Spray tan, teased hair and warm Red Bull: Remember when clubbing was fun?
Step back to a simpler time when Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights were for clubbing with your mates. Something to look forward to all week.
The Presets and Cascada got us on the sticky d-floor and no one knew what a vape was. The heady mix of jagermeister, Polo Blue, JLo Glow and cigarette smoke hung in the air.
A vodka Red Bull cost less than a tenner (you might even get two), sneakers were a fashion faux pas, concealer doubled as lipstick and applying a coat of Airbrush Legs was a necessary pre-party ritual.
These were the golden days – or nights – of clubbing.
Looking back at the Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights of the eighties, nineties and noughties is a sweet hit of nostalgia.
Phriction at Penrith, Fanny's in Newcastle, Club Troppo on the Central Coast and the North Gong Hote l in the Illawarra were among the most popular spots and the most popular person apart from the DJ was the club photographer.
Duck face, the awkward lean, peace signs and glowing red eyes were plentiful – this was pre-iPhone, so no filters.
Newcastle institution Fanny's was a nineties paradise with revellers rocking their high-waisted jeans and bleached surfer locks before the noughties' tweezed eyebrows, side fringes and graphic tees took over.
It was a hot spot for great music – Cold Chisel even played there in the nineties – and
'Best party place ever! If you didn't have a good time there, you weren't trying,' one regular recalled.
Down the coast, Club Troppo not only brought in the locals but attracted townies too with lines snaking down the main drag at Gosford.
It was renowned for great music and cheap drinks, with a former clubgoer lamenting: 'What has happened to our society where we can no longer have fun at a nightclub (they're mostly gone) let alone afford a bloody drink at one!'
Redditors recall drinking $2 house wine and grenadine and NewsLocal reported that in the 2000s Red Bull and Carlton were popular with thousands selling every night.
To the west in Penrith, guest DJs like Havana Brown spun Taio Cruz's Dynamite as youngsters sipped Smirnoff Ice.
Patrons borrowed their looks from shows like The Hills and Jersey Shore – heavy-handed bronzer, black box-dyed hair, Madonna piercings, an addiction to hair gel – topped off with a fresh new fit from Glue.
The boys wore spray-on jeans and shirts from Industrie and Goliath.
Girls' dresses were cobalt, tangerine, aqua and fuchsia. A statement necklace, Diva headband and high, high Tony Bianco heels completed the look.
If you have bunions in your mid-30s, then clubbing is most certainly to blame.
Further south the North Gong Hotel was a little more chill with tanned, smiling uni students and professionals enjoying a knock-off beer in jeans, hoodies and beanies for the winter months.
'Makes me happy and sad. Happy that this was my heyday and it was awesome,' a former reveller remarked.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
19 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Garbage singer Shirley Manson warns ‘expensive' Australia may miss out on more big tours
Shirley Manson confirms there are 'plans afoot' for '90s industrial pop pioneers Garbage to return to Australia later this year for their first tour in almost a decade. The rebel siren who has stalked the country's biggest stages over the past three decades says the delay in returning down under to play to one their biggest fanbases in the world, isn't for a lack of desire. It's a numbers' game. Manson reveals the band, which features famous producers and hitmakers Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Market, are offered the same fees to play in 2025 as they were paid in the late '90s. As Garbage get ready to head out on a massive US tour in support of their eighth studio album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, the alt-rock goddess says the explosion in costs from flights and accommodation to staging and freight is putting younger rock bands out of business. 'There are plans afoot to come this year but it's getting increasingly difficult for bands to come to Australia,' she says. 'It's very expensive for us, flights, hotels, wages, everything, and the fees for a band like us, not always but sometimes, remain the same as what we were being paid in the '90s. 'I don't think people fully understand how difficult it is for bands to survive and that is why we are seeing less and less bands because the expense of touring for a band just becomes impossible to sustain. 'We have managed to survive an industry that's brutal by being really canny with the money; none of us live wildly, I drive a f---ing 10-year-old Prius.' Manson has been to hell and back over the past couple of years. She underwent hip replacement surgery to fix the damage wrought by a stage fall she suffered in 2016. Last year her other hip broke and she went through the same operation and recovery process all over again. Dealing with her human frailty, and the sociopolitical flux of her beloved America, where the Scottish singer has lived for decades, tested her spirit. Like all songwriters, when the brain fog of pain and medication lifted Manson set up a small recording studio in her bedroom and channelled her feelings into lyrics for the new record's songs. 'It's the first time I've sort of recorded my part of the bargain independently of the band; it's my era of independence!' she says with pride. 'I was recovering from two major surgeries over the course of two years so I was bed bound and my whole life got sort of turned upside down and all my habits got just disrupted, which was actually in the end, really great both for me and the band. 