RICHARD BELL just can’t understand why the crowds aren’t flocking to Housewerk @ Baby Simple on Friday nights.

Friday night is a big night in clubbing, falling as it does at the end of the working week.

As such it tends to get overtaken by nights that aim for the biggest possible audience and so end up playing the types of music perceived as being the most popular.

Housewerk then, at Baby Simple on the Cowley Road, is something of a breath of fresh air playing underground House and ‘fresh beats’ to those of us adventurous enough to try something a little different on a Friday night.

Unfortunately, on the evidence of tonight, that group is actually very small; as I walk in I am struck by how unusually quiet the club is on a Friday night, and so for the rest of this article I am going to attempt to discover the reasons behind this lack of an audience...

First off it’s free entry, so no luck there.

In fact this is astonishing really, I can’t think of any other club in the whole city that opens its doors for free on a Friday night, and I applaud the organisers for being both able and willing to do it, but surely that should be a winner with the ‘clublic’ (club going public), so let’s turn our attention elsewhere.

The venue itself is actually pretty decent.

The ample dance floor plays host to the DJ’s while a well-stocked if fairly small bar fronts the venue in a separated area, and it’s all been designed rather attractively.

Upstairs the lounge area is even nicer, though entirely unoccupied.

To my delight they also provide draught beer, but unfortunately on closer inspection I see it’s off tonight. I’m forced to venture into bottle territory, and at £3.20 a bottle it adds up to quite a lot over a night of attempting to get drunk, so yes there are places to drink more for less, but then those places aren’t free entry, so maybe it is the music...?

Well, underground House perhaps isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s why I like the spirit of this night so much; it’s something a little different.

And honestly the music is excellent – I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur (yes, really) and I have no idea what these guys were playing for the most part, but I did know that I was loving each track, and loving the fact that I was being surprised by genuinely fresh and new sounds.

So, you know, I really have no idea why tonight wasn’t more of a success.

Clearly there’s heavy competition on a Friday night, but the free entry and brilliant music should be a great pull to all club goers.

Indeed, I am forced to lay the blame squarely at your feet.

Dare to try something new and get yourselves down next week, because if you miss this brilliant night you’ll only have yourselves to blame.