CLUBS
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THE ARCHES There goes Europe’s best club venue. Rosie Davies mourns the demise of The Arches’ clubbing wing Controversy. There’s an argument that all art should be shrouded in it. If you’re not offending someone, somewhere, is it really art? Electronic music – or, more specifically, the pastime of dancing to electronic music in public spaces – has always terrified the authorities. And yet the news on Friday 15 May that Scotland’s biggest nightclub has been forced to close, due to the restriction of licensing hours following two well-publicised incidents relating firstly to drugs, and then to alcohol, seems to have come as a shock. after-dark playground. The electronic music programme has changed and morphed with the times. It’s a case study in how clubbing has progressed over the past 25 years, from DJs standing atop turntables with their arms in the air, looking for adoration, to . . . DJs standing atop turntables with their arms in the air, looking for adoration. The only thing setting them apart in these pre / post EDM times is quality, really. A controversial statement, perhaps – but clubbing should be controversial.
Turn to page 12 for responses from those
What is undeniable is that since the Arches started putting on club nights, back in 1991 when it started up as a space to host the sort of weird arts events no one else wanted to touch and Health and Safety was a more muted nightmare, it has become a staple of Glasgow’s
involved. And go to list.co.uk for more on the personal, political and cultural ramifications, updates on the decision (which, as of late May, is being appealed) and, of course, a celebration of some of the best things to happen beneath those industrial brick vaults.
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