‘And now’, in the words of ole’ Blue Eyes, ‘the end is near’. Yes, all good things must come to an end and what a good thing Club de Fromage has been.
For 17 and a half years it’s been delighting the punters in Islington every Saturday but the curtain is coming down and Fromage will host its final weekly shows at Islington Academy in the coming weeks. In that time around 3⁄4 million people have packed in to be entertained or baffled by the onstage antics of the Fromage crew. People have found love, proposed and marked all sorts of life-stages over those years, it’s not for no reason Time Out described it as a, “London institution”, as well as marking it down as one of the 118 ‘legendary clubs of the past 54 years’.
Outside of that they’ve had 2 NYE parties at the 5,000 capacity Eventim Apollo, so many festival appearances they’ve lost count, at the like of Glasto, Isle of Wight, Latitude, Camp Bestival, Snowbombing and loads more and exporting the British cheese to Paris for Club de Fromage France (Vive Les Rostbif’).
But time marches on and the current state of U.K nightlife means it’s the final bow for weekly Club de Fromage events in Islington. As the man behind it all Carl Hill AKA Slow Alfie says: “We’ll be sad to say goodbye to our home of 17 and a half years but, like everyone else, we are not immune to the current perfect storm that is hitting the industry.
Fromage is an expensive show to put on and the figures just don’t stack up these days. We’ve had, and hopefully made, some fantastic memories over the years there and we’d like to thank everyone who has attended, done the Y.M.C.A and wobbled to the night bus singing Queen. It’s been a heck of a ride”.
The demise of weekly Fromage is the latest in a long line of changes in the nighttime industry, less a canary in the coal mine than a rampaging elephant in the room. It will, of course, adapt but along the way it will morph into something very different and perhaps a little less fun. However it’s not the end of Fromage, there will be the odd one off such as their always sold out Halloween parties, festival appearances (catch them this year at Latitude and Camp Wildfire among others) and keeping the flame is Club de Fromage Daytime, for those older cats who did it all the first time, every month at the Scala (over 30s only).
There will be a few celebratory events as the Big Cheese bows out from the weekly scene and you can catch them at Latitude and other festivals over the summer as well.
As Carl says, “You won’t get rid of us, we’ll still be all over the place, but if you are looking for a weekly fix of pop anthems and general madness, sadly we won’t be there to provide it. We wish everyone who comes after us the best of luck, I suspect there won’t be any that run as long as we had the privilege of sadly”. Thus, in the words of Del Boy it’s, ‘Not goodbye, just Bonjour’, and thank you everyone for 17 and a half incredible years!
