The golden age of nightclubs is over
Ifind myself detached from mainstream culture. It started with the demise of nightclubs like Annabel’s and the arrival of the people who frequent them nowadays, the likes of Lil Nas X, Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Fat Joe, Pusha T, DaBaby. All real names, incidentally, lifted from the saccharine, slush-like descriptions by gossip columnists of nightclubbing celebrities. Yep, things sure ain’t what they used to be — after dark, that is.
Forget top hats and tails, and older men leering at figure-eight gels dressed in clingy gowns. This is the #MeToo era and men are almost redundant. The blatant extravagance — and at times arrogance — that came with inherited money is over. Silly empty-headed dowagers are a thing of the past. Women today go into nightclubs with support teams of yes men and yes women. Clubs are dark places with more security than customers and with the charm of a root canal. There is only one place in all of Europe that I go to after dark: Robin Birley’s 5 Hertford Street.
For me it all began with the frenetic Gotham of the post-war period of the 1950s. El Morocco was full of playboys who were suavely but ruthlessly predatory. All we did was chase women. Hollywood types were considered riff-raff, those from the Middle East untrustworthy and too slick, South Americans too greasy. Even Europeans were seen as too sardonic and always on the lookout for funds. I loved every minute of it and even today I do not consider those to be wasted times. Whereas the rich set once partied and occasionally went slumming, today’s celebrity rich slum all the time. Their hangerson, wannabees and star gazers personify skid row. Mind you, in a way the end of elegance after dark is a godsend. Otherwise I’d still be out every night, still making a fool of myself at an age when I should be home watching the telly.
Growing up when I did, and believing in the genteel romantic ideals that pervaded the culture at the time, the nightclub was the place where one tested one’s mettle. Money, believe it or not, meant nothing, although it got one a good table most of the time. Manners and breeding came first, and tainted fortunes that conferred social status and power were seen as a crime long after the original transgression. Or so we believed.
I remember reading The Great
Gatsby while still in school and then rereading it while clubbing and doing nothing else. Gatsby’s shame was that he was impressed by Tom Buchanan’s old money and ashamed of his own bootlegging; my thoughts at the time. But Buchanan’s old money meant nothing because he was a coarse bully, whereas Gatsby’s illegal fortune had made him a gentleman. See what I mean when I say manners came even before breeding. What defeated poor Gatsby at the end was his embarrassment in the face of social power.
I then reread Tender is the Night, and headed for France and the Riviera, where Dick Diver stood tall. That was the book that broke Scott Fitzgerald’s heart, someone once remarked; the title is from a poem by his beloved Keats. Rosemary Hoyt and Nicole Diver were two of the most perfect women a young Taki had ever read about.
Well, the 1960s changed things. The ruling elite — the Agnellis, the Thyssens, the Rothschilds and so on — remained at the top but discovered discretion. Their lifestyle was unchanged but fear of the mob had become the order of the day. Slowly but surely grand balls in grand houses went the way of high-button shoes. Just as slowly but surely the freaks began to take over. The Russians arrived and ordered boats as big as their manners were bad. The Saudis came north for hookers, horses and houses.
Although time had stood still for me at the turn of the century, it accelerated after the 2016 referendum and Trump’s victory. Getting involved became important once again. I went to 5 Hertford Street where Robin Birley, Lord Howard and Andrew Roberts threw a bash to celebrate Boris’ victory. Owing to my advanced age I was given a great seat next to Zac Goldsmith, newly ennobled, and Douglas Murray, who stage whispered that the lady talking to Charles Moore, whom I couldn’t take my eyes off, was a baroness. Andrew Roberts gave a speech that would have befitted Henry V after Agincourt, and I was touched by Robin’s tribute to Jimmy Goldsmith, the man who started it all back in 1997.
After a great costume party the following night — my host asked me for discretion — I was well oiled and being given a ride home by a friendly married couple whose driver overshot my front door by no more than ten yards at most. “Please do a u-ee,” ordered the lady. “For God’s sake, Eugenie,” said her husband, sitting up front. “He never would have made it,” said Princess Radziwill, which I thought was rather rude.