Music, Style & Culture
| Print : Web : Radio : Mobile

Have London’s Clubs Become A Stage For Self-Absorption?

London’s dancefloors are infested. Digby Bodenham asks, would selective entry policies help?

Posted 4th January 2012, 4:42pm in Blogs by Digby Bodenham
Digby Bodenham

Digby Bodenham

Have London’s Clubs Become A Stage For Self-Absorption? London’s dancefloors are infested. Bug-eyed kids trip over themselves, Dalston daytrippers shout into their phones: “NO I CAN’T SEE YOU. ROSIE IS FUCKED. OH WAIT, I’VE JUST SPOTTED CHARLES...” and groups of lads eye up girls like they’re the last chocolate in a Milk Tray box. A familiar scene to anyone who frequents the capital’s clubs.

Even though we have some of the best venues and promoters in the world, this deluge of dicks is capable of ruining any night out. It is simply unacceptable to disrupt any kind of connection to music people can achieve in a dark room with a high power soundsystem.

It’s not difficult to enjoy yourself, ingest whatever you want and not spoil other people’s fun. These guys (below) used to be able to do it. Maybe we need to go back to baggy tops and dungarees.



No, that’s too horrific, and there is another solution. We could copy the Germans.

In Berlin, many of the techno clubs that have shaped the city’s identity since the wall fell use a selective entry policy. And not in the Studio 54 sense of only letting the beautiful people in, but to weed out what Dimitri Hegemann, founder of Berlin’s legendary Tresor club, describes as the “stupid people.” Tourists, drunks and pick-up artists are all targets for the discerning doormen, who ensure those who make it onto the dancefloor are there to, err, dance.

Tobias Rapp, the pop music editor of the news magazine Der Spiegel, writes in his book about the Berlin club scene: “You don't want to party with just anyone, so no tears are shed for any of those who are turned away. At the same time, the price you pay for exclusivity is the risk of not getting in yourself.”

That is a risk. Another problem with pick and mixing who gets into London’s clubs is potentially harming the diversity that makes nights here so vibrant. Besides, we’ve all been amateurs in the past, striving to understand the dynamics of the nightlife experience. If we were never allowed in in the first place how would we develop our knowledge of the city’s dance music culture, by raving on YouTube?

So, maybe the answer is not to exclude people but for everyone to have a little more awareness and respect. There’s no need to barge through the crowd, to constantly take pictures of yourself or believe that the DJ is playing tracks just for your group of friends. The shared experience of music and movement in clubs can be a magical one, but the spell can easily be broken when they become a stage for self-absorption.

It might be a bit optimistic to ask for peace on earth, but we could start with some conscientiousness in our clubs.
Click like to get the latest music news, hottest tracks and more via Facebook.

Comments