Indeed, beyond the acid-fried pronouncements of various cyberhippies, new technology is proving invaluable to the cultural underground: Gaia, the Internet radio station, or Manchester’s Dos (in club, where DJs’ sets are Net-cast) are just two examples of how the technology can be used in a very DIY fashion. Art installations nestled next to 3D games, while DJs were broadcast live over the Internet.
In October, the Vibe Bar – a bar, record shop, on-line services centre and multimedia performance space – will open in an old brewery complex in Brick Lane, east London. Many of the people using the bar, reckons Vibe’s Alan Miller, will be disillusioned clubbers who increasingly find excitement in creative technology, rather than on the dance floor. “Recreation isn’t just waste time.” Indeed, neo-psychedelic technology is finally overcoming its hippy baggage and is poised to infiltrate mainstream clubbing. At Glastonbury, Vibe Promotions, in conjunction with Spirit magazine, built a space that was wired with pressure pads which visitors used to trigger looped images and audio material. Losing, rather than freeing, your mind has always been the priority for the average British clubber. Hey, if we wanted to learn anything we’d go to night school, right? “That’s ridiculous,” scoffs American cyber- culture cheerleader Douglas Rushkoff, whose new novel The Ecstasy Club, is part-celebration, part-criticism of a San Francisco rave organisation’s experiments with drugs, spiritualism and technology.

And with several terminals in each location, the “virtual community” in the five clubs can chat among itself, and to anyone else who is “linked up”.So, with more people catching on to the possibilities of ISDN, is this the way forward for clubs? With MTV, CNN and now a third group of initials, the world is truly becoming one big, knowledgeable, jammin’ family.For ticket information, call the Mix Info line on 0894 808070.. Haven’t you always wanted to witness a simultaneous jam session between London and New York?In fact, anyone in the world with access to the Net can join in, as the performances are being broadcast live via webcasts. One of the highlights of the Camden Mix arts festival, sponsored by Camden Council, it is the brainchild of Digital Diaspora, a group of artists, musicians and DJs whose aim is to bring the cutting edge of technology to clubs.
Using ISDN (International Standard Data Network) – a method of transmitting audio and video text using phone lines – the Slam will have (deep breath here) live, two-way, full-motion video and Dolby sound audio, interactive sessions. Home to Conran’s latest venture the Zinc Bar, Momo’s and not much else Embryonic, certainly, cheap and authentic, no Drink: Bolly Dress: expensive.. This Monday and Tuesday, Dingwalls in London’s Camden Town will play host to Digital Slam 2, a club night complete with live link-ups to New York, San Francisco, Cape Town and Paris, writes Fiona Mountford. Dress: Agnes B, except during yoga classes.The real East EndHas always had a Krays-style glamour. Has the advantage of being quite tough without the downright nastiness of King’s Cross Drink: stewed tea, three sugars, to wash down the fry-up.

Dress: Tommy H (but don’t ask where it came from).WohoSoho spin-off on the west side of Regent Street, based solely, it seems, on the rise of one Heddon Street (see Real Life sections passim). Drink: nice Chablis from one of the middle-class off licences with sawdust on the floor. Now full of people pretending to read broadsheet newspapers in cafes on Sunday mornings The whole place reeks of New Labour. The only people who can afford to live here now – apart from the merely rich who are inherently uncool – are successful media types, so there is clearly nothing authentic about them Drink: Coke (served in lines). Dress: T-shirts from places you haven’t heard of, designed for maximum superiority.IslingtonThe Blair factor has dropped Islington off the cool map. Dress: like a photographer.Notting HillFar too fond of itself.

Apart from the carbuncle of a tube station, you are entirely reliant for deliverance on the exceptionally slow number 55 bus. Places: The Circus Space, the Blue Note and there’s a new arty cinema opening next week Drink: black coffee. Trendy people are moving in by the coach load, but there is still very little to do. The trendy Hoxton Square is an oasis in what is just the nastier part of Islington. “If you blew up the Patisserie Valerie,” says Alex, 34, a writer and Marylebone resident, “the BBC would shut down.” Drink: the entirely authentic mocha-ccino. The look: unabashed mobile phone use, all black clothes (drip-dry because everyone has a baby).BermondseyThe latest hell hole turned cool spot. As customary, it is only a few brave individuals who can stick living there.