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FADED GLAMOUR
How Essex nightclub Faces where yob knocked out teen girl used to be a celeb haunt full of A-listers and Towie stars — now it’s full of nobodies
IT was once THE place to be seen on the showbiz circuit – a party palace for top footballers, pop royalty and TV stars.
All flocked to be part of the glitz and glamour of Faces nightclub, with owner Tony Bee once boasting: “We are probably the most quoted club on TV and in the press.”
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This week, it was for the wrong reasons, as we revealed shocking footage of a thug punching a defenceless woman unconscious on the pavement outside the Essex haunt.
The cowardly assault is symbolic of the club’s decline.
Celebs including One Direction’s Zayn Malik, footballer Jermain Defoe and TV presenter Caroline Flack preferred it to many high-profile London clubs, seeing it as a safe haven to let their hair down.
Now, rowdy teens and shameless Z-listers are more likely to cross its threshold, with some locals dubbing it “Faeces”, owing to its squalor and habitual violence.
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It is a world away from Faces’ glamorous beginnings in 1993, when VIP gold members were granted free entry at weekends and Essex’s great and good drank champagne with London stars.
The club was opened by pals John Clark and Tony Bee, who started out in the industry as DJs before becoming managers.
Proud of their rags-to-riches rise, they once said: “We started with nothing, made a brave decision, then put in a lot of hard graft.”
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Faces quickly became a favourite with footballers. After England drew with Switzerland in their opening game of Euro 96, Teddy Sheringham, Jamie Redknapp and Sol Campbell turned up for a 2am nightcap.
Glamorous women were not far behind, and the late-night shenanigans at Faces soon provided plenty of material for gossip columns.
Whether it was Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan arriving arm-in-arm with then-girlfriend Samantha Ronson, or telly favourite Caroline snogging Strictly dancer Ola Jordan for a steamy dare, anything could happen on a night out in Faces.
Serial Wag Danielle Lloyd was a regular fixture, and celebrated her 24th birthday there in 2007 with then-boyfriend Jermain. The theme was pimps and tarts but her night was almost ruined when ex-lover Teddy turned up with another woman on his arm.
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Earlier in 2007, the club was closed down for a month after a drugs raid, which saw 11 people arrested following reports that cocaine and ecstasy were being bought “quite openly”.
The owners were warned their club had to clean up its act if it was to stay open.
None of this seemed to put off the celebs. Katie Price was so desperate to get in one night she parked her sports car on double yellow lines.
It turned it into a very expensive night, as she was later seen handing over a wad of cash before she could drive home.
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Club fan and Towie regular Gemma Collins wrote in her 2013 autobiography: “I rarely turned down a chance to go to Faces. It was the place to be. It had only been open a few years and it was the most talked-about club outside of the West End.
“It had a VIP guest list from the world of TV, fashion and sport. It had six bars, two rooms of music and VIP tables, and it was where footballers went.
“It was a favourite haunt of players from Tottenham and West Ham. Many of them lived in and around the area. Teddy Sheringham’s jacket once got tangled up in the straps of my Dior handbag there.
“You literally could rub shoulders with Premier League footballers and many girls went just to try to snare themselves a rich player.”
Getting in was like having a golden ticket
Gemma Collins
Gemma added that for Essex girls, getting into the Ilford club was “like having a golden ticket — it was very much the scene to be in, you would dress up the same as you would if you were going in to the West End.”
But Faces always had an edgier side, whether on the dancefloor or under its purple lights on the street outside.
Former Chelsea and England defender Ashley Cole had his £25,000 Rolex watch robbed as he sat drinking champagne with two girls in the club in 2003.
His attacker ripped it straight off his wrist, along with a gold chain from his neck.
When Tottenham won the Carling Cup in 2008, their Faces victory party ended in disaster. A mass brawl broke out when Spurs captain Ledley King tried to force his way back in after bouncers kicked him out for being too drunk.
And, of course, all in front of the waiting paparazzi.
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Former England captain John Terry was left red-faced after a girl he hooked up with in Faces sold a kiss-and-tell.
Lianne Johnson, 21, claimed she had sex with the Chelsea centre-back after meeting him at the club in 2005, even though he was dating now-wife Toni at the time.
For a few years after at least, the stars kept coming out to play, with local boy Olly Murs, Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland and Nineties boyband Boyz II Men all performing there.
But, these days, very few famous faces grace the club’s VIP area, which looks like a giant birdcage.
The closest you will get to a “star” sighting are Love Island rejects.
Last week’s guests were Islanders Georgia Steel and Sam Bird. Their rival in the Majorca villa, Megan Barton Hanson, a former webcam girl, is due to host the “Scandalous” clubnight tomorrow.
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Georgia Steel snogs Sam Bird in Faces Nightclub
As Faces’ reputation has gone steadily downmarket, so has the behaviour of its clientele.
Manager Tony Hurrell, who has been with the club from the very beginning, once claimed there was rarely trouble there.
He said: “What we’ve created is somewhere special, so people behave special.”
That no longer rings true. In 2011, former West Ham defender Manuel da Costa was cleared of groping a woman in the nightclub, but was fined £1,000 after he admitted slapping her.
In the early hours of Christmas Day in 2016, two men were stabbed in a fight outside the club.
The same night, a 26-year-old man punched a police officer and was convicted of possessing Class A and B drugs.
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In January last year, 19-year-old Faces waitress Georgia Harris was sentenced to eight months in a young offender institution for blackmail after she edited a recording to make it sound like a police officer was threatening to rape her.
Last November, Karl Scarr, 54, suffered a brain haemorrhage and was left “moments from death” after being attacked while waiting for a taxi outside the club.
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Owner Tony has been at the helm throughout but, after seeing the latest violence outside his club on Saturday, he said: “I have been doing this job since the Seventies and I have not seen anything like it before.”
A Faces spokesman said: “Faces does not tolerate any illegal behaviour and has always worked with the authorities in dealing with any previous issues.”
It is a far cry from the vision Tony had for his once glamorous club — but the sad reality is that his Faces has changed.
Faces nightclub owner sickened by attack
The manager of Faces nightclub said the footage of a yob punching a woman outside the venue is the worst thing he’s seen in 40 years.
Tony Bee was sickened after Liam Holmes, 20, punched the young woman twice in the face as they argued outside the club in Gants Hill at 3am on Saturday.
Tony, who has been in the nightclub business since the 1970s, said he has “never seen anything like it before”.
The assault happened 30 minutes after the club closed but the managers who were still there rushed outside to help the victim.
Tony told the Ilford Recorder: “I have been doing this job since the 70s and I have not seen anything like it before.
“It was 50 yards down the road, but we did the moral thing and went to give her assistance.”
He added the two people in the video clip were inside the venue but there was “no hint” of a problem between the pair.
The club has now handed the suspect’s information to the police after they looked over all of the scanned IDs from that night.
Tony added: “I have got a daughter and a son. My son would never do that and I would not let that happen to my daughter. It’s astonishing.”
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