Jaz - Deadly Nightshade

Jaz runs the club Deadly Nightshade and is one of the DJ's as well
Photo by Sky Apperley

From London to Brighton
When Jaz moved from London to Brighton in 1990 he only knew one person. Fifteen years later he runs Deadly Nightshade, the biggest goth club in Brighton.
In the beginning of the 90’s goth was dying but Jaz and his friend Andrew kept the scene going by playing in bands and having parties. The first goth club to open was Sister Ray at the Underground in West Street. That later became the now existing club Low Life at the Engine Rooms.

About three years ago Jaz came up with the idea for Nightshade. Fed up with travelling to the big clubs in London he decided to make it happen himself.

Keeping the scene together
“Basically when punk ended a lot of the punks became goths. When goth started there was a dance part of it and there was also a rock part of it…With Nightshade I’m trying to re-create that format.”

At the moment it’s an argument within the goth scene. People who are into EBM (Electronic Body Music) and dance music don’t like traditional goth music and the other way round. Nightshade is trying to keep the whole scene together.

“Without the orginal punk idea I think it would die.” Jaz says.

Another idea with Nightshade is to appeal to a broader market. This includes stilt walkers, dancers, and fire jugglers. A team of DJ’s and visuals artists are all working together. Every week he gets CD’s sent from bands who want to be put on for a gig. In the future he hopes to expand the club and do the same thing in different cities around the world.

How the name was born
The name Nightshade is much older than three years though. When Jaz was doing his English literature A- level exam he didn’t start reading until the night before!

“I was lost in this novel which is quite sort of a romantic novel set in middle England and it’s very sort of dark and a bit of a gothic type novel…. The Go Between is a story about these two lovers and in between the two in this field there’s a boy who sends messages… and in the middle of the field there’s a tree and at the bottom of the tree there’s like a Deadly Nightshade that grows there… I was reading the book all night and this was when I was eighteen and that stuck in my mind because I remember being up all night and I always thought I would either use that word Deadly or Nightshade in a poem or in a song.”

Dress acording to who you are
From July this year Deadly Nightshade is on the third Saturday of the month at B Lo in West Street. Jaz spends every spare minute and every spare penny on the club. But it’s well worth the effort.

“I think that England and parts of Europe can be very lonely places for people to live. If you are part of a nightclub you’ve always got friends.”

Jaz would never refuse anyone entry to the club. A lot of people are worried about going, because they think you have to look a certain way, when you don’t have to. It’s about enjoying the music.
Jaz himself dresses up in five inches plat form boots, PVC, trousers and leather jacket. He also wears lots of eye make up and black lipstick.

“You don’t dress according to your sex, but according to who You are… Everybody’s different at home to who they are in a club anyway. I just take it to the extremes.”

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