Ipswich DJ and former club owner on decline of nightclubs in town
A top local DJ and former club owner who has been involved in Ipswich nightlife since 1986 has blamed a “perfect storm” for a decline of nightclubs in the town.
Neal John, who previously owned Sound Academy in Arcade Street, said that 1999 was the peak year for nightclubs with around 15,000 people going out every weekend in the town compared to an estimated 1,500 today.
Mr John, who also DJed in Hollywood’s in Princes Street, Liberty’s in Tacket Street and Yates in Tower Street amongst others, said that the introduction of the indoor smoking ban in 2007 had been a blow to the industry as, unlike bars and pubs, clubs were largely unable to develop outdoor smoking areas.
He said: “The last really good year of nightclubs we reckon was 99. The first thing that really changed everything was the smoking ban. We instantly saw the damage that it did.”
Mr John who spent time DJing in Ibiza and Ayia Napa added that changes in licensing laws had allowed a large number of bars to effectively become nightclubs a process he describes as “diluting the whole pond” particularly when licensing hours were relaxed.
“Then they delicensed all the licensing laws so then what happened was instead of going to a magistrates court like I did to get an alcohol license you went down to the local council.
“That was all well and good, but it meant that everyone and his brother could go to the council and say I want to open a bar.
“You then had the explosion of bars and then all the bars suddenly became nightclubs.”
According to Mr John the negative reputation that Ipswich clubs obtained for violence following a murder at Kartouche in 2000 and the another at its rebranded successor Zest in 2006 had an impact.
He also cites the increasingly negative reputation that garage music obtained also had an impact during his tenure at Sound Academy.
Although he did add that the problem was sometimes exaggerated through social media.
“It’s very difficult to have a good time in a nightclub when you’ve got a gang of 15 to 20 blokes who all live together, work together and fight together.
“We had to say no groups of blokes which caused problems as blokes would latch on to random girls to get in.”
“We got a visit from the police and the police said we don’t want you playing garage music anymore because it was bringing nonlocals from London.”
Mr John also argued that DJing has lost their unique individual appeal over the last 25 years as DJs all now have access to all of the same music.
“As DJs we were playing vinyl up to 2000 then the CDs started to take over, so the record companies stopped sending me vinyl’s and not long afterwards they went down the MP3 route.
“So suddenly all of the DJS had all of the music. I didn’t have music that was different to the bloke who was doing Hollywood’s or Liberty’s.”
Mr John also added that the price of alcohol, social media, dating apps and the “atrocious” state of Ipswich town centre were all key factors in the decline.
He also added that the covid pandemic had made the decline of nightclubs “more acute” and had “reinforced staying at home” particularly for a generation of young people.
However, Mr John heaped praise on Bar 21 in St Nicholas St for going against the trend adding the venue would probably be the “last bar standing” in Ipswich.
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