'It just changed the dynamic completely, which after 30 years is a real gift because of course if you're familiar with one another and familiar with your patterns of working, things can get very predictable.' 'Being in pain and having to learn to walk again was no picnic but I'm grateful for the upheaval in the end because it changed my thinking and it turned out there was a lot of silver linings to this misery.' The 58-year-old sounds different on the songs. Maybe it was the painkillers, perhaps it was the pain but her already expansive, emotive voice has found bolder new colours. Like on Sisyphus, where she channels her recovery – 'This little body of mine is going to make things right' into a soaring electronic club track that is ripe for a cover version from her labelmate Kylie Minogue. The pair were both mentored by the late great Australian music mogul Michael Gudinski. 'Oh my darling Kylie, she would kill that track actually,' Manson says. 'I have such a massive love for her. 'I really try to explore different parts of my voice, with every record that we make. And I really tried to push myself to not stick to what I know so if you hear any new colour in my voice after 30 years, that's the greatest compliment you could possibly pay me.' Manson has a lot of love for the new generation of female pop artists who share her passion for using their art and platform to speak out against injustice. The singer has never shied from using her songs and her social media to protest, and has been buoyed by other women raising their voices from Lady Gaga to Chappell Roan. 'We are screaming about the same bullshit as we did in the '90s. I'm very excited, however, by the new generations of young artists. They really fill me with a lot of joy,' she says. 'Whether they know it or not, they're coming from our school. 'And we've had a dearth of provocative and alternative voices for about 20 years with the advent of uber pop artists who are just ginormous and take up so much space and were well-behaved and sort of conservative. 'I'm not knocking pop, I love pop, so I love seeing these enormous pop stars now who are getting involved in trying to improve our communities and are being courageous, way more courageous than my generation.' Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is out now.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
The Raygun phenomenon
Introduced by Australian Story presenter Leigh Sales. When Australian B-girl Raygun took to the stage in the breaking at the Paris Olympics in 2024 she inadvertently became a viral sensation and cultural flashpoint. Her unique moves spawned thousands of memes, sparked heated debate and unleashed wild conspiracy theories. It was a devastating response for one person to shoulder and garnered sympathy and support for Raygun aka Rachael Gunn. The intense global reaction also caught the attention of comedian Steph Broadbridge, who was inspired to write an unauthorised musical parody or 'empathetic piss-take'. It may have seemed a very Australian response to a confounding cultural moment, but like everything with this story, it was complicated. This episode of Australian Story aims to break it down and shed some light on the fallout from breaking's debut at the Olympics. (Rachael Gunn declined an invitation to be involved.) Watch 'Break It Down' at 8pm Monday June 23 on ABC TV or iview
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Ex-AFL Legend Barry Hall Channels His Inner 'Keith' in Playlunch's Wild New Music Video
Move over Karen — there's a new name in town. Playlunch have returned with 'Keith' , a funk-soaked ode to Australia's most chaotic neighbour and a music video starring none other than AFL's Barry Hall So… who is Keith? Keith is the male version of a 'Karen'. A red-faced, ute-driving, rage-fuelled menace who lives next door and yells at you for parking on a public street. 'Keith regales the tale of the psycho tradie neighbour who lived beside us at our old outer-Melbourne sharehouse,' explains frontman Liam. 'He'd verbally assault anyone who DARED park in front of his house. From the moment we played it live, this one just took off — everyone knows a Keith.' To bring Keith to life, the band enlisted none other than AFL Hall of Famer and television personality Barry Hall to star in the music video. Known for his explosive on-field moments (including that 2008 punch), Barry Hall was a natural choice to embody the chaos of a full-blown Keith — and yes, the video includes a faithful re-enactment of his infamous swing. It's chaotic. It's very Playlunch. And it's impossible to look away. Musically, Keith continues Playlunch's knack for subverting expectations. With their signature 'Bogan Funk' — a melting pot of euphoric electropop, vintage grooves and Aussie suburban satire — the track is as catchy as it is cathartic. Equal parts commentary and chaos, it's the kind of track that'll make you laugh, dance, and possibly double-check your parking spot. But the Keith takeover doesn't stop there. The band have launched a 1800 KEITH Hotline , encouraging fans across Australia to dial in and share their own run-ins with real-life Keiths. From passive-aggressive neighbours to rogue blokes at the footy, the calls have already begun flooding in. With a full-length album on the way, Keith is only the beginning. The band are pushing boundaries and doing what they do best — creating bangers for the weird and wonderful world we live in. And if this is how they're starting the album cycle, we can't wait to see what (or who) they unleash next.
