Spray tan, teased hair and warm Red Bull: Remember when clubbing was fun?
We’re sending you back in time to when the drinks were cheap and lukewarm and all that mattered was getting on the dancefloor with your friends.
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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 Hotel 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.
“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.
Would you go back in time for one more night on a sticky dancefloor with Armand Van Helden blasting from the speakers and a lukewarm jagerbomb in hand?
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