Night Clubs.

[Sapphire Disco]

You must have been there at the same time as me. I used to fall out of Cavershams and fall into the cassino opposite for a free coffee and sandwich. Normally I lost £20.00 or won £20.00. That was my limit. You had to wear a tie to get into the cassino. Spares were kept at the door.

The era of clubbing, C.B. radio and gambling.

Zog.

Yes I lived in Caversham from 1980 to 2020
Wow 40 years didn't realise it was that long

[Zog]

Yes I lived in Caversham from 1980 to 2020
Wow 40 years didn't realise it was that long

Times flies. Or time flees to be correct. I lived for a while in St. Annes Road Caversham and then on an estate further up the hill. Happy days. I expect that it is very much busier there now. Cavershams' night club was a homely cosy sort of place I seem to remember.

Zog.

[Nakatomi]

Oh my. A thread about club DJing. Ahem.

I think I was barely 17 when I got my first ever residency in the back room of the Freemason's Arms in Consett (it's still there wouldja believe it!), doing 8pm-midnight for the princely sum of £30 paid from the owner's amply stuffed top. In the course of saving up to buy my first Martin smoke machine I saw some incredible sights, some of them right in front of me - in exchange for playing a factory girl's requests..

I quit that having seen too many scuffles & eventually ended up in a 'fun club' called Duffy's. Now that was a serious eye opener. Unlicenced doormen, spaghetti western style fights, smashed up fixtures & fittings... young lads getting their heads stoved in against a wall or pillar by bouncers.. oh it was lovely. One Sunday morning - after my 20th birthday when I'd had a 'few' drinks I went up to the club to collect my big box of records & found the cleaner near the DJ booth. In each hand she held gory 'his n hers' evidence that a couple had apparently achieved .. let's call them 'intimate relations' eh... in front of the booth. I said "that might explain why the records were jumping more than usual last night". Ick. For the record, as memory serves I don't know how anybody managed that - it was so over capacity in the main room most of the night. Fire regulations? I'm sure they'd heard of them.

Those days were definitely fun though. Great friends were made & the team spirit of a well oiled nightclub workforce is totally unlike anywhere else I've ever worked. The work was great fun but even more fun was what happened after hours. The staff parties, the lock-ins, the after-parties were just amazing. All totally irresponsible of course but isn't that all part of what being young is about? Heh.

The 'pinnacle' of my club DJing days was probably warming up for Graeme Park in a provincial club where the usual fayre was 135+bpm noisy trance & techno. He wasn't well received by the locals

I never bothered to put in all the graft needed to land a gig in a proper club though. Yknow like people have actually heard of LOL

I'm now 51 & after doing a gig in a clubby kind of bar back in April I really wouldn't mind swapping my mobile rig for a pair of (somebody else's) Pioneer CDJs. Just rocking up with a USB stick & headphones in my pocket - hell yeah! Not sure my body could cope with that many late nights of a weekend, every week though I certainly don't get entitled to the kind of lie-ins I got when I was in my 20s now! Big plus points though.. I might manage to escape ever hearing Sweet Caroline or Mr Brightside ever again!!!!!!!

[Zog]

Oh my. A thread about club DJing. Ahem.

I think I was barely 17 when I got my first ever residency in the back room of the Freemason's Arms in Consett (it's still there wouldja believe it!), doing 8pm-midnight for the princely sum of £30 paid from the owner's amply stuffed top. In the course of saving up to buy my first Martin smoke machine I saw some incredible sights, some of them right in front of me - in exchange for playing a factory girl's requests..

I quit that having seen too many scuffles & eventually ended up in a 'fun club' called Duffy's. Now that was a serious eye opener. Unlicenced doormen, spaghetti western style fights, smashed up fixtures & fittings... young lads getting their heads stoved in against a wall or pillar by bouncers.. oh it was lovely. One Sunday morning - after my 20th birthday when I'd had a 'few' drinks I went up to the club to collect my big box of records & found the cleaner near the DJ booth. In each hand she held gory 'his n hers' evidence that a couple had apparently achieved .. let's call them 'intimate relations' eh... in front of the booth. I said "that might explain why the records were jumping more than usual last night". Ick. For the record, as memory serves I don't know how anybody managed that - it was so over capacity in the main room most of the night. Fire regulations? I'm sure they'd heard of them.

Those days were definitely fun though. Great friends were made & the team spirit of a well oiled nightclub workforce is totally unlike anywhere else I've ever worked. The work was great fun but even more fun was what happened after hours. The staff parties, the lock-ins, the after-parties were just amazing. All totally irresponsible of course but isn't that all part of what being young is about? Heh.

The 'pinnacle' of my club DJing days was probably warming up for Graeme Park in a provincial club where the usual fayre was 135+bpm noisy trance & techno. He wasn't well received by the locals

I never bothered to put in all the graft needed to land a gig in a proper club though. Yknow like people have actually heard of LOL

I'm now 51 & after doing a gig in a clubby kind of bar back in April I really wouldn't mind swapping my mobile rig for a pair of (somebody else's) Pioneer CDJs. Just rocking up with a USB stick & headphones in my pocket - hell yeah! Not sure my body could cope with that many late nights of a weekend, every week though I certainly don't get entitled to the kind of lie-ins I got when I was in my 20s now! Big plus points though.. I might manage to escape ever hearing Sweet Caroline or Mr Brightside ever again!!!!!!!

That sounds like an initiation by fire. I bet that there is not much that you haven't seen.

Zog.

[Excalibur]

That sounds like an initiation by fire. I bet that there is not much that you haven't seen.

Zog.

Fairly tame for where he lives, I'd say. We're not talking Harrogate, you know.

[Nakatomi]

Fairly tame for where he lives, I'd say. We're not talking Harrogate, you know.

Yeah fairly tame, though my old home town still has something of a reputation for being a bit 'rough' but it's more get yer teeth rearranged than get a bullet or blade in your stomach as it ever was. Thankfully even my rowdiest of gigs get nowhere near those levels. I did see someone get pushed agressively at a wedding a few years back By comparison, my last long term bar DJ job in Consett saw a christening party come in early one Sunday night. Somebody in a suit shouted something at a 'lady' & before you know it he had a pint glass embedded in his face. By her. Stay classy yo!

The early days were definitely eye opening for a wet behind the ears youngster though. Nightclub staff xmas parties where everyone would get wrecked at a restaurant then head to the club where all kinds of hijinx took place. Impromptu naked foam party anyone? With MY reputation? I couldn't possibly!!

Lest I forget about the 'gentlemen's evenings' I got roped into DJing for. Oh my days. The format was: ticket only, closed door event (you had to be in the know to get a ticket). Comedian, then a stripper, then another stripper.. and if enough was collected in the tips bucket both strippers would reappear together. Then a couple of times the tips bucket came out again & if there was enough money in it a bold young gent might be selected to go on stage with one of the strippers and ... ahem!

I'm probably not the only jobbing jock to have ever witnessed such stuff though.