90's Nights in Brighton

THE PARADOX IS BEING DEMOLISHED!

Another slice of our youth bites the dust.

The building that housed The Paradox, Tru, Creation, Pink Coconut, Sherry’s etc. is due to be knocked down and rebuilt into a hotel apparently. Not that West Street in Brighton doesn't need a HUGE makeover though. During daylight hours it just looks totally run down, and at night time it looks anything but classy… but maybe it’s always looked that way? I’m sure I didn’t care much about it when we were sloshed up, walking (staggering) up or down it back in the 90’s!

I did previous writings about pubbing and clubbing days a while back, which ultimately became one of my most read blogs:

November 1993

...but it only really mentioned a couple of venues, so what about the other haunts from back in the day?

I’d not even made mention of The Paradox in that earlier blog, but it was absolutely somewhere I often ventured to, amongst many other locations during the 1990’s. I’m sure I drank in most places around Brighton at least once during those formative years, but the below are a few that most spring to mind:

Alley Cats / Ali Cats?

Funny little bar, which in my mind’s eye always used to be showing films on a big screen – and often it was ‘The Empire Strikes Back’!

Very pokey when busy, but if you could get a seat it was quite cosy and you could settle in for the night. Full of students, Goths and Emos’, so it was wonderfully eclectic and very friendly. That said, I probably stuck out like a sore thumb with my curtains haircut!

Berlin Bar

Never really got on with the Berlin Bar, and whenever I did go, I never stayed very long. It always seemed too dark? Imagine having a night club in Hollister, and you’re on the right track

Memorable Song?

I'm not sure about memorable, but the first time I heard N-Trance murdering Stayin’ Alive was in here. The Bee Gees are probably still turning in their graves.

The Biscuit Factory

Had a very strange toilet that played ghostly and haunting sounds whenever you went for a slash. That’s assuming the noises weren't actually coming from the adjacent female toilets? A chap got shot in the doorway during the 90’s so it had the label of being a rough pub, which I don’t believe it ever really was.

Black Lion

Another fairly small pub, but was quite popular. It used to have a video jukebox (quite impressive for the time) which played chart hits. I remember falling out with a ‘mate’ of mine one New Year’s Eve, when he reneged on a prior agreement made between 6 or 7 of the group we were in to rotate seats (as there were not enough to go round) when we went to the bar to get rounds in. I’m not bitter much usually, but he was being a total berk...

I saw him recently. He went bald first. Unlucky! 

Memorable Song?

Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai was often on the screen:

The Cricketers

Only worthy of a mention due to the weird upstairs. It was like a dark, dank boudoir with no apparent purpose. Always found it to be a really boring pub.

Is it still the same?

The Event (renamed ‘The Event II’ from Spring 1995, now Pryzm, via Oceana!)

Probably the venue I attended the most, though I didn’t really enjoy it so much when I first started clubbing. As I grew older I much preferred Tuesdays and Fridays to Saturdays. Such a different group of people would go out in Brighton on a Friday night compared to a Saturday night. The atmosphere was so much more relaxed and you didn’t have to actively try and avoid the people who couldn’t handle their shandies.

We always tended to congregate at the same spot at the top left bar over all the years I went there (not counting its Oceana refurb as they ripped the backside out of the place doing THAT overhaul!)

It was a good vantage point, overlooking the dance floor and stage etc. Guaranteed that no matter what night you went on, you’d know someone in that area.

I get mocked, but I’ve no shame in saying I had some absolutely brilliant nights up there with my friends – it was cheap and cheerful, but a really good laugh. Often on the Tuesday nights I’d be there ‘til chucking out time (230-ish), eat a Subway or Cheeky Chicken on the way home, get a couple of hours sleep at most, and be at work setting up the Deli counter at Sainsbury’s by 545am, clearly still drunk.

I remember one such morning, the deputy store manager summoned me into an office to discuss my ‘state’… and he promptly shook my hand, congratulating me on coming into work in spite of my excesses!

Anyways, there are so many Memorable Song options, but I’ll be brutal and stick to two for each of the main nights:

Memorable Friday Songs?

I Think We’re Alone Now – Tiffany

Live It Up – Mental As Anything

Memorable Saturday Songs?

