This is part one of a story based on a tiny incident which happened many, many years ago in Manchester. The extra details are also true, but transferred into this story from a different memory. The real location wasn’t a disco, nor was it called Taboo, it was actually in a college.
Taboo was a nightclub, not just ’a club’ or disco, and a popular place for those in a certain set. It was where pop stars and footballers could be seen, it was where glamorous, expensively dressed people, many older than us, would go. Even the doormen were posher than the average bouncer.
I only ever went to Taboo once, and I remember it more clearly and in more detail than the other places we went every weekend. What I can’t remember is how we managed to go. I can only think that it was something to do with Winfarthing, whose dad was extremely rich, and generous to his son and son’s friends.
We’d had a few drinks before we headed out, to give ourselves courage and the sort of bravura we thought we needed. The lads had been for haircuts and taken their suits to the dry cleaners. We had washed and ironed our frocks, been to the hairdressers, and even (in my case) bought new and better quality make-up.
I expect we were super-excited, but I guess we were canny enough to try and look cool and as if going to places like Taboo was commonplace.
My memories are a little blurred, but no doubt we drifted in, went to the bar, got drinks and wandered around,sussing out the place and the other punters.
We settled into the experience after a while, realising that no-one was the least interested in us. We weren’t going to get chucked out if we behaved ourselves and didn’t do anything to draw attention to ourselves. In fact we were there, like everyone else, to have a good time, and maybe connect with new people.
We started dancing – great DJ’s played the best of Tamla and Soul, favourites, oldies and exciting new music too.
It became more and more crowded, a blue haze of smoke hanging over the dance floor, criss-crossed by strobe lights. It was magical, wonderful,and unlike other places we visited. There was no edge of menace, no thought that a fight might break out or a drunk do something unexpected and dangerous.
I don’t mean that our regular haunts were full of inebriates ready to cause trouble, but there was always an undercurrent. We had seen blokes taken to the floor by bouncers, we had seen drunk women, screaming and abusive as they were “escorted” out. That would never happen in the Taboo. People here were mostly older and definitely richer
More tomorrow!
Lois Elsden 