Jamie Laing, the heir to the McVitie's fortune, and his Made in Chelsea finance broker co-star Spencer Matthews, have been spotted in Dublin on more than one occasion recently thanks to their association with the Signature Group, a nightclub marketing company founded and run by James Morrissey (son of the PR man of the same name).
Morrissey has now agreed to open a nightclub in London with Laing and Matthews later this year, and the trio has short-listed properties in the Chelsea or Knightsbridge areas of west London.
Bafta-winning phenomenon
The E4 constructed-reality show's storyline editors have yet to decide which aspects of the cast's lives will take centre stage in the next round of filming, but the club venture may well be featured in the next series of the much-watched, Bafta-winning phenomenon.
“The project has to stack up without the television profile. It has to be independently financially viable,” says Morrissey, who got involved in nightlife marketing when he was a student at UCD.
He now promotes club nights for venues including Dublin's Copper Face Jacks, Howl at the Moon and the Palace on Camden Street, where the rich-kid Made in Chelsea cast members have been known to put in appearances.
"The natural transition would be to take up my own space here, but the entertainment sector, from a venue ownership point-of-view, has become very overheated," says Morrissey.
Too many clubs
More clubs have opened, but the number of club-goers to fill all their dancefloors has not increased. "In our opinion, it's totally over-saturated."
Meanwhile, a significant proportion of the older club-going demographic, which Morrissey worryingly defines as “25-plus”, has emigrated to London to the embrace of the “work-hard, play-hard” finance and legal professions, he says. “They’re living for the weekend.”
Aren’t we all?
