Dataphiles' Music Madness

The combination of electronic music and flashing lights is as classic as fish and chips. When I head out for the night I love to take some badass glow for me and my mates.  Seems the not that many people do the same, given the number of times I’ve been asked where I got it from, how much it costs etc. I never can figure why not though, its cheap, fun and will make you feel like a don while busting your moves. Here are my favourites for less than a tenner

Rainbow Spinners

These big silver chunks of plastic looks like a Cylon’s arm from (oldskool) BSG. They have spinning phasing LED arms on both ends to make crazy helical patterns when you’re busting moves. ~£ 4.50 Available at glowsticks.co.uk

Finger lights

Pretty much the ronseal of accesories, they clip onto your fingers and light up. Most effective if you can convince everyone else in the club to wear them too. ~£ 5 for 16-40! (wow these have really come down in price since the last time I bought them, search amazon or ebay for the best deal for the number you want)

Holographic glasses

These contain diffraction lenses that turn all lights into rainbow streaks, novas or even hearts and smiley’s there are a whole variety of types around, there is a good selection at fantazia. £2-5 a pair Warning: viewing club lights through these, may melt your mind, also watch where you’re arms are going when dancing energetically, otherwise you make end up poking someone, in the non digital sense

Colour Splitters

These glowsticks strobe between Red Green and Blue. This means that they are white(ish) while stationary and make streaks of the seperate colours when moving. Its an awesome effect but difficult to describe in words. Check out the pic above when I was playing with one of them to get some sort of idea what it looks like. ~£2 each, available at glowsticks.co.uk

Glowing gumguard

This soft piece of plastic goes in your mouth and with a quick nibble starts up, turning your teeth into a crazy light show. Almost gaurenteed to turn heads wherever you go ~£2 each, available from electricplanet.co.uk and many others

EL wire

This is a battery powered cord of glowing goodness. Perfect if you’re lifetime’s ambition is to be an extra in Tron. Get creative enough and you could make a whole suit. ~£8 for 10 ft at amazon

Light tunnel

Using two mirrored surfaces these chunky pendants give the impression that someone is looking through your body, down into your very soul. Worn as a pendent … think Iron man’s chest. Attached to another item of clothing – potentially legendary as in the gas mask above on Etsy (not in budget but pretty damn cool). Pendants themselves are ~ £2 each available at glowsticks.co.uk

Glow ball connectors

If you’re reading this page you may think that glow bracelets are way too pedestrian for you. If you get some 8 way ‘ball connectors you can make yourself a glow scarf/hat/pauldron or whatever else takes your fancy. They do have a tendency to pop out while dancing and plugging them back in creates an evolving sculpture around you over the course of the night… almost 😛 ~£8 for 100 glowsticks with 2 ball connectors on ebay (or shop around for a package that’s good for your needs)

UV paint

Airwriter Fans

Being overheated in a club is a horrible experience – Take Brixton Academy, in summer its so sauna-like IMHO a fan is a must (its bad but until you’ve been to an Oxford cellar club with no ventilation and sweat literally dripping off ceilings and down the walls you don’t know true horror). Anyway, why use just any fan when you can get an LED message fan that lets you hold up floating Red messages at the same time. Programmable on the move too, so actually genuinely useful if you need to get a friends attention from the other side of the room. £9.99 for 2 on Amazon

Laser Pens

What do you do if you know about a wicked club that is awesone in every way except that it has terrible lights… well bring your own of course.  Modern laser pens with diffraction gratings can instantly transform any wall into a mad-ass morphing light show controlled by you. Some clubs are reluctant to let people in with them (understandable given the general level of intoxication of people on a night out) so check in advance. Oh and obviously peoples faces are not an appropriate surface for trying this out on, everyone should expect to be able to leave a wicked night with their vision intact. £9.99 for 1 green laser pen with 5 pattern heads on ebay