4:20pm Wednesday 3rd February 2010
Swifts was a club in West Street which then became The Underground and was more recently known as Kulture, which has itself now closed down.
It was found under the Queen Anne which then became The Standard among its many transformations.
I used to go on the Sister Ray night on Fridays, named after the 1968 song by the Velvet Underground and covered by Joy Division. Sister Ray was for those interested in gothic, grunge and alternative music.
I remember being at the bar one night, shocked to see grass growing by my feet along with a load of small change scattered about which my friends and I proceeded to pick up.
We continued to find more money when we sat in the bay window discreetly picking up the coins without giving ourselves away, watching through the haze and throng of the misguided and marginalised. Not much different to today.
The interior gave off the feeling that one was in a crypt which I think it was trying to emulate. It was almost guaranteed that you would see the same people in their black widow weeds. Come to think of it I was that person, blending in like the grieving widow amongst a collective of devoted disciples swaying to the hypnotic sounds of the Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus et al in a cloud of dry ice.
It was the perfect venue to showcase your latest acquisition of clothing from The Kooky Shop in Kensington Gardens. It really was the place to see those with their perfect make up and back combed black tumbling locks a la Patricia Morrison. This was the nearest we could get to the Batcave and other clubs of their kind.
The bar ran along one side of the club with booths on the left and an archway going through to the main area of the dance floor, with more booths behind the DJ. The DJ was Gremlin . Today's reincarnation of Goths, “emos”, are in comparison the poor relation.
I say First, Last and Always... Andrew Eldritch rules.
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