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Nag Nag Nag’s Jonny Slut: Poxy Style Mags Can Piss Off
“Maybe we should introduce a waistline gage because all those guys have beer guts. Anyone with a waistline over 32 inches can f*ck off.”
Laughing as he outlines one possible strategy for discouraging British music journalists, Jonny Slut can afford to be amused about the hype surrounding his club Nag Nag Nag. Locking out more and more people every Wednesday night, the tiny Soho weekly is both London’s most hyped and genuinely best new clubs in years, drawing gays, straights, transsexuals and downright weirdoes in a mix not seen since the pre-acid house club days of the 80s. Which is no surprise, given that Jonny virtually invented the original Goth image through his role as Specimen’s keyboardist and more importantly, the club’s musical mix of punk, rock and electroclash.
Spun by Jonny, his Atomizer colleague Fil Oakey and star DJ JoJo De Freq (a 24 year old bleached blonde Canadian girl, soon to spin at Dior’s Paris fashion party) the musical mix has catapulted Nag Nag Nag into the growing void, created by the decline of mainstream clubland.
“Jodie, Fil and I first talked about setting up the club last New Year’s Eve. We really wanted to do something because we were hearing all this great electro music and there was nowhere that was playing it,” Jonny told Skrufff’s Jonty Adderley.
“We were hearing all this great electro music and there was nowhere that was playing it. We weren’t going out clubbing anywhere regularly and we were thinking ‘My God, we’ve got to start something, no-one else is doing it.’
Skrufff (Jonty Adderley): How much did you expect Nag to take off like it has?
Jonny Slut: “I’m surprised that everyone seems interested, but I’m not surprised it’s doing well, I can see why it is. And obviously that’s great for me. We were aware stuff was happening in New York and in Berlin so we were passionate about getting something started here in London. And we kind of expected it to be successful because we felt so passionately about it ourselves.”
Skrufff: What were the key elements you envisaged for the club?
Jonny Slut: “The music was the key thing. As well as the electro, I’ve always been a fan of late punk, early new wave, art-school punk like Cabaret Voltaire, Delta Five, Gang of Four and Wire, that kind of stuff. That’s been the music I’ve always returned to so I also wanted to start a club where I could play that sort of music alongside the new electro. I could see a lineage between the two styles, the new electro music is more thoughtful and arty.”
Skrufff: When did you first come across electro?
Jonny Slut: “The first time was when I heard (Fischerspooner’) Emerge 18 months ago when Pete Tong played it. He played it alongside Adult’s Hand to Phone track and I was completely blown away. I always listen to Pete Tong on Friday nights and it was one of those moments I had to write down the track’s name after hearing it. It sounded like nothing else around; I couldn’t believe it. Maybe the reason I liked it, on reflection, was because it sounded a bit retro, but at the time I just thought it sounded fantastic. I’d been making electronic music for years and it seemed like the track was in a vacuum. I had this conversation with Adamski, this time last year; we were thinking ‘Is it just us who feel like this?’ You couldn’t buy the records, certainly not here in London. I couldn’t get hold of the track for ages.”
Skrufff: Is it right that for the first few nights of Nag, virtually no-one came?
Jonny Slut: “We were getting thirty or so people a night for the first few months. Actually, maybe fifty or sixty.”
Skrufff: Was your 80s club the Batcave an influence at all, given that it also used to be on Wednesdays in tiny Soho clubs?
Jonny Slut: “Yeah, I think all the best clubs have been on Wednesdays or midweek anyway, I’m thinking about clubs like Taboo, Kinky Gerlinki and Smashing for example. A lot of the older regulars have said Nag’s vibe reminds them of the Batcave, having that kind of miss-mash of genres and anything goes-ness. It’s also always got a friendly crowd, it’s not one of those places where everybody’s standing around posing. I don’t want somewhere icey or snotty, I think of us as the good guys.”
Skrufff: Your very pretty ticket girl also fronts the Nag Nag Nag website, who is she?
