Once upon a time, Disney made a television show. This post is all about that television show. Sit down kids, get a mug of your favorite chocolate milk and let’s begin. A long time ago, on a city street far, far away, there lived a nightclub known as The Doors.
Happy punks and rockers would frolic on it’s dance floor, drink merrily at it’s bars and generally be joyous. Friendly bouncers would greet patrons at the door and wish them well on their adventures within. Then a dark thing happened. An evil came upon this happy haven and as a result it was moved to what seemed to be a better place.
For a while all seemed well. People continued going but something did not seem right. I was one of those people. I tried to ignore the feelings of sadness in my belly but on Friday night the claws of evil fell from eyes and I saw the truth.
The bouncers have changed. They are no longer happy and friendly. They are now juiced up, foul mouthed fools of ogre-descent. They have little, if no respect at all for the patrons of the establishment for which they work. Perhaps I am the fool. Perhaps my concept of fun is outdated. Perhaps it is now considered fun to be sworn at and intimidated by overgrown apes for no particularly good reason. If that is the case I shall gracefully bow out and let other more ‘fun’ people step into the firing line.
Once inside I found myself surrounded by brightly clothed people. At first they seemed pleasant and friendly, but after being elbowed and shoved several times on the dance floor, I saw the truth. These were horrible little emo children with no manners. Their brightly coloured t-shirts and nickelbacky wrist bands made me cringe. Their strange backwards baseball caps and inability to hold their liquor made me wish for a sudden and horrendous death (for them, not me).
As I stood at the edge of the dance floor, I was bewildered and sad. The music strained along, happy and bouncy. Gone was the hard rock, alternative and metal of yore. It had been replaced by horrid Irish drinking songs. I went home, dejected and sad.
Back to Disneys show. The Doors is a lot like an episode of Gummi Bears now. Totally pathetic music, brightly coloured ding-bats bouncing around, and daft ogres out to beat them. While life might seem more fun as a cartoon, it is not in reality.
Doors, I vomit on you.
crayg
Yeah I will agree, Doors was way better when I was younger. I can’t blame the management though – can you imagine how much money they must be making off those little bastard emo kids who think they are being naughty by going to doors instead of manhattan!
Oh, and while I am ranting – remember when you used to get free entrance and 2 free drinks with a student card – now the prices are the same as a freaking club in Rivonia. Sigh.
OK, I’m done ranting. For now.
Despite being asked for my Id (flattering but entirely unconvincing) and threatening me, I had an awesome time – sorry to ruin it for the veterans. And the emos certainly didn’t stop you from partying until the nether hours of the morning, they can’t be that off putting. Also no elbowing on this side…are you sure you remember the right evening?
@Levon – I remember the Masquerades kids crossing the street when walking past the Doors because they feared for their lives. Now you’ll find them inside. The little bastards.
@Talita – What you saw on Friday was my uncanny ability to enjoy myself despite the circumstances. I’ve been practicing this skill since I learnt that the apocalypse is imminent and all things joyful will be stripped from us.
Sure Grayg – take credit for that too, typical guy.
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Pablo from Argentina
Even though so many people are unhappy with what has become of Doors, the club can still pull in an average of 500 people on a normal, non-party night. Regretfully for all the “Marshall Street Doors” fans, things do change, and places evolve. The Doors will be 20 years old this year, the oldest club in SA as far as I know, so they must be doing something right, I’d think.
Being of an age somewhere between 35 & death i both remeber the birth of The Doors Marshall st, having worked and danced (and a whole heap of other stuff besides) at such hotspots as Dirxtbox,DV8,The Junction,Subway,Le Club & Decodance – i saw the doors as the start of the end of the good old days of underground alternative clubs .
A club was meant to dark,small,beer stenched and just the right side of seedy. The doors was big and cavernous, you could overlook the dance floor which was the size of the Original Dirtbox!!!. It just didn’t seem right, it screamed Barney Simon and the Clash on Popshop. The originals had left the scene and a new younger generation of wannabes arrived. Where once you could hear Jah Wobble,Public Image Ltd (Fodderstompf) and Baggy Trousers in one night, suddenly it was all going a bit dark -, i suppose for some Alcatraz was bit scarey ! and that was the end of it for me…
Looking at the Doors now i can see that the seeds of the early ninties Fuck Yeah Rock Boneheads invasion has come to fruition and even though i didn’t really like the Old Doors it was still a decent outlet in a small scene, now it has betrayed itself and become a creaking dinosouar in a small scene brimming with original music and nowhere to house it.
The music at the Doors frankly sucks and is so predictable frankly you could name the playlist before you got there , there is no variation or attempt to innovate or break something new
The music is all the same and caters for one generic market, i didn’t risk being beaten up walking from Jhb Station to Hillbrow just to look at people dressed like me. I loved the variety of it all.
The vibe is awful, we all know the bouncer score and frankly the place looks tired.
