Calling all the ‘ardcore, Lazerdrome is no more….
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Recently demolished to make way for a new housing development, the much loved location of many a good time for ravers old & new has been consigned forever to the fading memories of all those who attended.
Arguably the best club to have ever graced South-East London, Lazerdrome started out as a family orientated laser-tag combat arena back in the late 80’s, in a disused factory warehouse above a non-descript row of shops on Rye Lane, Peckham. Perhaps not the most successful of ventures, it was not long before the venue was re-launched, this time as an all-night hardcore drum’n’bass nightclub.
Opening in 1992, the venue regularly hosted two weekly events – Fridays saw _______, and on Saturdays, the legendary Innersense. Retaining much of the wooden panels and multi-level walkways that stood as testament to the venue’s original purpose, the club was given the finishing touches of de-rigor laser-light effects & smoke machines, video-projection screens, and finalised with a 20K soundsystem.
With its quaint features, and the provision of a House & Garage room that doubled as the main foyer after the entrance (albeit a very large foyer!), Lazerdrome was certain to be a success. Boasting a ‘resident’ line-up of Dr. S Gachet, Randall, Ray Keith, Nut-E-1, Loftgroover & Circuit for the main room, Saturday night’s Innersense regularly kept a solid attendance of underground clubbers ready to hear the exhilerating, uncompromising and raw sounds of the music prior to the mini-tragedy of the oft-mentioned ‘happy/dark split’ of late 1993/early 1994.
At the same time there was also a large number of people who would go strictly to spend the night in the chill-out room! With Dean Lambert, Andy Lewis & Arjaydee standing as residents, the House & Garage arena certainly had a following in its own right. Featuring some fantastic backdrops, and some excellent if perhaps slightly more subdued lighting, the combination of the two rooms certainly served to make Lazerdrome nothing less than a complete raving experience.
Possibly worn out by the faster tempos, maybe alienated by the harsh atmospheres, or simply a case of jungle drum & bass becoming too popular too fast, there was no denying that a mass exodus was slowly taking place. I remember one particular occasion for instance, when, finding the vibe in the main arena to be just a little lacking, I decided to walk over to the chill-out room for a little break… discovering to my utter surprise that the house and garage room was absolutely kicking!
Again, this was not just a Lazerdrome phenonemon, and (standing as direct testament to the ‘mass exodus’ mentioned) 1995 started to see the inception of a new style of Garage, provisonally titled “Speed Garage”. Strangely beginning to embody many of the elements and sounds characteristic of 1994 drum & bass, I’m sure I won’t be the only one to remember feeling a strange sense of deja vu listening to the music that year!! The cheek of it!!!
In a lot of ways 1995 was like the morning after an amazing party, and and slowly there was the sense that the scene was just not quite going to be the all-out spectacular celebratory of before. Of course, there were still many anthems to come – tunes such as Splash – Babylon were never going to go down badly!
However as the year passed into the summer, it was clear that a lot of people, many of those who had probably just followed the trend into drum & bass the year prior, were quite discernably starting to drift away… towards the house and garage scene!
After that the place changed names again, and for a while the venue courted with the, by then, established Speed Garage/UK Garage scene for a while. But with the place never really being open for any long perods of time again, the infamous Lazerdrome slowly faded away, never to be remembered again, until now.
Housing flats are now where Lazerdrome once stood.
R.I.P. Lazerdrome!
Written by Ornette Wilson, Nov 2005
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