RICHARD BELL loves what they’ve done with the place at Escape in Oxford High Street.

The reason that a great many people spend their nights chasing down cocktails with endless rounds of Jager Bombs while eyeing up the prettiest girl they can is that they’re looking for an escape.

An escape from the daily grind of the working week, an escape from their personal troubles, an escape from money worries or simply an escape from the monotonous nature of their daily lives.

This may sound defeatist and pessimistic, but personally I am proud to count myself among the enormous number of very ordinary people looking for a chance to let loose, and what better place to find a way out of the tedium of the day to day than Oxford’s very own Escape?

Found on the High Street, Escape offers three floors of pure distraction for its patrons to lose themselves in.

The first is the most instantly recognisable environment to anyone who’s visited the club before, the part of the venue which I instantly associate with Escape, with its long bar, ample seating, large dance floor and of course that pole in the corner.

The second has been redesigned since the last time I visited, sporting a semi circular bar that has the excellent effect of facing everyone in the room at the same time. I can’t remember exactly how this has changed, but I know that I like it.

Le Livre is the luxury upstairs section which unfortunately was not open this particular evening (a shame that, as I really enjoyed it last time I was here).

The ground floor DJ plays a mixture of chart and indie hits while a well stocked bar provides a wide range of decently priced drinks, and the second floor plays host to a private party.

The clubbers, I’m glad to say, look great – smart, young, trendy, sexy.

And there’s a really good ‘buzz’ as well – you know, that indefinable ‘something’ you can’t quite put your finger on but which hits you in the face like the heat at St Lucia airport when first disembarking.

I think it says a lot as well that everyone was smiling, cos in truth, you often don’t see that.

Regardless, I was grinning. The club was doing what it promised on the tin, and sometimes, that’s all you need...