London Disco Nights of the 70s

[HordHolm]

I'm currently writing a retro story and I'm finding the research fairly straightforward (some of it is simply memory, because I really am that old now), but there is one thing that I'm finding it irritating to drag out of the internet, so here's hoping someone on these boards can help; does anyone know/remember the most prominent discos in London in the 1970s? I am well aware of the punk/rock/metal clubs of the era, particularly those that stretched into my clubbing youth in the 80s, but the 70s disco clubs are a closed book to me, and sadly there doesn't seem to be much help online - every site wants to direct me to the aforementioned punk/rock/metal clubs. Any help gratefully received.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The Astoria? Madame JoJo's?

 

[HordHolm]

The Astoria? Madame JoJo's?

Thanks for the suggestions - I'm aware of both of those, but they were LGBTQ heavy when it came to the disco scene (or so the internet informs me) and I was more trying to find something where rich, straight people might have gone to boogie on down (not that they couldn't go somewhere with a more diverse crowd, I suppose). I may just skip the club name or invent a 'special night' somewhere (more probably the Astoria, as it certainly was a hangout of mine from the mid-80s into the 90s and thus the descriptions will come easy). And to think, they knocked it down to build a tube station...

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I think the entire disco scene was queer-friendly, but if you want disco/pop rather than rock, it's where people would have gone. Alternatively you could have jazz/swing clubs?

The Astoria was huge with many different nights for different people, so you could get away skewing it in any direction, I think.

 

[HordHolm]

I think the entire disco scene was queer-friendly, but if you want disco/pop rather than rock, it's where people would have gone. Alternatively you could have jazz/swing clubs?

The Astoria was huge with many different nights for different people, so you could get away skewing it in any direction, I think.

Yeah, I think I'm going to gloss over it a little, actually - the club can be somewhere in Shaftesbury Avenue or the like and need not be named. The focus of the story is a rich girl deciding to slum it, hence my wish to find somewhere exclusive for her to initially hang out in her wraparound dress and high-heeled sandals, bored with the attentions of Tarquin and Rupert, but it isn't essential. Again, thanks for the help.

 

[SamScribble]

I can picture a place in Mayfair that used to get a bit of posh totty. Was it called Mirage? (I'm afraid those of us old enough to remember can no longer remember. )

 

[HordHolm]

I can picture a place in Mayfair that used to get a bit of posh totty. Was it called Mirage? (I'm afraid those of us old enough to remember can no longer remember. )

Major thanks for this tip - following it through on Google got me nothing more than some pictures but no detail, but it also threw up a load of other Mayfair club names, mostly private members clubs not discos (e.g. Annabels, the Astor, etc), but then that led to the obvious one I missed; Tramp. How could I have forgotten about the club that got mentioned in the London Evening Standard literally every damn day?!

 

[txblush]

I'm currently writing a retro story and I'm finding the research fairly straightforward (some of it is simply memory, because I really am that old now), but there is one thing that I'm finding it irritating to drag out of the internet, so here's hoping someone on these boards can help; does anyone know/remember the most prominent discos in London in the 1970s? I am well aware of the punk/rock/metal clubs of the era, particularly those that stretched into my clubbing youth in the 80s, but the 70s disco clubs are a closed book to me, and sadly there doesn't seem to be much help online - every site wants to direct me to the aforementioned punk/rock/metal clubs. Any help gratefully received.

I'm not from your area, but I did a Google search and came up Hattchetts nightclub. Hope that helps.

 

[jsmiam]

I'm currently writing a retro story and I'm finding the research fairly straightforward (some of it is simply memory, because I really am that old now), but there is one thing that I'm finding it irritating to drag out of the internet, so here's hoping someone on these boards can help; does anyone know/remember the most prominent discos in London in the 1970s? I am well aware of the punk/rock/metal clubs of the era, particularly those that stretched into my clubbing youth in the 80s, but the 70s disco clubs are a closed book to me, and sadly there doesn't seem to be much help online - every site wants to direct me to the aforementioned punk/rock/metal clubs. Any help gratefully received.

Just for fun, and relevant too. If you search YouTube for Patrick Hernandez’ Born to be alive (the post I’m talking about was once always the first to show in the results), search exactly for “ Born to be alive - Patrick Hernandez” posted by “discoreview” (great song but I digress), the video will be of the song playing as the backdrop to a dance contest in a disco somewhere, probably in Europe. It’s a fun time warp to a real and surreal moment in time