Clubbing in the whole of Europe has taken a big blow since the economic depression, the biggest promoter in Holland ID&T has sold the company to the Americans and is concentrating on events there. I’ve noticed on Partyflock that the promoters there are playing safe and going for a younger crowd into a wider range of urban music or who are just there for short term hedonism, instead of the old days where EDM was a long term lifestyle from someones teens to their 40s or 50s (or even beyond, Pat actually makes a good point in his post 😉 )
and lets face it no one from the brap brap townie rnb artists and DJs to the so-called “underground” are going to turn down offers of a record deal or a tour. If MC G-Tek was offered a contract to spit bars with Rastamouse he’d be off to Salford in a very short amount of time (to be fair it wouldn’t be such a bad use of the license fee!)
The MoS is now a commercial business same as the other London venues including the more “underground” one that the acid tekno event everyone is going to is being held in, and they are small fish in a big pond (as witness what happened when the 414 had the shooting). Even in the North very big successful clubs have closed when they were viewed to cause more social problems than having a office or a shop or industrial business on the site.
I do think (and this was also mentioned in comments on DSI etc when I found info about the H bar) house and trance are neglected genres, ironically because they are viewed as more “commercial” as some soulful house does get played in townie clubs as well. However the very fact they attract an older age group makes the events safer as this age group tends to have other responsibilities (careers, family etc) so doesn’t want to take excessive risks with drugs, DUI etc but still knows how to party 😉
