One of the UK’s longest-standing club nights, Time Flies celebrates 25 years in the game this month. Fedor Tot chats to head honcho Henry Blunt about the milestone.
So it’s Time Flies’ 25th birthday. How has it managed to survive so long?
It’s down to a very loyal crowd of clubbers in Wales and parts of west England who have religiously followed us. It’s also about making sure that events evolve and are special and memorable. Those are probably the key factors to the longevity… but a lot of blood, sweat and tears as well.
Twenty-five years ago was before the internet became a commodity. How has clubbing and club promotion changed since then?
Obviously with the internet these days, I will spend my advertising budget on e-flyers and Facebook advertisements; you’re able to target your audience from the comfort of your armchair or your desk. With the big events in the early 90s, you’d be printing off tens of thousands of flyers and paying people to stand outside venues at 6am to hand them out. We still do posters around shops where we can, but there are not as many independently-owned shops in major cities that allow you to put posters up – a lot of high street brands are taking over. Of course, if you go to some of the small valley towns, there are many shops that will welcome you in.
I guess another big change is licensing. When we first started in Cardiff, 1am was the latest finish, and then it became 2am – now club nights lasting until 4 or 6 are commonplace.
Are there any particular highlights of the history of Time Flies that you look back on?
We used to partner up with BBC Radio 1 quite a bit, back in the late 90s and into the 00s, and we did a live broadcast from what was the original Cardiff ice rink, on Radio 1’s Essential Mix – which was obviously broadcast across the UK and by then, through the internet, across the globe. So that was a pretty big moment for Time Flies.
If you could recommend one place in Wales to a first-time visitor that’s not on the tourist maps, where would it be and why?
If it’s somewhere I particularly enjoy going, I’m not going to tell you. It probably is on the tourist trail, but I would take them up to the Rhigos mountain or viewpoint in the Rhondda Valley. That’s pretty special. I do go to a lot of quiet places with the children and my girlfriend, but I want to keep them secret or else they’ll get overrun!
Time Flies 25th Birthday Party feat. Judge Jules, Seb Fontaine, John Kelly and more, Tramshed, Cardiff, Fri 8 Feb. Tickets: £25. Info: www.timefliesuk.com