At The Villa People is a spin-off from the club called "At The Villa", which first was located in an actual villa in Kooiegem (near Kortrijk), Belgium and opened in 1989. Most of the DJ's worked at Radio Galaxy and live sets from the saturdays were played the week that followed. One of those DJ's was, and still is, considered one of the best in Belgium, Marko.
The Club caught fire and burned to the ground in may 1994. Many speculations ran. Some say it was the maffia who burned the place down after not paying protection money, some say it was the ex-boyfriend of Laurence (who was co-owner together with her mom, Muriel Frinand), nobody knows.
As a direct result of all this, the club moved, under the govern of Laurence, who had taken over full management, to a location in St-Ghislain, also in Belgium. The new location was in an old church in the middle of the country side. The church proved to be an enormous hit for the deeptrance tunes and hardcore party people, opening at saturday morning around 01h00, and staying open till nobody was left, which very often was around 18h00 on sunday evening.
This location wasn't final, and after a year the club moved to Asse Kobbegem, near Brussels. The steady crowd however didn't follow and the club lost its glory. Partly because the club scene became a totally different scene, splitting up in several subgenres. After a police razzia, the club in Asse-Kobbegem (ex-Palm Beach) was closed down by the department of justice in 1996. Laurence didn't leave it there and re-opened the club on another location, Rue du Magasin, in the heart of Brussels. But again the scene didn't follow her. The whole 'At The Villa'-concept was laid to rest with one last event called 'Bye-Bye At The Villa - The Right To Party', in the Zenith in Lille.
After the fire in the first 'At The Villa' club, Muriel Frinand continued with her new club in the north of France, called 'La Louna', but it didn't have much succes. In 1997 she started club H2O, in Pecq, where it all began for At The Villa. She enjoyed the notoriety At The Villa produced and H2O quickly became a very successful club, although, by then, trance bled a slow death and H2O turned towards the house path. Today it's still one of the trendsetting clubs in Belgium.
As for Laurence, it is said she still runs a small bar in Brussels together with her partner since the Church, Etienne Vandewiele.
