Exodus Soundsystem - Luton/Dustable (now defunct?)
PS. we *do* go out more than once
every year - we will give u all a quick hot or cold guide to stuff going on
around England as soon as we can be arsed!
After submitting an extortionate £5 for entrance, we made our way into this small cavern. The doormen were particularly friendly, played music we wanted to hear, and allowed us to come and go as we wished.
The atmosphere of the place was rather pretentious in this place - and so were the prices! £2.75 for a pint... We ordered the Sangria which looked like being good value for money. Unfortunately the Sangria was watered down, and did not fill the beaker it was supplied in. Bad news. Fortunately the food was allright, but again, far too expensive. What shocked us most were the cocktails. Full price, but in a tiny glass, and way too little alcohol in it.
The music and decor was in a rather cheeky coffee-shop-jazz-cafe style. Friendly. Comfortable. Possibly boring. Somewhere to go but preferably not by choice.
We actually ended up going here as a compromise. Atari Teenage Riot had sold out, and we all had conflicting musical tastes.
This place has two floors. Downstairs plays a mixture of old and new goth music, some more commercial electronic music, and a second or so of hardcore gabba. Upstairs plays a paltry mix of bullshitty false metal. In fact, we requested some true metal upstairs, and the bloke said "Sorry man, I can't play anything hardcore...I got the sack for doing that before". The result: A load of lightweights acting like retards to music which fuckin' sucks cock. The music downstairs was allright. I suppose, as with upstairs, it's all a matter of taste, but the distinctly non-commercial stuff they were playing (from Sisters of Mercy to Fields of the Nephilim) was to my liking.
The music may be good listening music, but not good dancing music, unless you are tripping the fuck out. Go to the Ballroom for a relaxed evening, somewhere to chill and talk, but not to dance your arse off.
The venue itself is quite large, spacious and relaxed. There are some reasonably priced though oldish arcade games to waste yours time on, and two bars, though the upstairs one was actually closed on the Friday night we went up.
This leads me to the beer, and the most devastating aspect of this club - the watered down beer. If anyone reads this from the licensing department, then kick these poofs into gear. We paid outrageous amounts of money for beer that had been watered down so much that we could barely taste the beer, let alone get pissed up.
This place has quite a friendly atmosphere. I liked it. Even the bouncers were friendly, though DO NOT try to carry king skins and herbs into this place. I carried in the skins for my mates, and the bouncer gave me the longest frisking ever. It goes without saying that he found nothing. Skinning up in this place isn't too easy, so some inventive genius will have to investigate solutions to this problem. Email ZeroZero if you happen across a solution.
Slimelight is primarily a hang-out-point for goths. This is not a place for label clothing if you know what I mean. In fact, if you haven't donned your makeup, eyeliner, and neck-spikes (or whatever), then you can expect a rather lukewarm reception.
You can only enter if you get someone with a membership card to get you in. A membership card costs you a fiver, and allows you to enter for a measly fiver, instead of the rather high eight-pounds. Don't bother turning up much before midnight, because hardly anyone will be inside before this time.
There are two floors. Downstairs is the gothic area, which also plays some more dodgy metal, such as Marilyn Manson. Upstairs plays a mix of dance music - from gabba to techno. Unfortunately, neither of the two areas really gets extreme enough. The gothic area is too upbeat, and the techno area is simply not hard enough.
You can dance around all night though, till 8 in the morning, and there are plenty of places to sit and chill out. The strangest thing about this place, is the fact that you are supposed to bring in your own alcohol. Pretty cool heh? The bouncers are also quite chilled, not frisking you one bit before you enter. So yes, it is easy to get herbs into the arena, but skinning up and smoking is not. This place seems to have an affinity for uppers.
This would be a cool place to chill if the people there weren't quite so 'cleaky'. I mean, it really is a rather 'exclusive' 'in' club for goths. If you haven't spent two hours preparing to go out and 'look gothic' then you will tend to be ignored. But then again, there are quite a few friendly and talkative people there so if you happen to be in Islington, check this place out.
This event is pretty famous. I can't and won't bother giving any real details in how to get to this event, since it illegal (though probably tolerated). Basically, a group of people own a large soundsystem, and organise huge raves in empty warehouses and the countryside.
Entrance cost is only a quid, there is a bar selling decent beer at low prices, and the sound system kicks arse.
You can't be weak if you are going to turn up though.
