What if you never come down? [UK 'house' party life]

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/feb/04/what-if-you-never-come-down-the-90s-clubbers-who-wouldnt-let-the-night-end-a-picture-essay?fbclid=IwY2xjawIPvwNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHW2J13NbNMIqtQahY2QQx93qD91z2b2Nzeo-zF6ziL-n3hotMksCOAd-Jg_aem_P-eJo3fnj-itVuhYwqcmwA

What if you never come down? The 90s clubbers who wouldn’t let the night end – a picture essay.

In the late 1990s, Mischa Haller began taking pictures of British nightlife during the hours after the clubs had shut – from drunken revellers scoffing pizza to ravers blissed out on the beach

By Tim Jonze
Tue 4 Feb 2025 18.00 AEDT

'Everyone you went out with has this special connection’ … clubbers on Brighton beach, 5.30am, 9 August 1998.
Photograph: Mischa Haller/British Culture Archive

See the link for the photo essay ...

IT is in the early hours of the morning that one of modern life’s most familiar questions faces you: should we call it a night now, or push on through into the next day?

The people in Not Going Home, a new photo book by Mischa Haller, have all taken the second option. Some have gone to soak up the alcohol in their stomachs with a pizza or a kebab.

Others have wandered off with friends and new acquaintances in the hope that – maybe, just maybe – the night will never end.

They finish up on beaches or grime-flecked streets, reading the morning papers as the city begins to stir.

Haller was no stranger to this question himself. “I grew up near the Swiss border and we would go clubbing in Austria because it was much more fun,” he says. “We would always stay until the very last note of the last song – which in the club we went to was always Return to Sender by Elvis.”

He realised he loved nightclubs so much that he wanted to be behind a camera, capturing all the action. He worked in Paris for a while as a club photographer, but it was a visit to shoot London’s nightlife in the mid-1990s that changed everything. Haller liked the capital so much that he ended up moving there, getting a job shooting clubbers for “ladette” magazine Minx, a sort of female version of Loaded.

The book seems to capture two distinct kinds of nightlife. There are the lairy crowds who have been drinking and are acting up for the camera – probably heading for a takeaway before sloping off home. And then there are the ravers, still caught up in the buzz of the night, hoping to eke out some more time before accepting the party is over. “I think this image captures that feeling of wanting the night to go on for ever,” says Haller, “to keep it going as long as you can. Because you’re all together in this situation, all the friends you went out with that night, so you have a special connection that you don’t want to break. So you squeeze out as much from the moment as you can.”

Each city has a different vibe. Brighton was really all about the beach and everybody chilling and just coming down. But then in Edinburgh it was just mayhem and I absolutely loved it. I think this place is called Pizza Paradise. As a photographer you walk on to a scene like this and you’re like: ‘Oh my God! I’ve won the lottery today! People were acting completely mad. One person was licking the windows!

I think the fact this series is all pre-phone matters. Nobody has a phone in their hands and nobody is taking pictures of themselves either. It all seems a bit more carefree than today. I think the 90s were this carefree decade, after the fall of the Berlin Wall but pre 9/11. There was this amazing decade where we were just interested in having a good time. Because we thought it was all over and everything would be fine!

Sometimes I would follow people around and say: ‘Can I be with you for like an hour and just see what you do?’ And they were like: ‘Yeah, no problem!’ So they had kind of their own personal paparazzi following them around and they loved it. In this image, you can see one guy was a bit like ‘Who is this guy?’ but the rest are all fine with me being there!

Despite the hedonism on display, Haller didn’t get involved with the raving. “No!” he laughs. “I was very Swiss, so I didn’t party. I realised I needed to be fit at 5am. I would get to my hotel, go to bed at 10pm and get up at 4.30am.” Starting the day so early was a boon for a photographer looking for a unique angle. “It’s a great time, really quiet. But also I love the light at that time. As a photographer, you always want this kind of light you get one hour before the sun rises. It’s a really beautiful hour.”

The article continues at the link at the top ...