODO first appeared on Concert Square in 1997. Reported to be "the first eaterie of its kind outside London", the venue comprised of four parts: a noodle bar; Rocomodo, described as a "burlesque lounge bar"; The Kiosk, which included a bar, a coffee bar, sandwich bar, newsagents and a florist, and a separate hospitality suite for group bookings.
One of the bar's original designers told the ECHO a year after it opened: "The social life in Concert Square had become very one dimensional and very drink orientated, almost like Ibiza. We saw MODO as a chance to redress the balance and introduce an alternative to pumping club music."
Now, 25-years on, the noodle bar has disappeared but MODO's management team say the bar has retained its personality despite a number of changes over the years. Colin Smith, the bar's marketing director, told the ECHO: "One of the things about MODO is that it has gone through different faces and personalities over the years but it's always stayed MODO.
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"It's a bit of a rite of passage, everyone at some point has been to MODO. In my early twenties when I was a student it was a great place to go. You'd have your house nights and your R&B nights."
It's hard to understand the impact a place like MODO has had on Liverpool's nightlife unless you remember the city before it was there. There's no doubt Concert Square changed the perception and culture of Liverpool's bar scene with its ambition and iconic outdoor space, and MODO has played a large part in that.
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Oliver Clarke, the bar's managing director, revealed the bar had also been at the forefront when it came to LGBTQ+ friendly nights in the city. He told the ECHO: "One of the first gay nights out of gay town was at MODO. To be in Concert Square as well that was quite pioneering as it wasn't in an established gay area.
"And it was popular with straight people as well as it was such a unique night. I remember people asking if was it a gay club and we said no, it's gay friendly."
While bars have popped up and disappeared all around over its lifetime, MODO has held on to its ethos and with that, managed to cement its place at the heart of Concert Square.
Marketing director Colin Smith said: "MODO has done very well at recognising its strengths. It's multiple spaces and multiple opportunities all under the one roof. The ground floor is a typical cocktail bar with its booths, and then there's the upstairs which has a balcony overlooking the square which is great in the summer.
"Downstairs is your typical nightclub with great DJs and loads of different nights. And then you've got your outdoor space which in Liverpool to have that much outdoor space in a city centre bar is extremely valuable.
"It's big not with just the local crowd but with out-of-towners. Liverpool in the last 10 years renaissance in terms of it being a staycation. Whether its stags and hens or just international people visiting Liverpool, a lot them seem to pass through just because of its outdoor space."
He added: "It's 25 years this year. We're planning a birthday bash for it in the summer. So we'll do a special night just to celebrate all of its history, all of the DJs and the people who have walked through its doors."
