Juicy, 22nd February

If I were going to throw a hip hop/R n B night I probably wouldn't pick the room in the back of a pub to host it, especially if that pub was the Shacklewell Arms, a hipster/indie pub in the heart of Dalston.. But that is what Juicy have done for their monthly club nights in London. 

But let's be honest, if the music is good and everyone is dancing, then the actual venue is low on the list of priorities. After a cheeky couple of bottles of wine in Farr's (still love that place) we headed up to the Shacklewell and had another before going round the back at about 11. It was definitely on the empty side, and there wasn't anywhere to put our coats. Not happy. When I'm at an R n B night, I am there to DANCE and I don't want outer clothing hampering me. 

We laid claim to a corner of a bar and stashed our stuff while we had a few drinks waiting for the place to fill up. Which it really did! I'd say by midnight the place was pumping. 

I don't think I've ever seen a whiter crowd at a hip hop night, but I wasn't particularly surprised by this given the neighbourhood. I guess hipsters like RnB after all. Shame they don't really know how to dance to it! Still, in some ways, watching them made the night more entertaining. And they were playing the good stuff. Timberlake's Rock Your Body, Dre and Snoop's Still Dre, even ABC by he Jackson 5! Unfortunately, they weren't playing quite enough of each track. It wasn't as infuriating as Notting Hill's YoYo but I would still have preferred to hear the whole track before moving on. It would almost get to your favourite bit and then .. no die! Next song!

That's not to say we didn't have a good time. We did. At about 2 am or so one of my friends started to make noises about going. 'One more song', we said, dancing, but then the next one would come on so it was 'after this one'... then the next one would come on... You can see the pattern.

Supa Dupa Fly and Juicy aren't exactly in competition with each other - they aren't held in the same place or at the same time, so I don't really have to make this a competition and choose between them. And in fact, I'd happily go to both. But I AM going to make this a competition and say that Supa Dupa Fly have the edge - it gets held in a club that feels like a club, but most importantly for me - they play the full songs, and long may they continue to do so.