Equinox was its usual self last Saturday night. The bouncers, immaculately dressed in black, were casting an eye on the small queue by the ticket office. Inside, the music was booming and the lights were all over the place. The thin crowd, consisting mainly of tourists, was trying to go wild but, despite the DJ?s best attempts, the atmosphere just was not there. How ironic that the track being played was Sophie Ellis Bextor?s Murder on the dance floor?

A few days earlier, First Leisure, the company owning Equinox and 27 other nightclubs across the UK, went into receivership. The collapse of Britain?s second-biggest nightclub operator surprised the public, although analysts had seen the writing on the wall for some time. First Leisure had mainly been hit by poor trading conditions in its clubs.

Simon Bower, one of the receiver managers from RSM Robson Rhodes was straight to the point: ?First Leisure is the latest casualty of the decline in the nightclub sector.? While his comments hardly made financial experts wince, it did turn the spotlight on a business which is struggling to make ends meet. The wheel of time is turning and nightclubs are slowly but surely being considered as passé.

London, and indeed the rest of the UK, is still swinging but not in nightclubs. Over the past years, most club owners have been facing deteriorating market conditions even if the overall figures appear quite rosy. About four million people go clubbing each week spending enough money on admission tickets and drinks for the industry to be worth in excess of Rs 100 billion.

Figures are dwindling fast though and no one quite knows how to stop the rot. The mushrooming of bars around the country has contributed to the downfall of clubs and pubs. People between ages 18 and 35 - the same age group courted by advertisers because of their superior spending power - constitute the main target clientele of nightclubs but these days, they are more likely to be found lounging in the bar rather than strutting their stuff on a dancefloor.

The emergence of a bar culture reflects the new aspirations of the British youth. They no longer yearn for the smoke filled overcrowded clubs where admission is expensive and drinks overpriced. They are increasingly adopting a continental style, opting for cafés and swanky bars where they can socialise, drink at reasonable prices and eat tasty food, all without having to pay to get in nor having to be searched at the door by some grumbling bouncers.

<B>All under one roof</B>

The fact that a lot of bars incorporate dance floors is a further kick in the teeth for nightclubs. The punter now searches an all-in-one entertainment offering. Last Saturday, the point was proven once again. While Equinox was desperately empty, all the bars around Leicester Square and Covent Garden - the areas that never sleep - were brimming with customers. Walkabouts, for example, was different things at once and offered its clients a huge choice in one same place: it was a pub, a bar, a club and even offered live music in a separate area.

The simple truth is that people are going off the nightclub scene. The punters are still out at night, eager to spend their hard-earned cash but they now prefer multi-scene venues. According to industry research, people want to have a whole entertainment and leisure circuit under one roof. Some entrepreneurs have been quick to understand this new need and have built out-of-town complexes - often adjacent to huge shopping malls - where the average punter would find restaurants, a cinema multiplex, pool centres, videogame arcade, bars, pubs and dancefloors.

The change in taste for nightlife is also pushing the British government to change certain antique laws. The most unpopular rule forces pubs to serve their last drinks before midnight. Only establishments incorporating a dancefloor can sell alcohol after that time. Going round the law has been easy for most. Some curry houses even built dance floors that measured six foot by six foot so that they could legally serve drinks until the early hours of the morning.

The major issue regarding this rule is no laughing matter. Last orders before midnight means binge drinking: punters take in the maximum amount of drinks they can order just before closing time. The result is antisocial behaviour on the streets, drink driving as well as long term consequences on the health. A change in the law, which the government seems to favour, will allow more pubs and bars to serve drinks all night long, causing a further dent to the cause of nightclubs. At the moment, people who want to drink after midnight normally go to a nightclub or a bar with a dancefloor.

<B>A uniformed drinking culture</B>

While independent nightclub owners mull over their future, the bigger groups are finding a way out. Clubbing is far from being dead but there are new ways of making money. It still is very big business, albeit for an elite, which analysts describe as the Superclubs. For these establishments, filling the dancefloor has become far less important than developing an international brand.

Only a tiny percentage of a Superclub?s revenue actually comes from admission tickets. The emphasis is on banking on a famous name (such as the Ministry of Sound or Cream) and creating Superstar DJs such as Pete Tong or Judge Jules. These groups have diversified their activities across the globe and now own clubs, record labels, merchandising units and franchise their names to the highest bidder. The Ministry of Sound, for example, now retails music systems.

Meanwhile, the creeping revolution of the style bars continues. Research shows that five operators control 63 per cent of the UK?s 4,776 branded pubs and trendy bars. They are now laughing all the way to the bank but critics are accusing them of imposing a uniformed drinking culture while forcing a snobbish ?designer labels in, the rest out? policy on their premises. The nightclubs are down but not out. Don?t bet on this being their last dance.

<B>by Ryan Coopamah

Outlook correspondent in London

E-mail: [email protected]</B>