Guess Who’s Back To Ruin Your Thursday Morning?
London’s Filthiest Club Night Rides Again
By Fred Spanner
“Watching Cilla Black dancing to ‘My neck, my back, lick my pussy and my crack’ was quite a moment for me.”
Back in the early noughties, when London’s club scene was drowning in glowsticks and vodka Red Bulls, a sweaty little basement behind Tottenham Court Road came along and flipped the script. Nag Nag Nag wasn’t your average Wednesday night out; it was a chaotic mash-up of electro beats, punk attitude and more eyeliner than a Bowie tribute act.
Dreamed up in 2002 by Jonny Melton, aka Jonny Slut, the midweek mayhem at Soho’s Ghetto wasn’t just a club, it was a playground for fashion freaks, rock stars on the skive, and anyone who fancied rubbing shoulders with Kate Moss while getting their ears blasted by electroclash. It didn’t matter if you were a pop princess, a punk casualty, or just a bloke in a dodgy leather jacket; if you could dance like your life depended on it, you were in.
For six glorious years, Nag Nag Nag was the place where the underground went overground, where midweek hangovers became a badge of honour, and where the future of London nightlife was stitched together with sweat, sequins and basslines. It finally shut up shop in 2008, but its spirit still lingers, the kind of night you wish you’d been at, even if your liver’s probably glad you weren’t.
In October 2025, Nag Nag Nag rose from its hallowed ashes for one electrifying night, reclaiming the rebellion it once made legendary. The event brought with it a box set of CDs to be launched as a glorious tribute to the club's memory.
Fresh off the one-night resurrection of Nag Nag Nag, we tracked down Jonny to relive the wild nights and infamous gossip that made it the stuff of legend.
How are you feeling, mate?
I’m really knackered. I had a gig on Friday, and it usually takes me a few days to recover, but God! All the trains to London were cancelled because of the storm, so I had to drive all the way to London through the gales to the launch party. It felt like the most adult thing I’d ever done in my life.
Is it still like the old days, or are you feeling less young?
I don’t feel quite as connected to the scene as I did, and I don’t have that London head on any more, but I still get a buzz from it. I used to be in a goth band, and I still do a lot of gigs for the goth community. I see a lot of kids around now that look like I did in 1982. Pop culture will always come around on itself.
Where did the idea come from to start the Nag Nag Nag club back in 2002?
I was a DJ at various underground clubs, and there seemed to be something bubbling under a bit. I remember listening to Pete Tong one night and he played two tracks that sounded like nothing else: ADULT’s ‘Hand To Phone’, and Fischerspooner’s ‘Emerge’. I was like, “Wow! These sound fucking amazing!” They resonated with me so much, it made me think I’d been right all along.
That was the catalyst that made me think I really needed to get off my arse and do something. I felt validated. The post-punk sound always resonated with me, especially the ones with the girl vocals. There seemed to be an element of it in the electroclash movement. I guess it was one of those moments when my time came again. I always say I come back into fashion every twenty years.
Were you surprised by the way the club took off
I guess so. The first night was a success. There were about fifty people or so. Then, after a few weeks, it seemed to gain some momentum, and it suddenly exploded. My phone would ring constantly, and it was usually one of the media outlets in Shoreditch, and I’d be like, “Great! More fuckers after guest list passes. And they ain't getting one!”
It just went stratospheric after that, and it was THE place to be.
What is it about a midweek nightclub that’s so much better than a weekend one?
All my life, I’ve been involved in midweek clubs. I think it’s a much better vibe. You don’t tend to get the ‘let’s go out, get pissed and hit somebody’ brigade. You have to have a bit of dedication to go out on a Wednesday and get shitfaced. Midweek clubs are for the outsiders; the interesting people, really. It’s heroic.
Do you think it opened people’s ears to a new sound?
I think the sound permeated, and it went overground. Especially if you look at Goldfrapp, Kylie, and Kelis. The production values definitely crossed over. There were never that many electroclash artists; it was more about the production.
Do you think music lost its way a bit after Britpop and needed something punkier to crash the scene?
Yes, it was very punky, and you can tell that from the punk iconography.
Let’s talk about the many celebrities who graced the dancefloor of Nag Nag Nag.
I think the reason so many turned up is that no one really gave a fuck that they were celebrities. They could just be themselves. No one was pushing them into a green room; they could just enjoy themselves.
Björk was a regular. She’d always come down with Leila, who was good friends with one of our other DJs, Phil.
Watching Cilla Black dancing to “My neck, my back, Lick my pussy and my crack” was quite a moment for me. Yoko Ono asked to play at the club, which she did. She came along and ululated.
One of my favourite bands, The Virgin Prunes, were guest DJs once. They’re an Irish band, and had a few celeb fans. Bono came that night. Shane MacGowan tried to get in, but the bouncers decided he’d already had a bit too much to drink, so they didn’t let him in.
I have a vague memory of Keith Flint of The Prodigy sitting on one of our white sofas. He was such a nice guy. He took the time to say what a great club it was and that he was enjoying himself. We also had Bobby Gillespie, Gwen Stefani and of course, there was Madonna. Her producer, Steve Price, was DJing one night. She came in heavily disguised, with her hands wrapped in bandages, then left after about ten minutes.
Justin Timberlake didn’t get in. He turned up with about fifteen security guys. He didn’t get what the club was about. Like, no one is going to care that you’re here, so you don’t need all those people with you. It wasn’t my job, but I don’t think many people got turned away.
Has there been any talk of bringing the club back on a regular basis?
It’s back in a way. I’ve been doing some goth nights with a guy who runs a club called Dark Room, so it’s kind of Dark Room x Nag Nag Nag. We did one the other day, and Boy George came along and did some DJing. He loved it, and he wants to do some more. A remark was made that he was having a much better time at our club than he would have at the O2. He felt at home. He’s a club guy after all.
Boy George used to come down to the club when he was doing his musical, Taboo. Quite often, the whole cast would come down to the club, still in their character outfits. There was a ‘Bowie’ over here and a Marilyn over there. You sometimes got the real Steve Strange and the pretend one in the same room.
You’ve worked on music with Jimmy Cauty from KLF. How was that experience?
Jimmy called me up on 1st January 2000 and said, “Let’s do a track together.” He kick-started something, I think. He and Bill Drummond are mates of mine. We became friends when we were gigging with Jimmy’s wife’s band, Disco 2000. We used to hand out quite a bit. I went to Jura with them at the height of their fame. It was like the best school trip ever.
A lot of the journalists panicked, ‘cause they arrived on this island and the first thing they saw was this great big fucking Wicker Man thing. A couple of them decided to escape. They properly freaked out and legged it.
Some of the locals loved the whole thing. Others thought we were satanists.
You’ve brought out a box set of CDs to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of Nag Nag Nag.
It seemed timely. I did a similar one for the Batcave club a while back with a guy called Mark Wood, who came up with the title, which I think is brilliant. It took us a couple of years to put it all together, and surprisingly, some of the tracks were quite hard to source and find out who owned what, but we got there in the end.
How did you decide which tracks to include?
All the obvious classics were in my head. The problem with Nag Nag Nag is that I can only remember about five minutes of it. I had to go through all my old drives. There was a guy who used to do our website, and thankfully, he’d archived some. There are some classic artists on there, such as Moby, MGMT, and Kylie, plus some lesser-known ones.
It’s the perfect collection to take you back to those heady electroclash days.
When The 2000s Clashed: Machine Music For A New Millennium (5CD) is out now and available through demonmusicgroup.co.uk
