A madness as powerful as that - you can only call it magic

[alexsarll]

As wonderful as those 'all my friends are here and all my friends are drunk' moments on a crowded peak-time dancefloor can be, I think my favourite bit of a lot of nights is near the end, when everyone who's left on the dancefloor just keeps going, wringing every last drop of fun out of the night. So yeah, Don't Stop Moving: ace. I love pop music. And after a very quiet week, I needed that. Will be out again tonight, at Feeling Gloomy; that's more for the first band (Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring) than the club, but now I've found my dancing feet again, I wouldn't be surprised if I stayed.

Scroll about 3/4 of the way through this one, past the comics-related content (which is fine and all, but not relevant to my point here) and you'll find some very interesting stories about the Hillary Clinton campaign's tactics - to wit, using exactly the same sort of dirty tricks which gave Florida 2000 such a bad name. Except in a party's internal contest it somehow seems even more dishonourable.

Another London venue bites the dust. Turnmills, like the King's Cross establishments which died at New Year, really wasn't on my personal going out map - I went there precisely once, to see Drinkme. But I could still see that they had something decent and distinctive going, and so it saddens me to learn that the Easter weekend will be their last, and that "The most important reason is of course that the lease is nearly up and the landlord wants to develop the site". This whole city's being turned into 'luxury flats' and 'retail developments', and if the process isn't checked then nobody will any longer have any reason to live in the flats or shop in the shops because London will have been stripped of the attractions which drew the people here in the first place. The problem being, yes, any individual property owner will make more from a bunch of flats for brokers than he will from a grotty venue. So every owner has to hope that the other owners will take a financial hit in the name of culture, while he gets to cash out.

Mostly I've been upset by the BBC's self-flagellation over its 'phone-in 'scandals'. As against ITV's deliberate and fraudulent profiteering, which was criminal and should be treated as such, the BBC just cut a few corners - yoking the two together does the BBC a grave disservice at a time when it's already under more than enough threat, and plays into the hands of Murdoch and his ilk who would love to see Auntie fall. Which said, if a BBC scalp is needed then how's about we lock up Jo Whiley and throw away the key? In her case, I'll make an exception. And then let's start digging for any non-compliance from Moyles; if he's left the smallest i undotted or t uncrossed, I say we display his head on a pike on London Bridge.

Comments

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

I meant to say about Turnmills as Clairey told me a few days ago.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I only found out on Thursday so she is clearly extremely well connected!

[sbp.livejournal.com]

That Drinkme gig was the only time I ever went there as well. Can't have been that good a place :-) I mean, I've been to La Scala more often.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

For me it's just the same as the Cross/Canvas/Key going - they were places which fundamentally didn't put on the sort of event I attend, but where I could still accept that they were doing good work, and approve in an abstract sort of way. As against far too many London venues which just peddle lowest common denominator tripe to keep the money rolling in.

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

They did have some spectacular events...weirdly despite me protesting at the time that hitting 30 would never stop me from being into the big trance nights and such...my interest did eventually wane with the changing of my social circle. You are quite, quite right about the why the hell would you want a trendy flat in the middle of a vista of nothing but trendy flats. Dance will rise again and find new places on the fringes in the shells of formerly grand spaces and when they have burned out the heart of the city, life will force us to build new ones. Dear heavens, you'd think I was still drunk.

I will miss cycling past disorientated clubbers on early weekend mornings...lord knows what it will do to the trade of all the post-clubbing businesses that sprouted up around there over the last 15 years.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Dalston already seems to be on the rise as Shoreditch overgentrifies; I suppose my worry is not so much that there'll be nowhere to club as that there'll be nowhere to club which doesn't require slightly longer spent in transit than I'd prefer. And part of what I've always loved about London is precisely its mish-mash quality; areas have individual characters, but don't (or didn't) seem to be 'zoned' in the way many cities are, whether officially or not.

[dignam.livejournal.com]

No! Not Turnmills!

I'm crushed. Sure, I went there once, when I was too stoned to take advantage of all the fascinating drugs people were trying to sell me there, but it had one of the most interesting layouts and decor of any club I've been in.

Londoners are particularly good at that "lights are on but can't go home" six-am craziness. Your post brought to mind one such moment at Fabric -- oh geez -- seven years ago. I'm too old for this shit. But I'm going out tonight anyway.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

That's the spirit!

I did like the decor at Turnmills on my one visit, and I think I was only in some minor sub-basement so was probably not even getting a fraction of the effect.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I can't say I'm going to miss Turnmills at all. Wretchedly expensive and awful range of drinks, rude staff, long queues for everything and the music was never really that great. Good riddance. The uber-dreadful Astoria next! Hurray!

Lots of love, 1x Old Woman

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The Astoria really bothers me, not so much because it's a great venue (it blatantly isn't) as because it's such a *central* venue. A lot of people's first experience of London nightlife or gigging comes via that place - see the gig and then catch the last train home. Are we going to get a viable central alternative for bands of that size (precisely the sized band one generally wants to see as a kid)? I'm not aware of any, and that's bad news.

[the-elyan.livejournal.com]

There's quite an interesting speech about the whole Murdoch / Beeb thing here (http://www.clivejames.com/lectures/brain-op). Was reminded of it because was reading the book it appears in on the way back from Italy.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

So true - and yet somehow, all these years later, still nobody's prepared to call bullshit on the old bastard.