Looking Back: Shoom Nightclub
Image: David Swindells/PYMCA
In December 1987 the sunny Balearic sound landed in London in a club called Shoom that became an epicentre for acid house, funk and soul sounds that intertwined with the hippy, easy living nature of the White Isle.
After spending a whole summer in Ibiza, Danny Rampling came back to London with a mission to launch a new club night in a fitness centre and gym on Southwark Street that he had deejayed at previously. As he knew the owners, Rampling simply asked to rent the space out and that was it, Shoom sparked the start of British rave culture as we know it.
This time was full of optimism and positivity which the smiley symbolised in every way. The drugs boom at this time obviously helped the feeling of love that spread through the clubs and gave people their carefree attitude and sense of euphoria. There’s no surprise that the people of our generation now look back at this time through rose tinted glasses, wishing they were there to experience this increased sense of connectivity with people that is lost today due to the advance technology.
Dave Swindells photographed this enigmatic subcultural movement and said, “It took the potent cocktail of acid house, Balearic beats and (the widespread availability of) ecstasy to turn a club scene that had started going around in circles into a raving culture covered in smileys, dressed as Day-Glo-surf-disco pirates or in hippy chic and waving its arms in the air so much that sales of Sure went through the roof.”
Shoom closed in 1990 three years after it opened, this could have been an omen to the acid house rave scene? By 1995 the death of Leah Betts perhaps symbolised that this era of partying was over. The media created large scale moral panic that whipped the nation into more shock and despair that took the magical edge of the raving. Your mum and dad finally knew where you were going on the weekend.
In recent times we have seen the ‘warehouse revival’, with places like Sidings Warehouse in the London Bridge area. Cable also used to be hidden beneath the arched bridges before Network Rail reclaimed the building for apparent redevelopment of London Bridge station. And Crucifix Lane warehouse has recently announced its closure for the same reasons. General manager Alex Brooks saying “all good things come to an end.”
The warehouse revival has also cropped up in East and North London. Warehouse LDN for example is on an industrial estate in the middle of Tottenham hidden amongst an MOT garage and mounds of rubble. The renaissance of warehouse clubbing is supposed to give people the experience of raving during the hedonistic days of the late 80s and just goes to show that our generation admires this time for its sense of freedom and mass social connectivity - something which people now seek on social media.
