 In 1994 McLusky instigated the conversion of the Old Paddocks snooker club in Holborn, which he designed and launched as the Leisure Lounge, ‘a voracious pace-setting and attitude-free venue’ that like so many of his other projects became part of the collective consciousness of London night-life.The Leisure Lounge featured a mix of dance music club nights like Goldie's Metalheadz and live music events, plus arts events like Rankin's first major London photography show.At the same time McLusky began a long-term annual collaboration with the Mean Fiddler organization, programming the dance stage Reading Festival and organizing the festival aftershow events, which, in early 1996, led to him being asked to once again open his bag of tricks and launch their new Islington dance venue, which he named The Complex.