Ciara Cosgrave
Staff Writer
As students, we’re not shy of the occasional inebriation on the town, which usually ends with being face down in a bin or a “3 in1”. You see the status quo is to get ossified, anything less would be a deviation from our martyrdom of student-hood. Recently however this ideology has become the subject of abuse with certain nightclubs throughout the city. With fierce competition in the club scene, the need to attract the segment of the market with perhaps the largest disposable income to date has become a necessity. With the recent closing of Harcourt’s Odeon, Crawdaddy and Pod clubs, the fear of liquidation is more apparent than ever. So what better way to avoid the receiver than to attract an entirely new market, whose diet consists of cheap alcohol, with ‘cheap’ being the buzz word of choice? The past year has seen formerly ‘exclusive’ Celtic Tiger watering holes opening their doors to a new savage race, evolving to adapt to both the economic climate and to a new customer profile.
So what transforms these nightclubs, which used to turn their noses up at anyone under 21 or those who didn’t have a contract with Assets modelling agency, to change with the tides? The answer being a lower age restriction and standard of dress code, buckets of Jagerbombs on tap and a Facebook page which reflects a thesaurus entry for ‘cheap’ and ‘sluts’ (excuse the pun). And of course the cheap list, which for those of you who haven’t been exercising their livers lately, allows you entry into your nightspot of choice at a discounted price. That’s pretty much all it takes to create a student night.
However the rise of the phenomenon has not gone without its backlash of so called ‘haters’. Taking the recent sexism scandal involving the Alchemy nightclub, recently reported by the University Times, it is clear that the brains behind these extravaganzas have forgotten one vital detail. While their new clientele may go blind for three Jagerbombs for a tenner, students are also the perfect source of anarchy.
Taking a leaf out of the 1960’s, the power of students has been voiced through the economics of binge drinking rather than civil rights movements, both equally honourable causes. Promoters, all of whom are in around the age of the average student, got involved in heated rows with club goers via Facebook. In fact, the Alchemy row grew so contested, the nightclub was forced to remove their Facebook page. Management behind both nightclubs showed a clear understanding of how vital the need for appeasement to students is, with both establishments publically apologising for the alleged misdemeanours.
The weekly bombardment of invites to join the age of cheap lists which allow you entry into the promise land of the guaranteed shift is seen as a new frontier on the clubbing scene. The falsified and glamourized sale of clubs in an effort to reflect a student friendly environment is the pinnacle of a new age of consumer abuse. Being given the promise of a budgeted night out is somewhat similar to a prostitute offering their services at the flat rate of being free. In other words neither are tangible. The truth of the matter is, that if you do manage to get past on the budgeted rate of the cheap list or guest list you compensate with potential damages to your health. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, as a result the clubs pack in as many thirsty students that they can manage and more, to compensate for the few they let in for reduced rates. So much so that the smoking areas of many clubs on a student night bare some reflection to a Turkish bath.
This is not to generalise all nightclubs as vindictive and stealing, but en masse has the great night out simply been destroyed by the notion of cheapness, in money terms that is. With the thought of rock bottom prices of beverages actually on sale inside the club have these promoters robbed us not only of the thrill of a sneaky nagan past the bouncers but also of our dignity. Let’s face it ever since it became fashionable to employ amateur photographers in clubs to document the not so subtle hand up the guna, our shame has now branched out to reach us past our intoxicated state, which such images being plastered across Facebook the next day. The coined phrase what happens in Coppers stays in Coppers now falls on deaf ears. A Shakespearean tragedy at it’s best.
While revolutions have historically occurred in order to allow society’s to adapt to an underlying attitude of change, it can often be for the worse rather than the better. While Lenin sought to marry social equality with through Marxist economics for the Russian proletariat, Midnight and Signature event groups have fought to secure economic alcoholism for the student population. What both revolutions have in common is that the supposed benefiters of the upheaval have become the victims.
The Russian proletariat and Irish students, while they differ in varying degrees of historical significance according to personal preference, are both examples of the victims of propaganda. Perhaps its time to begin a true revolt from within and simply reclaim the fields, alleys and McDonalds bathrooms which comprised some of the best sessions of our adolescent days. Whatever the solution, whether it be better advertising standards, letting promoters know were not all arts students and know when they’re lying, or boycotting the entire ‘club scene’ in aid of knacker sessions, one thing is for certain, the cheap list club is a wary foe and friend, and should be treated and respected as such. With a subtle reminder to those cheap list clubs, that they too should treat this new slightly less sophisticated clientele in the same manner, or face wrath of student solidarity. We are nothing if not united, and alcohol only fuels the belief that we’re all best friends. Consequently is the cheap list club funding its’ own downfall?
You have allowed us to believe in the economics of cheap alcohol cheap list, thus when you deviate we’re still equally as drunk, but now we are intoxicated with a solidifying cause. I believe the anti-war movement started in the same manner, perhaps with slight alterations to circumstance and significance. Nonetheless you’ve been warned.
