Oliver: Itch - The Club (8 December 1991)

This piece of turbo charged rockabilly from Vancouver band, Itch, made the cut due to it being part of the fascinating sub genre of songs that touch on the awfulness of nights out.

Being 39 years old, I have inevitably succumbed to the feeling that if I'm going to stay up late, drinking, I might as well do it in the comfort of my own home.  But between the ages of 17 and 30, I went clubbing quite regularly with mates, girlfriends and, occasionally, on my own. I had lots of good nights doing this but a fair number of them were spent dying inside, while looking yearningly at the cattle market and waiting for something good to come on the dancefloor.
Falmouth was not blessed with cutting edge clubs.  The live music venue, The Pirate, had a good mix of DJs on through the week, but the other clubs: Shades, Club International and Paradox were mainly good time venues; heavy on the greatest hits or tried and tested favourites.  Every night was Saturday night at these places though Paradox tried to vary it up through the week and had a DJ playing in the downstairs bar as well as in the main club, which was a huge innovation for Falmouth clubbing.  Further afield there was the Twilight Zone in Redruth which was roomier than most of the Falmouth clubs and had a less sticky floor, but the best for my money was The Berkley Centre in Camborne which had two separate dancefloors and the best range of music of any club I visited in Cornwall.  I also got off with a stranger there and betrayed my naievety when she asked me where I was staying that night by guilessly replying, "Oh, my mate's putting me up".  Perhaps it was for the best.  By the end of the night, she was picking a fight with a visiting group of Ghanaians.  Because it was in Camborne, I never went to the Berkley Centre again.  If I had the talent, I could have committed the surrealness of the night's events to music, but plenty of artists have done so.  If pop music's three core themes are love, sex and dancing, then cruddy nights in clubs is certainly on the fringes of pop themes inner circle.
The video is courtesy of bowlthai and includes both tracks on Itch's debut release: 88 Bones.  According to Peel, it was pressed onto vinyl which looked as though someone had picked their nose and made it bleed before blowing it.  Peel was still alive when Itch's  websitewas last updated.




Apparently clubbing could be shit even during the Summer of Love.



Mike Skinner built his entire career on the disappointments of the club scene.

Videos courtesy of bowlthai (Itch), TrigunNeonDeath (Pink Floyd) and Zenn (The Streets).