IT is 14 years since a well-known Swindon nightclub changed its name and image – and all hell broke loose.

Arson and accusations of ageism came after Vadims in High Street became Soda at the start of the penultimate week of April, 2002.

We later reported: “Swindon’s new nightclub, Soda, has been struck by an arson attack – on its second day of business.

“Its staff say they have also been receiving threatening phone calls from somebody with an apparent vendetta.

“The fire began in the early hours of yesterday morning when a petrol can was set alight and placed outside the front entrance, minutes after late night revellers left the club.

“Fire crews smashed through the emergency exit to make sure the flames hadn’t spread inside the smoke-logged building.

“The once shiny steel foyer had turned charcoal grey and the flame red seating was blackened by smoke.”

Manager Stephen Reid, who also ran the Brunel Rooms, said 200 people had been turned away on the first night and some had been angry. He added: “Soda wants to attract a different market. This venture caters for the modern, trendy crowd. The old Vadims crowd don’t fit this criteria.”

Many former Vadims customers, while deploring the arson attack, got in touch with the Swindon Advertiser to voice their disgust at being turned away.

One letter writer, Kevin Porter, said he and his partner, Patricia Davey, had spent hundreds of pounds at Vadims only to be turned away from Soda.

He added: “Why should people pay their hard-earned money in a club who will most probably tell them to get lost the next time they refurbish it?”

The former Vadims and Soda is now Suju.

The week also saw the Adver do its bit to help the town’s latest would-be showbusiness sensations on the road to stardom.

Swindon’s Neil ‘NJ’ Lee, 21, and David Chen, 19, joined forces with Dylan Quioniwasa, 20, from South Cerney and 17-year-old Bristolian Theo Thomson to make up a boyband called Essteem.

They were co-managed by Thring Townsend legal executive Paul Gray, who had guided Manchester girl band Cleopatra to a respectable clutch of Top 30 singles.

Essteem had lately released an eponymous debut CD, and had been hitting Eldene’s Fitness First gym as well as taking dance and choreography lessons at Swindon Dance. There were also singing lessons from Kentwood Choir leader Sheila Harrod.

Mr Gray, referring to a TV talent show of the day, said: “This is nothing like Popstars. This is the real thing.

“There will be no instant fame, the boys have got to work hard.”

There are not many further mentions of the band in our archive, although they appeared at a Golden Jubilee party in Nythe that summer.

Dylan Quioniwasa has a YouTube channel featuring his music.

In North Swindon, a pathway between two neighbourhoods was a source of strife.

“People in Abbey Meads,” we said, are demanding the closure of a path leading to Penhill – because they claim people from the council estate are responsible for vandalism, theft and common assault.

“The pathway acts as a pedestrian link between Penhill and the Abbey Meads Village Centre. It passes Emerson Close, where residents say they have been tormented by the behaviour of people using it. They have signed a petition calling on Swindon Council to block the path, and have been backed by police who say they have seen a rise in crime in the area.”

We pictured local resident called Becky Singleton, 34, who said: “Sheds have been broken into, cars damaged, things stolen from cars and stuff stolen from or damaged in gardens. Some of the teenagers have been unkind to children, and they shout abuse when you tell them to respect property.”

The protesters were at pains to say they had nothing against Penhill as a whole. Several Penhill residents got in touch with the Adver to say the police should target troublemakers instead of closing the path.

A hardy perennial story which has been in the paper in countless forms before and since 2002 made an appearance that week.

It was announced that moves were afoot to turn the University of Bath in Swindon into a far more ambitious affair, attracting thousands of students per year.

At that time it catered for about 2,000 students at the former Oakfield School in Walcot.

University Vice Chancellor Glynis Breakwell said: “The University of Bath in Swindon will have its head in the stars but its feet on the ground.

“It will work on the international and national scene but have its roots firmly in the local community, including the industry and commerce within that community.”

The university’s subsequent bid to site a new campus on the doorstep of Coate Water met with horrified public opposition. Bath closed the Oakfield operation in 2008.

Still on the subject of academic endeavour, Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker revealed that Swindon was one of several towns targeted in Government germ warfare experiments, carried out by Porton Down researchers, between 1964 and 1973.

We said: “They involved using micro-organisms, but instead of dangerous pathogens Porton relied on stimulants which scientists said were harmless but would mimic genuine biological weapons.

“They were attached to spiders’ webs and driven around Swindon in the back of a lorry to see how they would survive in different environments.”

In other words, nothing sinister was happening – merely scientists from a secret facility feeding secret stimulants to secret lorry-loads of spiders which were then driven among unsuspecting people.