clair056

From The Face, March 1989, an overview of (mainly) London clubland - 'Clubland is coming to life again after the traditional Jan/Feb slump, with over 20 new one-nighters opening in the capital alone'.   Nights featured include: -  - 'Beautiful Contradictions' - 'a collaboration between dancer Michael Clark, comedian Keith Allen and long-standing club-runner Phil Dirtbox' taking place at Wall St, 14 Bruton Place, W1. - 'High on Hope' and 'Talking Loud, Saying Something' at Dingwalls, Camden Lock.  - 'MFI' - garage night at Legends in New Burlington Street, W1.  - 'Confusion' at Bill Stickers, Greek Street, W1 - 'Sunday night rave for hardcore clubbers'.  - 'Bangs' at Busbys, 157 Charing Cross Road, WC1 'gay mixed (but mainly male) crowd dancing to an almost Taboo-like mix of pop trash, new imports and disco classics'  Places outside of London include:   - 'Abraham Moss All-Nighter' at Abraham Moss C...

Red Rag was a radical newsletter published in Reading from around 1979 to the mid-1980s.  Somebody is currently doing a great service by gradually scanning in back issues, with a wealth of information not only about the Thames Valley area but also wider radical movements in that period. Here, from May 26th 1985 , is a report of a mainly anarcho-punk squat gig at Bracknell cinema which featured bands including No Defences, Slave Dance, Pro Patria Mori, Barcelona Bus Company and the Magic Mushroom Band.

Enjoyed the spoken word event at the Hannah Barry Gallery in Peckham last night (actually a warehouse on the Copeland Industrial Estate). Of course Stewart Home stole the show - not many other writers can recite their work without the book in front of them while standing on their head. Good stuff too from Katrina Palmer and Iphgenia Baal, among others. But on a dancing tip I enjoyed some of Tim Cockburn's poetry from his collection Appearances in the Bentinck Hotel, especially this one: A Rave in North Norfolk For Laura After the rave the steamed-up Peugeots that, nightlong, blunted the field’s edge slunk off one by one like a flagging picket, leaving a stillness of litter-strewn hedges the waterfowl dared enter back into. On the lawn tall shadows tucked stickered decks into retracted back seats, whilst the few who remained in the lamp-lit mill slept, not noticing how like kicked up sediment settling the displaced calm restored itself around them, or how, beyond the lane, the shal...

From the NME Guide to Rock & Roll London (early 1978), a guide to the Gay Scene starts with a warning: 'a note to all you guys 'n' gals, cuties 'n' chickens, rent boys 'n' muscle men, leather lovers 'n' sock eaters: REMEMBER British Law permits homosexual activity in PRIVATE between two consenting adults of 21 and over. Any sexual contact in public is forbidden'. Places mentioned include: - Bang Disco, The Sundown, 157 Charing Cross Road 'a good mixture of gays and punks'; - Gateways, 239 Kings Road, SW3  'Women only' - Louise, 61 Poland Street, W1 - El Sombrero , 142-144 Kensington High Street, W8 - A & B Club, 27 Wardour Street, W1 -  Escort, 89a Pimilico Road, SW1. - Maunkberry's, 57 Jermyn Street,W1 - Mandy's, 30 Henrietta Atreet, W1 - Napoleon's, 2 Lancashire Court, New Bond Street, W1 - Oscars, 4 Greek Street, W1 - Festival Club, 2 Brydges Place (off St Martin's Lane), WC2 See also: NME Guide to Rock...

On the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, I am reminded of James Connolly's denunciation of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897: '“The great appear great to us, only because we are on our knees:  LET US RISE.” Fellow Workers, The loyal subjects of Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, etc., celebrate this year the longest reign on record. Already the air is laden with rumours of preparations for a wholesale manufacture of sham ‘popular rejoicings’ at this glorious (?) commemoration. Home Rule orators and Nationalist Lord Mayors, Whig politicians and Parnellite pressmen, have ere now lent their prestige and influence to the attempt to arouse public interest in the sickening details of this Feast of Flunkeyism... During this glorious reign Ireland has seen 1,225,000 of her children die of famine, starved to death whilst the produce of her soil and their labour was eaten up by a vulture aristocracy, enforcing their rents by the b...

From the 1978 NME Guide to Rock & Roll London , the section on Disco compiled by LeRoy Z. Jefferson, with listings and reflections on the music in London clubs: 'The thing to remember is that Southern Soul is a whole different ball game from the much- publicised Northern brand. In the North, the more obscure '60s foot stompin' scene still dominates, around London it's mainly imported flash funk and deep soul from the likes of Earth, Wind & Fire, The Commodores, Slave, Cameo, Parliament and Pockets, plus a side order of reggae and thankfully just a smattering of android Euro-Disco (Baccara and Amanda Lear) and New York aural soft-porn (Andrea True Commection)'. The legendary Crackers (201-203 Wardour Street W1) gets a mention. I had no idea that it was the place that hosted the Vortex punk club on Mondays and Tuesdays. Bar prices are given: 50p for lager, 40p for whisky, 27p for coke. Also mentioned is a forthcoming All Day National Soul Festival on Easter M...