Five of the UK's Biggest Promoters Give Us Their Views On the Future of British Nightlife

Most of us stumble in and out of clubs without a second thought about how the night we're about to enjoy, or have just finished enjoying, came to be. We forget about the bouncers and the ticket sellers and the bar staff and the bloke who looks after the club's website. We overlook these things because thinking about them makes the whole thing feel like work, and the last thing you want to be reminded of when you're trying to still believe that actual hedonistic experiences are possible in Britain, in 2016, is work.

For a lot of people nightlife is work. It is their livelihood. And for those people the current climate is one of fear and anxiety. You don't need me to tell you that clubs are closing from Aberdeen to Weston Super Mare. You know things are hard because you go to clubs and you've seen the numbers dropping and the entry getting more expensive. And you've probably sat in the back of a taxi on the way home from the clubnight that means everything to you silently praying that it'll never come to an end, that Saturday night's always be like this. We know you've experienced all that because we have to.

For that reason, we decided to use our Britain at Night series to explore what exactly it is that keeps nights running and getting punters through the doors in an age when staying in is the new going out. To do this we spoke with the brains behind XOYO, Secretsundaze, Audiowhore, Dimensions and Garage Nation. This is how the promoters see things.

Smith and co-DJ/business partner James Priestley, have been throwing parties round the world since establishing their Secretsundaze night in Shoreditch in 2002. Since then, the night's become a byword for warm, open, inclusive clubbing, and the likes of The Black Madonna, Leon Vynehall, Hunee have graced the decks in the last few months alone. The pair met as teenagers in East Anglia, and formed a long lasting bond over a shared love of house music and the thrill of the large scale outdoor raving scene way back when. They celebrate their 15th anniversary as promoters later this year.

Giles Smith: There are, in my eyes, two major changes in the British clubbing landscape from when James and I first started going out. I first started going out in 1992, and putting on parties around a decade later and can think of two major changes that mark those moments. Although it wasn't '88, clubbing still felt like a subcultural activity in 1992. Now, most 18 years olds have experienced clubs and house and techno and they've possibly experimented with drugs like ecstasy. It was totally different then. Most of the people in our class had no idea what we were up to at weekends so it felt clandestine and exciting. Less than 5% of my year hung out at places like that, listening to music like that, I'd say. We'd also travel to places like Nottingham just to see a certain DJ. That's certainly less common now.

When we first started secretsundaze in 2002, it felt a lot more free and you could take risks. We pulled off a number of illegal parties in very central locations and even on roofs in full view of the public and the authorities but were generally allowed to go about our business without being closed down or hassled. There's no way we could do what we did then now.

I think much of the spontaneity has gone from clubbing - everything needs much more advance planning. That brings with it a greater degree of professionalism, of course but it lacks that excitement of the yearly years. We're still doing well but we have to fight harder to maintain our success. With so many promoters now doing similar things it's harder to be different. Take bookings: we now have to book between six months and a year away to get the artist we wants. We used to be able to be a lot more reactive and quickly book new acts we liked. There's also the issue of venues. There is definitely a shortage of good venues and even when you do have a venue there can be problems with licensing when you're working on the basis of being granted a temporary events notice so the event can run late.

The likes of Plastic People, The End, Turnmills and The Cross closed for various reasons, from owners simply wanting to move on and do something different in their lives, to councils placing so many restrictions on them that it becomes hard to operate, to long leases expiring on properties and the rent being doubled as a result. London, specifically, has become a slave to big business and that leads to gentrification, which means clubs that have been in areas before they were deemed fashionable or desirable are then forced to close. This is nothing new, but it's becoming more serious in the sense that with such high scale commercial development spreading further and further across the city, there are fewer area's for promoters and club owners to operate in. If you contrast this to Berlin you can see why people flock to live there. As it stands, the UK will always be one of the most important nations for music and culture but, sadly, this doesn't feel like we're living through our finest moment.

When it comes to D&B, Ant TC1 is a bloke who resolutely knows his shit. As a DJ and label owner, he's been responsible for beaming some of the scene's biggest anthems into clubs for over 15 years now. As the worldwide events manager over at Metalheadz—the institution foudned in 1994 by Kemistry & Storm and Goldie—he's responsible for coordinating global showcases of the genre. He also somehow finds time to be programmer at Croatian megafestivals Outlook and Dimensions. As a 15 year old in 1993, Ant snuck into a rave, and everything blossomed from there.

Ant TC1: Clubbing was rawer back then. You'd hear of nights via word of mouth or on flyers at other nights or on pirate radio—a world apart from today's sponsored Facebook posts and mailer list send-outs. The biggest change, though, since I first started going out was the introduction of the Criminal Justice Bill back in 1994. It was from then on that things shifted to legally operated nightclubs rather than fields in the middle of nowhere and disused warehouses. I still love going out as much as I ever did, regardless of the changes in clubs and the music played. There'll always be a place to party somewhere.

The current dip in things is down, I think, to three key factors. The first is that it's become 'cool' to go to festivals now, especially for younger people. This isn't just an opinion — you've only got to look at the mass increase in festivals taking place in the UK, EU and round the rest of the world to notice it. The government don't help either. The current noise complaints policy is a joke. It seems as if one noise complaint from just one resident—a resident that's just moved in, knowingly, near a nightclub—100 metres down the road is enough to have your club shut down for good.

I also think that some artist's performance fees are, quite simply, absolutely ridiculous. It's a sad state of affairs seeing a DJ walk away from a one hour club set with a wad of cash in their hand, while we know that the promoter's having to swing by the ATM to cover the costs of a night that was a near sell out. I know a few promoters who continue to put on nights, knowing full well that the break even point gets higher and higher, because they still love it. There's only so long that can sustain itself though, and more and more promoters are having to call it a day due to continually escalating DJ fees.

