Hello Ady, I have been reading this thread with more than a little interest, and would like to add my own observations which are probably coming from a different perspective to most. I came to the 100 club twice last year, as you know because we spoke on both occasions. That was the first time that I had ever visited, and despite being told that "it's not what it was" I wanted to see what the fuss was all about.......
On entering the room I immediately liked it, the atmosphere of the place, it felt good.
The next thing that hit me was the cheesy oldies that were being played......stuff I could hear half a mile down the road from my house. I thought this must be just the warm up, but quite a few were played throughout the night.
But the thing that totally ruined the night for me was the sound system.......just shocking.....no excuse for this in my opinion, and the biggest problem with venues on this scene. Can't see the point in playing mega rare and expensive 45's on a shit system.
The only other thing that bothered me a tad, was some of the tourists behaviour. In fact on my second visit I had an incident with a cock head who was throwing those florescent rings about that they have at raves.
As I said I came down twice, just in case I had picked a bad night on the first occasion. But no, the second visit was worse for me than the first.....
I am a very fussy punter, I don't do gear and I don't drink. I go out for the music and to dance, but I want a good sound system and a dick head free zone. And that's why I personally would never come down there again.
On a more general note. I agree that the combination of, recession, age and hundreds of very poor and badly run nights are the reason that attendances are down. Also as someone said earlier, Greg I think, there isn't enough new good quality music left to play. I must congratulate you Ady on keeping it going for so long. A huge achievement.
I don't think allnighters will last much longer. All the DJ's that worked for me, wanted to be on between 12 and 2am.....and if you look at the most successful [in numbers] venues at the moment, they are open on a Sunday afternoon.....I think that speaks volumes sad though it is.
I think the comment that someone used earlier? could have been Greg again, sums up this entire scene now.....Flogging a dead horse.....Never see teds these days......
Phil.
p.s. Ady, thanks for starting this post, it's been bloody boring on here lately.