Wednesday 23 July 2008

RIP NPL


PinUp John D linked to me the other day, my comments about NPL being just memories and ghosts.

It deserves a bit more written about it.

Years ago, on Bowlie I first read about it. Some guy I didn't know was starting a club night in Glasgow, some folk I only knew off of the internet would be coming up for it. End of October 2001

The Woodside Social Club was dark that night, me and Flatmate Nick went along. These folk off of the internet who I'd been chatting to for months/years, I didn't know what any of them looked like, so we sat at the side, I scribbled wee descriptions of the people there, so I could online who was who.

The next month, the second NPL, Nick and I went again, we made friends with some Spanish girls, at sat at the side, people watching, I think I danced twice.

The same for the third NPL, still didn't know anyone except Nick, and the Spanish girls. Ach, this is all documented elsewhere.

Not sure how this ties up with my own mythology, the next month I was dating the girl who I thought I'd found on Facebook a few days back, and then a few months later it was the whole fun and games with Jax thing as documented in my 2004 book "Somewhere in the Sun".

It was maybe seven months down the line before Lars Yaggsdril suggested meeting at a pub beforehand, Bar Oz with Chandlier and Sillygirl, and a few hours later I was introduced to folk like Num Num and all these others off of the internet. For a few months, maybe it was a few years, there was an explosion of people and parties and clubs and dancing and music. The Winchester Club, Pin Up Nights, Dot to Dot, the 1994/1995 nights. Maybe its always like that and I just caught it for a while. Heck, there's Drive Carefully now which is the same thing but new and still going.

When did it fall apart? When did I stop dancing? When Lynsey Mop left? When Fast arrived, when Rachel left, all that business with Idles? When I got banned from Bowlie? I dunno, 2004 / 2005 / 2006?

Either way, what happened was that I'd go to Pop League hoping it was like it used to be, hoping that so and so was there, hoping that I'd feel the way I used to feel.

But it never was.

So aye, the last NPL I went to was Xmas '07. I remember almost nothing about it, other than driving away, probably saw the same people as usual, but I'd left.

The last one I actually remember was the one at the end of my last blog, and that was a paradigm of what I'm talking about, everyone was there, I was there, but it wasn't like it used to be.

There was an article in The Independent, rallying against Landfill Indie, it namechecked NPL and the people there dancing to indie that was 20 years old and how great it was. It makes me wonder, if its all so timeless, why did NPL come to an end.

Maybe it wasn't NPL, it was me going to NPL that came to an end.

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