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Plug into Cable at SE1
By Joe Roberts, London Lite 17.07.09
Wired up: London’s hottest new club, Cable, has a good mix of trendy clubbers
Big night out: these girls love the club
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Once upon a time, the area around London Bridge launched a musical revolution. That time was 1988 when Danny Rampling opened the legendary Shoom club in a Southwark gym and brought acid house to London. But while this sound went on to transform clubland, London Bridge fizzled out to become just a place where wide-eyed ravers caught the first train home.
The recent opening of new club Cable, tucked away in a tunnel on Bermondsey Street, could well restore the area to its former glory. Purpose-built and with grand ambitions, its line-ups host the best DJs playing house, techno, disco, electro, dubstep and drum&bass, providing something special for lovers of all modern club music. And, despite a low-key launch, the hype is building.
Intrigued to see if this really was the capital's new superclub, we handed over our £15 entrance fee and passed through the arch entrance to find a slightly predictable industrial aesthetic — bare brick walls with exposed shiny metal tubes running along the ceiling and a neon-lit bar. We stocked up on Becks and vodka and Coke for £4 each.
The sheer scale of the place (it holds 1,000 people) and the music were anything but pedestrian, though. Just after midnight the brilliantly named Electro Elvis dropped a remix of Sweet Harmony and newly arrived clubbers headed straight for the dance floor. We chatted to promoter, Lula, who clearly thinks the place is destined for big things. “The space is amazing,” she enthused. “The club and sound are as good as Fabric and the people here are really into their music.”
Next we headed to the massive outdoor smoking area, filling up as people stepped out to cool down from inside, and discovered a friendly mix of trendy art kids, weekend ravers in jeans and T-shirts and more dressed-up clubbers. A girl in an HMS Heron hat caught our eye and we were soon talking to Sophie and her friend Vanessa, both 18, who finished their A-levels the night before. “It's brilliant here,” said Sophie. “There are loads of rooms and it's cavernous with loads of dark corners.” And what are they good for? “Don't ask,” she laughed before I inexplicably found myself in the midst of a group hug.
A map just by the cloakroom, complete with a “you are here” arrow, shows the layout of the club which has a large bar area with a balcony separating the first and second rooms. There are also numerous passages enabling easy movement between all areas.
On the busy main dance floor, JDH and Dave P, Simian Mobile Disco's US tour DJs, were laying down dark techno that sounded like the stuttering fire of laser guns from Star Wars, notching up the excitement ahead of the hotly anticipated headliners — Bugged Out.
Another wander found us bumping into S-Express's Mark Moore, himself an acid house pioneer, who has a weekly Thursday residency at Cable with new night, Can Can. With different themes for each party, and special guests such as fashion designer Johnny Blue Eyes, Moore promises to bring a bit of East End cool to the south, adding yet another string to the venue's bow.
We caught Bugged Out promoter Johnno talking to Jas Shaw from Simian Mobile Disco just before their set. Celebrating its 15th birthday this year, Bugged Out is now in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose its venues and Cable easily fits the criteria. “It's big but intimate,” said Johnno. “You get a good party atmosphere but you aren't looking for your mates all night.”
Back on the dance floor, SMD came out all guns blazing with a sound perfect for the room of 500 or so dancing, arms held aloft. Current single Audacity Of Huge sounded exactly that, and there was a sneak preview of Cruel Intentions, the track from their forthcoming album Temporary Pleasure that turns Gossip's Beth Ditto into an Eighties synth-pop diva.
When dawn came, London Bridge still provided the ideal place for weary legs to begin their journey home to various part of London. But now Cable is here, SE1 is back on the musical map.
Raw, underground and host to the cream of dance talent, a new revolution might just be brewing — and with better transport links than Clerkenwell's Fabric, London Bridge may yet become the epicentre for a new breed of Noughties clubber.
