The Disco revolution night that has swept the world… Main man Nigel Atkin reveals all…
Dude. ‘Carwash’, a club night that still remains strong to this day. A night where the speakers are shaking to the sounds of disco, hip hop and rare groove, an electric atmosphere and a dancefloor filled with people dressed in 70s wigs and clothes. A real breath of fresh air. But let’s go back to the 80s and your warehouse parties, tell us the truth about paying builders to lose their keys for their trucks…
“Hi Dan, yes we did encourage wigs when this phenomenon began. Carwash though is a Disco and Funk club not just a 70s club – so it doesn’t have to be retro but it does have to be groovy and colourful. If you get noticed, you get in. If you want to dress 70s, imagine that you are on the pull in the 70s. We don’t play Abba though. As for the warehouse parties, well we paid builders who were renovating warehouses to ‘lose’ their keys somewhere we could easily find them, then drive a loaded truck into the loading bay where we could set up sound systems and lighting rigs – it was a way of getting venues easily.”
You made your trade down the House music route first, Judge Jules spun his Shake n’ Finger Pop night in the warehouses with you before the police closed you down and you moved onto BPM at The Sound Shaft in London’s Charing Cross Road. One of the sleaziest little clubs in the capital, but perfect for a real gritty session. I recall this was your first ever ‘legal’ club night and Mark Moore used to DJ for you. What are your favourite memories from back then?
“To be honest, I just remember promoting legal clubs was much harder work. Everybody just so loved the warehouse parties…all it took was two days of flyering, word of mouth did the rest. The warehouse parties were really hip hop and rare groove, house and mixing was just started coming in. Stuff like ‘Give It To Me’ by Bam Bam and ‘Love Can’t Turn Around’ were filling a new dancefloor back then.”
From there, ‘Carwash’ exploded into London which you started with Ben Jones and quite a brilliant promotional idea involving a car to send the message to Camden folk about your new night at The Camden Palace – explain…!
“Erm, brilliant, I’m not so sure. We bought a Reliant Robin 3 wheeler and painted it black with flames coming up around the wheel arches. We were going to drive it up Camden High Street followed by girls on roller skates giving out flyers. We had planned to put the car in the foyer of the Camden Palace – the venue at the time and auction it, but It broke down two metres up the High Street so we had to push it the rest of the way. Ever tried pushing a car wearing roller skates?? Still, the promotion worked because of the comedy factor.”
What are the biggest ‘Carwash’ tunes of all time?
‘JINGO’ – CANDIDO
“A solid late night tune, never missed in a later set. Sometimes misses the party vibe if played too early, but if played later, gets everybody left in the club dancing in a Disco trance.”
‘IS THAT ALL IT WAS’ – JEAN CARN
“Beautiful disco music that will make you dance – and make you cry.”
‘VOULEZ VOUS’ – LABELLE
“Carwash anthem. End of.”
‘BOURGIE BOURGIE’ – GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS
“Need I say more?”
‘I WANT YOUR LOVE’ – TODD TERRY EDIT – SISTER SLEDGE.
“One of the best classic disco songs ever. Nothing re-edited to make it more contemporary or House sounding by Todd – it lost nothing. A perfect tune.”
‘LETS START THE DANCE’ – HAMILTON BOHANNON
“A Carwash stalwart from day one.”
‘LET NO MAN PUT ASUNDER’ – LOLETTA HOLLAWAY
“Would you believe produced by Dan Hartman who did…”
‘ANY LOVE’ – CHAKA KHAN
“Simply…”
‘CARWASH’ – ROSE ROYCE
“Because it gave the name to something which has made my life wonderful for all these years and has given pleasure to over half a million people who have come through our doors.”
Who has been the craziest person who has ever been to ‘Carwash’ – and also what celebrities have been down?
“From my perspective, the regular DJs. It is a hard question, I normally give the crazies a wide berth. Celebs include Jay Kay, Melinda Messenger, Jordan, Denise Van Outen and loads of the East Enders cast – but I am not sure they count. Jay Kay was dancing in the VIP room Virtual Reality style spinning off the hand basin, back flips off the walls etc. That was memorable.”
Your night has moved all around London – The Camden Palace, Maximus, Le Scandale, The London Astoria, Sound Republic, Hanover Grand and Aquarium to name but a few…where has been your favourite home?
“London Astoria 2. It was the first club I ever went to in London and then I went most weeks to the Mud Club, so to have my club there felt as if I had arrived.”
Who is the biggest and best Disco singer EVER?
“Choosing one is hard, but probably Chaka Khan.”
The ‘Carwash’ brand has taken you all over the world, such salubrious ports of call as Vienna, Paris and San Tropez for instance – where, outside the UK, has witnessed the best ‘Carwash’ party – and why?
“The Paris one is always good, as it is a home party, and the Paris team is excellent. I enjoyed going to Buenos Aries, but I think the best outside the UK to date (We have not started El Divino at the time of writing) would have been Es Paradis when we did the season in ’98”
So Ibiza, a residency there for years, thanks partly to falling in love with a vessel in Turkey…explain…
“Long story. On that fateful trip I saw the boats moored in front of an open air club in Turkey where I was doing Carwash and said to the girl who booked me, “what beautiful boats”. They were not like modern sail boats where everything is compact, more like a caravan on the sea. These boats were wooden, huge and the bedrooms were numbered 1-6 along the corridor and all en suite. I was ready for an adventure and had another gig the following month. In the interim, I persuaded various people including an owner of London’s Hanover Grand club what a great idea it would be to have a stake in a boat in the Med which could be chartered. The next month I took my heroic girlfriend to see it who agreed, yes it would be fun – so we bought one. Bear in mind however I had never been on a sailing boat before. Ever. I raised nearly three times the purchase price of the boat but I ran out of money in the sixth week of a sixth month refit. We had the boat for two and a half years with some unforgettable times, but the experience was the most full on you can imagine. I re-mortgaged my house three times while I had the boat. She was like a primadonna mistress with expensive tastes. Still, I learned to be a skipper from the experience, and now have a charter boat agency and a life in Ibiza that I would never have had without it. As the wise man said, “no experience is wasted, but do not buy a boat unless you do not know what to do with all your money.” Just rent one from www.dreamboatsibiza.com“
Your residency at El Divino on Saturdays in Ibiza is amazing, some brilliant artists taking to the stage this Summer – who are you most looking forward to this season?
“Sister Sledge, naturally. There was never a Carwash where they have not been played. Shena is doing fabulous disco music now, so that too.”
Best ever ‘Carwash’ Ibiza memory – and also your proudest ever ‘Carwash’ memory?
“Those are both covered above.”
Favourite place in Ibiza?
“The beach bar Sa Trinxa. It is a magical place and I think John Sa Trinxa is my favourite DJ anywhere. A total genius. It is always full of the grooviest people. Also, I lived with the boat anchored in Salinas for two years and in a house by the salt flats just behind the beach for another 2 years, Salinas just feels like home.”
What one disco artist dead or alive that you have never booked would you like to have on stage at ‘Carwash’?
“Easy peasy, JB. He single handedly gave birth to a whole world of music genres. He knew how good he was when he sung “We are the funky men, we’ve been funkin’ since the funk began”. He invented it, and he is the best.”
What made you want to get into clubbing/music in the first place – did you have a musical/disco family behind you?
“I just remember listening to the shit on the radio and thinking “It is so unnecessary to play average music. It’s easy, just play the best music you can think of. Then the same happened in clubs and bars where I lived. In the end, it was not a desire to do it, just a lack of anything reliably good to go and listen to out there.”
