Fantastic visuals, a live violinist and very sexy dancers, and superb techno and house all night until after 8 am on January 1st. That was the Buho/Ministry of Sound's Nochevieja in Granada.
After seeing in the New Year with fireworks in Granada city centre, we arrived at Sala Industrial Copera just after 1 am. Will I ever learn how time works here in Spain?Of course, we were so early arriving that the place wasn't even open; we could see the staff inside still setting up equipment. We had to wait around outside in the cold for another half an hour.
Whereas midnight is all-important on New Year's Eve in the UK, here it just doesn't have the same importance. What matters is the party afterwards - and it doesn't get going until much, much later.
In this case, the club filled up and really got going at about 3 am. Yes, I should know this by now - but then again, why was the event advertised as taking place on '31 December'?
It was a lovely event, with a faultless sound system and top DJ-ing from Chris Lake, Toni Rojas, Noe Morillas and Juanjo Muñoz, but here I mention some niggles:
Once I'm in the toilet cubicle and the door is closed, whatever I'm doing in there is my business (in this case, number 2s). Industrial Copera's bouncers feel they have the right to force open the door (this being Spain, there are never locks on toilet doors, nor toilet paper either) and despite my very vocal protests they insisted on coming right on in to have a look at what I was doing. A very weird experience, and, I'm sure, not policy at Ministry's London home.Nor in Britain will you find a club these days without free water available at the bar - a shame this can't be said for Spain where this dangerous, penny-pinching and very silly rule is still the norm.
And yes, I'm getting older and many of the clubbers I see look young to me - but here there were quite a few who were clearly well under 18 years old; this I couldn't help but notice on our last visit to the same venue, too.
In any country, keeping out children, employing firm but friendly staff, keeping toilets decent (and private) and giving out free water are the basics of good clubbing and the management should focus on these, rather than on hassling people on the toilet. 'This is Spain' is no excuse, not in 2008.Of course, we had a great time, as you can see from our video above! The year starts well. Don't forget to vote in our dinner-guest poll, top right. We need to know. GG
Last year's Scots' Christmas Conga to the theme of the A-Team video is here - take a look!
