At the weekend, I escaped the fickle London weather to attend a friend’s wedding in Pisa, the Tuscan city famously known for its unusual tower. As a mate pointed out, the attraction is no longer the tower itself but the swarm of people sticking their hands out from a distance, posing as if they were preventing it from tipping over.
Surprisingly, many buildings in Pisa were peppered with graffiti as shown below from my leaning shot of the wall. Locals have a long way to go to catch up with London’s street art, but I guess that’s the best they can do without stencils and spray paint.
As for the wedding dinner, it was a culinary feast as one would expect from Italians. And the party? Well, the Madrileños from the groom’s side initiated the crowd with the rituals of chocolatero, and were still singing and dancing after the DJ left, as one would expect from Spaniards.
It was a week that saw both ends of the nightlife spectrum from the ritzy, glitzy scene to the get down and dirty warehouse party.
On Wednesday, the trainers and t-shirts took a backseat as we dressed up for a soiree at a posh West End club. In typical London fashion, the venue was heaving with debutantes and men in suits by 11pm, when the first bottles of champagne were whisked ceremoniously to the tables at the back. Alas, during the time we were there, everyone was shying away from the £30,000 Cristal Mathusalem.
Friday was Ditched Disco night at T Bar. A no-brainer pick: no fuss at the door, no cover, and cutting edge music that keeps people off the couch. I’m not sure how to categorise it but it was a mix of funky rhythms and minimal beats. Too bad I left the camera at home.
On Saturday I ventured south of the Thames for some teutonic action at the Lost present M-NUS (pronounced minus) underground party at SeOne.
Housed inside the arches under the London Bridge Station, both the Blue Room and Red Room, which have a capacity of about 1,000 each, were thronged with fans of techno, young and old clad mostly T-shirts, dancing to the beats of Canadian expat and now Berliner Richie Hawtin and his mates at M-NUS.
Finally on Sunday, a friend invited me to catch the BBC Proms at the opulent Royal Albert Hall. It was a welcome change in pace, but I couldn’t stop thinking how music at 130 bpm would sound in the splendid acoustics of the room.
One of this year’s hottest music producers, Laidback Luke has released the killer track Down with the Mustard available exclusively at Beatport until the end of the week.
We will unveil the Down with the Mustard tee very soon, thanks to the kind folks at Unmanageable Artists. In the meantime, check out his site for more groovy, techy and downright catchy beats.
On Friday, we kicked off the pre-party routine at SOS, neighbour to one of London’s clubbing mecca, Fabric. Not sure who was at the decks that night but people were queuing as early as 9pm. By the time we finished a few rounds, the queue to Fabric had extended to what I surmise (from personal experience) was a 3-hour wait for the late stragglers.
Later that night, we ventured up north again to the soon-to be-gentrified area of King’s Cross. At The Big Chill, I think we stumbled onto a party for the deaf and/or mute, with about half of the punters communicating in sign language. We then hit Egg, where chewing gum is not allowed, for a little session of electro and dirty house, and a ripping live performance by Viva City.
On Sunday, I was determined to find some Balearic afternoon action in London. I tried the Lockside Lounge and the Lock Tavern in Camden, hoping the Spaniards, Italians and French would swarm the dance floor after zigzagging through the bustling market. Instead, it was a very chill vibe, so I scooted to the East End to my favourite haunts Cafe 1001 and T Bar. Again no luck. I suppose all the party people were at Exit or Ibiza.
We’ve finally received a new batch of our “London” series T-shirts. Some of the tees might look a bit touristy but most, we hope, will appeal to locals. We’ll see later this month how the consuming public reacts to them.
We finally have model shots for the four T-shirts below. The other tees will be done at another shoot, as we get our new tees in the next few weeks. Yes it took us some time, but we hope clubbers and fans of house / electro will be delighted with what we have in store.
The great expectations this weekend turned out to be great disappointments. The plan on Saturday was to catch a glimpse of the new all-nighter parties at Cafe 1001 in Brick Lane and then to check out Wax, a new, ephemeral underground party near Shoreditch hyped by our beloved folks at Timeout.
But a SNAFU was just waiting to happen. Cafe 1001 didn’t host this time the 12-hour marathon, shutting its doors instead a little after midnight.
As for Wax, well I managed to find Plough Yard, a dodgy-looking alley near Liverpool station. But there was absolutely nothing there unless it was so underground and the music was playing so discreetly that I completely overlooked it. I doubt it - I saw others who couldn’t find it and besides the tickets are no longer on sale on the web.
It’s too bad, Wax sounded like a blast - a musical and visual feast at a building slated to be destroyed later this year. This was a green light for artists to spray paint recklessly within the confines of the Shoreditch Warehouse. Apparently, this is what it looked like inside. But don’t ask me about it, I wasn’t there last week.
Since it was only a brisk walk from the Highbury HQ, I checked out at the weekend the New Designers exhibition at the Business Design Centre.
Last week’s edition showcased furniture, accessories and textile designs from graduating design students in the UK. This week will be more relevant for us as we hope to see tee-worthy graphic design work on display. Finally, in the autumn 50 designers selected will have their creations exhibited at the Oxo Tower Wharf and, I think, on sale at Selfridges (unless I’m confusing it with another graduate design event).
It’s been raining on and off for a fortnight in London. I guess it’s Mother Nature’s way of punishing me for trying to escape bad weather when I sunbathed in the Middle East in February.
Fortunately though, I was able to pick up some essential gear for London when I was in NYC: the Sky Umbrella. Available at MOMA.
