“SUNDAYS” AT BARCODE VAUXHALL – SUNDAY 16TH NOVEMBER
REVIEW FOR SEENQUEEN
When the Barcode expansion machine hit Vauxhall just over two years ago, we were delighted to see one of our favourite bar brands make an impact change on the gay village south of the river. It immediately became popular both with clubbers using it as a warm up to the likes of Crash, Matinee, Juicy & other clubbing nights and soon established itself as a popular clubbing venue itself, particularly on a Friday & Saturday.
Sunday’s were also very popular from the outset, with both the front bar and the club behind being open & busy, attracting a gorgeous mix of Latino’s, scene faces & party goers either finishing off their weekends or re-launching their night out before trips to late night Sunday clubs. With a rotating D.J. line up, including Gonzalo, Alan X, Luke Hope & Brent Nicholls in the club & Stewart Who taking care of proceedings in the front room, Sunday’s at Barcode Vauxhall became unmissable for us.
But times they changed and soon the popularity of clubbing on Sunday waned, which affected many venues, Barcode Vauxhall not being alone in feeling the pinch. As a result, the closure of the club space soon followed, with energies then being directed to the front bar and the dream team of Stewart Who and Brent Nicholls reigned supreme every Sunday, with special nights like Balearic & Diablo amongst others to keep up interest and in an attempt to continue to secure Barcode’s Sunday’s. But when Stewart Who & Brent Nicholls became just Brent Nicholls and then no D.J. at all, the bottom fell out of the weekender and subsequent attempts to re-launch the night failed (we won’t mention the disastrous themes or D.J. choices), resulting on Sunday at our favourite local coming to a halt.
Fortunately for us, Sunday’s were soon replaced by Thursday’s, in the form of the brilliant social soiree, Industri, although it is fair to say the last day of the weekend still has a special place in our heart. So, were we excited or what!? when news of the return of Sundays at Barcode Vauxhall was announced. Pioneered by the enigmatic and popular Faye Lanson, a name synonymous with Barcode, the night, aptly named “Sundays” promised fresh new D.J. talent, superb music, great drinks offers and most importantly both rooms open. Well, we simply couldn’t miss out on this one could we?
So, arriving at just turned 8.30 p.m., we were greeted on the door by a smiling Emilio who waved us straight through into the front room, which was pleasantly full of a truly eclectic mix of people, clubbers, scene faces, bears & off duty D.J’s, all intent on savouring the return of Sundays to Barcode Vauxhall. Depositing our bits & bobs into the coatcheck, we advanced further into the club space, finding a smattering of cutie’s dancing away to the sounds of Faye herself, who had assumed control of the decks before the arrival of Hi-Fi Sean, swapping places with Tony Junior, who had the front room captivated with a truly commercial & upbeat set of tunes.
We paused briefly, catching up with new D.J. talent, Astroboy, who was clearly excited about the launch of “Sundays” and is one of a few new names/faces gracing Barcode Vauxhall’s doors, others including Emma Miswhite and Steven Artis, both accomplished talents in their own right. The line up genuinely seemed to be all about showcasing something different and we were very much looking forward to seeing Hi-Fi Sean in action, having only savoured his musical mixes at Hard On!.
Wandering back up into the front room, we fell on Industri pal Ian (with friend) and chatted away about the merits of Sundays as well as catching up on the weekend & other bits of news. In amidst our conversation, lots of familiar faces appeared, including D.J.’s Paul Coles & Tim Mclone and for a while the crowd seemed like a mini “Tonker” gathering. This was much to the delight of the cute and sexy Hugh Stevenson, who soon arrived and joined us to recollect on the fabulous time we had together on the Matinee dancefloor just over a week ago. We go back a few years with Hugh and it was great to catch up with him and learn of his latest exploits, although sadly little or no D.J.’ing for him at the moment.
When Hugh got distracted, we wandered back down into the club space, to find proceedings had been wound down and hugged a disappointed Faye, who was clearly expecting a much bigger turnout. Consoling her and together with Astroboy, we discussed the need to persevere as it was clear the front room was quite popular, so with a few tweaks here & there, the club space would work too.
We left Faye to pack up and with just the front room now open, Tony Junior continued to push out a collection of commercial & up to date tracks to keep the atmosphere buoyant. We carried on socialising with familiar faces and Barcode regulars, although we were ever conscious of our early start to work the following day. So, at an uncharacteristic early departure just over a couple of hours after arriving, we headed home to reflect on a night which sadly didn’t quite deliver to expectations, but resplendent in the thought that Sundays at Barcode Vauxhall may yet still be back on the agenda. According to reliable sources, not long after we left, there was some sort of security alert at MI5 across the road (or was it a certain club promoter putting the boot in,!?!) which halted the whole of Albert Embankment, effectively killing off any further “Sundays” activity, not the start (or was it end!) the night really needed.
There is no doubt that “Sundays” as a venture faces an up hill battle. There is stiff local competition in the form of both the R.V.T and Eagle Bar, who have established & popular nights (S.LA.G.S. & Horse Meat Disco), but also with the Embankment bar steeling BCV custom (albeit it was closed tonight) and with generally difficult trading conditions, there may need to be much gritting of teeth to see it become a success. We genuinely believe the introduction of some “heavyweight” D.J. talent is the way to go and linking in with a later running club might also be an idea. Whatever happens, we hope our Sundays are back, we hope that this new night gets the support it deserves (it has ours) but only time (if they let it) will tell. (DISCO MATT)
REVIEW FOR SEENQUEEN
When the Barcode expansion machine hit Vauxhall just over two years ago, we were delighted to see one of our favourite bar brands make an impact change on the gay village south of the river. It immediately became popular both with clubbers using it as a warm up to the likes of Crash, Matinee, Juicy & other clubbing nights and soon established itself as a popular clubbing venue itself, particularly on a Friday & Saturday.
