A Golden Goodbye: The Last Mile Organisers Share The Story Behind The Festivity

Meet the masterminds behind The Last Mile (Credit: Courtesy of The Council, Fat Fish Familia, Ice Cream Sundays [profiles, clockwise], Flickr/Jonathan Lin [background])

It’s a bittersweet phenomenon, but the crushing notion of loss is a compelling social connector. The party community was stirred but shaken with the announcement of The Last Mile, a festival-like send-off that celebrates the inimitable legacy of Golden Mile Complex. Before the roll-out of its en bloc sale in May, Golden Mile Complex will witness a groundbreaking event that brings together 13 music collectives as they perform across five distinctive nightlife venues. Its ambitious mission triggered a fervent response (all tickets were sold out within a day) that pulled the scene together, with the mutual motivation of giving the architectural relic the final hoorah it deserves. But like every humongous endeavour, The Last Mile, too, stemmed from a simple idea. How did this one come to life?

It’s the end of an era for Golden Mile Complex (Credit: Flickr/Ee Shawn)

To comprehend the workings behind this scene-spanning initiative, one has to look at The Last Mile’s motley crew of organisers – Dang Chau and Ulysses James from Mugic Soundsystem, and Daniel O’Connor and Nick Bong from Ice Cream Sundays. As event promoters, all four are no strangers to the pop-up party circuit, constantly on the hunt for compatible venues to house their revelries that most Singaporeans would deem ‘underground’. The loss of Golden Mile Complex as a prominent nightlife hub represents a persistent problem that they’re familiar with; that the music scene is running out of venues in a city where culture is easily replaced and repressed. The Last Mile is a unified counterattack against this threat. You can empty an building. But you can’t snuff out the soul of its identity.

Prior to the big event on 4 March, I speak to all four organisers to grasp how they began embarking on The Last Mile. How do you summon 13 collectives to work together? How do you persuade a Thai KTV to play house and techno? What does this drastic transition mean for the nightlife community? Here’s what they all have to say.

Needless to say, it’s a stacked lineup (Credit: Artwork by Natasha Hassan and Eric Foenander)

Congratulations on putting together this massive celebration for Golden Mile Complex. For starters, how did y’all come together and decide to embark on this ambitious endeavour together? How long has this been in the making?

Daniel: It all started back in October when we asked Mugic to run one of their infamous Purn Rao KTV sessions as the official afters for Haw Par Thrilla. A few of us went for drinks together to try and get the blessing of Purn Rao’s lady boss for that party, and ended up having a couple more at Enclave after, via Elite Club. One thing led to another.

Dang & Ulysses: We were talking about the news that the collective sale of the Golden Mile building had gone through and that all the great eateries and Thai KTVs had to move out. Dang mentioned that it would be sick to take over a few spaces and give Golden Mile the farewell it truly deserves – we all agreed. I mean after all, Golden Mile is an institution in its own right, so why not organise one last hurrah and let Singaporeans remember that they had a good night dancing at a ‘siam diu’ venue?

Dang and Ulysses both represent Mugic, a collective that’s been around since 2008 (Credit: Mark Lewis Tan [left], Courtesy of Ulysses [right])

Can you share any personal stories or favourite memories of Golden Mile Complex? Don’t hold back on the saucy and juicy details.

Dang & Ulysses: As they say, “Whatever happens in Golden Mile, stays in Golden Mile.”

Saucy bits aside though, MUGIC has been throwing intimate parties at Purn Rao since 2018 and people have highlighted how great an experience they had on the night, being able to party in an atypical setting like a Thai KTV. The garish neon lights and video walls, left-field dance music in a Thai KTV with their regulars who are mostly Thai youth and Singaporean uncles drinking beer towers, playing dice games with heavily tattooed Thai women alongside our regular partygoers. Strange as it may sound, it was a good mix and all the guests, staff and owners enjoyed the night. At the end of the night, both groups got to experience something different than normal in their usual setting.

Nick: Turning up at Purn Rao after a house party late one night to find the legendary Kay Suzuki playing records to a crowd full of loving and vibey people blew my mind.

Nick aka Bongomann and Daniel O’Connor have been instrumental in pushing the Ice Cream Sundays brand (Credit: Sunshine Nation [left], Ice Cream Sundays [right])

What have been the main challenges or sources of resistance in making The Last Mile happen? And conversely, were there developments that helped make the planning easier? Did y’all receive any state support or external funding for this?

Nick: Too many amazing DJs to programme in one night!

Dang & Ulysses: The initial idea was to take over as many venues as we could and get as many music collectives to do their own thing. Unfortunately, several venues we had approached either had been asked to vacate as early as February, or they didn’t have a Public Entertainment Licence. So there became a sense of urgency to make sure we could pull this off before the venues had to shutter.

Purn Rao KTV has played host to a couple of past Mugic gigs (Credit: Mark Lewis Tan)

Selling the idea of using their venues for the party wasn’t as difficult as we thought and the owners were open to trying something different; we didn’t encounter any resistance in that regard. We had to ensure that all the venues we approached could agree with the date that we were planning. Things really started to fall in place once we secured a few of the venues.

Daniel: The challenging part has been trying to estimate how many people we can reasonably allow to attend as we’ve never run an event with this format where people will be passing in and out of different venues, and for so many hours!

Dang & Ulysses: As for state support or funding? None. It would be good in future if the authorities would recognise this as part of arts culture and give the much-needed support to add more vibrancy in nightlife.

There’s plenty of character within these walls (Credit: Life In Arpeggio)

The Last Mile will be roping in five unique venues for its programme. How did y’all select these venues, and how was it like convincing them to take part in this?

