London Food & Culture

Does UK nightlife belong in museum?

Pioneering after hours club Trade celebrates 25 years with a final 19-hour birthday bender this weekend, alongside an unlikely – but very welcome – exhibition, at Islington Museum

Trade: innovative flyer art
Trade: innovative flyer art

Who’d have honestly thought back then that the debauched, sweaty Sunday morning heresy of Trade at Turnmills would one day be honoured at a museum?

“In a word, it’s surreal,” exclaims the chief party-starter himself, Laurence Malice.

We’re stood peering into glass cases stuffed with early 90s memorabilia: risqué flyers, outrageous customised outfits, chunks of original wooden dancefloor and worn-out acetates of hard ‘n’ fast techno anthems.

It’s a rather sedate way to contemplate Trade’s uniquely fierce club experience, and what it has meant to so many people over the course of 25 years. Yet to see a nightclub (a cultural space still generally synonymous with sneering bad press and finger-wagging) revered for its creative and social importance, well, it proves to be almost as emotional as a thundering 9am piano/hoover breakdown once was each week.


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The exhibition’s curator, Anne Marie Garbutt, has driven this passion project, taking Trade and its legacy of treasures from those early roots in Clerkenwell’s now obliterated subterranean pleasuredome, (read more on Turnmills history here) to its very own retrospective showcase, which runs until mid-January.

“I volunteer with Islington Museum,” she tells us, “and we were discussing putting together an archive about the borough’s historic links with the LGBT community: pubs, clubs, charities, political groups and more. I told them about Trade and how important it was, not just to the LGBT scene but the global clubbing culture too.”

Like so many people, Anne Marie had been blown away when she was first introduced to the club, becoming a friend of the Collective, as Trade’s team are known, and later selling tickets on the lesbian scene.

With the 25th anniversary approaching, the Museum gave her the green light, and so began a slightly haphazard process of piecing together a history that was decidedly blurred around the edges.

Get yer cock out at, er, Islington Museum
Get yer cock out at, er, Islington Museum

“The biggest challenge was getting the correct dates for milestones or events that we felt were important,” says Anne Marie. “It’s understandable that people couldn’t remember exactly what happened when, as weekly turnover was so intense in the 1990s, and much of the artwork didn’t have the year displayed. Another challenge was making sure I stayed true to the brief the museum gave me and didn’t let my personal love for Trade interfere with this.”

Peering back into the pre-internet/smartphone era, complete with foiled tickets, DAT mixes, disposable camera snaps and hefty boxes of vinyl, is the thing that’ll really make visiting 90s clubbers feel at once blissfully nostalgic and unsettlingly old.

Anne Marie says the highlights of her mission included “unearthing artwork I hadn’t seen before, hearing some great stories, especially from the early days, and just discovering the history of it as a whole. The love for Trade from everyone involved, including the clubbers, just shone through. It was consistently referred to as a family, which confirmed that it was a place for people to come together, express themselves and be safe.”

Tops off, rave on: the Trade dancefloor

We often hear now what a safe space that dripping, muscle-heavy, laser-lit basement was, and yet the emotion that greeted many wide-eyed newbies popping their Trade cherry was probably a touch of the fear.

This was advanced level raving, with the hedonism knob turned into overdrive and then pulled off, so to speak. The only downside about celebrating the club’s cultural importance in such a formal way is that all the really juicy stuff is simply too outrageous to get a mention.

Still, we’ve got Sunday’s final marathon party at Egg for those kind of reminiscences, deliciously dragged back up from the throbbing disco frontline.

It’s not to say London’s 90s gay scene was lacking in plenty more extreme nightlife options, but Trade was different in that it was breaking new ground musically – unleashing a new strain of shoulder-twitching camp techno on the world – while also attracting a mixed crowd.

That famous Turnmills main room laser, in action
That famous Turnmills main room laser in action

If you came open-minded and receptive to spending your Sunday mornings in a truly anything-goes space, then the gloriously wrong tribe at Turnmills would welcome you, and most probably change your life to one extent or another in the process.

“The whole dance music revolution, the illegal raves, Ibiza and the opening of the superclubs captured a whole generation,” says Anne Marie of the need to honour and value our decadent past. “Partners, friendships and careers were made during this period. It’s important for the new generation of clubbers, DJs and promoters to see their industry’s heritage, why they are able to do what they love because of those that went before them and who paved the way.”

