CRASH AFTERHOURS - gone

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Crash, 66 Goding Street, Vauxhall, London SE11
Web: crashlondon.co.uk

Weekly(ish) - Sunday mornings 4.30am-noon

Okay, you used to go to Crash, and then on to Beyond.... And now you go to Beyond first and then Crash afterwards, only they don't call it Crash Afterwards, they call it Crash Afterhours, after toying unsuccessfully with having Crash at Colosseum (as Crash) and Beyond at Shine, until that particular Crash became Element, and Beyond came to Crash as Crash Afterhours, after Shine failed to. Basically.

Crash Afterthought is less like Crash than Element is like Beyond, because where Crash was the underground sound of gay clubbing, Cash Afterlife is the populist sound of afterhours clubbing and all the more enjoyable because of it...

It was a bit confusing at first to be in Crash (the venue, not the club), when the sun's shining in through both ends of the building, especially after being at Element in Colosseum (the former home of daytime club Beyond, but now the night-time home of Element) in the dark (not the day)... But we adapted, which is why we're here and the dinosaurs and Z-Cars aren't, and now it seems perfectly natural to be going into Clash Afterall as the sun comes up... amongst other things.

Extremely natural, if the weekly queues and crowds for Crush Afterbirth are anything to go by... Only now Beyond is back, so Crass Afteryou is only open two or three weeks of the month, with Beyond open some Sundays...

Oh, and while you were reading this Crash came back, and is now open again on Fridays and Saturdays with Hung, D-N-A, and lots of fat hairy fairy clubs, to meet the growing demands of fat hairy fairies.

I'm looking forward to going to Crash Aftercrash in the summer, when the queue for the coat-check isn't as long as the queues for the toilets.

BTW, the music's always excellent, and in both rooms. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can hear a really great record in one room, and when you cross into the second room you'll get to hear that same really great record again...

I take that last bit back, as Crash Afterhours has made a much-welcome resurgence in quality and quantity in recent weeks, after too many Beyonds. Look out for Crash Afterhours when it follows on from Megawoof, as a few weeks ago this led to a blinding main floor set from Trade and DTPM legend Daz Saund. Equally, when Crash Afterhours follows on from D-N-A, there's much more of a party atmosphere in the air, in part resultant from D-N-A's in-your-face decor, but also in part because the party is obviously so good at D-N-A that no one wants to go home early!

The biggest star of Crash Afterhours remains DJ Steve Pitron, five years with the club now, and showing no signs of slowing down, but Beyond dream teamer David Jimenez is also a popular main room fixture, and Brent Nicholls, Paul Heron and Dave Cross never fail to deliver in the back room.

Now, if they could only sort out the toilets... The owners, not the aforementioned DJs!

Martin
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