The Riverside Club - R.I.P.

The sad closure of The Riverside Club prompts Mylo to fondly reminisce about that familiar smell of ""sweaty kilt""...

Feature by Gill Tasker | 11 Apr 2007
There was a sign inside The Riverside Club, a sign that boldly proclaimed four words: "Blood, Sweat and Reels". This read almost like a warning, as a night at the club never was for the fainthearted. Whether reeling The Dashing White Sergeant at the ceilidh, or reeling from just that little bit too much at one of the club nights, The Riverside Club made many fall in love with it and the fiendishly fantastic time it invariably had.

The Riverside Club held it's legendary Friday and Saturday night ceilidhs for twenty two years and additionally began to house more left-field club nights ten years ago. Consequently, The Riverside Club has seen some of the best club nights in Glasgow, including Fusion, Vacuum, Mish Mash, Melting Pot, Salt Lick and Utter Gutter. Yet the days of the venue have sadly come to an end, and it has now closed due to plans for development. Madame Sannex, DJ for and organiser of Utter Gutter, says she is "devastated" about the closure of the club. She has "always gone there and supported it, as I think it's wonderful."

Madame Sannex's sentiment is echoed by Mylo, perhaps the club's most famous patron from his days as the brains and beats behind Salt Lick: "I hadn't heard the Riverside was closing, I'll be sad to see it go. We had some memorable nights there, or at least nights that would have been memorable if we hadn't been so battered." Mylo also reflected on that familiar stench of sweat that clubbers were greeted with when walking into the venue: "The best thing about the place was that they would open for the rave literally five minutes after closing as a ceilidh venue, so the venue was already warmed up and smelling of sweaty kilt by the time we started drifting in." Smells of "sweaty kilt" aside, the club really did have it's own character. Right from the moment you stepped into the dimly lit hall with it's all-wooden decor and the odd stag's head stuck to the wall, to the rickety table and chairs lining the dancefloor and to the blasting soundsystem, you felt like you were back at some old school disco or church hall, and all of that made a night out at The Riverside Club feel that little bit more naughty. Or nice.

On Saturday 3rd March, the club night that closed the venue down in tremendous style was Utter Gutter. In true Utter Gutter style, the beautifully weird and wonderful guys and gals of Glasgow got their finest glitter and gladrags on and partied the night away in their trademark deliberately debauched style. As three o'clock dawned it was clear that this was not the end of the night. The tunes kept spinning and the still rammed-to-the-rafters club kept on dancing and dancing and dancing. The dancefloor was abandoned and every single available surface of the club was commandeered for dancing. Chairs, benches, banquets, table tops, the stage, the bar - rarely have The Skinny experienced just such an incredible party atmosphere. The song that closed the night, and the club, was Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", a perfect end to the evening's escapades, reflecting the combined happiness and sadness felt of the moment. After a final cry of "Three cheers for The Riverside!" the club closed it's doors forever. It will survive in the hearts and memories (well, as much as can be expected to actually be remembered!) of all the clubbers who spent many a gloriously hedonistic night there, at the late, the great, The Riverside Club.
Utter Gutter in Glasgow moves to The Classic Grand on April 14th and launches in Edinburgh at Studio 24 on Friday March 30th. Go to www.uttergutter.com for more details and visit The Skinny website. http://www.uttergutter.com