Taking Sides: Strange Fruit v. Track & Field

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Which is the best indie club in London?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 30 December 2002 16:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I might go to an indie club one day, I've never been to one.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 30 December 2002 16:31 (twenty-three years ago)

don't even go there.

― masonicboom, Monday, 30 December 2002 16:33 (twenty-three years ago)

trash

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 30 December 2002 16:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Strange Fruit, cos that is where I didst see ballboy for the first time...

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Monday, 30 December 2002 16:41 (twenty-three years ago)

trash? indie club? ha ha

Gareth it never was an indie club, and certainly ain't now by the sound of it. EEEhh I remember when it were all fields round here, and Trash was that snooty disco where Abba records would be interspersed with the odd indie one.

Track and field play Northern Soul, I dance more there, but some of my good friends are involved in SF. Not that I go anymore.

― chris (chris), Monday, 30 December 2002 16:43 (twenty-three years ago)

but electroclash is indie, no?

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 30 December 2002 16:44 (twenty-three years ago)

not indie schmindie, like the other two. Trash always thought far too much of itself to ever call itself an indie club. Mind you last time I went there wasn't a dress code or wot. I understand that all that has changed now?

― chris (chris), Monday, 30 December 2002 16:46 (twenty-three years ago)

well i wouldnt say it was a dress code as such...but...

they play much better records than either strange fruit or track&field, which i cannot tell apart anyway

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 30 December 2002 16:47 (twenty-three years ago)

syndrome... i mean death disco. i've never danced so much in my life.

track and field has better bands, more adventurous music...

― masonicboom, Monday, 30 December 2002 16:50 (twenty-three years ago)

I could have sworn we just did this on ILM.

I knew Kate was going to crack. Its a long way from the days you used to call T&F Twee and suckers of big hairy moose cock aint it?

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 30 December 2002 16:51 (twenty-three years ago)

i admit that i was wrong. at the time, i had been to t and f exactly once, never met any 0f the people involved, and my entire impression of them was based on 2nd hand info passed on by a compulsive liar who ran a rival club.

since then, i have had many fun evenings of dancing, seen some wonderfully eclectic shows, including dronerock, and their label put out one of my top 3 records of 2002.

i ended up giving the moosecock shirt 2 steven as a token of esteem when we played the club.

― masonicboom, Monday, 30 December 2002 17:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Ah, the dronerawk, is that all that it takes to make Kate happy? You just need a little wubwubwubing in your life.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 30 December 2002 18:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Is there room for the wubwubwubing with all the wibwibwibling?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 30 December 2002 18:30 (twenty-three years ago)

(Apologies in advance if "wibbling" is perjorative. It's such a cute-looking word.)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 30 December 2002 18:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Dan, your wibbling is wubbing me the wrong way.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 30 December 2002 18:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Eurgh, that reminds me of Downtown Julie Brown and all of her "wubba wubba wubba!"-ing...

― Nicole (Nicole), Monday, 30 December 2002 18:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Just for Nicole:

WUBBA WUBBA WUBBA!!!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 30 December 2002 18:42 (twenty-three years ago)

wubba nubba venette, f'schuzzle my nuzzle

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 30 December 2002 19:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Strange Fruit is better; I like their attitude and I don't have to deal with Trash rejects so much there. Bands are better cause you get a big range and it's not all squeakysqueakybopyellyell bands with girls doing vox. Ugh.

― J. Fitzgerald, Monday, 30 December 2002 19:29 (twenty-three years ago)

i've always seen t+f as the club for the more pretentious indie-bore.

strange fruit is funfunfun!

― dogbo, Monday, 30 December 2002 19:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Bands are better cause you get a big range and it's not all squeakysqueakybopyellyell bands with girls doing vox.
I hear all T&F bands go on feminist rants too.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 30 December 2002 19:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm supposedly invloved with SF (I say supposedly cos I haven't been for several months, oops) and I don't see the need to compare the two. The style is sufficiently different in both, and they're seldom on the same night. SF is more electronic, though because there are anything up to a dozen DJs from my big-eyed indie and pop stuff to twee C86 stylings to (the biggest part) aggressively hip and occasionally obscure electro. T&F is more cuddly, repetitive and backward looking, but that's by no means perjorative.

Personally I prefer How Does It Feel To Be Loved, classic indie, northern and motown on the 3rd Thursday of the month. But I would say that :)

― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 30 December 2002 23:57 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not even going there.

― RickyT (RickyT), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 00:42 (twenty-three years ago)

PS, for all those nu to IL*, Im teasing Kate and not being serious.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 00:43 (twenty-three years ago)

PPS: WUBBA WUBBA WUBBA!!!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 00:47 (twenty-three years ago)

wub makes the world go round

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 01:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Dang Perry is an evil evil mang.

― rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 03:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Words cannot express the damage the wubs have inflicted on me.