Of course, delving into memories can also be painful, something Laurence found. “The second Tony De Vit or Chris McKoy were brought up in meetings, my mind just went,” he says of two of the club’s most celebrated DJ stars, now no longer with us.

“We will be paying a tribute to both of them at the final party this Sunday,” he says. Meanwhile Tony’s record box, that has sat virtually untouched and stuffed with choice vinyl since his untimely death in 1998, is up for charity auction at the end of the exhibition run. A truly priceless slice of Trade memorabilia for those that know.

“To see what the collective has achieved over the past 25 years is incredible to witness,” says Laurence, clearly overwhelmed at the exhibition’s launch party. “One forgets about all the things that have happened over the years and then all of a sudden it’s in front of you once again.”

Does the exhibition mark a turning point for our nightlife finally gaining the respect it deserves as a cultural force?

“One of the UK’s greatest strengths has always been its cultural contribution to the worlds of art, fashion, music, and of course clubbing,” Laurence states. “Trade broke so many rules which made it stand out. It would be good to see nightlife culture given more respect and more cachet, and with recent exhibitions like Bowie and Alexander McQueen packing them in at the V&A, maybe it’s only a matter of time. Trade could throw a great party there too…”

Bespoke Malice pieces that once swished down Muscle Alley
Bespoke Malice pieces that once swished down Muscle Alley

However pleasing it is to see the legacy of something that was so important celebrated, however fascinating it is to explore how Laurence and the Collective pioneered the creation of one of clubland’s super-brands, complete with accessories, global tours and mix compilations, the essence of Trade, indeed any proper nightclub, is all about living in the moment on the dancefloor.

The essence of that can’t ever be captured in a way that fully does it justice, and often can’t be remembered anyway, due to the intoxicating collective haze of the booze and chemicals.

And perhaps that’s right. Mind, body and soul need to be overwhelmed. But it’s still great to see the power of a decent dancefloor being taken seriously at Islington Museum, rather than shrugged off as gurn-fuelled frippery.

And though Gurnmills is long gone, it’s still a delicious prospect to pull the ageing family together at Egg this weekend, including the return of Trade follow-on heroes DTPM too. And Laurence isn’t exactly hanging up his raving shoes either.

Is this really the Final Final Party? “Well, watch this space,” he says, cryptically. “If something new happens it will certainly take place in the now and will not look backwards.”

Trade: Often Copied, Never Equalled Exhibition at Islington Museum, 245 St John Street, London EC1V 4NB Admission is free, 10am-5pm (closed Weds & Suns) runs until January 16 2016. More info.
Trade: The Final takes place Sunday 25th October at Egg, York Way from 2pm until god knows when on Monday morning, so take the day off! Advance tickets are about to sell out here.

2 thoughts on “Does UK nightlife belong in museum?”

  1. Gunmills only had three shoutings that I am aware off, and given all the people who went through the doors in its 25 years that was a good record.
    You can never keep something 100% safe but of course any shooting or loss of life is nasty, but I feel if it was not for Turnmills security team many more shootings may of got out of control.
    The last shooting in 2003 it was Turnmills security who got them back outside and kept many clubers safe within the venue that eveing.
    And lets not forget the Met did not hand the information onto Turnmills until after the event, and it was all to late by then.
    I am sure if Turnmills had that information from the Met that it would of been acted on, and maybe the shootings never would of happened.
    Anyone who says I will make it 100% safe is telling lies.

Leave a Comment

2 thoughts on “Does UK nightlife belong in museum?”

  1. Gunmills only had three shoutings that I am aware off, and given all the people who went through the doors in its 25 years that was a good record.
    You can never keep something 100% safe but of course any shooting or loss of life is nasty, but I feel if it was not for Turnmills security team many more shootings may of got out of control.
    The last shooting in 2003 it was Turnmills security who got them back outside and kept many clubers safe within the venue that eveing.
    And lets not forget the Met did not hand the information onto Turnmills until after the event, and it was all to late by then.
    I am sure if Turnmills had that information from the Met that it would of been acted on, and maybe the shootings never would of happened.
    Anyone who says I will make it 100% safe is telling lies.

Leave a Comment