Sunday’s were also very popular from the outset, with both the front bar and the club behind being open & busy, attracting a gorgeous mix of Latino’s, scene faces & party goers either finishing off their weekends or re-launching their night out before trips to late night Sunday clubs. With a rotating D.J. line up, including Gonzalo, Alan X, Luke Hope & Brent Nicholls in the club & Stewart Who taking care of proceedings in the front room, Sunday’s at Barcode Vauxhall became unmissable for us.
But times they changed and soon the popularity of clubbing on Sunday waned, which affected many venues, Barcode Vauxhall not being alone in feeling the pinch. As a result, the closure of the club space soon followed, with energies then being directed to the front bar and the dream team of Stewart Who and Brent Nicholls reigned supreme every Sunday, with special nights like Balearic & Diablo amongst others to keep up interest and in an attempt to continue to secure Barcode’s Sunday’s. But when Stewart Who & Brent Nicholls became just Brent Nicholls and then no D.J. at all, the bottom fell out of the weekender and subsequent attempts to re-launch the night failed (we won’t mention the disastrous themes or D.J. choices), resulting on Sunday at our favourite local coming to a halt.
Fortunately for us, Sunday’s were soon replaced by Thursday’s, in the form of the brilliant social soiree, Industri, although it is fair to say the last day of the weekend still has a special place in our heart. So, were we excited or what!? when news of the return of Sundays at Barcode Vauxhall was announced. Pioneered by the enigmatic and popular Faye Lanson, a name synonymous with Barcode, the night, aptly named “Sundays” promised fresh new D.J. talent, superb music, great drinks offers and most importantly both rooms open. Well, we simply couldn’t miss out on this one could we?
So, arriving at just turned 8.30 p.m., we were greeted on the door by a smiling Emilio who waved us straight through into the front room, which was pleasantly full of a truly eclectic mix of people, clubbers, scene faces, bears & off duty D.J’s, all intent on savouring the return of Sundays to Barcode Vauxhall. Depositing our bits & bobs into the coatcheck, we advanced further into the club space, finding a smattering of cutie’s dancing away to the sounds of Faye herself, who had assumed control of the decks before the arrival of Hi-Fi Sean, swapping places with Tony Junior, who had the front room captivated with a truly commercial & upbeat set of tunes.
We paused briefly, catching up with new D.J. talent, Astroboy, who was clearly excited about the launch of “Sundays” and is one of a few new names/faces gracing Barcode Vauxhall’s doors, others including Emma Miswhite and Steven Artis, both accomplished talents in their own right. The line up genuinely seemed to be all about showcasing something different and we were very much looking forward to seeing Hi-Fi Sean in action, having only savoured his musical mixes at Hard On!.
Wandering back up into the front room, we fell on Industri pal Ian (with friend) and chatted away about the merits of Sundays as well as catching up on the weekend & other bits of news. In amidst our conversation, lots of familiar faces appeared, including D.J.’s Paul Coles & Tim Mclone and for a while the crowd seemed like a mini “Tonker” gathering. This was much to the delight of the cute and sexy Hugh Stevenson, who soon arrived and joined us to recollect on the fabulous time we had together on the Matinee dancefloor just over a week ago. We go back a few years with Hugh and it was great to catch up with him and learn of his latest exploits, although sadly little or no D.J.’ing for him at the moment.
When Hugh got distracted, we wandered back down into the club space, to find proceedings had been wound down and hugged a disappointed Faye, who was clearly expecting a much bigger turnout. Consoling her and together with Astroboy, we discussed the need to persevere as it was clear the front room was quite popular, so with a few tweaks here & there, the club space would work too.
We left Faye to pack up and with just the front room now open, Tony Junior continued to push out a collection of commercial & up to date tracks to keep the atmosphere buoyant. We carried on socialising with familiar faces and Barcode regulars, although we were ever conscious of our early start to work the following day. So, at an uncharacteristic early departure just over a couple of hours after arriving, we headed home to reflect on a night which sadly didn’t quite deliver to expectations, but resplendent in the thought that Sundays at Barcode Vauxhall may yet still be back on the agenda. According to reliable sources, not long after we left, there was some sort of security alert at MI5 across the road (or was it a certain club promoter putting the boot in,!?!) which halted the whole of Albert Embankment, effectively killing off any further “Sundays” activity, not the start (or was it end!) the night really needed.
There is no doubt that “Sundays” as a venture faces an up hill battle. There is stiff local competition in the form of both the R.V.T and Eagle Bar, who have established & popular nights (S.LA.G.S. & Horse Meat Disco), but also with the Embankment bar steeling BCV custom (albeit it was closed tonight) and with generally difficult trading conditions, there may need to be much gritting of teeth to see it become a success. We genuinely believe the introduction of some “heavyweight” D.J. talent is the way to go and linking in with a later running club might also be an idea. Whatever happens, we hope our Sundays are back, we hope that this new night gets the support it deserves (it has ours) but only time (if they let it) will tell. (DISCO MATT)
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