Dang & Ulysses: MUGIC has been lucky to have a longstanding relationship with Purn Rao and they were onboard as soon as we mentioned the idea and also offered up their space 3 Saap which opened during the pandemic. Enclave and Room 0416 are great spots managed by brothers Ritz and Rush who have been supporting events for a while.

Elite club was a bit of a coup. Daniel and Dang plucked up the courage to pop in for a drink after being bedazzled by the lights during a dinner. We thought it’d be a real challenge to get the venue onboard but a recent change of management gave us an opening and the new general manager was really receptive to the idea.

We are grateful for some of the introductions that were made by some of the owners, and having that trust and mutual respect helped. Much like our own scene, they support each other and spend time in each other’s venues. Persistence and showing up for some cold beverages also helped!

“When this started becoming a reality, everyone we approached was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and supportive as Golden Mile is such a unique place.” (Credit: Mark Lewis Tan [Ulysses], The Council [Dang])

The Last Mile is also an initiative with a desire to connect the music community – 13 collectives in total. It’s not every day you get an opportunity to unite so many collectives like this. How does it feel to bear the torch?

Nick: I don’t think we’re carrying any sort of torch but I’ve always wanted to see our community come together like this!

Daniel: It’s something that’s always been at the back of my mind, but there never seemed like a good time or reason, or a way to do it that made sense. It’s very much bittersweet that it’s happening under these circumstances, but bringing so many collectives together under one roof is something we’re really excited for.

Dang & Ulysses: When this started becoming a reality, everyone we approached was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and supportive as Golden Mile is such a unique place. There’s so much nostalgia. We felt it would be a great opportunity to pull together different collectives we have incredible respect for to participate and create another collective memory. It’s with a sense of collaboration and celebrating the vibrant and diverse scene here that drove us, and we love how everything – from the amazing artworks by Eric Foenander and Natasha Hassan to the programming and lineup for the night – carries that through. MUGIC has worked with ICS before and we were ecstatic about working with Daniel again, and we couldn’t ask for a better person than him in putting this project together.

“Sourcing suitable venues is possibly every promoter’s biggest challenge right now and [the loss of Golden Mile Complex] signifies the loss of multiple venues at the same time.” (Credit: Ice Cream Sundays)

What was the thought process behind the musical programming of The Last Mile? It diversely ranges from established veterans to up-and-coming selectors.

Nick: Rather than individual artists, we decided to approach this by focusing on collectives instead. Each crew has a distinct flavour, and many of us are musically and socially intertwined. For a building with such personality, it makes sense to congregate people in this way and I think this is what we’re trying to celebrate with The Last Mile.

Dang & Ulysses: We just wanted to party with our friends! More seriously though, we’ve been really fortunate to see changes in the scene over the past decade or so. We not only wanted to drag a few heads out of hibernation, but also love the energy of the new crews who are organising events and offer such a new take on things and give zero f*cks about trying to impress anyone. Ultimately, music brings us all together!

Iconic facades like this are hard to come by in Singapore (Credit: Flickr/Jonathan Lin)

As pop-up party promoters with your experiences in MUGIC and ICS, do you feel that the loss of Golden Mile Complex highlights the struggle of finding party venues in Singapore? Is the problem getting worse in general?

Dang & Ulysses: It’s an absolute loss for nightlife in Singapore! There needs to be a range of alternative spaces for everyone from hole-in-the-wall drinking spots to spaces where you can throw intimate parties for a couple hundred people. Golden Mile has that and character in spades. We especially love that it’s a bit run-down and rough around the edges.

Whilst clubs are great spaces, people enjoy these unique spaces that wouldn’t see the type of crowd and music we bring in on those nights. We’re pretty sure the entertainment licences will be lost forever which makes it more difficult not just for us but the proprietors to continue offering something for their patrons. It’s unfortunate that Singapore holds the nightlife industry in the same vein as other ‘vice’ activities and doesn’t respect the contributions culturally and economically.

Enclave is one of the five venues taking part in The Last Mile (Credit: Courtesy of Enclave)

Nick: Definitely. Those late-night entertainment licences are very precious indeed.

Daniel: 100%. Sourcing suitable venues is possibly every promoter’s biggest challenge right now, and this signifies the loss of multiple venues at the same time.

All of this will be cleared out in the month of May (Credit: Life In Arpeggio)

And to wrap up, what does the loss of Golden Mile Complex ultimately mean for the nightlife scene?

Dang & Ulysses: It means a lack of yummy mookata and Thai eateries. We’ve been spoilt with a hub where you can get some piping hot tom yum soup after a night of drinking that will sadly soon be no more. With the likes of Golden Mile Complex, Orchard Towers and Peace Centre no longer being open to nightlife, things will be a bit bland and homogeneous. It’s a travesty!

Nick: I think this may also be a soft goodbye to Golden Mile Tower (knocks on wood). The loss of spaces like this means we’ll all have to get more creative in bringing the underground overground.

Daniel: It means we’re going to continue to have to seek out new homes and, like Bong said, get creative about how we go about doing what we do. But that’s not a new challenge for people in this industry. This will be the seventh venue I have co-organised an event in that either doesn’t exist anymore, or is no longer able to host music events. Unfortunately, it’s part and parcel of living in this city. But the community here will always find a way.

The Last Mile, 4 March 2023, 7.30pm-4am. Golden Mile Complex, 5001 Beach Road, Singapore 199588. Life In Arpeggio is the media partner of The Last Mile. Follow our Instagram page for a chance to win tickets.