nickclayton
Active Member
I’ve been asked to write an article for the Guardian on being a middle-aged clubber, based on my own experiences. I’m sure I’m not the only person to discover dance music when they got past 40, but I’d really like to know if people have found it the same as me.
After dismissing dance music for years I really got into it just a few years ago. I was on holiday in Ibiza and ended up almost by accident with passes for Amnesia. (Zenith were running the party if anybody’s interested.) I went expecting to leave after a few minutes, but I was completely blown away. Suddenly the music made sense. I arrived at three and left sometime the following morning just wanting more. Unfortunately, that was the end of my holiday.
Coming home to Edinburgh, where I lived then, I kept trying to repeat the experience at clubs there and in Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester. But it never quite worked. It wasn’t that I had any hassle. Much the opposite, everybody was incredibly friendly. But I just felt completely out of place. It didn’t help that most of my friends felt the same way about dance music as I did before my Ibiza holiday. A couple of times I dragged one along, but I could never persuade them to go more than once. (Maybe that’s a reflection on the boring friends I had.)
This April I took drastic action and moved with my wife to Ibiza. Now I go clubbing once or twice a week, although that once can extend from Saturday through to Monday. The rest of the time I work as a journalist, mainly writing about technology and business. It may be boring but it pays the rent. I’m fortunate that I can work from anywhere using phone and email. But the main thing is nobody bats an eyelid when I go to a club. I never feel like a fish out of water.
All that’s my experience. Maybe there is a place in the UK that I haven’t found where there’s a load of clubbers my age getting it on to banging house. (Although I’d hate to find somewhere where they were all my age.) Or perhaps there are people who, like me, would love to be out clubbing but just feel too conspicuous. There may even be people who think there should be an age limit and that anybody who is past it shouldn’t be let in or at least should be restricted to sitting behind the ropes of the VIP area sipping cocktails.
I’d love to hear from anybody who has an opinion or an experience, good or bad. For instance, I don’t have kids, but most people my age do. How would you feel about your parents bumping into you at a club? Or perhaps there are families that happily go clubbing together.
This certainly isn’t going to be a knocking piece, nor am I going to be taking the mick, except possibly out of myself. I am just looking to put my own experiences in context while enjoying the chance to write about something I love.
Just let me know that I’m not alone.
After dismissing dance music for years I really got into it just a few years ago. I was on holiday in Ibiza and ended up almost by accident with passes for Amnesia. (Zenith were running the party if anybody’s interested.) I went expecting to leave after a few minutes, but I was completely blown away. Suddenly the music made sense. I arrived at three and left sometime the following morning just wanting more. Unfortunately, that was the end of my holiday.
Coming home to Edinburgh, where I lived then, I kept trying to repeat the experience at clubs there and in Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester. But it never quite worked. It wasn’t that I had any hassle. Much the opposite, everybody was incredibly friendly. But I just felt completely out of place. It didn’t help that most of my friends felt the same way about dance music as I did before my Ibiza holiday. A couple of times I dragged one along, but I could never persuade them to go more than once. (Maybe that’s a reflection on the boring friends I had.)
This April I took drastic action and moved with my wife to Ibiza. Now I go clubbing once or twice a week, although that once can extend from Saturday through to Monday. The rest of the time I work as a journalist, mainly writing about technology and business. It may be boring but it pays the rent. I’m fortunate that I can work from anywhere using phone and email. But the main thing is nobody bats an eyelid when I go to a club. I never feel like a fish out of water.
All that’s my experience. Maybe there is a place in the UK that I haven’t found where there’s a load of clubbers my age getting it on to banging house. (Although I’d hate to find somewhere where they were all my age.) Or perhaps there are people who, like me, would love to be out clubbing but just feel too conspicuous. There may even be people who think there should be an age limit and that anybody who is past it shouldn’t be let in or at least should be restricted to sitting behind the ropes of the VIP area sipping cocktails.
I’d love to hear from anybody who has an opinion or an experience, good or bad. For instance, I don’t have kids, but most people my age do. How would you feel about your parents bumping into you at a club? Or perhaps there are families that happily go clubbing together.
This certainly isn’t going to be a knocking piece, nor am I going to be taking the mick, except possibly out of myself. I am just looking to put my own experiences in context while enjoying the chance to write about something I love.
Just let me know that I’m not alone.
