You've heard of yacht rock - but what about ship disco? For more than 20 years, the most legendary nightclub in Newcastle was known as simply "the Boat" - notable for the fact that it was floating on the Tyne.
As Rosie Niven explains, "'the Boat' was actually two boats - the Tuxedo Princess and the Tuxedo Royale". Don't be fooled by the Bond-film-like names - a night out there was decidedly less classy than they would suggest...
Niven tells the story of the Tuxedo Royale's previous life as a hardworking car ferry shuttling between Stranraer and Larne, and how the decommissioned vessel was rescued from probable obscurity by wily Newcastle nightclub owner Michael Quadrini.
In her book Up All Night, Imogen Willetts mentions countless entrepreneurs who had the vision to create innovative, exciting nighttime experiences, often overcoming logistical obstacles along the way. Quadrini could be said to fall into that camp; apparently, when Newcastle City Council turned down a licence application, he simply upped anchor and moored on the Gateshead bank of the river.
The Boat's most infamous feature was its rotating dancefloor - not for the faint hearted after a few drinks, even though the rotation was hardly rapid. One groggy morning after, I remember a friend talking at length about the challenges to uprightness that spinning around posed - only for someone else to point out that the dancefloor hadn't actually been working and his disorientation/lack of balance were purely a consequence of a few too many pints...
No comments:
Post a Comment