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Offbeat was founded at Warwick sometime around September / October 1984. The society was set up with the aim of putting on regular indie discos, running trips to gigs and providing a meeting place for like minded souls fed-up with the cheesy chart music present at most union events. It flourished through the '80s, and by the end of the decade was the biggest music society on campus. The late '80s / early '90s Offbeat spawned a few indie celebrities, amongst them the members of Creation Records signings Adorable (who returned, having made it big, to sell out The Cooler for Offbeat) and one Johnny Cigarettes, at the time a music writer for the Warwick Boar, later Features Editor with the NME, and now a writer for Mojo, Q and The Guardian.
The venue for the first disco was undoubtedly The Elephants Nest, a 250-capacity room at the top of the Union soon to be renamed Zippy's Joint after John 'Zippy' Gaze, a TSG main-man tragically killed in a car-crash in 1989. Despite occasional excursions into Westcotts/Rolf's/The Cooler downstairs, this was always Offbeat's true home. Sadly the original tribute to John scrawled on the wall behind the old DJ booth, along with the cool graffiti art by Norman Cook AKA Fatboy Slim (at the time with 'Beat's International') which surrounded the dance floor, was painted over in a soulless mid-'90s refurbishment which summed up many of the people who ran the Union at the time. For the record, it read something like: "This venue is dedicated to John 'Zippy' Gaze and all others who find their soul in music, rather than the bottom of their Timberlands."
Zippy's (known latterly as the Graduate Club) is now no more - a casualty of the Great Union Rebuild of 2008. It's not quite clear at the time of writing (June 2008), but it looks likely that there will be a similar, although smaller, societies' club venue elsewhere in the new Union where Offbeat will hopefully continue to hold discos for many years to come.
Despite the rise and fall of several other indie/alternative societies through the '90s and '00s (the goth-tinged Crowbait, the grunge and industrial dominated Floorshow, the supremely unsuccessful Freakscene, the synth/electro based Absynth and the much-missed '60s/'70s music society Underground), Offbeat has survived and flourished. Credit for this must be given to the various society presidents, such as Leigh Ashton, Jacob Howe, Matt Nixson, Mark Casarotto, Paul Trimmer, Simon Miles, Steve Kelk, Laura Lawson, Jamie Hunter, Will Metcalfe (and many others), as well as the many DJs and publicity distributors involved at some point.
Musically the early Offbeats were a John Peel-inspired mix of The Smiths, The Wedding Present, C86, world music and even old-school hip-hop; then we had Madchester, Grunge, Shoegazing and Britpop. On a personal note I felt that the mid '90s Britpop explosion and the subsequent blurring of the boundaries between the indie scene and the mainstream caused Offbeat to become just another Britpop anthems night. Rather than offering a refuge from the mainstream, surely the reason for Offbeat's existence, it openly courted it... whilst the crowds flocked in and money was made, Offbeat's edge and individuality was lost for a few years. Fortunately on my most recent visit in summer there was a healthy mix of the popular and obscure - Radiohead and Belle and Sebastian, Placebo and punk covers of "Wuthering Heights"! Which is as it should be and hopefully will still be in 10 years time. Chris Stride
(Offbeat DJ and regular attender 1989-1996).
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