The good old Sterns

Recently, I moved to a town near Worthing in the English south coast and I had absolutely no idea that once a super nightclub like Sterns has ever existed there. Sterns was literally located on a hill in the sunny town of Worthing and during the 90’s was as influential in the south of England as the Haçienda was in the north.

The club had three floors with each one of them playing different sounds including house, techno, UK hard house, breakbeat and jungle. Through the hands of the local promoter Mensa, Sterns gained its reputation as being one of the greatest clubs in the UK and even Europe during the early 90’s.

The well-known “In-Ter-Dance” nights represented the vision from Mensa who was ahead of his time. Some people say he would regularly travel to London to listen to pirate radio and record music on cassettes to bring home. Every once a month the “In-Ter-Dance” would run an all-nighter event which started at 9pm and lasted until 7am but in order to attend these events people would have to sign up for membership. In the early 90’s, they had 25,000 members, just to have an idea of how successful these nights were.

Some legendary DJs and musicians who were crucial during the rave scene performed there including Carl Cox, John Digweed, Luke Slater, LTJ Bukem, Moby, Sasha and The Prodigy. The variety of music genres was so good that a lot of people came down from different parts of the UK and apparently on busy nights, it was common to experience the “Sterns Rain” caused by the condensation generated from heat and sweat.

Unfortunately, as many other iconic clubs during the 90’s, Sterns was also an easy target for the authorities due to the consumption of drugs and the fact that the venue was regularly overcrowded exceeding the 900 capacity. Sterns closed down in 1994 but history has been made.

In fact, we’re in 2020 and I’m still here writing about Sterns.

These two videos are gold:

References:

Fenwick, T. (2015). Sterns: The rise and fall of the UK’s most unlikely superclub. [online] FACT Magazine. Available at: https://www.factmag.com/2015/04/09/remembering-sterns/ [Accessed 27 Feb. 2020]

Gupta, T. (2019). Sterns nightclub: The raves in the house on the hill. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49126916 [Accessed 27 Feb. 2020]