Laurent and Layo Shake it again...

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Just like old times: Shake It! parties pull in the crowd from The End

Serious fun: Martha, right, and friends

Arriving at a club before midnight to find superstar DJ Laurent Garnier bobbing his stubbly French head behind the decks is the musical equivalent of stepping into a restaurant and being handed a fillet of Kobe beef to nibble on while you wait for your table.

Grooving to techno's king on any occasion is a rare treat and, as a very famous record-spinner usually only appearing for a night's glorious finale, being welcomed by him so early on hinted that this party promised to be a special affair.

When The End swung its gates permanently shut in January, three people were wailing louder than anyone else; Garnier — to whom London's party palace had always been a home from home — and England's own double DJ favourites Layo & Bushwacka!. After all, Layo Paskin founded the club with his sister Zoe and former Shamen frontman Mr C. So when time was finally called, the boys vowed to continue making people dance. All. Night. Long. Just somewhere else.
And Shake It! was born. Four epic parties, staggered across this year, were planned for the warehouse beneath Southwark's Arches (plus a Shake It! tent at the forth-coming SW4 Festival on Clapham Common next month).

Messrs Garnier, Paskin and Bushwacka! would be our musical ringmasters and, to maintain The End's cosily familial feel, managers, bouncers, barmen and lighting bods would be the same ones who used to run the famed club in Holborn.

Gathering a gang to attend the first Shake It! Saturday shindig earlier this year proved simple. In the queue outside, my trusty End friends twitched excitedly beside me under the same arches where we'd previously visited SeOne and Mulletover raves.

The tunnel was lit neon blue, just like West Central Street always was, and on entering the vault we handed coats to familiar-looking cloakroom staff and purchased drink tickets — a
wonderful gimmick meaning you buy your drinks in advance so can just exchange a ticket at the bar for a glass of wine without being held up by
people ordering huge rounds and paying by card.

The room — a high-ceilinged cave with exposed brickwork, smoke machines and neon light beams — quickly filled up with a happy bunch of twentysomething beauties, most of whom had made up the regular End crowd and all of whom were there to hear the tunes and dance.

The £15 ticket ensured that the only people who turned up were the ones who actually wanted to hear the DJs playing, rather than the ones who just fancied a quick drink.

We kicked our heels to Garnier's mix of industrial-strength techno, vocal house and a smattering of drum&bass before gliding into the chill-out space which links to Room Two. It was a cosy spot, stuffed with squishy sofas, low-slung tables and the best-kept portable loos I've ever seen. Being a warehouse, The Arches have no running water, so all loos and sinks must be portable — just think of it as another thing that adds to the laid-back, festival Shake It! mentality.

Through a thick, soundproof, velvet curtain was the second bar and Room Two, slightly more intimate than Room One, where Layo & Bushwacka! were in charge.

The pair's trademark house party took seconds to put grins on our faces — of course, those grins might've been helped by £3 vodka and tonics and
bottles of beer. Their beats skittered between underground house and sunnier melodies, the sort of tunes you find on the terrace at Ibiza's Space club. Scampering between the warehouse's four open-plan spaces (and huge alfresco smoking area, thank you boys) felt a bit like Mulletover's much-loved parties, or the raves held in Shoreditch's Plough Yard and Hearn St Car Park.

There was no clinical club feel to the venue, which meant that Shake It! sat nicely at the opposite end of the spectrum to places like Matter where, if you spill a drink, cleaners are there within seconds to wipe and tut.

As the 7am closing time slid into view, we danced out on to the sunny streets of Southwark. It was tempting to stick around and scoot on over to the Anchor & Hope nearby for Bloody Marys and a gastronomic Sunday lunch. But after all those hours of jumping, bouncing, skipping and sliding, our little feet needed bedrest, so we hopped into waiting cabs and headed for home.

Because of striking similarities in terms of staff, crowd, cutting-edge music and easy-going ambience, Shake It! felt like a grubby secret room into The End that you never managed to find over 13 years.

We may never get our old friend back, but the Shake It! gang are going to make sure we still have one hell of a place to party.

 

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