Jonny Slut: “That’s Suvi. She’s just the girl with the best haircut in London and she just happened to turn up on the very first night. I’d never met her before and I fell in love with her hair.”
Skrufff: NME are frothing about the club (Johnny- “Most journalists are dullards, aren’t they?”), do you have any concerns that it’s going to swamped by NME readers?
Jonny Slut: “Well, who reads the NME these days, anyway?”
Skrufff: Other music journalists…
Jonny Slut: “Yeah, but they’ll come down for one week just to say they’ve been, Maybe we should introduce a waistline gage because all those guys have beer guts. Anyone with a waistline over 32 inches can f*ck off (chuckling).”
Skrufff: Would you introduce a door policy/ dress code like Trash?
Jonny Slut: “No, I think that would immediately change the club’s vibe. I wouldn’t want to do that unless it goes really ballistic, then I’ll change my mind altogether. I’d rather have people there that want to be and I think everyone knows they need to get down early these days.”
Skrufff: Is the plan for you to extend the club abroad, for example, to Ibiza?
Jonny Slut: “If someone asks me, then yeah. We’d also definitely like to take it to New York to do something and we’re also considering doing a compilation fairly soon. But yeah, if anyone wants us, give us a call.”
Skrufff: Is electroclash a word you use?
Jonny Slut: “Erm, I guess that term is beginning to get negative connotations and it would be limiting to use it. It’s now a term of derision isn’t it, I’ve already seen a few cabaret acts making sarcastic comments about it, all that (mimicking drag queens’ We’re going to start our own electroclash club’. It’s become a bit like the word ‘Goth’, it’s a term that’s lost any cool.”
Skrufff: Nag Nag Nag on New Year’s Day was jam packed full as usual, whereas on New Year’s Eve Electric Stew’s event was half empty, even though you guys were listed for the second room, why is your club so full, and Sahara Nights always empty?
Jonny Slut: “Because we only charge £4 admission, that might be one factor, if not the main one. Saturday night clubs are also completely different from weekday ones and as I mentioned before I’ve always preferred the weekday vibe.”
Skrufff: looking at the Specimen website (Jonny- ‘Oh God, are you gonna’ go all Kathy Bates-when will you write another song like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’) it’s notable how quickly the Batcave club and scene exploded then imploded…
Jonny Slut: “Oh God, yeah, I got involved with Specimen in 1982 and it was all over by mid 1985, the band had split and the club had finished, which is certainly a really short space of time. But then again I was only 19 and it still seems like a really big part of my life, even though it was only two and a half years. But they were my formative years.”
Skrufff: Are you already thinking about how to maintain Nag Nag Nag into the future?
Jonny Slut: “I don’t know, I’ve been involved with another club called Marvellous for the last six years and I can’t believe that that club has lasted that long. It’s hard to tell, I don’t know but I could see it lasting at least two more years, who knows? Trash have just celebrated their sixth birthday too.”
Skrufff: The media always namedrops the celebrities at your club, such as Boy George, Bjork, Kim Wilde etc, have you had any unusually cheesy celebs down yet, such as any pop idols or soap stars?
Jonny Slut: “We’ve had Janine from Eastenders but she’s not cheesy, she’s a role model. She’s the character with the coke habit.”
Skrufff: With the celebs who come along (Boy George, Neil Tennant and Mark Moore are all regulars), is it a matter that you’ve got no (Jonny- ‘shame’)… idea, who’s turning up?
Jonny Slut: “I don’t know why they turn up. I think we also got a mention in OK magazine the other week so we’re soon going to be full of bored housewives, hopefully. The world will surely fall apart when idle housewives take up art.”
Skrufff: Have you had any football players down yet?
Jonny Slut: “Not yet. I don’t actually watch football but I do like some of them. Not the likes of David Beckham, he’s a bit too obvious. I’m more of a Roy Keane man, myself.”
Skrufff: Do you have a stylist or do you look after your image yourself?
Jonny Slut: “God, no, I wouldn’t let anyone else look after my image. I do it all myself.”
http://www.nagnagnag.info
Interview By: Skrufff
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