Electric Dreams (various venues, most often at The Cannick Taps, 109 Cannon Street in The City):
Probably the best pure synthpop/new wave club in existence. D.J.s are knowledgeable about their line of expertise but not arrogant, and having been running this place for three decades, clearly love the subject as much as we do. Skip Slimelight (see below) and come here instead - you won’t regret it.
Anti-Club Points: 7/10 - points deducted for lack of atmosphere in the venues (though it’s not Electric Dreams’ fault that the Gothic London Stone was replaced by the bland, soul-less Cannick Taps)
The St. Moritz Club (161 Wardour Street, Soho):
This fire-hazard basement club, unchanged since its 1960s and ‘70s glory days, is essentially a glorified cave, a coat of whitewash the only thing demarcating the stage area from the surrounding earth.
A mini-warren of dimly-lit chambers, its grimily glamorous gloom has been graced by the likes of Joe Strummer, U2, Iron Maiden and of course Lemmy, whose bar-stool by the one-armed bandit sits beneath a portrait of the man himself in exactly the spot he used to frequent before he moved to the Rainbow (in L.A. naturally, not the one in Finsbury Park).
Club nights change from time to time here but in general on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night it’s likely that you’ll hear some Mod, Glam, Punk and other semi—forgotten genres.
Anti-Club Points: 8/10, if only for the retro vibe and its status as formerly hallowed ground
Slimelight (Electrowerkz, Torrens Street, Angel):
There was, far back in the mists of time, an era in which Slimelight was probably cool. As ‘recently’ as a decade ago, it could still be relied upon to spin some Killing Joke, Anne Clark, Sisters, Type O and more and those who understood the actual Gothic aesthetic and subculture still just about outnumbered the freakish, self-obsessed, mentally deranged posers who had begun to infiltrate.
Now the lunatics have taken over the asylum, and there surely is no club more unpleasant to visit than this den of cliquey, mincing teratoses.
Anti-Club Points: 0/10… included here as an example of what not to do
The Anti-Club presents ‘20th Century Rocks’ on Spotify
E-mail: theanticlub@pm.me