I had a chat with Angus Patterson at Insomniac. Angus has been a friend of mine for a long time, dating back to a period when I wasn't too old to feel out of place in nightclubs. Sign of the times.
My interest in nightlife has long since faded. Angus is still in the middle of it, writing about music, venues, and events. He spent a few years in Berlin, where adaptive reuse of old industrial buildings is ordinary rather than novel. The most cited example is Berghain, which started life as an inefficient mid-century power plant before being converted into one of the most well-known nightclubs in the world.
The Insomniac piece played out the Berghain comparison on White Bay Power Station. Standing in the building, you can see where the comparison gets its legs. The space and the scale make it easy to imagine. Practically, it would take several hundred million dollars and a government willing to part with what is arguably the most exclusive piece of unused land in Sydney. Neither is on the cards.
One day.
"Dance culture has a proud history of transforming abandoned spaces into havens of electronic music. There's the Motor City factories of Detroit, the early UK warehouse raves, and the deserted power stations utilised in the formative days of Berlin techno. That tradition continues in the latter city in particular, with Berghain considered one of the world's best clubs, while you'll find Fabric London in a converted basement cold-storage unit in the meat-packing district."
Read Angus's piece (archived) at insomniac.com (Wayback).
