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A packed club floor under blue lights, a mirror ball over the crowdThe Scene

Where have all the clubs gone?

· 5 min read

From the Haçienda to fabric, from fields in Wiltshire to a Tuesday night in a basement. The rise, the fall and the stubborn comeback of the British club.

Ask anyone who has been going out for twenty years where they used to go, and watch their face. There is a pause, then a name, then a "that's flats now". Every town has one. A club that mattered, that people crossed the country for, that you can still describe down to the smell of the smoke machine. It is now a gym, a block of apartments or a hole in the ground with a fence round it.

So where have all the clubs gone? The honest answer is that it was never one thing. It was lots of small things stacked on top of each other until the floor gave way. Here is the story as I see it.

Read the story
  • A queue outside a club door on a wet London street
  • Hands in the air under green and blue lasers
  • A club front with its shutters down
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