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Manic Monday at Durrr
By Charlotte Melville, London Lite 27.06.08
Begin at the end: clubbers start the week at Durrr
Workday wear: It's Monday but this clubber's dressed for a big night out
Look here too
Last weekend was one of the greats. You know the ones, where post-work beers on Friday go on all night; you've still got the energy for clubbing on Saturday, and Sunday's hangover cure comes in the form of fabulous sunshine in your local beer garden.
But the mood grew progressively more subdued as Sunday night closed in and we were forced to think about Monday morning. Five days of Tube wars, office politics — maybe even actual work — loomed.
Looking around at my friends' dejected faces, I wanted a way to lift the sorry atmosphere. Then suddenly, as I raised my glass for the final glug of Magners, a lightning bolt came down and reminded me of Durrr, the Monday night party at The End which I'd been hearing lots of good things about.
With a name to leave your mates (mine included) thinking you've had one too many, Durrr offers the perfect antidepressant for the Sunday night blues: what could be better than a cracking night of live bands and hot DJs to look forward to?
Once I'd reassured them I wasn't just dribbling into my pint, I soon had five decidedly more cheerful friends. Monday flew by. Before we knew it we were bouncing out of Holborn station in our finest weekend attire and heading for the club. The streets were eerily deserted on the approach, with shop fronts and restaurants closed for the night. Worried that I'd dragged all my mates out to a non-starter, I was relieved to turn off Bloomsbury Way and see a healthy queue of punters loitering outside the club. We weren't alone in our quest to make Mondays fun.
The fledgling night already boasts a strong following and was created from the ashes of wildly popular Trash, which previously occupied Monday nights at The End. Durrr has a firm ethos of new live music alongside top-class DJs, with “King of Electro” Erol Alkan watching over it as curator (and the night we visited, as a DJ too). Recent live acts include hotly tipped Ladyhawke, Foals and Late Of The Pier.
By 11pm it was already packed with fresh-faced young things lounging in the bar and tentatively eyeing up the dance floor. Some were already enthusiastically strutting to Vampire Weekend's hit Mansard Roof, cocktails in hand.
Having paid our £6 to get in we got straight to the bar for the first round. Seeing no sense in rushing, we spotted a corner sofa on which to ease ourselves into the night and settled into an extended bout of people watching.
It was a young and trendy crowd, but the youthfulness held off any sense of pretension and everyone was clearly up for a laugh. With London band Whitey performing live (a rare treat) and remix maestro Erol promising to grace the decks later in the evening, the crowd was equally eclectic - from glitter-clad electro boys and girls, to the indie crowd in Converse and skinnies.
The night encourages creativity and partygoers are urged to dress up. Resident DJ Rory Phillips's stirring mix of present and past indie rock anthems was the perfect mood enhancer and had us feeling suitably cheered after drink number one.
Not wanting to miss out on the action, we squeezed our way through to the dance floor to catch the final half hour of his set. To the sound of Glass Candy's Miss Broadway, we threw ourselves among the enthusiasts doing the classic one-legged stomp, with right arm lifted in a pointed salute to the tune.
It was time for a shift to the live stage, where Baltimore duo Videohippos were winding up for a powerful half-hour of thrash drumming of the highest quality and some almost Radiohead-esque whining vocals. 'That's what I love about this night,' raved resident indie/alternative DJ The Lovely Jonjo when I accosted him for a chat at the edge of the dance floor. 'It attracts such a diverse crowd - rave kids, indie heads, playboys - they're all here and really get in the mix.'
'No one takes themselves too seriously. Look at them all, they're wrapped around the pillars to get in closer to the band.'
The dancefloor and steps leading off it were swamped with clubbers offering up their applause to the band, which soon turned into riotous stomping as Whitey and his live show arrived on stage.
Finally, Erol took to the decks. With all of us in the crowd extremely excited at seeing the main man at work on a Monday night, we got stuck into an intoxicating anthem-filled set that, among many other classics, included his most recent Scissor Sisters remix.
As 3am finally came around we grudgingly dragged ourselves out to find a cab, after what felt like basically the best three-day weekend ever. You know what? Mondays need never be blue again.
Durrr, every Monday, 10.30pm-3am, The End, 18 West Central Street, WC1, £6 on the door
