9:58am Friday 4th December 2009
By Richard Bell
RICHARD BELL joins the bright young things at Clem on Friday night.
The way in which people tend to approach clubbing in Oxford is to choose favourites and then stick with them to the bitter end.
This is great for the chosen few, but it means that a great many clubs simply fall into the nondescript category of ‘I know where that is’.
It’s like trying to meet someone; the first impression is absolutely vital.
Your second and third impressions can be as good as you like but unless you nail that first impression, the two of you will undoubtedly determine in those first few seconds that you will never see each other ever again and simply go away and get on with your lives.
This was how I felt about Clementines the last time I visited it, probably about four years ago.
I decided that the place wasn’t for me and that was that. I never went back.
It’s not that I had anything against the place, it simply wasn’t to my taste and so I let Clementines get along all by itself.
Four years later and I’m awkwardly bumping into that girl again, only now she’s changed her name (a bit) looks much better and is a whole lot more fun than I remember her being.
Welcome to Clems, the revamped version of Clementines and the most immediately striking aspect of this night is just how insanely busy it is.
There are people absolutely everywhere, having the double effect of creating both a charged party atmosphere and making it rather difficult to navigate your way around.
One difference is the spacious upstairs bar, a room that has an American theme, complete with screen shots and posters of many classic American movies such as Taxi Driver, The Godfather, Pulp Fiction and rather bizarrely a picture of Rodney and Del Boy, deviating somewhat from the supposed theme but providing me with a giggle nonetheless.
The main room is still downstairs with music that is varied, well chosen and unbelievably loud, all of which caters perfectly to the Crowd at Clems, a crowd that is predominantly student based.
I don’t think I saw a single person over the age of 21 in the entire time I spent there, but absolutely every single one of these bright young things seemed to be having the time of their life.
Drinks are cheap enough to keep a student happy including a £2.50 beer or alcopop and a £3.70 double spirit and mixer which is a very decent price for a busy club on a Friday night.
Bumping into this old acquaintance again has shown me that I was wrong to dismiss her so quickly, but rather inevitably I’m afraid that my first impression is the one that sticks with me. Perhaps it’s because Clems is so clearly geared towards the student market but it still just doesn’t quite feel like my sort of place.
For a student on the other hand it’s phenomenal, and if you are one, I don’t see how you could possibly go anywhere else for a Friday night. Fantastic.
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