Let’s Dance - Chris Montez
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By the time I was old enough it was a case of trying to look cool dancing around your handbags with your mates that the local disco to Duran Duran, Soft Cell or Depeche Mode. We definitely missed all the fun of previous decades.
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Discos where the only chance to get out and dance in my small country town as well.
There were never any concerts etc.
The only group I remember coming to Queenstown was The Deltones.
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Yes,we had them in village halls.Not so much to dance though more to meet girls.
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We had school discos during the early 70’s. We’d all bring along a few 45’s and the staff would play them on an old record player while the kids got merry on orange and lemon squash served from aluminium jugs. Oh…how we’d dance in a flurry of flared trousers to The Sweet, Barry Blue, Rubettes etc.
And then punk rock came along and everything changed, Levi drainpipes turned up with Dr Martens boots, short spiky hair and a pierced left ear…it HAD to be the left one! So I never did get to dance around my handbag which is probably just as well, it would have been a sight to behold…not!!
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I was not much of a dancer but I made some effort when I was at school, used to go to the one night stands at Dover Odeon.
Saw the Stones, the Kinks, Cliff, Shadows, Dave Clark Five and dozens more at dances and one night stands.
In the late 60’s and early 70s there was a club in London I used to go to called The Marquee they had a lot of top bands especially those at the beginning of their career. Great club as I remember it, saw bands like Pink Floyd, Coloseum, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Yardbirds etc
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Yep, loved the Marquee in Wardour Street, sadly long since demolished, we used to go and see punk/post punk bands there back in the day.
Where I grew up, back in the 1970s, there was not many organised dances for teenagers and not much appetite for them amongst my peer group - we preferred to go to the Boys Club to hang out.
It had originally started as a Youth Club for Boys but by 1970, sexual equality was already banging on the door and the Club was open to all teenagers.
Their Youth Club didn’t do dances but they did have a gym, table tennis tables, a games room and a fairly comfortable lounge/bar where you could gather for chat and cofffee / soft drinks and listen to music.
The guys who ran The Boys Youth Club seemed more in tune with modern teenagers.
It was the Church youth club which used to put on dances occasionally in the Church Hall. The Vicar ran them and I’m afraid no matter how hard he tried to make it “modern” and appealing to the local teens, it never quite cut the mustard.
The chairs would be all be lined up against the walls, to give plenty of room for dancing, the main hall lights would be dimmed and the coloured spotlights were borrowed from the amateur dramatic society to set the mood.
The Vicar brought his record player in and wired it up to to a basic sound system of speakers and collected a few records from the Top 20 Charts of the day and they used to be played over and over and over again for us to dance to -
I say “dance” but as I recall, it was more of a bit of self-conscious foot-shuffling within about two feet of floor space - but it was not considered “cool” to be too energetic on the dance floor - no fancy foot moves or waving arms about or twirling - you just had to hold your arms in a position similar to a jogger does and move them up and down a bit in time to the music while you shuffled your feet in time to the rhythm.
So very different from the joyous energetic dances of the1960s era.
1970s teenage dances were very boring, I thought - and by the time I’d shuffled my way through Spirit in the Sky and Yellow River 3 or 4 times, I was losing the will to live - “Yellow River, Yellow River, Is in my mind and in my eyes” - it got into your head like one of those”ear-worms” - even now, when I hear either of those two songs, I am taken straight back to those awkward Church Hall dances.
The Vicar did his best but I’m afraid we ungrateful teenagers didn’t fully appreciate his efforts, so the “disco dances” were not very well attended - the venue was never conducive to a “modern disco” atmosphere - despite the coloured disco lights and pop music coming through the speakers, it was those rows of chairs stacked up round the edges of the room, the wholesome whiff of lavender floor polish and scent of musty hymn books which were a constant reminder you were in the Church Hall, where you took Bible Classes on Sunday Mornings and helped your Mum set up Bring and Buy Stalls and Church Fetes.
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It was discos in my day, and a night out in the West End
But when I started going out with my ex husband we’d go to Irish clubs, the Galtymor and the Gresham
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I love dancing !!
Took after my mum “!
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Have to laugh at this
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I worked in London in the 60’s and didn’t know my way around.The chaps in work took me to places like The Middle Earth Club and Eel Pie Island.With very young RodStewart,Long John Baldry,The Stones and John Peel.
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I love watching these flashbacks. seeing how the world was before my time. I wander if any prizes were awarded?
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We used to do a great Linedance to this track. It was a Scunner to teach as some of my lot found it difficult, but we got there… Eventually. 
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