YUSU’S affiliation with Tokyo nightclub has been called into question after a number of incidents at the club in the early weeks of this term, as well as last year.
A number of students have approached Vision regarding issues with the club. Following last years revelations in Vision of sex games and scandal at the venue, this month’s personal appearance of ‘The Only Way is Essex’ star, Joey Essex, saw women in the audience asked to give a lapdance to a member of his entourage in order to meet him.
One of the girls involved told Vision, “it was degrading, I was drunk and already had my heart set upon meeting Joey. When I woke up the next day to see myself on Facebook giving a random man a lapdance I was horrified.”
A member of the YUSU Ents committee who wished to remain unnamed approached Vision towards the end of last term, and again this week, to voice his concerns over YUSU’s continuted affiliation with the club.
“At the end of last year Dan Walker asked us what we thought of the current YUSU club nights which saw us effectively spend an hour complaining about Tokyo.”
Last summer saw Fibbers dropped from the official club timetable, although Ents meetings also saw Tokyo criticised after drunk students were coerced into on-stage sex games on the offical Thursday ‘Drop The Bomb’ nights by the infamous ‘Grotty’ DJ Gotti.
YUSU President Tim Ellis admitted, “Whilst we did look into other possibilities it was felt that these clubs could provide the best variety of nights for our students, as well as being financially sound venues for the foreseeable future.”
Another member of the Ents committee told Vision that there have been “at least ten complaints a night regarding Tokyo” so far this term.
March of this year also reportedly drew complaints regarding the behaviour of bouncers towards students attending Fusion’s after-party.
The member of the Ents committee gave a damning verdict on YUSU’s persistence with Tokyo, “their attitude is basically, ‘We know it’s shit but it’s the best we can do’. It’s the bouncers that are the main problem and YUSU, as far as I know, haven’t even tried to sort it out, and they’ve known about it for well over a year.”
However, YUSU reported having no knowledge of any formal complaints being lodged about the night. Ellis told Vision that “[YUSU] take any complaints very seriously and would urge anyone that has encountered any problems to come and speak to us at YUSU, or to email myself.”
Last year saw students involved in an onstage game that saw sex positions acted out including ‘the wheelbarrow’ and ’69’ as part of a ‘Magaluf-style’ sex show. At the time, one student said, “He was clearly a DJ who is massively out of touch with what students actually want on a night out. It went down like a lead balloon.”
YUSU Welfare Officer Bob Hughes told Vision: “We take all complaints very seriously, and we will be chasing them up with all parties involved to make sure that students aren’t facing discrimination on nights out.”
One second year English student who was present at both the sex games last year and Joey Essex’s ‘Reem Night’ told Vision, “I think it’s appalling, Joey Essex isn’t even a real celebrity! Tokyo are simply exploiting drunk students for the entertainment of others. I was not amused.”
Tokyo told Vision: “Tokyo Night Club has not received a single complaint related to this and we would very much like to hear from any person who has had anything other than a perfect experience with us. We are always making improvements and adjustments to our club nights and would welcome any suggestions from students of the University of York. We have recently invested in high profile acts from Katy B to The Black Eyed Peas amongst many others. The idea is deliver a balanced entertainment programme which offers something for everyone.”
Shady shag shed shenanigans
Not enough sex going on in Tokyo for you? Then you’ll be disappointed to hear you may also have missed out on Fibbers’ brand new addition to their Monday nights, ‘The Shag Shed’.
Despite York’s reputation for being a sexless university, last night students were invited to spend their evening in Fibbers’ brand new attraction.
After failing to hold onto their flagging YUSU club night last year, and desperate to get new customers into their Monday night ‘College Dropout’ events, they have continually added increasingly surreal gimmicks to bring students back to the venue.
From free T-shirts and cheap Jagerbombs to free entry, their ideas this week reached, according to the promotional Facebook group, “something else NEVER been SEEN before…”.
The new attraction is a “full-sized” wooden shed, “with pillows and blankets in case you need a little NAP or some other reason” There was even a “FULL CCTV CREW” in the venue making a video and periodically cutting to television screens.
One reveller described the evening as “pretty much a porn night” on a Facebook event page.
Goodricke Chair Nacho Hernando said “I can think of much simpler things than the ‘Shag Shed’ to provide students with a good night – simply play good music and charge less at the door…this would encourage students to have a good night at their venue.”
I think you know what you’re getting when you head to Tokyo, or even a night entitled “Shag Shed”. While, in the cold light of day, these nights are condemned, they still clearly work in part. People are still going to Tokyo, and they’re taking our money.
“When I woke up the next day to see myself on Facebook giving a random man a lapdance I was horrified.” Definitely try not to get so drunk you can’t remember giving someone a lap dance in future!
In reference to the magaluf sex show comment, any nightclub in their right mind would want to try and repeat something put on by one of these clubs, mainly because places like magaluf and ibiza are the partying capitals of Europe. Therefore clubs such as tokyo would wish to repeat this sort of night because to be compared to something like magaluf is not a disgrace its actual something good.
But Tokyo has a new manager and there are new door staff so isn’t the argument about that not really valid? If they’ve made the changes you can’t still complain about them really. And tbh if you don’t like a club, stop going and complaining. Just don’t go.
I was at York last year, and I found that all of the nights are crap, unless you’re COMPLETELY wasted before you get there. They let too many people in, the guest lists are ridiculous, the music is crap (For the love of god someone ban Chris Brown), and the drinks are overpriced. I can have a better night out in HUDDERSFIELD on a non student night for half the price, without being crushed against a pillar and having drinks thrown all over me. It’s simple, let fewer people in. xo
“When I woke up the next day to see myself on Facebook giving a random man a lapdance I was horrified.”
Funniest quote I have read here for a while. So many people are quick to deny any foolishness on their part. Clearly 100% of the blame rests on the nightclub and not another student doing something stupid when they are utterly sloshed.
“UTTERLY SLOSHED”? Do people still talk like that?
All of the student nights are pretty terrible. They all play the same tragic mix of ‘student anthems’, basically just another name for in the charts at the moment or music so cheesy that the bar fills up with people trying desperately to get drunk. All the same boring overplayed rubbish.