Slinky

Slinky @ The Opera House

It was last updated on Thursday, May 27, 1999

The entire content of this web site is Š Copyright Francis Madeira 1998

Friday 23rd May 1999 - Judge Jules, Sonique - [4/5]

The heat is on for the snappily titled Mackie's World Club For the New Millennium Award, and its currently a dead heat between Slinky and the Gallery - slinky is cheaper, with a better venue and atmosphere, and attracts much prettier people, but the Gallery goes on for a full four-and-a-half hours longer than Slinky... More on that later in the year. We've done the 190-mile-round-trip to The Opera House six times in the last few months, because its so good you can't stay away (or you get withdrawal symptoms). This week was another blinding event, with Slinky & Radio 1 favourite Judge Jules DJing alongside Sonique. For a change we decided to spend the evening on one of the three podiums - by far the best podiums in the South - we spent five hours on them non stop, as we happened to get to the club early due to no pub commitments this week. The punters were as friendly as always, and the sound systems is so good that it has left me deaf in one ear all week (but then that happens with all the decent sound systems if you dance close to the speakers as I do) My only complaint would be that the DJs were a little more commercial than usual - the Judge played much less familiar recordings when we saw him at the Gallery and at Pussycat - a one-and-a-half-hour set including ATB - 9PM, Lost Witness - Happiness Happening & Fatboy Slim - Satisfaction Skank and all the usual suspects - it was only Sonique who made the chose of records interesting - by her trademark singing - sublime!

Friday 12th February 1999 - Tall Paul, Seb Fontaine, Andy Manston - [5/5]

Club Description

Massive - on two floors (The original Opera House style is kept, with the now two-year-old slinky style everywhere - slinkys hanging from the chandelier for instance) - the huge ground floor is packed - it is a mission to get to the front - it takes a couple of hours to move two-thirds the way through the sea of clubbers. Along the side there is more space so you can dance and drink at the same time Giant screens have images projected onto them - including live footage of the crowd and the DJs interpolated with other strange Adobe After Effects graphics. Upstairs there are seats on the vast blacony, with more secluded areas to dance. Then there is the completely seperate drum 'n' bass room with chill out area, and the fifth & longest bar.

Capacity

2000

Popularity Of The Club

Extremely popular - always packed - everyone loves the club and the DJs - with no complaints about anything - except maybe the price of the water.

Drugs Problem?

There does not seem to be a problem (nothing is evident) but a couple of girls we spoke to claim that "Everyone is on drugs" and were flabbergasted to find we are not. After further investigation it turns out that only the majority of people there are high, but everyone (not surprisingly) gets drunk - with the exception of my poor driver!

Nature of clubbers

Very happy, very friendly, very good dancers - apologies all round if you knock into someone - or they knock into you, friendly inquirees about the time etc - even the drunks are well mannered!

Cost

Ł8 (or Ł6 before 10.30)

Opening/Closing time

21:00 - 03:00 (Way too early - everyone wants it to go on longer. Apparently there are always parties on straight after, which are dead easy to get into)

DJs

The best in the world - Tall Paul (Voted DJ of the year 1998, and the most important person in dance music in 1999), Carl Cox, Judge Jules, Grooverider, Sonique etc

Dress code

Smart/Casual. You can get in with trainers, but nobody does - most people wear the usual clubwear - not too many with those big brand name logos thankfully.

Toilets

Small, Clean, Not crowded, Taps stuck at an angle to prevent drinking!

Drinks

Water - Ł2 per 500ml. Beer - Ł2.80 per pint. I found a hair in my pint of Carling (No Stella!, No Fosters, No Kronenberg...) but the bar staff gladly replaced it (halfway through filling up that glass he realised that that glass was filthy, and then finally he gave me a clean glass - the 'glasses' are actually luminous plastic cups of different colours - very trendy). Oh, and then there's the Tequila slammers/Vodka & Redbull shots bar - only a sqiud a time!

Age In General

Young - 18 - mid 20s form the majority of the clubbers - though I did see a 70something woman with her daughter which the friendly clubbers accepted

Bouncers

Perfectly fair

Food

The best place to go is the 24Hr Tescos superstore as everything else is shut by 3:00. Close by is a McDonalds and a Kebab/Burger/Chip shop, plus numerous petrol stations in the area.

Alternative Clubs

The Manor is about 13 miles away (According to locals, but it took us a total of 50 miles to find it!)

Address

Opera House, 570 Christchurch Road,, Bournemouth - park in the Multistorey Car-Park which is free at that time -We were advised by locals not to park in the side streets, due to crime rates - The Multi-Stoey is very close to the club anyway (Unlike with, say, the Honey Club in Brighton, you can just follow the hundreds of other clubbers heading there). If you get lost, locals are very friendly and happy to give directions.