Disco ... Disco Duck ... the under 18's

The other day they were discussing nightclubs on the radio here in Dublin, and because I have only been living here for 10 years, some of them are still around however most of them would be gone, and it got me thinking about nightclubs I used to go to when I was growing up.

I probably first started going to nightclubs at a very young age, some of them were Kiddies Disco's which were on a Saturday afternoon and sold no alcohol and were for kids under 18, two of these were "Plumb Crazy" and "Club Chicago" both in the center of Johannesburg.   They would start at around 1 in the afternoon and finish at 5 or 6, so that they could clean up for the over 18's to come through the doors at 7 the same night.  But it was 1977 and John Travolta was ruling the dance floor in Saturday night fever, then came Grease in 1978 and the whole 50's era was reborn with stove pipe jeans, greased back hair and wild teenagers.

We also used to go to "Tramps" at the Diplomat hotel, only during the week though because they would have free entry coupons in the Tonight section of The Star.

A lot of fights would break out at the Disco mainly because of the Gangs from the South and most of the time it was always over a girl.

However, most of the disco's we went to growing up were either at School, The Tennis club, the cricket club or various places where there was adult supervision.   Once I left school, there was a huge big City out there to explore and Johannesburg, Hilbrow, Braamfontein, Hyde Park and Randburg had an abundance of night clubs just waiting to be discovered.