For all the negatives, I know that when I DJ in Australia or the US or somewhere in Asia, and all these other places I'm lucky enough to get to, the people I meet still cannot believe that this such a rich output of dance music comes from this little dot on the map called Great Britain. That makes me feel so lucky to have been born when I was and to have been involved headfirst in the growth of rave/jungle/D&B.

Over the last few years, Steven Cee and Majesty have been putting nights on that focus on the housier end of the spectrum, attracting the likes of Patrick Topping. Dennis Ferrer and Hot Since 82.

Steven Cee: We reckon over the last five years or so, around 40% of the venues we were using have shut down, which is a massive change. Buying habits have changed too, and nowadays we sell out in advance, whereas when we started out we'd sell half our tickets before the night and the rest were walk up ravers. I couldn't loving putting nights on more. We've built really good relationships with other promoters, DJs and agents. One thing that does make things difficult, though, is the festivals. When we started out they weren't booking the same acts as us. Now exclusivity lockout periods have ruled a lot of the DJs we used to book out of the equation so we have to be really clever with our line ups.

Majesty: As things get more and more popular, more people try their hand at them, so ultimately we've ended up with more competition and more demand for DJs and that means the costs of putting on a party have doubled since 2012 — in some cases it's nearly quadrupled, which has made things a little tougher on the business side of things.

Steven: The property market isn't helping. In London there's always demand for new flats or shops and the money that club owners have been offered for their premises is hard to turn down. Government policies have made it harder for venues too, and some councils feel that clubs aren't what they want in their boroughs. This makes no sense to us, as nightlife is a fundamental part of British culture. Venues should be assisted as much as possible. We're also being held back by bandwagon jumpers who don't really care about the music. They bring out the wrong crowds. We're combatting that by using doorpickets at our events. We only want positive people inside.

Majesty: Drugs are an issue too. But that's always been there and isn't something I can see going away anytime soon.

Steven: That said, I think we still lead the way when it comes to nightlife because things aren't constricted to one city. Manchester, Bristol, Birmigham and Leeds are all as vibrant as London. Not many nations have that much going on in so many cities.

James' first introduction to the world of promotion came at the age of 17, with a "shockingly bad" event on a Wednesday night in Romford. After that came a slew of under-18s nights put on while still at sixth form. Eventually he wound up at Garage Nation, buying into the prestigious UKG brand in 2004.

It's got easier, I think, to create something sustainable. The raving scene is so much healthier now. When I started out I had to work two jobs to subsidise both event losses and living costs. I racked up huge debts despite the majority of the nights I put on being busy. Back then I'd try to give someone a flyer for a garage rave and they'd look at me as if I was trying to inject them with ebola, but now everyone wants to go raving again and the music is respected and in demand once again too, so much so that last year it was even possible to put on an outdoor festival weekender for 20,000 people and sell it out in advance. I don't think it would have got a 1,000 people through the gates when I started!

However, the current success of these events is also linked to the decline of the nightclub industry as a whole. Clubbing, as a weekly activity, has deteriorated and now a lot of people save their cash to go to a big event every few months. Which helps the promoters of events like that, a great deal, but does less good to local clubs who rely on repeat trade week after week.

If we're talking about factors which have contributed to club closures, then there's a combination of things. Two big things that spring to mind are the smoking ban and later opening hours for clubs and bars. I don't think people fully realized the impact these would have on clubs because they weren't immediately affected. The gradual changes are obvious now though.

Alongside all that, social media and the increase in ease of communication have had an impact on the situation, and that can be overlooked. People don't need to meet up week after week because they speak to each other all day. It started with MySpace, then there was Facebook, and now everyone's in WhatsApp groups. There'd just no need for the kind of face to face interaction which often led to going clubbing as a way of staying connected to friends.

I know that laws and regulations are supposedly in place for the interest of people's safety but sometimes measures exist that have no benefit other than the police, or the council, making a point and that being hugely detrimental to a venture's business. That's why clubs close. In a lot of places you see such an us against them attitude when it comes to authorities and clubs. There needs to be an understanding on their side that a lot of what they put into place only has negative impacts on Britain's nightlife economy.

If you've been out in London over the last few years, you're likely to have stepped into a club owned by Andy Peyton. Having taken over legendary Dalston dive Bardens and transformed it into one of east London's most highly regarded clubs, the Nest, Peyton then turned his attention to a space just down the road, off the Old Street roundabout, now known to revellers the nation over as XOYO.

I ended up in London to study banking and finance. During that time I started working behind the bar at a club in Islington called the Elbow Room. I quickly became a manager and got myself involved in the events side of things, mainly because it was more interesting than banking and international finance. This was back when it was all indie music everywhere, the days of The Libertines and Rhythm Factory. That was all I knew.

Since then I've gone on to run four venues, and we've just launched a festival, so I'd say there's some level of progression in the world, even if there are mitigating factors. The recession didn't help, and property prices haven't helped either. Festivals at home and abroad had impacted physical spaces, and of of course the licensing issues are well documented. Going back to property, the boom in prices means spaces are expensive, and more importantly, people want to protect or increase the value of their homes by getting clubs closed down or restricting their licensing hours. That said, I feel quite positive about UK nightlife in general, it seems vibrant to me, and it also seems on an upward curve.

A few weeks ago in London alone, all on the same night and in different venues you had Ben Klock, Richie Hawtin, Ben UFO, Modeselektor, Jackmaster and more to choose from. Where else is there so much going on?

It's innovation in the nightlife industry that gives me hope. Don't think there are enough venues? Put DJs in a warehouse or a car park. License restricted? Do a day party. You can get around these things.

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