Sands

Name: Sands
Location: Grande Route des Mielles, St Ouen
Period: Late 1980s/early 1990s
Fate: Turned into apartments
Regular Tunes:  Fools Gold, The Only One, She Sells Sanctuary, Sex Machine, War Pigs, Funky Cold Medina, 20 Seconds To Comply, Three Little Birds.




















Attracting an almost entirely local crowd, Sands was an oasis of sanity on a nightclub scene infested by non-locals from assorted arse-ends of the British Isles for whom finding an excuse to pick a fight was an integral part of a night out. It was unique amongst local clubs for instances of violence being a rarity.  

Don't though mistake the use of the words "oasis" and "sanity" to mean the venue was calm and placid. It was anything but. The benefit of being so far removed from local habitation meant that boisterous behaviour which would have seen you kicked out of nightclubs in town was more accepted in this isolated seafront enclave. Sands was a place where you could shamelessly leap about having fun without the worry of getting your head kicked in, or getting kicked out of the club. 

The downside of the location was twofold. Firstly, it was prohibitively expensive to get to on a regular basis for town-dwellers. The last bus ceased going that way hours before the club opened, so taxis were the only option. And in Jersey taxi prices, outrageous at the best of times, increased after dark.  But at least you could usually get a taxi out there.

The second downside was getting back into town when the club closed . Local taxis firms were unwilling to leave the rich and easy pickings of St. Heliers' homebound clubbers to make the monumental effort of the 20 minute drive out to Sands after-hours. Still, when you're 18 years old and tanked up, stumbling across the sand dunes and down the railway walk back to town was no big deal at the end of an evening.

The entrance to Sands was on the front of the building facing out to sea, through a small set of heavy  wooden double-doors. The club took up the left hand side of the bulding, from front to rear, whilst the right hand side was occupied by Big Verns surf shop and cafe, with a small apartment at the back. It was common by 10pm on weekend to find a queue snaking  around the side of the building almost back to the main road.

Once you made it through the double doors you were in a short passageway just wide enough for two people, immediately on the left-hand side of which was a small window where you paid your entrance fee. Directly opposite this was a small cloakroom measuring roughly 10 feet by 6 feet, into which you could walk and hang-up your coat, free of charge and completely at your own risk.

 Once past the payment booth and cloakroom the passage split in two directions.  Just off to the right, facing you, were the toilets.  Carry on past them and there was a  small tiled and windowless cafe area, not much larger than the cloakroom, which was open for the clubbers.  I don't recall them serving anything more than chips and packets of crisps - and you weren't allowed to take the food into the main club area itself.

 To the left hand side of the entrance passage was the main part of the club. As you entered there was some sofa style seating and a few tables along the left hand wall. Running 2/3rds of the length of the wall facing you were two bars. Immediately to your right (opposite the first of the bars) was a pool table, next to which were the cigarette machine, a jukebox and a TV suspended on the wall. The pool table was usually covered with a wooden lid and the jukebox was switched off.

Next to the pool table was a small dividing wall, immediately in front of which was a small area of free-standing tables and chairs. Beyond this was the dancefloor, surrounded on three sides (on a ledge raising it about a foot off the ground) by sofa style seating - in front of which was a handy railing to stop you tumbling into the thrashing crowd "below". Overlooking the dancefloor from the club's rear wall, inbetween the sofa style seating, was a small DJ booth.

The dancefloor itself was small, I suppose it could cope with 40 people at a crush. When the crowd got wild you could feel the floor heaving beneath your feet, a bouncy sensation - and this wasn't a sprung dancefloor. One song more than any other was guaranteed to fill the floor with energetic leapings,  She Sells Sanctuary, the playing of which was eventually banned by the Manager out of fear for damage to the dancefloor.

 One of the the great things about Sands was that it played a wide variety of music which managed to avoid the Pop, Disco and crassly commercial (or trendily exclusive) elements common to St. Helier's clubbing scene. It was an authentic alternative. The crowd was largely a mix of surfers and what today probably be termed "indie kids", with a minor smattering of local residents of no particular social or musical affiliation. The average age of a Sands regular was about 20. It was rare to see anyone aged over 25 in the club.

Sands closed down in the early 1990's. The building was sold and redeveloped as Discovery Bay,  a collection of self catering holiday apartments.