CLUBBING

Garage City at Bar Rumba, 36 Shaftesbury Ave, London W1 (0171- 287 2715) 9pm-6am pounds 5 before 11pm/pounds 10 before midnight/pounds 12 after. Saturdays

Techno house, hard house, industrial house, deep house, garage house, ambient house, handbag house, uplifting house... the list seems almost endless.

It all sounds the same to your parents but we know different. Clubbers cling to personal preferences like chosen football teams. There's a massive gulf between techno and handbag - for those with their ears to the ground.

Garage (roughly defined as emphasis on the high-hat, bass drum and dressed in deep/soulful lyrics) is one of the sounds that has been prematurely written off by too many pundits.

The further north you travel, the harder clubbers like their house but garage has traditionally flourished all across the UK (the garage outfit, Hard Times is still going strong in Leeds while other big name outfits have gone to the wall). Garage City has been championing the cause for over five years and has built a reputation on playing the best stateside joints every Saturday night at Bar Rumba.

Twin DJs, Bobby and Steve, are responsible for the gig and have become synonymous with the genre. Their sessions, for the then pirate station, Kiss FM during the mid-80's are now the stuff of legends, while their prime-time Friday night slot currently attracts 50,000 listeners.

Their Zoo Experience promotions consistently play the best garage and headline the best US and UK DJs in the country. They've even broken the Ibiza taboo - "Thou shalt play only hard house" - by successfully filling up Es Paradis Terrenal with garage vibes.

Bar Rumba isn't the prettiest club in London. What's more, it's within spitting distance of some of the worst tourist-trapping, Butlins-music- playing, wannabe clubs in the world. Don't be put off; the music is worth battling your way through the tourists for.

After midnight the club takes on a real underground vibe as the regulars arrive. It's a cosmopolitan mix that feeds off a strong social vibe. It doesn't matter if you want to dance your cotton socks off until 6am or simply hang back and nod your head - it's all good. And the DJs? Come and hear for yourself. The uplifting rhythms send the dancefloor into waves of rapture.

Paul "trouble" Anderson headlines tonight with support from Neil Fearnly and Paul Cheesman. The club can fill up faster than a emergency life raft. As they say in clubland, dress to impress and arrive early.