Selling out shows around the country, Lise and Sarah have found their rhythm

It all started at a bowls club in Norman Park two years ago.

Best friends-turned-business partners Sarah Wills and Lise Carlaw decided to throw a party for women who hadn’t had a night out dancing with their girlfriends in forever.

“I wore ripped jeans and bought us these matching T-shirts from Target that said something like ‘No time for romance, only time for disco’,” Carlaw explains.

“It was just dag central,” Wills laughs. “We hired a Bluetooth speaker and rolled it along the grass.

“A woman brought her baby and put it in the middle of the dance floor. There was an old man pulling beers and cheap savvy-B’s at the bar, probably thinking, what the hell is going on inside.”

Carlaw and Wills met online about 10 years ago when they were both pregnant with their second children. Credit: Morgan Roberts

“It was so undone but everyone in that room just had a great night,” Carlaw continues. “There were no airs and graces about it. Everyone understood the assignment, and we just had the best time ... the rest is history.”

The pair didn’t know it then, but they had tapped into a rare commodity; a guaranteed night of fun for a demographic of women with few chances to let their hair down.

They hosted another event at the Grange Bowls Club, and then another at an RSL. Before long the concept ballooned from the outer suburbs to inner-city nightclubs, leading to the official launch of Lise & Sarah’s Disco Club, a nationally touring no-frills night out of singing and dancing with friends.

“The fact is, everyone on that dance floor has something going on in their life that they need a little reprieve from.”Credit: @discoclubaus

“Brisbane events were selling out so quickly and we kept getting these messages from women in other places going, ‘When are you bringing this to Sydney? Or Melbourne?’” Wills says.

“We were so worried about taking Disco Club to Sydney, and then it sold out even faster,” Carlaw continues. “We’ve attracted the same type of woman who wants the same type of experience.

“That was a real green light for us to go, ‘We can do this’.”

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The Lise and Sarah story began a decade ago when the two suburban mums found each other online.

“We were both pregnant with our second children and we both had blogs,” Wills says. “People were telling us to follow each other, so we started liking each other’s stuff and DM-ing.”

There were obvious reasons to connect: they were both in their 30s, living in Brisbane and balancing early motherhood with the desire for a creative outlet. When they met “IRL”, something deeper clicked.

Carlaw and Wills describe Disco Club as “a reconnection to who you are or were before serious stuff happened”.Credit: Morgan Roberts

“The word ‘soulmate’ gets thrown around, but it was just that kindred spirit of two people with very complementary strengths and similar senses of humour,” Carlaw says. “And we just had all of these ideas.”

A few months after that meeting, they tested their friendship chemistry on stage emceeing events. Their first gig was The Bachelor finale at Mirra in Fortitude Valley. Next came hosting slots on panels and live events with media personalities such as Zoe Foster Blake and Mia Freedman. “Then we got tapped on the shoulder to go to radio,” Wills explains.

For nearly five years, they hosted hit show Those Two Girls on local and national radio. In 2020, they launched FORTY, a podcast dissecting the highs, lows and unspoken truths of middle age. When it wrapped in 2023, they launched a weekly series called The Lise and Sarah Show.

“We quickly realised that female friendship wasn’t reflected [on these platforms] when we started out. There were plenty of Hamish and Andy types and examples of male friendship on display – and done so well – but women weren’t given that same ‘oomph’,” Wills says.

Whatever had been lacking, Disco Club filled it, heralding a new era of female friendship they could never have imagined.

Disco Club has sold out shows around the country, including Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Townsville and Adelaide.Credit: Morgan Roberts

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How to describe Disco Club?

Spiritually, it’s the dance floor about 10pm at your best friend’s wedding. Enough champagne has flowed to drown any inhibitions. Shoes are off and hair is down.

The DJ is running a well-ironed playlist of classic hits, with the right hint of surprise. The bride hasn’t heard Teenage Dirtbag in years, the quiet cousin is about to rap every lyric to Lose Yourself and women are preparing to drape their arms over friends’ to belt out Whitney Houston’s I Have Nothing.

It was this feeling that initially inspired Disco Club.

“You get to an age where there aren’t so many weddings and those opportunities dry up,” Carlaw says. “But we knew ... that women still really needed and wanted that outlet.”

As for who those women are, Disco Club is designed for anyone who wants to go out and have fun, though most are aged between 35 and 50.

At the most recent event in the Eclipse nightclub in Fortitude Valley, the demographic stretches wide.

A group in pink bob cut wigs looks to be in their mid-20s. There are mothers and daughters dancing among retirees.

At the bar, a woman in her 40s taps to buy a round of Vodka Cruisers before opening her messages to a picture of a smiling older woman and little girl. Presumably, nana is on babysitting duties.

Another woman opens her phone to inform a group chat called DISCO CLUB 2.0 that she’s ordering another bottle of champagne.

“We have people bringing their 18-year-olds for their first nightclubbing experience, a woman who’s come twice and brought her 82-year-old mother,” Wills says. “My mum came [to Eclipse] and she’s in her 70.”

An event that draws women from their 20s to their 80s clubbing in the Valley is astonishing, but it’s not the only element of Disco Club that amazes its creators.

“For many women, this is a massive emotional outlet,” Wills says.

“[At] one of our earliest Disco Clubs at Kedron-Wavell, this woman grabbed us afterwards and said, ‘You don’t know how much I needed this’. Her husband had recently passed away and she’d had cancer.

“It’s like this remembering of who they are. Like after all the noise that’s happening in their lives metaphorically, they come to the noise of Disco Club.”

Women of all ages around the country have embraced Disco Club.Credit: @discoclubaus

“We say it’s therapy, like, come to church,” Carlaw continues. “Women can come and feel whatever they need to feel.

“I remember this one group – there would have been 16 or 17 of them – who had all rallied around their girlfriend who had just finished a year of chemo and radiation.

“Every time we host a Disco Club, there’s always women crying.”

There’s also women laughing, harmonising and letting go, with a refreshing lack of self-consciousness. It’s about as unimpeded as a gathering of women can get.

The pair approached the ultimate night out dancing through their needs as women in the demographic they were targeting. “We want an early start and finish. We want to be able to wear whatever the hell we feel comfortable in,” they say. Credit: Morgan Roberts

Disco Club has morphed into a full-time job. Tickets sell out in minutes. There are women who follow the event around the country. Next year, they’ll host their first international event in Auckland.

Future Brisbane events will be hosted at Fortitude Music Hall, a venue with a 3000-person standing capacity – quite the jump from selling 80 tickets at the Norman Park Bowls Club in November 2022.

“I remember that point of realising we’ve done something here. We’ve hit a mark with women in our own city,” Carlaw says.

Wills adds: “Well, that’s because we are them. That was always our thing, we’re going to create what we’re missing in our lives.”