UKC

After reading something in another forum, I got to wondering what age must people largely stop their clubbing 

I don't mean crap local meat market venues or student beery clubs but places that sell on playing great tunes late into the night, whether underground or main stream (like Fabric, Turnmills, The Cross in London etc.). Nor do I mean going to see a band: that's basically ageless.

It seems a recent survey suggests 37 and oddly that ties in with myself approx. I basically stopped clubbing after leaving London aged 35/36: any DJ events I've been to since then have been more gig type arrangements', e.g. Haxan Cloak, F*ck Buttons or, more recently, Jon Hopkins at SWG3 (for example that ended 10pm: early enough to be home & in bed before 12, rather than crashing in c5am).

In reply to Flinticus:

Happy to state that besides seeing (or performing) live music, I've never started clubbing.

In reply to graeme jackson:

Only baby seals, eh?

In reply to Flinticus:

I used to go to all those clubs very regularly, but haven't been to one in quite some time now, maybe 3 years or so?  I'm knocking on 38's door so I guess 35 or 36ish?

I knew I was getting past it when all the clubs I used to go to have shut down (The End, Turnmills, Bagley's/Canvas, Matter) or aren't worth going to anymore (Fabric, so I've heard).

In reply to Flinticus:

I stopped clubbing at 18, just before I turned 18 I stopped drinking and rapidly realised how shite clubs are when you are sober. 

In reply to Dax H:

Depends on the club...

In reply to Flinticus:

I got bored with it by the time i was about 19/20. I loved the music the late 80's early 90's, but then moved over to more guitar based rock/grunge etc.

In reply to Flinticus:

Wow must be some sort of new record for a normal thread turning up its arse with something approaching a consensus of the self righteous posts that have nothing to do with the thread itself.

In answer to the question geographical constraints have more or less ended my clubbing career. However mixmag did a bit on this a year or two ago following the release of one of these type articles and the consensus was a along the lines of minimum or 50 and very much a case of you're only as old as you feel as opposed to what you "should" do. Plus a very large number of the most famous DJs in the world have now been at it since the early 90s and still manage to stay somewhat relevant. 

In reply to Flinticus:

I’ve never really been a clubber, pub culture and live music always appealed more. Places like the Underworld or Electric Ballroom in Camden were more likely destinations.

I had a girlfriend who lived on Gaunt Street, SE1. The other side of her bedroom wall was the Ministry of Sound, so I went there a few times, but that is about it. I’m still going out seeing live music quite a bit, almost exclusively in clubs and small venues, as I’m not in to arenas.

I’m off to Ibiza in a couple of weeks and whilst there will be a few places we will be going to for live music, we won’t be going to the clubs. We did pop over to the Sunset Strip for an evening last year, but it all seemed a bit desperate.

I think I am the only person from Manchester old enough to have got in, that doesn’t claim to have been a regular at the Hacienda. I’m only 44 though, by the time I was old enough it was a scary place. 

So not really answering your question, but still enjoying the stuff (I don’t mean just the same music) that I did in my late teens and early 20s.

In reply to Flinticus:

I didn't club at all really during my 20's (anxiety and other issues), and in my late 30's seem to have started going to more underground places where people who sit outside can be okay smoking joints, and very occasionally inside too, not that I partake in that. Sound-system nights are a recent discovery.

In reply to Flinticus:

I like to go out about once a year, just to brush off the cobwebs. That's enough for me. 

In reply to Flinticus:

I was sick to death of [1] parties, [2] clubs, and [3] the average city pub (nice country pubs are still tolerable*) by the age of 20

Bah humbug

PS I'm on the spectrum

*tolerable for a quick meal, preferably alone

In reply to Flinticus:

If you still want to do it then do it. Time is irrelevant to partying but the older you get the longer it takes to recover. 

In reply to The New NickB:

Nice reply all the same! 

In reply to Pefa:

Yeah, that's the curse. I even regret my odd two cans of a night now! 

In reply to Iamgregp:

Yea, was going to post something along similar lines, some clubs were great.

In reply to Iamgregp:

My last visit to Fabric (years ago) was bad. So over-crowded. No room to dance. Chickens in factory farms had more space.

In reply to Iamgregp:

Yeah. Seen that they've all largely closed. The Arches up here too. That was a shock. It had expanded beyond clubbing to arts and live music and even food.

