Desperate Morons - the Champagne Overdraft

[Grumpmeister]

How absolutely bleedin stupid do you have to be to get yourself thousands of pounds in debt just to surround yourself with a couple of bimbo vultures who you know are going to naff off as soon as the money runs out?

Everyday folk are trying to buy into the celebrity lifestyle of swanky nightclubs and ?5,000 bar bills and plunging themselves into penury as a result. Why?
We've all seen pictures of footballers, singers and soap stars stumbling out of "exclusive" clubs and into waiting taxis, label-clad and dripping with jewellery, illuminated by popping flashbulbs.

But what of those who try to follow the same lifestyle, but without the funds?

Gregory, an IT programmer from Walthamstow, was part of this lifestyle, but ended up in debt after losing all his money and savings following months of excessive spending in London clubs.

  You don't want to be who you are, you want to be something more than that

Gregory

"I would go out and I would spend a lot of money on drinks, on occasions about ?2,000 a night. I used to buy a lot of champagne in the clubs at around ?60-?100 per bottle.

"Sometimes I'd buy over 10 bottles for myself and for people around me, you want to feel like you are that glamorous so you will be extravagant you will give glasses of champagne to people that you don't even know and you don't even talk to.

"It's something that can spiral very easily out of control all because you don't want to be who you are, you want to be something more than that."

At a club such as Movida in London's swanky Mayfair the average spend on a table a VIP section is ?5,000 per night and it can go as high as ?11,000. In footballer-filled bars in Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, lesser but still significant sums are spent.

Empty buckets

Clubs like Movida, Pangaea and Boujis have boasted celebrity customers such as Kylie Minogue, Sarah Harding, Lady Victoria Harvey, Beyonce, Jay-Z and even Prince Harry.

But stand in an "exclusive" club early in the night and it's confusing. There are groups of girls sitting and chatting, the bar looks empty, the champagne buckets are devoid of fizz.

But as time goes on a couple of celebrities stroll in, groups of men are led to tables and the gleaming buckets are soon replete with bubbly. Suddenly, the girls who have been waiting, drinkless on the sidelines, gravitate like vultures to men who've paid ?600 or more for a table. Some head for the booths that might require a spend of ?1,500-?3,000.

Each partying table of two or three men can be surrounded by 10 women drinking champagne. It's perhaps a little taste of why some might stretch their budgets to be the centre of attention.

Sights can be seen. A man in a knee-length leather waistcoat entertains eight women, while standing on a sofa making hip hop hand signals. A woman "Tango'd" with fake tan bares her surgically-enhanced breasts for a photographer.

That just says it all about this culture, as long as there are morons prepared to throw their money away their are people willing to take it off them.

Andrea owns Feneo, a thriving promotions company. He is used to people like Gregory coveting the glamorous life.

"One of the reasons why people come to London's West End is to feel more glamorous and to do something different. Some people feel they will be spotted there, they want to launch their singing, modelling or acting career, they assume that if there are celebrities there that there are going to be paparazzi there too."

Leo Ihenacho, a singer with The Streets and a former contestant on Love Island, is familiar with the club circuit and the motivations of the "ordinary".

"People are thinking if a celebrity is in the same club as them that makes them cool because the celeb is cool so they feel like they're going to the right club".

But being around celebrities has its drawbacks to the average earner. Celebrities often go straight to the VIP section of the club. If the clubber is not part of the celebrity entourage they will have to be prepared to dig deep into their wallet for the privilege of fellowship with the rich and famous.

Andrea explains that buying bottles of champagne would normally ensure entry into the VIP section where clubbers could rub shoulders with celebrities.

"To get a table in a club, ?500 is normally the minimum spend but ravers nearly always go over because they buy up lots of champagne so on average, the drink spending on tables can go up to ?3,000. The people with regular jobs would pay this but not normally every week."

Boring life

But this expenditure on chasing a dream is a parallel of society's increasing drift towards debt.

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service released figures in 2005 that show an increasing number of under-25s are seeking bankruptcy as they struggle to cope with their debts, and the British Lifestyles 2007 report revealed that the British public is spending an increasing amount of money on leisure pursuits.

"You want to feel like you are the man, to escape from your 9-5 and from your same old boring life you want to feel like something you're not, but you're basically going home to the same old place and you're probably in big old debt. But for that night, for those three to four hours you're not really caring about it.

"It becomes addictive, you get used to that buzz, it's something that you don't really want to let go of until you hit rock bottom, one day you look at your bank balance and you've got nothing left to spend.

"The worst thing is, you end up feeling like exactly what you were trying to escape from - nothing.

"You feel lower than you were before because now you have nothing to go out with, you have no groupies none of these girls hanging around you, the friends that you thought were friends disappear."

[Barman]

 

[Grumpmeister]

Somehow I should have guessed this would appeal to your sense of humour barman 

[Bar Wench]

Some blokes will do anything for a shag. 

[Snoopy]

 

[Uncle Mort]

Some blokes will do anything for a shag. 

I don't think that is what this is about.

It's the desire to be a celebrity, a 'somebody'. There has always been 'hangers on' who get a buzz from being assoicated with the rich and famous but this is trying to buy their own status.

How can people be so shallow?



 

[Bar Wench]

And what do you think are the top two reasons for blokes wanting to be famous?

1) Money
2) The women

[Uncle Mort]

But I don't see them getting shag out of what they're doing and they're certainly not getting money.

They are deluding themselves because they think if they're not a 'somebody' then they are a 'nobody'

[Darwins Selection]

And what do you think are the top two reasons for blokes wanting to be famous?

1) Money
2) The women

All the really nice, geniune blokes seek the safety and obscurity of on-line forums.

[Barman]

I agree with Uncle?

For that sort of money he could have rented and shagged some of the world?s most beautiful women. Instead he seems to have craved a bizarre ?look alike? lifestyle of his heroes.

I bet he wears ?designer? everything too?

[Snoopy]

I agree with Uncle?

For that sort of money he could have rented and shagged some of the world?s most beautiful women. Instead he seems to have craved a bizarre ?look alike? lifestyle of his heroes.

I bet he wears ?designer? everything too?

Didn't we used to have a clown like that on "the other side" who included, in almost every post, a description of his possessions, cost, labels etc? A sort of "I am wearing my ?35 Ben Sherman shirt and my ?150 Gucci loafers, whilst seated in my ?1500 leather upholstered reclining chair typing this post on my ?1K worth of cinema surround sound Apple Mac equipment etc"
What was his name???

[Bar Wench]

dodgyken.

[Snoopy]

That's the guy ..... What an arse. But exactly what this thread is all about. 

[Barman]

That's the guy ..... What an arse. But exactly what this thread is all about. 

Was it him that got married and posted the pictures all over?

[Uncle Mort]

That's the guy ..... What an arse. But exactly what this thread is all about. 

Was it him that got married and posted the pictures all over?

Yes.