Firstly, you have to find out if it is on - most people know the hotline number
in and around this area. Then you have to turn up at the meeting point which
is usually pretty easy to find. This happens at about 11 in the evening. Once
found, you are likely to encounter a line of cars stretching beyond the horizon.
Driving in
the convoy of cars is pretty easy, and the feeling of doing something illegal
with at least a couple of thousand people is pretty exhilerating.
Once arrived at the venue (whether it be indoors or outdoors), be prepared to wait at least until 2 or 3 in the morning before the sound system starts up. This is OK, because you really can *cane* it up before everything starts up for real. Also, wherever you may be, you know that there are plenty of places to explore. The indoor raves usually have offices which you can ransack and chill in. Outdoor raves are good simply because you are outdoors.
Once up and going, the music played is predominantly drum and bass, though sections of techno, trance and hardcore also make a show. Indoor raves usually have a second soundsystem playing reggae and dub. The change of vibe between the almost too- chilled dub area, and the fast and energy packed main sound system is almost debilitating.
You might find that you're just too gay to stay until
Exodus finishes - around 1-3pm the next day. ZZ usually leave in between 8 and
11am anyway. Dancing allnight for one quid is a bit of a bargain, and the fact
that everyone at exodus is sociable and friendly makes these rave evenings particularly
attractive. See you at exodus mate!
The crew made it down to this club in Newquay to see DJ SS and DJ Randal (or something like that) during it's eclipse weekend.
Since we were one of the first to arrive we quickly gave in to the temptation to drink a few beers, but lo and behold - the Drum and Bass had already started! Both DJs played some dark drum and bass, but my personal favourite was SS who played a mixture of more conventional stuff and some jumpup.
The club itself was nicely kitted out, with big, loud, and most important - high quality speakers. The place looked and felt right : It wasn't dingy or squattish, but neither was it overwhelmingly stylish and nauseating. With two floors there was plenty of space to chill out, and the general vibe was pretty good. The bouncers were reasonably friendly and the prices of beer OK, and plenty of fit women as well!
The only problem with the Koola the evening we went, was that it was simply too hot. Maybe the management decided to take the piss with a name that sounds cool and refrigerated, but this club is the hottest I've ever experienced. My T-Shirt was literally dripping with sweat and pretty soon, I was wondering just what the time was. The time turned out to be an unspecified early time, and endurance levels had to be re-examined for a few hours. Thinking about sitting down wasn't really an option since the floors were literally awash with some sort of liquid.
Needless to say, we had a good time at this club,
and saw two well known acts. Even though it finished at 2am (started at 9pm),
the entrance price of 10 quid was actually worth it.
While down in Corwall, we came across a strange phonemenon - a Metal club?! Being in need of some physical exercise we decided to stray into the club to check it out.
As you can imagine, the ZZ crew is keen on metal, but dancing to metal - a new experience? Indeed, after a few pints the need to stop banging heads like a bunch of retarded cockerels became aparent, and we started a mosh up. It was like putting a flame to petrol - the place came alive.
The music tended on the more commercial side, with a lot of wack shit like Korn. Tunes also included early grunge stuff like Nirvana and other early 90s acts like Rage Against the Machine. Unfortunately, when we became bored of the latest incarnation of commercial cock-suckers, we realised that the DJ hadn't even heard of 'Extreme Metal'. Emperor - No. Enslaved - No? Burzum - No. Anything Black - No!
It was probably lucky that the extreme stuff wasn't played. As it was we had to contend with bizarre females who tried seriously, but without much strength to strangle you ; a weird bloke who donned a knuckleduster, and a variety of very fit lesbians. They all got very excited when Reign in Blood made an appearance on the soundsystem and in the name of safety we had to retreat to a safe distance from people who didn't know the difference between fight/riot and mosh. (The bloke who had a knuckleduster was wacked pretty hard and had to leave the club, the girl who strangled people carried on wandering around like a vampire wannabe, and the lesbians, well...ahem.) Yes a good night out and a 'mere' 5 quid to get in.
Nb. Fosters metal night is not really the place to get stoned. Save that till afterwards when you need it as a painkiller.
Places to AVOID at all costs: The Forum, Hatfield.
Plinston Hall, Letchworth.
Pulse, Vogue, and the Academy in Stevenage.
All designer bars like Bar Baby, Club Mez and all that ra-ra sloan trendy shite! (Give me an honest pint of beer rather than a watered down cocktail)