Two words: Unskinny. Bop.
I thought it was high time for a post that showed I do occasionally go out with my friends rather than just wander around on my own all day taking pictures of pigeons. And when I go out, I like to go to the Unskinny Bop at the newly refurbished Star of Bethnal Green (formerly the Pleasure Unit).
In their own words: “if you just wanna dance to good music without pranging yourself on someone’s cheekbones, Unskinny Bop is for you”. Their anti-Cool manifesto continues:
Unskinny Bop welcomes gals ‘n’ guys of all shapes and persuasions onto the dancefloor with open arms. We want you to experience the joy of dancing with wild, thrilling abandon to your favourite songs, unintimidated by fear of ridicule, evil stares and nasty comments. And we don’t want it to stop here:
As it is at the disco, so it shall be in life.
The music they play encompasses many weird and wonderful things, but tends towards riot grrl, new wave, motown and sugary pop. And that floats my boat, goddamnit. I also love the fact that it’s cheap (£3 with a flyer), easily nightbusable (the N8 thoughtfully stops right outside the Bop *and* my flat) friendly and run by Buffy-lovin feminists. Hurrah!
Having gone away for a short time while the venue was being taken over and refurbished, the Bop is re-launching on Saturday 19 April then continuing on the third Saturday of every month, 9pm - 2am. It really is worth going EARLY though as there are generally queues by 11 and noone gets in after 12. Plus there’s more space for dancing and you might even see me there.
Leave a Reply