Only After Dark celebrates its 6th birthday with Rusty Egan.

Imagine opening a club from scratch.  It must take a lot of effort.  Promotion and marketing takes time and money.  Promoting it enough at least to break even.  But you believe in it.  You know there are others out there like you.  Who like what you like.  You believe that if you build it, they will come. (Yes I stole that from Field of Dreams but it fits.)

Now you know you have a USP.  You want to make it so that nothing after 1983 is played.  But hold on – there was a lot of naff music in the 70’s too – we can’t possibly listen to ‘The Pina Colada song’ or ‘Shaddup you face’.  Let’s build a club on a theme of The Blitz Club.  Brilliant.  We know the period in time the music comes from and now have a genre too.  Plus a good dose of Bowie will always help attract like-minded people.

The truth is I don’t know how David Wright first decided how to build Only After Dark, but this weekend we celebrated its 6^th birthday. It has gone from strength to strength and changed venues to accommodate more and more people to the point it has started to reach capacity and had to turn people away. This can only be down to the dedication of David, Sara and Sam who regularly make this my ‘go to’ club.

So how do you celebrate six years of great music, diverse fashion and new friendships?  You invite the original DJ from The Blitz Club to DJ there.  Rusty Egan is a legend and of course knows his music.  He is the perfect choice for this celebration.  And what a celebration it was!

It was full of Bowie, Soft Cell, Roxy Music and many many other fabulous songs that kept the dance floor full all night.  And Rusty found time to meet everyone, pose for photos and chat to the Darklings.  It was a fabulous night and a very great way to celebrate six wonderful years.

The Darklings are some of the most wonderful people I have ever met and it is always lovely to meet up again, especially as I live 80 miles away.  And I am not the only one who travels.  People come from Scotland, Peterborough and yes even The Netherlands!  Now that is a sign of a success!

Where do we go from here?  Well I don’t know but all I know is OAD is for me.  I have even been made an honoury Brummie because I spend so much time in Birmingham now. Its success it not just about the music.  It’s not just about wearing fashion that I have no other opportunity to wear.  It’s about friendships . It about the people.  May the world always be full of Darklings.  A huge thank you to David, Sara, Sam and everyone who makes OAD what it is.  Long may OAD continue to thrive and grow.