Moving On Up – M People

Boom! Shake The Room – DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince

Memorable Tuesday Songs? 

Parklife – Blur

Born Slippy (NUXX) – Underworld

Font & Firkin

I used to like going to The Font to watch football, and remember getting soaked with flying beer when Beckham scored his famous last minute goal against Greece in 2001. The music in here would not often be my particular choices when it was forced upon the punters, but when they turned the jukebox on I’d fill it with stuff I liked!

Memorable Song?

Smoke – Natalie Imbruglia

The Gloucester

I loved The Gloucester. I honestly don’t think I ever left the place sober!

Every time I went there I had a great time, even the night when someone threatened to kill me if I spoke to his girlfriend again.

The current incumbent is called The North Laine, which is still the same building, and is indeed a very decent bar, but it doesn't have the same feel like the Gloucester used to. Besides, the Gloucester always had sticky floors!

I remember the first night I ever went there, I was having a heavy moshing session and back then, pre laser surgery days, I wore glasses. Amongst the colliding, my glasses went flying, so I hit the deck desperately trying to find them. Miraculously I grabbed them before they got crushed, but then this huge guy (a bouncer?) hoyed me up and threw me off the dance floor area to safety. I think he was doing me a favour!?

Memorable Song?

Too many! I can’t narrow it down to less than these three:

Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana

Don’t Look Back in Anger – Oasis

Live Forever – Oasis

The Hungry Years

Another venue where I stuck out like a sore thumb, but I always found it a really friendly and inclusive club, whatever clique or group you felt attached to.

We usually went there if we ever left The Event early on a Friday, to meet up with other friends who had been there for the duration.

Memorable Song?

Faith – George Michael… but it wasn’t his version they played

Midnight Blues (under the Grand Hotel)

Gets a mention as it was where I had a party for my joint 21st birthday.

The party was a great night, and we had about 120 people show up. It would have been more, but the other birthday boy neglected to invite more than 10 other people...

I think I might have been there a couple of times beforehand, and just felt it was a fairly decent and cheap (free) venue to hire. That said I don’t think I’ve ever been back since!

O’Neill’s (now Seven Stars)

Always really enjoyed the atmosphere in this Irish bar where, incidentally, Brighton and Hove Albion was formed in 1901.

One night in particular stands out in early 1996, when I met up with a tremendously funny Irish guy I worked with at Sainsbury’s on a Tuesday evening for a few drinks, as his brother’s band were playing a gig at the venue.

The company, banter, music and booze was a total joy that night. I’ve generally always been a spirits drinker, but after I’d hit 10 Guinnesses in about 2 hours, I stopped counting. That’s not a boast, it was just one of those nights when everything seamlessly flowed.

I ended up singing Irish folk songs that I didn’t know the words to, and then we went clubbing to The Event where they had to hold me up to get me in!

How can all that be more than 21 years ago!?

Memorable Song?

Wild Rover – My mate’s brother’s band!

The Paradox

I generally went here on Thursdays as I think that was student night?

It didn’t matter if you were actually a student or not, but this night generally meant cheap booze, so it was the equivalent of the type of night that The Event had on Tuesdays. One advantage that The Paradox had over The Event was that there were definitely pockets where you could actually have a conversation with someone, whereas the sound at The Event used to boom around everywhere (apart from maybe the back stairs)

The balcony around the top was good too, giving a bird’s eye view of the place (no pun intended), plus you could get some decent food at the back too.

The least said about the dodgy staircases the better. I don’t quite know how more people didn’t lose a limb going down those. The pic below of me (circa 1998), shows that I’m either dancing or, more likely, trying to regain my balance having walked down said stairs…

There was also Club Barcelona underneath, which offered an alternative, but there may have been an older age restriction there? Occasionally we’d go on a Monday when they hosted Austin Powers themed nights – always a good laugh, and with added 60’s music to boot.

Memorable Song?

Earth Song (Hani Club Remix) – Michael Jackson

The Pav Tav

Sorry but I never liked it, and found it quite boring frankly, but many raved about how good it was. Just couldn’t see it myself!

The Polar Bar

Worth a quick mention of this teeny bar along Western Road as they served all kinds of bizarre cocktails and flavoured vodkas. Used to love the sherbet vodka combi.

