[Debauched London Nightlife] Boujis nights: partying with the posh boys

London Sunday Times ^ | February 3, 2008 | Ed Caesar

[Aristotelian]

What happens when William and Harry hit the town? One man spent a month trawling the nightclub world of the Turbo-Sloanes to find out

Please don’t call it a scene. Norman Mailer and Mikhail Baryshnikov ordering drinks while Jerry Hall and Debbie Harry hit the dance floor at Studio 54 – that’s a scene. Francis Bacon holding court over 100 sq ft of talent at the Colony Room – that’s a scene. Prince Harry lurching, glass-eyed, out of Boujis on a Wednesday morning? Prince William at Mahiki, jiving like an uncle at a wedding? Not so much.

A scene requires a motivation beyond the twin engines driving any night out – whether it’s at the Blue Orchid nightclub in Croydon or Annabel’s in Mayfair – of getting wasted and getting laid. It requires the possibility of genuine novelty. It requires the interesting people to turn up. It may be uncharitable to say so, but if a scene’s two torchbearers are Harry, who left one of Britain’s best schools with a B and a D at A-level, and William, whose most memorable sound bite is “C’mon, chaps, let’s drink the menu,” it is unlikely to be a scene worth recording for posterity.

They are not, it should be said, London’s biggest party animals. While some weeks it seems they are out every night, there are some months where they may only splurge once or twice (and, for the next three months, as he learns to fly with the RAF, William is on an alcohol ban). But, through the society pages of our evening newspapers and monthly magazines, the princes have, nevertheless, become a catalyst for London’s re-emergence as a posh boy’s playground.

[Aristotelian]

This article is a very long read, but well worth it for anyone interested in the current state of society and culture. In brief, it describes what has happened in the London nightclub scene as a result of the influx of lots of youngish people of money and privilege. There are the hedge fund managers with limitless credit, Mideast oil wealth, floozy blonde spongers without morals or money, major and minor Royals with lots of money, plenty of hangers-on and little to do. Prince William once paid an £11,000 bar bill, for instance. And he and his brother Harry seem to get polluted on a regular basis.

The article is one of those pieces to read and digest at your leisure, for it provides lots of insight into modern-day culture -- some of which takes time to sink in.

A very, very good read. I promise.

[dynachrome]

For comparison, check out the “Hellfire Club” of Olde England.

[kittymyrib]

Things will change when sharia kicks in.

[AZLiberty]

It’s good to be the prince.