And so it came to pass last month that London super-club Matter ‘shut up shop’. Relentless speculation on Twitter, Facebook and any number of clubbing blogs quickly made way for an announcement by AEG Europe, the owners of London’s O2 Arena where Matter resides, that the 2,600-capacity club would be looking at a return later in the year. Matter staff members were told the club wouldn’t open at least until the autumn because of heavy financial losses.

London’s Evening Standard promptly summarised the position of Fabric591, parent company of Matter and Matter’s long established sister venue Fabric: “Latest accounts… show that the Greenwich club [Matter] “made losses in the years ended 31 December 2008 and 2009… as a result of the current economic climate together with operational issues with transportation to the club due to extended closures of the Jubilee line by Transport for London.” Fabric591, which stands as guarantor to a £3.2 million loan taken out by Matter, lost £191,000 last year.”

matter

Fast forward to this week and that loan might just have thrown Fabric’s future into grave doubt as well. A property trade magazine reported on June 2 that administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers had been brought in to find buyers; several newspapers followed suit with articles the following morning.

Clearly, the instability surrounding two of London and the UK’s biggest music nightspots, is a major body blow for clubland. But can recent developments be solely attributed to the global banker-driven recession? 

Largely, according to Mark Williams, Head Of Promotions at another of London’s big club names EGG. “Let’s be brutally honest, it’s been difficult for a lot of leisure business to operate successfully during this recession. Most nightclubs are aimed at a younger demographic and it’s those younger people – students, first-time jobbers – who can’t really afford to go out.”

It’s not just Fabric and Matter raising current fears that the delayed impact of recession is about to rip through the UK’s nightclub and leisure industries. London’s high-profile Buddha Bar confirmed last fortnight that it had fallen into receivership, following a slow-down in customer spending. And then there’s seOne, the capital’s biggest club space until it was forced to close down in February. ‘Supervisor’ Marcus Kay confirmed rather bluntly at the time: “seOne has fallen victim to recession and hard times felt in nightclubs all over the UK.”

This all follows the closure, last year, of capital hangout The End – a closure brought about by real-estate development opportunities, yes, but commentators still regularly question whether the deal on the table would have proved so alluring in a non-recessionary climate. Undoubtedly, over the past two years, clubs across the UK have been struggling with finances; either winding down like Manchester’s esteemed Club V or altering operational plans to stay afloat, as typified by Newcastle’s quality house night Shindig.

The End

Of course, Williams thinks there are other factors affecting the balance of UK clubland that need to be considered. “You have to be careful about over-analysing things” he starts, “I mean there are a lot of good, big name clubs still doing it out there. But there’s definitely a proliferation of smaller club nights and independent parties today; local events that don’t rely on big name DJs to get people through the door and can, truly, build loyal, consistent audiences. It’s these guys potentially taking people away from the bigger venues; they avoid the danger of certain nights getting over-hyped and others falling by the wayside.”

 The return of the ‘warehouse’ party should also be considered. The growing ‘retro’ trend for one-off, under-the-radar parties at secret locations up and down the country is giving some of the bigger club brands even more competition and, therefore, providing them with a greater challenge to generate footfall.

“Indie raves and ‘warehouse’ parties are everywhere” Williams agrees. “The internet has helped promoters do things themselves and set up their own clubs. It’s a lot easier to do that than it used to be, but then the chances of succeeding are probably lower too! Like anything you need to adapt. EGG is pretty unique in that we’ve cultivated this major brand profile but, essentially, still rely on resident DJs and a multitude of proven sub-promoters. We appeal to a wide, wide range of people.”

Several Matter-prompted threads on a range of prominent clubbing web forums would seem to back Williams’ point about the perhaps fatal necessity for major clubs to have super-star performers at their disposal. Quote one post on a Resident Advisor page from Matter press man Dean Driscoll (under his Driscollobos alias): “there’s still a… lack of star headliners that can sell 2000+ tickets in the current economic climate.”

In the same forum, two anonymous contributors suggest that a significant shift away from club music by mainstream audiences is to blame: “The size of clubbing… a few years back was indicative of a club scene that had crossover appeal. People went to listen to house/techno/etc on weekends even if they didn’t listen to it at home.  It was the way to party. Just like it is in Berlin now.” Says the second: “This is very true. Minimal techno + rise of special K + recession = lots of people staying home.”

The reference to drugs sparks a further speculative entry from ‘Jack Brazzo’: “I think it’s the lack of decent drugs… MDMA virtually non-existent. Drugs and dance music go hand in hand.” As the authorities’ recent, furious clampdown on Mephedrone possibly illustrates, clubland is a being run on a tighter legislative lease than ever before. Such regulation is often at the cost of fun, creativity and money-spending hedonistic followers.

Explanation and interpretation aside, there’s no denying British clubland is in a tricky spot. It needs a scorching hit-happy summer under its belt, and for the new coalition government to take firm and decisive control of the economy, if it is to keep that ‘acieeed’ smile on its face come Christmas.