Saturday, October 08, 2005
The Club Scene in London...
Three out of the past four nights I have observed the
unique (or not so unique) British Club Culture. Here is a brief overview of my
clubbing experience in London...
unique (or not so unique) British Club Culture. Here is a brief overview of my
clubbing experience in London...
Wednesday Night -
Chelsea's 21st Birthday
Mandy and Kendra
Went out for a few drinks at
Club Rocket which is London
Metropolitan University's main club for the attending students. It
was a pretty fun time. One of the girls from Adrian College in
Michigan had her 21st birthday on that same day so of course we went
out! Of course we were back at a fairly decent hour, because I
had Cross Cultural Advertising class at 9:00 the next day.
Me and Chelsea on her 21st
The night buses run 24 hours, and we picked one up, but we ended up
switching buses to get to Victoria Station (which is within walking
distance to Buckingham Palace Road-Vandon House). At Victoria
the police came on the bus to check everyone's travel pass, and we
found out the hard way that you could not switch passes. All
of us got fined 20 GBP, but luckily Adam showed off his Oyster card,
which deducted from having to pay anything. Luckily, I got
mine earlier that week so I along with the whole group got out of
the fine. Now we know!
- Friday Night - Paul
Van Dyk & Sister Bliss @ Turnmills
Yes, thats Paul Van Dyk
Friday was the big event I've been planning for
the last two/three weeks. Paul van Dyk (#2 Rated DJ in the
World) was spinning at London's Club Turnmills on October 7th. So for only 15 GBP to go (which is
about $26) when it costs at least $50 to go in Chicago, plus I
really like his style of trance music and many of his hit songs--why
not go? So I got Peter excited about going, and soon enough we
were off to the Farrington Tube stop to have a excellent night.
The massive crowd at the club
At
first we got in the club and it was separated off into two main
rooms. The first was a more relaxed after party dance room,
and the second was the main floor. We had to push and shove
ourselves to get into the main room, even when the first DJ was on,
Sister Bliss (from the Electronica group Faithless, which had quite
a few hits on their own). Peter ended up getting sick, due to
his medication running out a week ago. So we left around 3:30
AM. Incredibility I learned that the club stays open
until 7:30 AM, which gives the tubes plenty of time to open and
become fully operational before you head home. ha-ha, I'm not
crazy. The picture to the left is of some of the
Brazilian friends I was dancing with. They have been
vacationing for about a month or so, going around Europe and having
fun. Quite an exciting group of people. I noticed many
cultural difference between the main London Clubs and the ones in
the Midwest America. It seems that much more pressure is put
on in American Clubs to impress a girl and hook up, verses the
British/Euro laid back style of having fun, and of course--dancing.
Of course the Europeans have their own problems, such as their much
more laid back attitude about drugs, small crimes, etc... (ex. there
is no such thing as J-walking in England). Between Peter and
I, we got asked 6-8 times outside of the club if we wanted to buy
anything. The unusual thing is that the police are standing 15
feet from them!! Neither of us felt threatened, so we just
shook our heads and walked away. Another thing i noticed is
the dress of the men in particular is much different, than the
preppy repetitive mono-clothed style of the Chicago Clubs I've been
to. It was a great show, and the ride home was hard, because I
didn't realize you had to literally step out in the bus lane and
wave your arms up and down to have a night bus stop to pick us up.
Luckily, the fifth bus was a winner, and we finally got our ride
back. I got a poster from a wall of the club which advertised
his new Album in stores. Quite a fun time!
- Saturday Night -
Plaid Played at Public Life (an old tube station turned small venue)
Bryan, Me, and Lindsey
Saturday night I had planned on staying in, but
sure enough a new Electronica group called Plaid (pronounced Played)
was playing at a small club, and there was no cover, so It was one
of those why-not-just-go-out-and-see-how-it-is nights. The
small bar was actually apart of an old tube station that was never
used, so they bought it and turned it into a mini-club. It was
CRAMPED in there. The music was all done through two MAC G4
Laptops and Synthesizers. It was very industrial like Nine
Inch Nails, yet it had a sort of Infected Mushroom dark groove to it
(those are two electronic artists by the way). The music
wasn't my style, but it was cool to hear something new. It
could have been classified as a sort of mini-rave.
Lindsey and Ashley on the step
Most
of the people who were there were local people, and there weren't
any tourists or visiting abroad students (from what we could tell),
so it was very much the 'locals' territory. There were some
good, expensive pubs nearby that I may return to in the future.
The night ended at midnight because the place got raided the night
before for staying open past their 2pm regulation for bars and pubs.
Sure enough, at 12 the Bobbies were out and ready to make sure the
place was empty. We went back to the Vandon House, and I along
with Ashley called it a night, meanwhile the rest of the group went
back out to an after party. I'm sure glad I stayed in, so I
could get some more sleep in.
# posted by Joseph Trapani @ Saturday, October 08, 2005 
