End of an era

So tonight is the closing party of legendary London club The End. I first went eight years ago, eyes gleaming, a naive young thing, head and heart full of dreams of being a music journalist. Well, I was doing work experience at my favourite magazine in the world ever. I wasn’t new to clubs, I was all about them in fact. My defining thought before setting off to university four years previous had been I want to go dancing. That was all that mattered. Being on a dancefloor, swallowed up by the music, in a blur of light, heat and sound. I knew who I was when I was dancing. It was the only time my body did what I wanted it to. I had complete command. It was all so exciting, so new, so right. Wherever I was, and my friends and I travelled far and wide to dance to the DJs we loved, on that floor it was about me and the music. 

And then we came to London. (A brief aside: before you live in London, it lives in you. It’s always there, on the fringe of your existence, somewhere in the corner of your eye. It’s more than a city, it’s an idea, an ideal, an aim. And no wonder, it’s built with 8 million hopes and dreams, both dashed and realised.) Life in London was different.  It was both scary and seductive. Unlike my warm and cosy northern city, it had harder edges. London is Industry. London is Media. London is Money. And it made the people harder. Eyes wouldn’t meet, lips would purse, faces saying they’d seen it all before. Apparently it was cool to look bored.

But not at The End. The End was different. The End was music you’d never heard before. The End was people who smiled. The End was dancing and dancing and dancing. And as London became home, it’s cold facade breaking down to reveal ordinary people all chipping away at their dreams, The End became home too. I have had so amazing nights on her dancefloors, jumping up and down, full of music and love, catching eyes and smiles that are full of the same. It’s more than escapism, it’s more than a good time, it’s more than a Saturday night on the town. Being together, dancing together, enjoying music together is a celebration of who we are as individuals, as a community and as human beings. So tonight I will be celebrating one last time at The End, with people and music I love, and I can promise you it will be one special send-off.