― Nicole (Nicole), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 04:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Some one actually sent me an email today calling me a "good mang" for giving them some contact numbers for bars out east. I am very scared now.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 05:43 (twenty-three years ago)

ha, all these puny mortals shall quake in fear once me and tom get round to (re)starting up our club nite (which, admittedly, probably won't be that indie, but i think you all know i'm going to play "where's me jumper" and there's nothing you can do to stop me, m-wahahahaa)...

in answer to the original question, t&f is at too small a venue, sf always has at least one rubbish band and hdiftbl is like the disco at the end of high fidelity (book, not film). i've never been to trash.

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 15:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh lordy, Mentalist Disco London-stylee. Good, as long as Meg gets to RAWK out once in a while. But where will you find a venue to rival Club Latino, Steve?

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:10 (twenty-three years ago)

The best indie disco is the one in my head. It's all sex and class.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:14 (twenty-three years ago)

No venue possibly can Liz but we will do our best. Club Freaky Trigger will be great! Apallingly mixed bhangra MP3s! S Club Juniors! Where's Me Jumper!

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Eeee, a grebt pH34r has fallen upon my soul. I will attend if you promise to serve sangria from a large black bucket in the style of CL. All clubs should do this as a matter of course, anyway.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:19 (twenty-three years ago)

CL only did that once unfortunately. :(

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:22 (twenty-three years ago)

once was still more than enough...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Strange Fruit is by far the best club I have ever been to. A varied range of bands every month, loads of events, and the club and the gigs they do is are run by the nicest people I have ever had the good fortune to meet. They are totally unpretentious, completely in it for the music, and their festival was the highlight of the year for me.

Track & Field is too jangly, Trash is too pretentious, but Strange Fruit has this great attitude that they don't care if you like them or not but they'll keep doing what they do.

― Jonathan, Wednesday, 1 January 2003 04:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Trying to work out, as someone deeply uncool and not particularly into (or indeed un-into) electro who used nonetheless to skulk embarrass[ing|ed]ly in the corner of Strange Fruit but found my last visit rather too schmindie and not nearly electronic enough, whether this talk of "more electronic" and "aggressively hip and occasionally obscure electro" is promising or terrifying. I've only been to the London SF once, and I did feel like my music taste had diverged from it a lot since SF Oxford mk I, but then I do realise you can't really judge by just one night (would've been back but haven't had the chance since, alas). And anyway, I am aware that sharing music tastes with me is, frankly, not only financially disastrous for any club night but also a thought that would horrify anyone with any spare braincells or selfrespect.

I was probably there at the wrong time anyway, since I was only there for the middle bit, and I do remember that the Oxford Yesbut SF played the stuff I liked - some favourite memories include the Notwist, Fridge, AFX - until about 11-11:30 (i.e. when nobody would ever go along with me and I usually got so scared by being the only person there not talking to one of the DJs that I had to run away again) and then played Pulp and bleedin' Hefner for the next two hours (i.e. when it was so full of people far cooler than I could ever hope to be that I could hardly breathe).

Recently T+F gig lineups have looked slightly more appealing than the SF ones to me, but, eh, stop grumbling and think of those of us who'd give their arm to go to anything like that ;) I'm beginning to think I'll never get to again because I can't get a proper job and I just can't afford to live anywhere with a music scene or public transport and I'm probably nearly too old anyway considering the whole uncoolness thing. (OK, maybe not my arm, I could get to either for a mere 50-60 quid or so, and while that's considerably higher than the street value of any part or the whole of my body I could probably part with it more easily. Then again I suppose my subconscious is refusing to spend anything on doing so because, even if my rosetinted rambling forgets, it remembers how awkward I felt at that kind of thing and knows that with the extra age and weight and possible lack of an arm it would only be worse.)

― Rebecca (reb), Thursday, 2 January 2003 01:03 (twenty-three years ago)

I am way more inclined to go to T&F things. I didn't know that there were Trash rejects there or it was elitist. Unless I have unknowningly become part of an elite group - which is unlikely, as I'm the most uncool person ever! In fact, I always found the SF kids a bit intimidating and the SF nights a bit scary sceney!!! I like the music at T&F bit more and the venues more as well. I have not yet been to HDIFTBL which is a shame as I'm sure I'd like that most of all.

Surely tho - 3 indie club options has to beat anything that NY/Boston has to offer. The clubs there are just MakeOutClub kid / Mod-a-be's hangouts.

― marianna, Thursday, 2 January 2003 12:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Don't forget Tigermilking! Which I am going to reinvent this year with other people to help me. I need inspiration on how to change improve things desperately, a new name, more of a focus and a keener eye on publicity. I'll be sure to let you know when it is up and running again...

― Mark C (Mark C), Thursday, 2 January 2003 14:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Tigermilking = my favourite club. Maybe. I don't really like clubs. Do I?

― the pinefox, Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:36 (twenty-three years ago)

well you always seem to have a good time when you go, esp. tigerwanking and you had a good time at sussed :)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 3 January 2003 11:56 (twenty-three years ago)

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