And we all keep dancing for it can’t get any worse (90s/00s)

The Shakespearean nature of Tony Blair’s time as Prime Minister is something that had never been seen and his obsession with “the spin” that had won him the 1997 election and made him one of the most popular prime ministers when entering office.

With large proportions of the public optimistic for his premiership incoming.

A fall from grace would ensue much like Macbeth.

It would be cruel and untrue to reflect on Tony Blair’s premiership to say that it was a complete failure, especially as many still see him as one of the best PMs the UK has ever had.

Since one of the biggest landslides in UK election history in 1997, he was able to push through many socialist policies without much of a hassle: inflation was low, crime was down by a third, children were achieving some of their highest results ever in school, thousands more students were going to university, a million pensioners and three million children had been taken out of poverty, the quality of the air, beaches, and drinking water was as clean as before the industrial revolution.

However 9/11 changed everything. The era of youthful optimism and rebellion has been replaced by what a lot of thinkers call post-post modernism.

At site Zero, George Bush claimed that “those who are responsible must be brought to justice.”

He outlined Cuba, Iran, Libya, Syria, North Korea and most importantly Iraq.

Once the troops stepped into Iraq, it was the start of a domino effect that quickly decimated Blair’s time as PM.

Unlike Kosovo and Sierra Leone, Britain’s involvement in Iraq did not have the public’s support.

In his book The Prime Ministers, Steve Richards remarks that Tony Blair had not assumed any cabinet position in the lead up to his premiership and asks:”What if Blair had been foreign secretary? at least he would’ve seen, and interpreted intelligence – an explosively contentious issue in the run-up to the Iraq War.”

And then, the day after London had been announced as the host of the 2012 Olympics, on the 6th of July 2005, 7/7 happened.

Four terrorists detonated bombs on public transport – 52 killed and 784 were injured.

When times get tougher and life gets sadder, what do people do? Dance to forget

Prince William and Kate were leaving a Chelsea nightclub at 3am, Prince Harry was partying with Kanye West and getting into a scuffle with photographers at 4am.

The 2000s club scene was here and everyone was taking part; it was loud, it was abrasive, and it was here to stay.

Since the introduction of the stifling 1994 Criminal Justice Act, which is considered to have brought the illegal rave era largely to a close, “free parties” were the new get-around of the law: Student clubs offering “buy one, get three free” on alcopops and 50p doubles for an hour.

Halls bars were £1.20 a pint. Artists like LCD Soundsystem, Missy Elliot and Rihanna began their rise to fame with dirty, booming soundscapes that captured the drug-fuelled atmosphere of clubs as everyone dances to a beat that never seems to end, drenched in sweat.

Films like Trainspotting capture the allure of 2000s clubbing but the grim reality, drugs have found their way into the club scene.

Much like the Oasis album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants is described as Oasis’ “come down album”, the 2000s was a comedown era of clubbing.

The times were sad, but the music got louder?

As David Cameron’s government entered Number 10 Downing Street in 2010 and ushered in 14 years of austerity, where exactly would clubbing culture go with almost all clubs closing….