By Our Reporter
On Friday last week, one of the big wigs at Nile Breweries invited our reporter to Club Silk. Nile Breweries was launching something and the password was; “Saawa Ya Beer”. The reporter did not turn up and neither did his friends who had lost interest the moment Club Silk was mentioned as the venue.
It’s now beyond reasonable doubt that it will take a fight with the angel of demises to prevent Club Silk from closing shop. Apparently, the Club is doing away with all other night themes and will only be open to revelers on Fridays. Yet this to many is a gamble. The club thinks that if it can concentrate on this one day, it could recuperate and perhaps once again rediscover its former glory.
Club Silk opened shop in 1994. It was the first of its kind, at least in the arena of classic discotheques. In March 2008, the famous monthly unplugged shows were introduced and these were a darling of many Kampala party animals. Every last Thursday of the month, one was either at Club Silk or nowhere.
Evidence of a pending collapse begun revealing itself in August 2014 when the Club suspended the unplugged shows. Club Beer which was the sponsor made it clear that it was just a temporary strategy aimed at re-inventing the idea. For many, this was the club’s epitaph. In Marketing we always talk of Unique Selling Propositions (USPs). This was the USP of Club Silk. Yet it was abandoned and off the club went in search for newer ideas. How do you abandon your area of strength for your area of weakness?
It now became a club famous for throwing wild parties. Club Silk had parties such as Miss Booty, Pole Dancing, Wear Less Pay Less, Doctors and Nurses, Caribbean Night and Dance in Da Dark. These were parties that other night clubs were quick to replicate or had already executed. Clearly, it would not be long before this area of wild parties got saturated. Factor in the competition from house parties, the only way for these parties to put Silk on the top was to keep re-thinking them. Yet all the same, the parties though always with different names always had the same destination, they aimed at getting girls lewd thus attracting men to the club to buy drinks.
In the process however, the older patrons of the club were to abandon it as the youngsters and Kampala socialites took over the place. It was no longer home for those born in the Victorian ages. The club also had a fair share of fights. It was a number of factors that played into its collapse.
The final nail in the coffin came with the entry of the Liquid Silk in the game. According to friends of Elvis Ssekyanzi, his plan was to have a Liquid Silk in every suburb of Kampala. At the moment, there’s plans to build a Liquid Silk in Naalya before the year ends. But will this idea reach maturation?
To many, Elvis Ssekyanzi like the father, is losing his midas touch and its high time he abandoned the business of night clubs. It has even been rumoured that he has lots of debts up to his neck and some of his property is attached.
In the past, we’ve predicted the demise of night clubs in Uganda and it seems Club Silk has followed the route of Club Rouge and Club Venom whose future too hangs in balance.