The Pull and Pump

This compact pub was usually the first place we headed to on our nights out in Brighton. It always had a buzzing and friendly atmosphere, and would set us up for the night ahead.

Generally we’d get there at about 7ish and spend an hour or so dabbling with a healthy dose of Absinthe, Tuaca or Aftershock before heading off elsewhere into town (usually The Quadrant – see below)

Miscellaneously, I broke up from my first girlfriend in The Pull – there’s irony for ya!

The Quadrant

I got the impression that we owned the jukebox in The Quad! It’s fair to say that they played what we demanded or insisted on every time we went in there. Friday nights always seemed a bit more retro, as when we went there on other nights, we might as well have been on a totally different planet; such was the different vibe and clientele.

The staff were a good laugh – one lad looked like Take That’s Mark Owen and we ribbed him mercilessly for it. Sadly I heard that the landlord Gary Ockwell passed away at quite a young age…he loved being a bit of a misery and banned Christmas one year, which attracted the interest of a couple of national newspapers.

And we’ll never forget the night that Bryan Ferry walked in…

Memorable Song?

Lazy Sunday – The Small Faces

The Revenge

The Revenge in the 90’s was (and still is) Brighton’s most popular gay club. I have to be honest in my writings and say that it was never really a place I was keen to go to, as firstly I felt I wouldn’t meet any girls there, and somewhat ashamedly the younger me was unnecessarily nervous about going to a club labelled (unjustifiably) in my mind as ‘non-straight’.

I obviously know now just how ridiculous that sounds, but I just wasn’t enlightened enough to process it at the time. What totally swayed my views on everything the lifestyle encompassed, was when I was persuaded to go to Revenge for the leaving ‘do’ of a colleague of mine. He mockingly said he would look after me, but within a few minutes he needn't have bothered. It literally clicked that it was all fine.

Any homophobia I might have had, which I genuinely believe stemmed from a fear of the unknown rather than any hatred, vanished instantly. It WAS just another club, there were men, women, straights, gays, bisexuals, unknowns, those who did not identify, and everything in between, labelled or not.

I was initially very embarrassed about why I had not simply adhered to live and let live, but ultimately I put it down to my immaturity and ill education on the matter.

Actually I was just pleased that I wasn’t still stuck in an archaic view. Bizarrely, one of my friends admitted that he would say he lived in Worthing rather than Brighton, so as to avoid being tarred with the ‘gay’ brush. How pathetic is that? Hopefully he has grown somewhat since then!

Anyways, back to the point, and I can say that the club was great, and played the sort of terrific music that I loved – i.e. 80’s music, and whilst I wasn’t a prolific visitor, I always enjoyed going.

Memorable Song?

Summer of Love – Steps, or anything by ABBA!

Smugglers

This was one of the first pubs I went to regularly in Brighton. Good atmosphere, plenty of drinks choice, and nice décor split into two staggered levels… and then bizarrely they ruined it by putting in a restaurant on the upper level. Week after week we would watch literally nobody eat there. Just a few miserable waiters hanging round hoping for a customer. Very strange.

Zap

Me and a few mates only really went here when they did 80s nights – which being a Monday meant the overall feel of the night was a bit odd. The layout was quite good though, and the club had the famous arched windows too.

Memorable Songs?

Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr

Tainted Love – Soft Cell

Alone Again (Naturally) – Wendy and Hee Hee

I feel a bit sorry for the next generation, as it seems to cost an absolute fortune to go out into Brighton now. Maybe it’s all relevant and I’m just old, as I’m sure some things are probably better about a night out.

For example, all the above venues were visited well before the smoking ban came in. Smoke free venues are a given nowadays, but even as a non-smoker I have to be honest and say that the copious smoking in such venues never bothered me whilst I was living through it. It was just the way it was.

What I’m absolutely glad that I didn’t have back then, is a mobile phone.

The banter, singing, laughs and conversations must surely have died since the advent of the smart phone, which is actually a real shame… it’s even got to the point where I’ve been aware of the current youth saying that they won’t go out at all if they don’t have their phone with them.

They really don’t know what they might be missing out on... And now I sound too old!