Club Culture - Past and Present

Home – Club Culture

I thought I’d start a discussion on clubs and club culture, reviewing a club which I thought had a significant impact on the UK and telling it as it was so the unfortunate who hadn’t been could dwell on its legacy and have its spirit live on…

So I’m going to begin by talking about my old favourite venue in the country which was unfairly closed down until further notice recently following a police drugs bust.

Home, a nightclub and design by an ex-member of the ‘Cream’ team with several clubs across the globe (incl. Sydney and New York) first set on UK clubland to the public on the 10th September 1999 having prised DJ Paul Oakenfold as club resident along with downstairs resident Steve Lawler. A 7 floor superclub with built in restaurant, lifts and toilets which make even your own look cheap and tacky, this superclub layed its London routes at Leicester Square.

The build-up for the launch of this club was tremendous, with its state-of-the-art looks and music it was deemed as a classy club for people who wanted a higher state of club experience. As the motto stated; “Its not how you look, its how you listen, its who you are”

I cued up for 3 hours on the launch night, desperate to get in having had my hair sprayed gold for the occasion and when I got near the front 20 minutes midnight the friendly (human looking) doorstaff told the crowd that they where nearly up to capacity and that you’d only get in if you where on you own (thank god I was)… after a quick inspection and told I looked the part, I ran into the club and paid my £15 to a bloke in a golden pod, jumped on the escalator up to the first floor. (What a view of the square by the way!)

At the top of the escalator I was greeted by some of the staff and directed towards a lift where another member of staff told me about the club and asked where I’d like to go… talk about luxury. The club was decked out amazingly, it had a very industrial feel to it (very steel like) with a lot of TVs everywhere which had built in cameras which filmed other parts of the club. I remember looking at someone through a camera and waving jokingly before almost choking when the person waved back!

Of all the places to rave about in a club you never usually mention the toilets but I’m sorry I just have to. Imagine if you will, marble style toilets, metal taps, staff on hand to dry your hands when you’ve washed them. A large slanted Perforated muffeld glass slab that changed colour when you pissed on it. Bottles of Armarni, CK and Jon Paul Gautier to spray yourself with when you’d finished. Makes you feel like royalty I assure you.

As for the music, pure quality, Steve Lawler on the lower floor was playing a ‘fatboy slim’ style set which was situated near the chill-out corner which was basically an oval Ikea style wall with beanbags. Upstairs you where drawn in with classic trance and anthems, a large dancefloor and the knowledge that Oakenfold would be blessing the decks from 2 – 4am and that was a set to finish the night pure class. Song to go home to being ‘Planet Perfecto – Bullet in the gun” which I remembered fondly from Gatecrasher a few weeks previously.

To summarise the night, I felt that this was the direction that nightclubs need to take in the future and after the original night I became a regular at the club, I liked the glamour feel to the club and the friendliness of the club, it had a very much polysexual image (ie. We don’t care about your sexuality, we care about you as a person) which I think is important all over. I was absolutely gutted when I heard about the clubs closure, Home was the best club which I knew in the country for look and feel a night of class where you felt proud to be part of because its not how you look, its how you listen, its who you are!

I look forward to the re-opening and intend on being there for the re-launch as and when!