Totally Stockholm 1
Payman Dehdezi “It was nauseating and difficult t
o walk around in a fucking diving suit at the Bat Club, but I liked the tantalising feeling I got when I challenged myself. And also later when I stripped with Babsan at Bacchi Vapen, I felt awkward and really uncomfortable, but it was good progress.” Peter Siepen, DJ, TVpersonality, and well, just personality. XLNT Marc, Leila K Peter Siepen There would be a lot of humorous, ironic looks. Nowadays it’s more important to wear the right expensive brands, and it’s mostly black. Another thing is the venues. Nowadays everything in the city centre is very commercialised and run by a few big owners. In the ‘90s there were still a lot of odd locations to run a club. Venues where you were allowed to totally transform the place in order to create new worlds. I don’t see that today, but I may not be qualified to answer as you say. I hear there is a growing underground club scene, and a lot of open airs… Looks like the kids are doing ok! In the book, Steve Blame of MTV says: ”This book is a testament to the importance of that underground club movement. It is without a doubt one of the primary influences of today’s popular culture.” It’s pervasive all throughout the book that a lot of successful creative people gathered in Stockholm’s clubland at this time. What do you think made this generation of Stockholm clubbers go on to successful careers and generally, could there be any common denominators between frequent clubbers and successful creative minds? I guess the coolest clubs attract the most creative people no matter what era… In the early ‘90s this became clearer than ever. During this era, the position Stockholm and Sweden enjoys today within music, design, IT and innovation was founded. 14 Josefin Crafoord “We stole traffic lights and used them as decorations at the club. We were so passionate. Our goal was never to make a profit. If we broke even, we were happy. We threw a Halloween rave in the Luma hall in Hammarbyhamnen in ’91 and we had plastic pumpkins as invitations with foiling on the back. Phil Collins, LaToya Jackson and Michael Bolton happened to be in town, so they came, arriving into the hall in limousines. About seven patrol wagons and a lot of cops were around the building and they didn’t dare to shut us down because there were too many people.” Raul Blanco, the techno club May Day Panthea Sang Örjan Lindstrand