In reply to Flinticus:

I'm 56, my wife 57, and we still go clubbing (with all that entails) a few times a year. But not to large commercial events at the likes of Fabric. Too many kids, no room to dance and the ever present danger of being fed R&B or hiphop.

So it is either at an EDM-focused festival (we're debating https://www.houghtonfestival.co.uk for next year) or at the many (mostly underground) nights put on by DJs of our generation. In the past year we've attended events laid on by legends like David Holmes (the genius behind the music for Killing Eve), Andy Weatherall, Ralph Lawson, even Steve Davis (the snooker player turned DJ and very good it was too).

We're a bit sensitive if a crowd is mostly youngsters but this happens less often than you'd expect. There's almost always a good few old-timers, who at least vaguely remember what it was like back in the day. 

In reply to BnB:

That's some line up though I only recognise a few of the names such as Biosphere

In reply to BnB:

Funnily enough, we went to a Steve Davis DJ event recently too... was slightly unconvinced at what he was playing, which was a shame as I'd heard really good things.

To answer the OP, myself and Lady Blue (currently 46 and 44 respectively) have never really stopped clubbing. Like BnB, we don't go to the large commercal clubs though which I think is a big difference from genre-dedicated clubs. If you like a certain genre of music then going to a club that is dedicated to that genre and dancing to great music in the company of friends never gets old in my view. In fact we're off clubbing this weekend.

Probably go about once a month at present to various nights around the UK.

In reply to BnB:

If you’re 56 you were too old back in the day

In reply to baron:

Younger than Pete Tong, same age as Carl Cox.

In reply to The New NickB:

And Tony Blackburn still does his stuff on radio.

Gotta know when it’s time to quit.  

In reply to Flinticus:

There was a really good rock band on at the village hall last year. I nearly broke my neck shaking my bald old head around. Sure it contributed to a TIA.

I'm too old to club by the way. 

In reply to baron:

Is there an age to quit, is more or less the question the OP asked. You suggested that BnB would have been too old in the first place, given the age of some of the DJs that is probably not true - Tong and Cox were just easily checkable examples, there are plenty of others.

Back to the OP, a mate of mine is still clubbing at 64, however for him that means Northern Soul. 

In reply to Flinticus:

I'd do some clubbing all right if I got the chance  Let me at that nice lot of people who live in the spirit of Peterloo and are commemorating it by taking back control as they had control then 200 years ago.  The Battle for Britain is being won on the playing fields of Eton.

We thought we had rights but these arseholes are taking them away in October to be replaced by what?

Gimme a club

In reply to The New NickB:

Northern Soul isn’t clubbing it’s a religion.

In reply to wercat:

The dislike is for spoiling a light-hearted, Brexit-free thread with a completely unnecessary and unfunny comment that we could find already on two out of every three threads.

Or to rephrase in the spirit of this thread “Piss off. I’m ‘avin’ it!”

In reply to BnB:

thanks for the explanation, anyway, have a like for that

In reply to Flinticus:

My last visit (years ago) was awesome. Akufen (probably my very favourite producer) in the house room, some dudes from m-nus in the techno room. I was about 30 then. 

Wasn't the last time I went clubbing, but it was when I'd stopped going out to any old crap that might have been OK, to just travelling to something once or twice a year if it was something I was really into. Had a great time in Berlin and went to Sonar for a last time round about then, and a couple of Warehouse Project events in Manchester. Maybe the last time I went out clubbing was a Warehouse Project night under Piccadilly station, aged probably 33 or something, with Magda playing and probably Richie Hawtin. The sound system was absolutely crap so it only sounded half-way like a techno club if you were right at the front, where consequently there really was absolutely no room to move let alone dance. Went home disillusioned and never went clubbing again.

When I listen to dance music at home or in the car, particularly live sets from places like Burning Man, I do miss it and think it would be fun. On the other hand, I really would rather spend the time doing something else that does't involve missing a night's sleep and feeling like shit for days afterwards. I'd probably make the exception for a festival somewhere sunny with Acid Pauli, Monolink, Akufen, Matthew Herbert, Max Cooper on the line up. Although now I'm forty I'd rather start in the afternoon and get to bed long before the sun comes up...

In reply to Flinticus:

I'm planning to start when I retire

In reply to Jon Stewart: My parents could party until 3 or 4 in the morning into their late 50, it's become a minor point of honour that I'm not softer than them.