Now Carlene i appreciate that things change and places evolve over time but sadly since the doors moved to Suburbia 20 years ago it hasn’t changed and that ain’t a good thing.
I love the fact that it has lasted the distance but i hate the fact it has betrayed its roots and become a dinosuar.
Oh and i have been banned from the place, because i complain about the bar service! Would I go back , well I was there for a thunderous Thursday a few weeks back , Thunderous – ponderous more like , go to the Dahlia,go to CCHq on a Thursday , go any where but go somewhere new , give another place a try , go and find a place and make it your own. Dirtbox was a steakhouse in Hillbrow,Decodance was an old caberet supper club come on make something new or is having someone else think for you easier , remember
“it’s hard to be a person when your friends all look the same”
John, frankly I agree with you about the music being somewhat repetitive. However, the songs they play every night are the ones requested EVERY NIGHT. Trust me, not one night goes by without someone requesting “Closer” by NIN, or “Living Dead Girl” by Rob Zombie, or “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones, or the ones everyone seems to hate, “YMCA” or “Time Warp” and so on. (Strangely enough, those songs still seem to fill the dance floor…) And when new music gets introduced, people complain because they consider the new alternative bands like Billy Talent, Blue October, even The Killers or Breaking Benjamin etc to be too ‘emo’. Other people complain that they want to hear metal, but on a Thunderous Thursday there are never more than 40/50 people in the club. How can the club then justify playing more metal, and new metal, if the metal heads don’t even support a night meant especially for them?
Basically, the people who keep a club going, the ones who spend a fortune there, are the 18/19/20 year olds. I love old music, but us dinosaurs who grew up with that music, all have children and jobs and bills to pay now, so we can’t go out and support a place that plays the music we want to hear as much as the young ones can, who go to the club every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday night, every week. I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell can’t afford that anymore, neither do I want to go out each and every night like I used to when I was younger.
Perhaps if the 80s parties, or like the Double Decade party this Friday (29 Jan) are better attended by people our age/genre, they can justify playing more of our kind of music, since those parties prove there are still some of us who willingly risk the bouncers and all that jazz to go and have a good time, and more importantly, spend money.
As for the place looking tired, people obviously do not notice the new rubber floors put around the dance floor & bottom bar, so your shoes don’t stick to the ground anymore, or the decorations the staff spend hours putting up for the various parties. Perhaps if people were less destructive (like say, they stop destroying the chairs & tables outside on the roof, even the toilets have to be replaced occasionally when some idiot decides to kick the crap out of it), maybe then the club can get round to giving the place a facelift.
And lastly, perhaps you should tell the people who had to wait in a queue until after 11 o’clock on New Years Eve because the club was too full, that Doors should be in a smaller venue.
Hmmm, John, aren’t you the guy running CCHQ? Isn’t your opinion against Doors a little biased then?
I’ve been back at the ‘new’ Doors a few times and for me it will never be the same as Marshall Street. I can only reminisce about the good old days when you could mosh your head off to Nelly the elephant and expect to hear Sister of Mercy, Led Zeppelin and B52′s. Long live Marshall Street!!
So it seems people here have forgotten what the Doors Nightclub was , is and will be …………
I was there at Marshal str for 5 years i even have a piece of the dancefloor and i can remember all te good times i had there.
I am now the Manager of the club and i can tll you this …
Why do you have to be so narrow mined that you cannot see through your own bullshit .
Im mean come on in the 10 years i have been at Doors Edevale i have seen 3 genurations pass through that club and every generation leves its mark in the music .
As for playlists i havent put playlists together for about 3 years AND we dont just cater for 1 genre we cover all music genres from the 60s to the present day , the only music we dont play is beat music or rave for th uneducated
and just so you know you can still hear all the bands and songs mentioned on this blog including some new one and the occational way out wierd track.
Oh and talking about Marshal str and Le Club & decadance ECT ECT ECT……
DID YOU KNOW SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK IS PERFORMING AT THE CLUB ALONG WITH BARNEY SIMON ON 26 FEB 2010
SO come past the club and have a look … we still the only club in South africa that has a past , present and posible future
LONG LIVE DOORS NO MATTER WHERE IT IS
That’s nice Andrew, pity you didn’t comment on the piss poor attitude of your ‘security staff’ who take themselves far too seriously. Sort them out, and you’ll make sure that your club doesn’t get lambasted on the web – until then it is you my friend who are narrow minded because no matter what legacy you want to leave, and no matter who you cater for, your club will be remembered as one which doesn’t give a shit about its patrons.
So yeah doors is dead, long live doors. Rather drive to ‘burn’ in Durban instead.
Personally, I haven’t seen any shit with the bouncers in months, besides for the idiot guys who deserved getting kicked out, and only got slapped because they raised a hand to the bouncers first. Look at the Boycott the Doors facebook page, no one has said anything about stuff like that happening for ages. Therefore I have to say that I think your digging up old news, my friend.