Fuck Time Out: Pams House, UEA
Anyone who attended a small university city in the UK will know that there is a huge, very problematic, divide between students and locals. This divide wasn’t something I thought much of when I attended UEA in Norwich, but in retrospect it was horrible and classist. I was an 18-year-old student wanker back then and all I thought about was when my next student loan was coming in, how many VK’s I could simultaneously strawpedo and which Essex lad I would get off with next.
Most days of the week at around 11pm a queue would form outside the LCR, our club-on-campus. It would consist mostly of 6 foot 1 rugby lads wearing checked Superdry shirts, loafers and copious amounts of Joop! Go. Or young women wearing extremely short skirts, very high heels, fake eyelashes and hair extensions that had clumped together to create one large, matted mass.
That is assuming it wasn’t a “themed” night, in which case we’d be dressed as school children (creepy), or in togas (what was the point of toga parties btw? Was it so we could de-robe each other at a faster pace than usual?) or dressed as members of the opposite sex for no reason (quite transphobic really, when you think about it).
Upon entering the LCR we’d head straight to the red bull bar, down a jaeger bomb for £3 a pop, lose our shit over the fact that Mr Brightside was being played for the millionth time and then get off with the person standing next to us.
Not on the first Tuesday of the month, however. On this day I would walk past the LCR to see a different group of people entirely. People with neon synthetic dreadlocks and knee-high boots covered in fluorescent hair. These people were locals, and they were attending Pams House, a trance night that wasn’t aimed at us students.
Instead of indie music they’d listen to Astrix. Instead of Kent/Essex/London they were from Norwich. Instead of having 6 hours of seminars a week they worked full time. The only thing we had in common was a mutual dislike, suspicion and total lack of understanding of each other.
Sadly the LCR has stopped hosting Pams House, but it still exists in all it’s fluorescent glory in alternative venues across Norwich. If you’re interested in psy-trance and have some spare hair boots knocking about, head on down to their next night and get a real taste of Norwich nightlife, minus the student wankers.
