All good stories need a start, so here’s one: once upon a time, about two decades back, there was a nightclub where the most famous drink was called a Crack Baby, where the go-to night was a Tuesday — because few who went had the trifling worry of, Christ, having to work for a living come Wednesday — and where Prince Harry was famous for shooting back the voddies, not the Taliban.
This was a club where Harry, his elder brother, and their crowd would be partying with everyone from Hugh Grant to heavy metal bands. It drew Cameron Diaz and Cara Delevingne, and, in 2016, was only finally forced to shut down after two mates sparked an early-hours brawl after a long night in the private room. Loafers at dawn, Ralph Lauren logos everywhere. This was Boujis — those were bouji nights — and from tomorrow night, it’s coming back, just around the corner from its old home in South Ken.
“I would say Boujis was the most famous club on the London scene in the last 20 years. It was the home of the stars,” remembers Carlo Carello, who is behind the reopening with partners Jake Parkinson-Smith, Fraser Carruthers, Steve Manktelow and Barth Rougier. Despite being colloquially referred to as Boujis 2.0, the launch is technically called B London, but the spirit is the same. Why? Simple: “It provided so many fond memories, for so many people, for such a long time.”
Carello is the sort to know where really is famous and where pretends to be; he was at Boujis in its pomp, and these days is behind private clubs Raffles and Albert’s, as well as Mahiki, which now is more famous as a touring proposition. But it’s B London that has him fired up.
“Honestly, the response has been IN-credible,” he says — Carello thinks an awful lot of things are incredible. “When we announced, the website got 40,000 hits in under 24 hours. Incredible. It’s just people remembering, the recollection of debaucherous, hedonistic, crazy nights.”
And while those seemingly were full-on — Carello, who hasn’t had a drink in nine years, says “the first Boujis almost killed me” — there are those all over the world longing to come back (“Holy moly! Round two! Love you boys,” wrote Jodie Kidd). His speech, a Harrow drawl, skips into double time as he drifts into the old routine.
“I got a phone call one Sunday night,” he says. “From Lady Gaga’s manager. She wanted to rock up and party after her London show. So a fleet of [Lambourgini] Guiados turns up outside, and Gaga steps out in this white leotard with her whole entourage.“It was one of those nights when everything just went right and was magic. At 1.30 in the morning, she plays this intimate set for about an hour, in the middle of the crowd, touching everyone, engaging everyone and that’s when — in terms of hospitality gold — when you know you’ve created something special. That has to be one of my most iconic moments.”
If Carello makes it sound a one-off, this sort of thing was anything but. There were, as he puts it, nights that were “very sweet” (Jaden Smith making his European concert debut, proud dad Will in tow, sans slaps); “the weird ones we did” (Baywatch, complete with Hasselhoff himself); and the “very rock star” moments; Metallica with five limousines full of groupies, Rihanna on the “Faboujis Eggs” — another cocktail — or the only man with a title to rival Willy and Harold, Prince himself. The “very demanding” Purple One “wanted to come and enjoy the venue and enjoy the vibe, but stay very far from it. He very much enjoyed sitting at the table and taking it all in.” No fraternising with the Kensington and Chelsea set, then.
While the royals — the real ones, when the Prince and Princess of Wales were still Kate and Wills — are said to have kept a regular table, at a mention of them Carlo takes a pause. I fancy I can feel cold air down the line. “I’m very protective about speaking about the royals because that’s why they came.” So the reported rumour of Harry turning up to the launch via the metaverse? “I’d say that was just the Mail being the Mail.”
But wait — the metaverse? Well, yes. The past is a foreign country; the plan is to make Boujis more than it was before. “B London is a new version for this day and age,” Carello explains. “It’s about giving people more. That’s the biggest change — we need to give more of a show, we need to provide more experiences. People are looking for so much more entertainment, they’re looking to be wowed and dazzled more than ever before. Clubbing used to mean being in a sweaty box, and I would say Boujis was pretty much that. It was made by the people, the family environment, the club people as a whole — but now we have to really invest much more in our content creation, in what we’re providing for our clients. Times are changing, times are moving.”
To that end, besides the physical club, Carello and co are launching “a carbon copy of B London, the first one in the metaverse. So from every light fitting to every plug socket, to every table, it’ll all be there on the metaverse, and people will be able to attend, digitally.”
How will it work? “David Guetta came and performed the other night at Raffles. But actually there might be someone from Miami, or LA, or Tokyo who might want to be involved, and, in the future, people will be wearing Oculuses and actually be able to attend events and see events wearing Occulus goggles. We very much invest in talent — the likes of Pete Tong and Snoop Dogg have performed in our venues as well — so when you have superstar talent, people are interested. People like to experience stuff.” Really? Clubbing without other people will work? “Well, brutally honestly, I don’t know. The metaverse is a test. We don’t know how it’ll go.”
The physical club itself is the thing, really, he adds. And here are changes too: Carello is canny about the fact clubs live and die by the young — those able to stay up all night owing to both a surfeit of energy and insufficient responsibilities. But he knows, too, that a Noughties crowd driven by nostalgia will want to come back and so “B2 will have different touch points”.
As such, a speakeasy will open from 6pm. “So you walk down into the club and see this very iconic British image of a London phone booth. You go into this phone booth, dial the number on the phone and the other side magically opens… and you’ll be transported into Cuba,” Carello explains.
The 60-seater spot, called Cubanista, has been dreamt up with Steve Manktelow, another old Boujis hand, “who I’d call the Lionel Messi of drinks”. No surprise, rum will be the thing with six drinks always on, six changing regularly. If the concept of stepping through a phone booth is not exactly new — the longstanding Evans & Peel Detective Agency does something similar, Kingsland Road’s now-shut La Cabina likewise — you get the sense that behind Carello’s studied sense of excitement, there’s an astute operator, one who knows there’s a set out there who still remember the thrill of getting into the Mayor of Scaredy Cat town by stepping through a Smeg.
The club itself, meanwhile, is moving away from the “sweaty box” of old. The star will be a DJ booth made from five tonnes of concrete, to nullify any vibrations that could make a record skip. Creative director Barth Rougier explains that he’d like B to have a programme to rival Printworks and Fabric. “Vinyl DJs are scarce in west London,” he says. “We’re going back to the olden days when proper DJs were around, and you would consider a proper DJ to play vinyl.” Those that play will be “diggers” — those who hunt records that aren’t on streaming services or elsewhere online, to give a crowd something they can’t experience elsewhere.
And while this suggests an extraordinary sense of exclusivity, B won’t have the same upscale sheen as Carello’s other clubs. “It’s very different from what you’d expect in Kensington and Chelsea. It’s very raw, it’s concrete, it’s still luxurious but it’s exposed pipe works, too.”
Carello can’t quite hide his gentile side, though: “We’re in south Kensington but we like to mess with people’s minds, and we have the most incredible graffiti artist doing the walls.” Oh wow. What sort of thing? “There’s an incredible portrait of her late Majesty the Queen,” he says, without a trace of irony. Deepest, darkest east London this won’t be.
“Boujis was very avant garde in terms of its external events programme and I want to continue that,” he says. Avant garde? “I mean, Boujis was the first club ever inside the Royal Enclosure at Royal Ascot… We did Boujis at the Polo, we did Boujis at the Grand Prix. So I want to do a huge array.”
Not a huge array in the way many might recognise, but right for the crowd. And there is set to be a mix of old and new: the Crack Babies and the Cuban cocktails side by side. “There’s no age limit on wanting a good night out,” he explains. “I just want to provide as many memorable nights again as possible. I want to make people smile again.” Gilets at the ready.
