REVIEW: Short Back ‘n’ Sides Please

“Short back and sides please” is a statement you would expect to hear at a barber shop however,SME decided to jazz up the barbering experience by making :

London’s first monthly barbershop-cum-club night”

Launched on  Prince William’s wedding  ’one’ would have assumed that this new event would have received little attention.  How wrong ‘one’ was.

BARBERING / NAILS

These days a clubbing in Shoreditch is not complete with out someone doing nails so, this feature is nothing new. However, because of the barbering, which is a male dominated sport, the nails was a thoughtful and ingenious way to involve the ladies(some girls got shape up’s though).  By far the biggest attraction for me  was the barbering, I wanted to see how people would react to this concept. People are  very cautious about who cuts their hair therefore,I wanted to see if anyone would actually get their hair cut?! Which they did!  Some people even got designs and names etched into their heads.

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VENUE

Set in  Blackall studios the venue was split up in to two floors an upper level and a basement level.  The upper level had ample space and was beautifully layed out.  The art installations greeted you as you entered and cleverly  lead you to the main attraction. The two barber chairs where cordend off at the far end of the venue and had that authentic barber feel  to them, which was cool.

The lower level mattched the upper level in size and was was where the  clubbing was done. The only critisim I had  was poor ventilation. An interesting feature I did notice however was the unisex toliets. I know it’s not a big deal but  the years of  ’your not allowed to go in there Bobby!’ made this stick in my mind, this can only be a good thing though right?  I mean what better places to drop banter with the ‘gal dem’ than in a toilet ????

ART

Done by John Costi and Ibiye Camp(Saint Martin’s Alumni) the pieces were very vibarant and striking,  they used different medium such as wood and even a mini motorcycle to display their art, the exhibition had a raw quality to it. They also had a projection of ‘Desmond’ the barber show from the 90′s playing . What I’ve been told is that in the future the footage  from  previous events will be played on the projector. On top of  that the collection of art will build up  over time until it consumes the whole place, the idea of an ever changing environment is amazing, I LOVE  to see things develop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atzfv3juE-Q

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Conclusion

This event stimulates almost all the senses it is an extremely innovative approach to clubbing or viewing art or indeed getting your hair cut but, is this all too much? Whether you would never get you hair cut by a new barber,  I still think this event is worth going  if not for just the art. This event will become something special the more it develops.

4/5

FOR MORE DETAILS VISIT: http://shortbacknsides.co.uk/

FOLLOW:http://twitter.com/sbnsuk

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