☆ 2000s Club Kids ☆
It was a bit of a slow start, but the second half of the decade witnessed a healthy resurgence of excitement and creativity within clubland.
You would’ve had more laughs at a wake than going out clubbing at the duller-than-dull dawn of the noughties. Thankfully, as always, the stagnation and almost tangible disinterest from all parties didn’t last. Clubbers soon rediscovered their lost enthusiasm and willingness to make an effort working a look and getting down again. Kashpoint topped the popularity charts as the most fun-packed and innovative dive. New blood seemed keener to make a splash and talent proved easier to be singled out underneath all the pantomime slap and glitter.
2007 happened to be a particularly good vintage year on London’s club scene. A host of fledging hotspots emerged and a whole new crop of exciting individuals started making their presence felt. A lot of those club kids were just making their first tentative steps. Hedonism reigned again, not only in the West End (Circus, etc.), but also in the regenerated Shoreditch area (Anti-Social, etc.). A real sense of community prevailed for a while. Happy times prevailed.
Thereafter, the scene inevitably got scattered into different cliques, new camps between which it’d become harder to mingle. The gap between east and west expanded further, both in attitude and appearance. There were countless club casualties and gaggles of the scene’s fabulous protagonists simply disappeared. Not to mention the credit crunch aftermath, which greatly accounted for the decline.
Still, new blood continued flowing and places like Beach Blanket Babylon and Gutterslut briefly became popular in the East. Even Circus turned its back on the West End. Most of these clubs would not make the transition to the 2010s though, but they certainly made way to a whole bunch of new ones. As Dame Shirley sang, it was “just a lil’ bit of history repeating” …

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