2008 was the year the disco died… well not quite but it was dealt a killer blow. Turnmills, The Key, Canvas and The Cross all closed their doors for the final time. That is a pretty big cull as far as London clubbing goes. But why did this happen, they were all busy venues, all long standing institutions of hedonistic nocturnal adventure. Surely these busy clubs were cash cows, milking thousands of weekend warriors for their hard earned cash, happily blowing their wages on their weekly dose of escapism? Well the sad truth is a block of luxury apartments is worth more per square foot than dance floor real estate in this town. Yes this is the cost we pay for progress. Good’s yard was once just a good’s yard, now it’s the last stop on the euro tunnel and terra firma super wonga!
There is an upside, or so one would think. In 2005 The UK reformed licensing laws and introduced the 24-hour license. Along with that came the temporary events licence. The legislation of the temporary events licence effectively meant event organisers could stick two fingers up at the criminal justice act, not only could they hold parties virtually anywhere but they could also operate a full bar and it was all completely legal, Result! You would expect London to be rife with parties in warehouses, tunnels, factory buildings, in fact anywhere that you can set up a sound system and it was for a time. You couldn’t turn your head for another “secret warehouse party” at one point. Although this did become a massive cliché there was still an abundance of interesting new party concepts in new and exciting spaces, London nightlife had the resurgence of creativity and variety it so badly desired. Events were no longer restricted to the elite few who had the monopoly on the city’s clubs. All kinds of events were springing up out of nowhere… But now not so much, again why? Well we are back to dance floor real estate. East London is not the same place it was a few years ago, it has become a victim of it’s own success, property prices are going through the roof and with the Olympics coming to town we can see more and more development.We asked Mulletover promoter Rob Star if he finds it more difficult to do events in East London now than a few years ago? His reply was “Not especially, venues have always come and gone, and the fact that you can now get T.E.N.'s for venues has made it a lot easier than it was 3 or 4 years ago. However this has meant that as the promoting of these parties has been made legitimate, middlemen have come in to try and control the best venues for these parties. So effectively you are paying twice to use some venue (and in my opinion well above the odds), which makes some spaces unavailable to use. There is a simple answer to this problem though and that is to find more viable spaces - they're out there, you just need to do a bit of searching!
As history will show you culture and economics are often antipathetic. Where only a couple of years ago promoters could rent a railway arch or car park for a night for a few hundred pounds “venue” owners have now become wise to the situation and are looking for upwards of £4000 for an open space. Considering the average door price of most warehouse parties is £10 and factor in the cost of actually putting on these parties and it soon becomes clear why many of these events have become untenable. Only the events that are guaranteed to sell out can survive in this current climate. When we asked Richard Smith promoter of Circo Loco and a host of other warehouse events such as the recent Sasha and Kompakt parties if he is more cautious about the people he books for events because of this he replied “Yes the price of an event is what makes you decide whether the risk is worth putting it on or not. Years ago I put on a party and the cost was 17k and I thought phew this is too risky to do again, now that’s a standard price for an event”
So where do we go from here? The fact is that unless the party faithful are prepared to leave Shoreditch these events will become increasingly rare. Already we can see parties like secretsundaze moving south of the river. Venues like Corsica studios are frequently hosting quality cutting edge musical events and there are rumours of huge industrial spaces in SE1 being utilized for the kind of techno events London is yet to witness.
We asked Rob Pushca/Redlight where he sees the next party neighbourhood being? “Well it won't be the West End and I can't see the club-strip of Vauxhall getting any smaller in the foreseeable future. I really hate to admit it, but as with NYC in the 80's, I think London has seen its club/party heyday come and go. With the constant 'development' of every possible corner that can be turned into luxury flats there just aren't many places left to dance in. Scenes thrive on former industrial spaces before they are developed. New York lost the lofts, London's lost the warehouses and Berlin is a beautiful testament to this cycle. Romania is the new Shoreditch!”
But there is still hope. There are people out there who do not look running a club purely in terms of pounds and pence. One such venue is Unit 7 and it is a true example of how far a little bit of imagination and vision can make all the difference. Unit 7 is fast becoming London’s Panorama Bar and it’s not difficult to see why. The venue is part of Cable Street Studios, originally an old Victorian sweet factory. It started out life as many buildings in areas of urban decay. It was a dilapidated building in a dodgy part of town, the vast spaces in Cable Street that were occupied were done so by band rehearsal rooms and ultra strange underground sex clubs. Add two colourful characters with party credential to rival most, a lot of hard graft and a couple of temporary event notices down the road you have London’s hottest new underground clubbing space.
In the end it’s like Rob Star says, there are spaces out there you just have to find the combination of people with enough passion and vision to make them work and enough ravers willing to venture out and explore new ground. Night culture in London has always been an organic entity, the course it takes from here remains to be seen... Party on!
Violently Happy