Nathan Kirk

Pretty Lights: Inside Club Land Nathan Kirk

Clubland has a new Voice

Studio 54. The Hacienda. Tunnel. Limelight. CBGB. Ministry of Sound. Now it's Sydney's turn in Nathan Kirk's raw memoir of nightclub life under a glittering mirror ball sky. A late-night journey teeming with beats, sex, drugs and rock n roll, vampires on the prowl, and bouncers going the bash. The agony and ecstasy of hedonism on a big weekend, good times chaperoned by danger. Nothing good happens after midnight, and a nightclub full of pumpkins party until dawn.

It's gallows humour with a great nightclub soundtrack. Disco, Techno, House, Brit Pop, Grunge, Indie and heavy Rock. Genre hopping over 23 years, doof doofing until dawn. Horrific comedowns, terrible Tuesdays and back on the dancefloor come Friday. It's "Bright Lights Big City", "Less Than Zero", and "Trainspotting" featuring a cavalcade of colourful characters who drink, snort, laugh and PARTY!

It's the underbelly of humanity. Gangsters wielding guns and muscle, greasy haired bikers dressed in ink, soccer hooligans in Fred Perry's and sneakers, all queuing up to a take a swing. There's Disco Bunnies a plenty, babes wearing less than little, wide-eyed girls sizzling on heat, boys with swollen crotches and high hopes, it's one hundred and fifty shades of grey, because everything is murky in the dark. Cheap shots, big hits, needles, baggies, smoke and flashing lights; cops, crims, ambulances, and happy endings in dark nightclub corners. Nathan loves the nightlife but doesn't boogie.

Clubland offers Disco Biscuits, Dexies, Crank, Scooby Snacks, Whizz, Blow, and Pingers all washed down with a Vodka Red Bull and gallons of water. Everyone is someone they'd rather be, and everyone hits the dancefloor to pick up, punch on or puke. A tale of boy meets girl(s), girl meets girl with boy watching, and boy meets boy. The lonely love the pretty lights and they crave sex even more, so no-one wants the night to end.

Nathan must maintain the illusion of nightclub glamour to keep the money tumbling in, but beyond the Cocaine, Bourbon & Coke, 'Pretty Lights' turns the spotlight on club life; a shadowy world shrouded in mystique. Witness the grime behind the glitz. Nightclubs ain't pretty.