The Spoonfed editors look back in anger, rage, delight, confusion, excitement, boredom and bafflement.
After the euphoria of the Millennium, the troubled opening of the Millennium Dome, and the failure of Armageddon to materialise as predicted by assorted loonies, the world settled into a decade that, after a bit of dispute, came to refer to itself as the Noughties. With the end of 2010 in sight, our editors have decided to lean back in their armchairs, light up some rather large cigars, swill their whisky around slowly, and pontificate.
Before you interrupt us however, yes we're aware that we're probably doing this a year too late. Sorry, organisation has never been our greatest strength. Anyway, here's our take on the decade (+1) just gone.
Tom Jeffreys
Arts Editor
Art in the Noughties was, more than ever before, about money. Frieze Art Fair was launched, Tate Modern opened, Damien Hirst covered a skull in diamonds and auction house records were broken seemingly every week.
In London, the Noughties was a decade that struggled to move beyond the influence of the YBAs. When they burst on the scene it was all rather exciting, but they – and New Labour – aged. By the mid-2000s the whole art scene had become bloated, introverted, self-satisfied and, worst of all, dull. Amidst all this the Turner Prize continued on its dreary path, propped up by an annual wave of publicity, but otherwise largely out of touch with the London art scene.
The most obvious turning point came in late 2008 with Hirst's £111 million auction at Sotheby's. At a time when the rest of the world was facing up to the realities of recession, Hirst was quickly turned upon – often by those who'd championed him for so long – and his subsequent exhibition of paintings at the Wallace Collection received a critical mauling.
Shoreditch came and went, as the banker-driven fad for street art went up in smoke; Hackney Wick emerged as a hotbed of (admittedly patchy) creativity; so did Peckham, and Deptford. And then the cuts came.
Tom Olesen
Clubbing Editor
Well that was the 'Noughties', a decade that's seen both the hopeless regurgitating of musical cliché and some of the most progressive dance music since acid house.
In terms of London clubbing the roost has been pretty comprehensively ruled by Fabric which first opened its doors at the end of '99 and has been one of the defining institutions over the decade. At the other end of the size scale, but in many ways just as influential, is Plastic People which has served as the spiritual home of first broken beat and then dubstep.
When we look back it'll be the rise of grime and dubstep that'll dominate memories. Grime, because through it the UK found a relevant rap voice that wasn't derivative of US hip hop; and dubstep, because in an incredibly short time a Croydon-born sub-genre of UK garage raced around the world influencing everyone from Snoop Dogg to Britney Spears.
But arguably the most important thing that has happened to London clubbing during the Noughties though has been the smoking ban. Venues without the option of being able to provide a smoking area have suffered to the point of closure, and club nights have been changed forever by the phenomenon of whole sections of a club leaving intermittently to smoke. Kill the vibe? Just a bit.
Emma McAlpine
Comedy Editor
London has long had a reputation as being the comedy capital of the world and the Noughties has done nothing but reinforce it. But is the scene in danger of eating itself? This decade has seen a wealth of independent clubs open up, some run by people with a genuine love of comedy and a knack for spotting what works, and some without a bloody clue. New act and open mic nights particularly have spread like a rash, with many promoters of small, long-established clubs blaming them for the dilution of their audiences.
While some small, 'boutique' clubs may have suffered from the fallout, bigger clubs across the country have reported a roaring trade, despite the recession. As stand-up comedy has become increasingly mainstream, it's evolved into a well-oiled machine. Now, if you're lucky, you get a slot on Live at the Apollo or Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, your Edinburgh show goes on a UK tour and you churn out a DVD of the tour. Stand-up comedy is now popular enough to earn a prime time slot on BBC One and these shows have proved immensely lucrative for any comic who manages to get on one, with many reporting a massive increase in ticket sales after their performance has been aired. In 1993, it was big news for Newman and Baddiel to sell out the 12,000 seat Wembley Arena. Now any comic who's appeared on TV for ten minutes can get an arena tour. We're lapping them up as well – Lee Evans broke box office records in October this year, taking up to £7 million worth of tickets on the first day of sale.
It might sound rather gloomy but there are plenty of exciting, innovative comedians out there and some fantastically well-run clubs showing them. In recent years, I've really enjoyed anything put on by Knock2Bag, The Fix and Invisible Dot Productions to name but a few. If you've been put off by a bad comedy gig, persevere. They are out there. You just have to sniff them out.
Dominic Haley
Live Music Editor
The last 10 years has been like one huge Las Vegas-style buffet serving up tiny portions of everything, ever. Let’s see: emo, the return of psychedelia, garage rock, Britpop, electro pop, hardcore, metalcore and a massive' 80s nostalgia trip all zipped by within the blink of an eye.
The 2000s did offer up some innovation in guitar music, although most of it came from America. 2003 saw The Rapture drag indie and punk back to the dancefloor with the release of ‘House of Jealous Lovers’, The Strokes made indie massive, No Age picked up where Sonic Youth and MBV left off and just ran with it.
But the rough definitely came with the smooth, and the UK was responsible for most of the bumpier stuff. The Futureheads were OK, but bands like Razorlight, Snow Patrol, Coldplay, Athlete and the Kaiser Chiefs collectively pumped out hours of boring, sub-Britpop drivel that made Girls Aloud actually look good. Thanks for that guys.
Naima Khan
Theatre Editor
So it turns out the big, scary interweb hasn't quite turned us into square-eyed screen gazers, and people are still going to the theatre. Runaway successes of the Millennium thus far include West End belter Wicked and record breakers Sister Act, The Lion King and Billy Elliot. Still as camp as ever, the flurry of reality-TV-born theatre stars has begun and looks likely to continue. We're anticipating 'The Chosen One' (probably on ITV) which could work for either The Matrix – a play with songs (obviously) – or Harry Potter The Musical!
Deliciously mindless entertainment aside, theatre continues to prove its social relevance into the 21st century. Major themes have been Iraq, New Labour, money and more recently the coalition and political process. New writing theatres were out in force after being granted funding in 2000 only for it to be snatched away after ten and a bit years, during which we saw some stellar scripts and the emergence of young, dynamic writers like Rebecca Prichard and Lucy Prebble.
People who make little effort to understand theatre continued to get mad at it – see the Behzti controversy in 2004 and more recently Philip Ridley's Moonfleece. But the best writers managed to have their say, like Gurpeet Kaur Bhatti with Behud.
Click here for things to do in London.
Image credit: slideshow bob.
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