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Posts Tagged ‘on the rocks’

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“Last week I was physically attacked when I was with some friends on Hackney Road. It was by some narrow-minded morons who seemed to want any excuse to vent their anger. There is a real underlying tension here in London and it’s often targeted at the queers and dress ups.”

Chatting about his latest brush with homophobic thugs, Caligula promoter Jim Warboy is impressively insouciant, particularly since just two years earlier  20 year old London art student and ‘dress-up’ Olly was left crippled after being stabbed 7 times and left for dead by a Bengali street gang, yards from where Jim was punched.

Though random street crime sadly continues to represent a real threat for clubbers in Shoreditch and Hoxton, Jim and the hundreds of flamboyant fashionistas flocking to his club du jour Caligula remain undeterred and as Jim points out, local police are increasingly helpful.

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“The police responded very quickly and they are taking this kind of situation very seriously now. I also had a lot of help from the staff at the George and Dragon nearby and it’s good to know that there is some sense of community and support around the area,” he says.

“Dressed up people have always been targets of these morons and it’s always worth following your common sense in how to minimise the amount of hassle you get. The most important bit is that nobody should have the right to deter someone amazing from being themselves,” he urges.

12 months after it started, Jim’s club Caligula, (which he co-promotes with Brazilian stylist and man-about-town Leo Belicha ), attracts London’s most flamboyant and glamorous crowd (including Bjork last week) though Jim himself is remarkably quiet and unassuming. A constant fixture on London’s alternative queer scene since co-running Matthew Glamorre’s uber-influential club of the noughties Kashpoint, he’s dropped the latter’s (dreadful) experimental music emphasis and equally significantly its door policy which banned anyone who failed to dress to excess.

“The door policy is important at Caligula, as it should be at any club. But door policies come in all shapes and sizes,” he muses.

“Caligula has always been known for having a very mixed crowd. We have a very fashionable crowd but also attract many other people who aren’t that interested in fashion. One of the key ideas behind Caligula from the start was to create a diverse crowd. I believe that’s where the interesting things happen in London. It is too easy to end up with a club for of the same ‘type’ of people. Why shouldn’t we have a club which pushes beyond the boundaries? I love seeing gay boys dancing with straight boys, trannies getting bottles of champagne off City boys, and seasoned veterans swapping ideas with the fresh faced newbies,” he smiles.

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And music-wise they’ve also avoided the cheesy pop and achingly amateurish DJs booked by most of London’s club kid parties of the last few years, instead inviting guest DJs such as Secretsundaze chief James Priestley and uber-cool Brazilian techno god Renato Cohen, backed by residents Jim and London based Brazilian Monica Soldan.

Renato Cohen & Monica Soldan

“Renato had come to Caligula earlier in the year and wanted to play for us. He completely understood that Caligula is not a techno club and that the music policy allows a lot of freedom for DJs to experiment,” Jim explains.

“Although he’s known as a techno DJ he’s actually extremely versatile and has been playing sets in Sao Paulo that incorporate other genres like disco for example. His set at Caligula was incredible and he managed to take people on a real journey through a range of ideas.”

“The music policy at Caligula is broadly Disco, Hi-NRG and house but the fact we have a dancefloor club at our new home at Basing House means that we can now push it deeper. The music is not completely retro – we play lots of current new music too. There is a certain vibe at Caligula – usually involving a good amount of vocals – and we tend to have sets that mix things up a bit. There is no point in us trying to recreate a music policy that people can get at loads of other club nights,” he notes.

“Are we pushing dubstep or tropical? No,” he smiles, “they’re not really genres that conjure up the mood of Caligula. Our crowd aren’t really into that thing.”

“One of the amazing things about London is that it’s a big, diverse city and people can have the option to go to all sorts of nights. On top of the disco and Hi-NRG background to Caligula we are pushing in more acid and old school house that is reminiscent of older, sleazy New York City clubs mixed with that twisted East London vibe that brings it up to date.”

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London’s fashionista club of the moment Caligula is moving to newly revamped Hoxton venue Basing House this week, taking over the Friday night slots that up until 12 months ago were occupied by erstwhile electro scenesters Trailer Trash.

The newly modernised venue (which was previously known as On The Rocks) has been expanded to include a ‘secluded roof terrace’ and ‘a secret boudoir for all the naughty minds to run wild’, Caligula promise, in a press release which also namechecks an MTV review describing them as ‘the London answer to Studio 54’.

“The smoke filled dancefloor will be glowing with Caligula’s trademark red lights and everybody knows that red lights spell danger – and sex!” the promoters add.

“Think of the poppers fuelled atmosphere of Paradise Garage meeting the sweaty crotches of a Soho brothel with an uncompromising Shoreditch twist of sexy fashion demons, dark minded queers, and open hearted trannies,” say Caligula.

Their Studio 54 reference came just as the News of the World hailed Torture Garden’s Studio 54 style ‘taste of sleaze’ in an interview with celebrity make-up artist Gary Cockerill about when he took reality TV celebrity Katie ‘Jordan’ Price to the London fetish club last October.

“As well as a dance floor and DJs like a normal club, there were also lots of private rooms catering to every fetish you can possibly imagine,” Cockerill recalled.

“We had the most amazing night. It felt so decadent, so outrageous – kind of like a kinky Studio 54,” he added.

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French disco legend Cerrone chatted to Skrufff last year about his own experiences partying at the real Studio 54 in the late 70s though was notably discreet about what he got up to.

“The balcony was the place where people were partying very often with their pants (or more) out. But actually, Studio 54 was really the ‘preparation’ phase’ the most physical and intense part of the night was always afterwards at after-parties in the City. I have really intense memories of Andy Warhol’s after-parties at his apartment,” he confessed.

“Sure I was a regular at Studio 54, but I have to say my memories are really not for telling there is a parental advisory sticker on them. All I will say is that I didn’t write very many songs when I was there, I was too busy learning about other things connected to sex and other things that were illegal,” he laughed.

(Studio 54’s ‘Rubber Room’: “The room had a High-Tec bar and was designed with thick rubber on the walls to be easily washed down with water and soap after all the sex and drugs going on up there. Some people used to refer to the Rubber room as “Upstairs”, but there were actually more secret places above the Rubber room were more private sex took place. Those areas were the real “Upstairs” to the initiated . . .’)

Caligula opens on Friday July 30: James Priestley and Guy Williams headline in future weeks, alongside weekly residents Jim Warboy and Monica Soldan)

Cerrone performs at Privilege Ibiza on Saturday August 1.

Jonty Skrufff

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