CLUBS
CLUBS
I PREVIEW
Slam’s Rave in the Park and Shag‘s Christmas Party.
LISTINGS: GLASGOW 76 EDINBURGH 77
All night long
When is a rave not a rave? When it’s a legal, all-night festival of dance music, apparently. Andrea Baxter is in the area.
Coming soon to Glasgow‘s Strathclyde Park is the Slam posse‘s latest extravaganza: ten hours of music and mirth on an island within the park. complete with a giant circus tent, lasers. videos, live acts and, ofcoursc. the best in happening dance music from star DJs. And if the excitement gets too much. retreat to the comforting kaleidoscope ofColourspace. the art installation brought over from Glasgow Green to do duty as the official ambient zone. Sounds quite good, eh? But why, I asked Slam supremo Dave Clarke, the ‘festival’ label — is this an attempt to gain respectability in the city ofculture'? ‘No, it’s just we used that term over a year ago and now it‘s become really commercial. Once the Sun newspaper picks up on something, we’ll drop it. In terms ofwhat was happening a year ago, yes. it is a rave, but since then there have been a lot of dodgy unorganised things called raves and we don‘t want to be lumped alongside them. But I don‘t really think there‘s any need for illegal raves in Scotland, unless they‘re on a smaller
CARRY 0N SHAGGING
When you go to a club, you don’t expect to hear the Postman Pat theme tune - unless you go to Shag. The club with the best name in Glasgow is approaching its first birthday and embarking on a series of special theme nights to commemorate the occasion. You’ve missed the Cliff Richard tribute, but on Fri 31 it's the Shag Christmas party— complete with Santa, pressies and doubtless ‘White Christmas’ — and plans are afoot tor a Bottle Bank Benefit
Shag has built a reputation on being a haven ol music so stupid it’s brilliant, never afraid to play the most laughable novelty record or childhood lavourite lrom a useless puppet show. Why this obsession with tack, i asked leading Shagger, Graeme Provan. ‘There's tacky and tacky—I mean, you can’t really call the Wombles tacky, can
but the Wombles have talent and
you?’ Oh no? ‘Sinitta, now that’s tacky, they’re environmentally sound.’ l
scale because a few of the councils throughout the country are willing to let these things go on. They probably wouldn‘t let us do it on our own. but Regular Music (co-promoters) have got a good reputatiOn for doing big events like The Big Day.‘ Thus the event has full council backing, though this generosity hasn‘t extended to the allowal of a drinks licence and hence only softies will be on sale (but which is now the ravers preferred tipple
— Lucozade or lrn Bru'.’); security will also be particularly vigilant over mysterious potions or pills. Nonetheless, the line-up ofacts maybe juicy enough in itself for House fans: Manchester‘s 808 State. Together (of Hardcore Uproar fame), Edinburgh‘s Botany 5 and name-to-watch Rejuvenation, a Glasgow act.
Slam were responsible for what they proudly call Glasgow’s first rave. at the SECC in March. which sold out its 3,500 capacity immediately; despite the hefty £20 ticket prices. Clarke is hopeful this will go the same way. ‘You can never expect these things. but anyone who‘s interested won‘t mind paying it when they realise that we‘re having to build a venue the equivalent of the SECC on a bit ofgrass. everything from putting a floor inside the tent to setting up toilets. generators. etc.‘
So why are they doing it — wouldn‘t hiring an existing venue have been much easier'.’ ‘We wanted to do something different. we don‘t like repeating ourselves, we wanted to do something a bit more interesting than the normal for the public as well as for ourselves.‘
However. Clarke is in two minds about the desirability of repeating the experience after the Strathclyde Park event. ‘See. I don‘t think there is much of a rave scene throughout Britain anymore. Mainly it‘s because of the legal problems people had down soth but also because the reason people started doing it was to get away from the clubs and now a lot of the top people have moved back to them and prefer things on a smaller scale. I think when you go big you can lose a lot of the intimacy you have in small clubs. We‘ve been fortunate enough to have done both small clubs and big events. so we’ve not really lost anything.”
Slam 's Rave In The Park takes place on Sat 8 Sept.
’ a EAT Thus has Shag become known as an unpretentious, iust-a-iew-mates-out- lor-a~good-laugh type ol club; after all,
I would have thought it impossible to pose whilst listening to the Wombles. Graeme, however, had a shocking revelation: ‘There‘s a cult club of Roll Harris lans nowadays, they like to pose around. They all pretend they're horses on the danceiloor when that comes on. That might sound a bit strange but i suppose it’s an alternative form of posing.’ What a lrightening thought— bearded, Stylophone-playing gangs roaming the streets armed with paintbrushes and crying, ‘Can you guess who this is?’
‘It doesn't really matter what the music is like as long as it's good to dance to, even it it's ten years out at date', says Graeme, but it's nice to know that even the Shaggers have some standards: ‘We would never play Stock, Aitken and Waterman.’ (Andrea Baxter)
Have a Shag every Friday at Fury Murrys.
The List 31 August — 13 September 199075