DV8 in the mid 00s
2004
Becky says “DV8 was even more studenty. It was a more chilled out,
studenty version of The Gale (Nightingale). The Gale has a more
‘Euro-poppy’ commercial kind of look to and feel to it. It was really
obviously that they were trying to be really spangly and sparkly. DV8
didn’t try to do that. They are more alternative. This is a room. This
is alcohol. We’re going to do what we want to do. Just really
alternative. It bothered even less whether it was painted a bright
spanking colour or not. There was a bar as soon as you go in on the
right hand side. There were some steps up to a drinking area and a
viewing bit where you could see the dance floor. You could check people
out from the top bit. You couldn’t tell if you were being looked at.”
“Then
they had the main big room which was like a school hall, almost which
was the main dancing room where you spent most of your time in there.
They had a little room around the back. The main room was like a big
square with old carpet on the sides and a dance floor in the middle. It
was so dark in there that you couldn’t really see that much. It was
always packed as well. “
They always use to sell some really
strange drinks like some Alco-pops like lime or blue flavour or
raspberry. They didn’t have like The Gale these semi-naked guys giving
out freeze pops or lolly pops which used to be really cool at The Gale.”
“DV8
was a lot more alternative although they probably played a lot of the
same music they took a lot more risks with their music whereas The
Nightingale had lots of different floors DV8 were just going to play
this one kind of music in one big room but definitely more alternative,
more weird stuff, more retro stuff. More alternative people went there.
You might even see a Goth in there. People used to dress more whacky.
People would never wear a smart shirt to DV8, it’s more like jeans and
a nice shirt. Not smart probably because they thought it was going to
get wrecked. Cause the carpet could be a bit sticky in places. DV8 was
more ‘anything goes’ so there was probably a bigger mix of people than
went to The Gale.
“I remember there being mostly white people in
The Gale and mostly boys. There used to be big groups of lads in the
chilled out bit of The Gale looking down on everybody else - those kind
of white, middle-class people. DV8 was more ‘anyone can come in here’”.
Contributed by: Becky Tebbett, 27