Last night I went to Oceana, Nottingham's newest nightclub (opened on Friday, in what was the Palais).
After queuing for what seemed like an eternity (1h15)... even after buying a queue jumping ticket from a 'tout' (otherwise known as student who'd got a ticket and couldn't be arsed to queue) we finally got inside. First thing that struck me was there being silly corridors and stuff like that everywhere... everywhere you walk you seem to have a feeling that you're walking to some toilets! It's hard to beleive that it used to be the Palais.
A few points... if you're going to sell queue jumping tickets and tickets on the door... if there is people in the queue jump queue, let them in before you let in the paying people. When you've cleared that queue start letting in paying people... until there's someone with a queue jump ticket. Does that not make sense? Not to the people at Oceana it doesn't. Grrr.
From a technical point of view it seems to have some nice features... like screens dotted around saying how many people are in the venue, and counts for different areas... at one point there were -179 people in First Port. Think that might need fixing.
The lighting rig is pretty good - consisting of Martin Mac550s and Mac600s... in white!? They look like something from StarWars. There are also some scans, erm Martin RoboScan Pro 918s maybe... although they were waaay up in the roof, so I'm not sure! The centre of attention has to be the chandelier above the centre of the dance floor - 30 grands worth (or something silly like that) apparantly - better than the one at the top of the stairs in NG1 anyway!
What was "The Zone", or the "Underground" or what the hell is was called, there is now a cheesy almost like a fairground ride disco... There's a silly low suspended ceiling (say about 8 foot high) above the dancefloor - with metal ceiling tiles. So, when the DJ says put your hands in the air... and I did... I ended with them inside the ceiling. As did some other guy, who ended up with the ceiling tile in his hands... he then used this as a banner... and promptly got thrown out by the bouncers. I honestly can't see the ceiling staying... it's a damn liability. Along with lighting fixtures you can also get your hands trapped in.
Humour occured when I was passed a sock... which a guy had stolen from someone else. Must have been to do with something I was wearing ;-) Oh yeah... I also got my 'breasts' groped from behind by a man... again could have had something to do with the tight white t-shirt I was wearing...
So, yeah, not sure if I like the place or not! 'twas a strange night, but also good.