MISSION was left in something of a state of flux last month when its Saturday night mainstay Glasshouse decided to move home.

Since then their former partner has gone onto smaller things at the somewhat more compact club Mezz and the management team, which were initially left scratching their heads, got their collective heads together.

The replacement they came up with is Mission: In-Session which, from next weekend, will offer a mix of good old fashioned house music mixed with dirty jackin beats.

It's a defiant change of musical direction but are they still smarting from the parting?

"Of course we were sad that Glasshouse left," said boss Shaun Wilson. "We had a brilliant relationship with them for years and their time here was fantastic. To be honest with you we're still a bit bewildered as to why they left.

"But as a promoter I know that things have to change and move on at some point and they obviously felt that the time was right for them now and perhaps the time was right for Mission to take a new direction too."

And what about the rumours that a drop in door takings had prompted Glasshouse to downsize?

Wilson said: "Of course the credit crunch is starting to have some kind of impact but what impact is uncertain at the moment - it certainly isn't as black and white as saying we're suffering - in the last fortnight we've had our worst week and our best week so it's totally up in the air at the moment.

"I definitely think there are less people out in town at the moment, period. And whether you're based in a big club or a little club it doesn't really matter. EVERY venue faces a fight to pull what punters there are in through the doors."

The fightback begins by going back to Mission's roots. They intend to inject some much needed fun back into Saturday nights and make a firm rebuttal of everyone's favourite fad from the last four years: electro.
"I think everyone is sick to death of electro, night after night." said Wilson. "It was very popular for a long time but, to be honest with you, if you go out all night it just blurs into one messy noise for hours and hours on end.

"Like any division of dance music it's fine every now and again, maybe for one-offs or once a month, but week after week it just gets boring to be honest.

"And that's not just my opinion, that was the feedback we were getting from clubbers who coming into Mission - and you could physically see that the electro room could often be half empty whereas the smaller house room was usually packed."

To that end promoter Nick Ferguson has enlisted a fresh line up DJs who'll inject a hearty helping of zest into proceedings including Drew Scott, Luke Pompey, Josh Demello, Heavy Feet& Switch MC, Denney, Sean hughes, My Digital Enemy, Anthony Probyn, Jak-Z and Analogue.

And forget the dark climate of old, in comes new dancers, stilt walkers, fire breathers and themed events which, you may have noticed, isn't dissimilar to their sister club's Saturday nighter Federation at Victoria Works.

Wilson said: "Federation has always been a good role model and never more so than now because while people tried to persuade us to make it less housey and more electro we stayed true to our beginnings.

"And with a few exceptional periods we've always maintained a very loyal following and recently it's come back stronger again, so as well as having some of that fun experience, courtesy of the guys from the Fed team, we've also realised that a similar music policy is what people really want, and we're gonna give it to them."

Mission: In-Session starts on Saturday November 22 from 11pm to very late. Entry is £9 and £7 for concessions.