point, Barry Price, a director at the Sub Club since 2008, is at something of a loss to expand beyond a hard and fast rule that he cites as central to the club’s longevity. “I’m trying to think of something monumental but, just work like fuck. Work all the time is basically what we do. It’s constant and non-stop. You’re no longer a human being, you’re just the club, like an inanimate object. “Basically,” adds Price, “work hard.” Beyond the stock answers (“I hate saying these things without sounding really cheesy, but so many clubs come and go and look for the quick buck or follow a certain trend”), Price’s outline of the Sub Club’s general strategy for selecting guests is refreshingly free of self-mythologising, Svengaliesque sophistry. “You put on someone like Maya Jane Coles or Julio Bashmore, then you’re going to get a lot of people coming down because they’re kind of hypey guests and you need to get these guys in, first of all because they’re interesting guys in the scene. But you always have to keep your eye on the trends now; it doesn’t mean you follow a bandwagon or whatever, but if somebody fits into the remit of what you’re interested in and you’re excited to hear them, then that’s why you book them.” It’s telling, though, that the youngest of the Sub Club’s current staff, 23-year-old press and digital manager Chris Duncan, is most in thrall of one of the most established heads on the roster, Domenic Capello. “Quite recently, Domenic’s last half hour at the night with Ralph Lawson (20:20 Vision vs Subculture in February) [has been one of my favourite moments]. [Domenic] came on after [Lawson] – I know the two of them have a one-upmanship when they play – and then Domenic came on and just absolutely wiped the floor with him, and I found that really entertaining.” Otherwise, Duncan shares Price’s outlook on striking a balance between booking artists du jour and DJs who have previous with the club. Of the degree to which the Sub Club reflects the wider UK soundscape, Duncan references artists like Nicolas Jaar and Julio Bashmore, but is just as aware of the club’s lineage as anyone. “We’ve been going for 25 years so we have relationships with certain artists from way back like Lil Louis and Andrew Weatherall, those are two names that go right back. While they’re not producing new albums just now, they’re still relevant to the club because they are the ones who influence a lot of the other artists we see and they’re ingrained in our history.” Optimo’s prime “It was the build-up to it,” says McIvor, breathlessly recalling Optimo’s final night in April 2010, ‘Optimogeddon’, “because we announced about eight weeks before that we were gonna stop doing the weekly night, and there was this just kind of mania, that kind of build-up and the last eight weeks…it was just insane. Everyone that had ever been that was able to go had wanted to go and people had started queueing from lunch time. “We put up this sign saying ‘please don’t queue’,
and me and Jonnie [Wilkes, aka JG Wilkes] arrived to set up, and just as we arrived there, a bar next to the Sub Club called The Crystal Palace was packed with everyone who was waiting to start queueing. Someone must have said ‘right, I’m going to start queueing’, and the whole pub was just running up the street and there was this queue, the most enormous queue I’ve ever seen outside the Sub Club in my life. We were pretty overwhelmed.” Glasgow has changed in the two years since, however incrementally: of late, dubstep and so-called ‘UK bass music’ have become conspicuous tenants in a city that, until recently, has always been quicker to embrace European and American influences. That said, this month’s Optimo 2.0, an official return of sorts to their seminal residency, arrives not in a vacuum or a sepia-toned nostalgia trip, but rather with a renewed hunger to return to a city close to the duo’s hearts. “Something we always get asked at every interview, is like ‘Where’s the best place to play?’ and people say something like ‘New York’. The best place to play is in Scotland, maybe Ireland as well. There’s something about those peoples when they go for a night out, they just give it everything and we get the best atmosphere, and we really miss playing at home. “What brought it back home was this old friend of mine posted on our bulletin board: ‘When are you guys gonna start doing something in Glasgow? It’s actually easier for me to go to London to see you play together’, which is faintly ridiculous. “We felt like the time was right to do a handful [of nights] which would be like five or six things over the course of the year, and it also felt right not to do it on the Sundays, for it to be something a little bit different. “It’ll still be Optimo, but it won't be us doing exactly what we were doing then.” And indeed, it’s a maxim by which the Sub Club itself also seems to operate, one of evolution rather than revolution; one which long-standing nights such as Subculture and Optimo are perhaps best placed to take forward into the lost nights, half-remembered months and ultimately unforgettable years to come.
Electric Cables Lightships is the new project from Teenage Fanclub’s Gerard Love LP | CD | DL | 02.04.12
GEOGRAPHIC lightships.tumblr.com dominorecordco.com
The Sub Club celebrates its 25th birthday with a special selection of shows over the next five weeks. 25 Years of Sub Club Series Subculture presents: 25 Years of Sub Club with Harri & Domenic, Sat 31 Mar I AM present Blawan, Fri 3 Apr Optimo, Fri 6 Apr Subculture present Dixon, Harri & Domenic, Sat 7 Apr Subculture present Omar S, Harri & Domenic, Sat 14 Apr Sensu presents Seth Troxler, Fri 20 Apr Subculture’s Record Store Day with Harri & D omenic, Junior, Esa & Telford, Sat 21 Apr Subculture presents Matthew Dear, Andrew Weatherall, Harri & Domenic, Sat 28 Apr Sensu presents Magda & Mike Servito, Fri 4 May Subculture presents Carl Craig 69 Live, Sat 5 May www.subclub.co.uk
April 2012
THE SKINNY 15