Nightclubs and Gigs..

sporina

So from what I understand, standing at gigs is a no no.. but dancing in a nightclub is ok.. or am I wrong??

MrMusician18

Of the various different industries that have been closed for the pandemic, niteclubs have really had it the worst - with no relaxation at all in the past year and a half. But when you compare the public clamour for pubs, restaurants, cinemas, gyms and live events to come back open, that's has been practically nothing about niteclubs. The only ones advocating for their return is themselves and the general public appears quite disinterested tbh.

The tide was turning against clubs before covid with dating apps and late bars filling the market that they had once cornered. While I'm no longer in the target market for these places, no one I know ever really liked them - they were just a place to meet people and continue drinking into the night and we only went there because "everyone else" was there.

So am I just another old fogey that's out of touch or has this sector been irreparably damaged by the virus?

L1011

They were practically dead in Dublin due to property speculation anyway. Basically every single suburban club had closed in the previous 20 years, and the city centre was reduced to a few effectively late bars with small dance floors masquerading as clubs.

We might get something back if we get 4-6am closing.

hynesie08

Yeah, Ireland's never really done nightclubs, coppers doesn't count.....

Housefree

Surely it's harder getting the shift in a pub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117730391#Comment_117730391

Mid nineties to very early 2000’s was pretty excellent. By about 2003 the best club nights in Galway were the same ones as those in 1996 which was kind of a signal it was dying

crooked cockney villain

The super strength weed about these days has turned a reasonable cohort of young lads into near on teetotalers. When I was a boy I didn't know a stoner who wasn't also a serious drinker/ caner in general. Now plenty of young lads are happy enough to spend the entire weekend smoking and playing video games or just chilling with the missus, maybe I'm reading it wrong but I just don't think lads aged 18 to 27 do be going on four day Thursday to Sunday benders like my generation did. I remember one Wednesday night after an Ireland match only two or so years ago, me and two mates went looking for a club and could find barely anything open, back in the day the only truly quiet night in Dublin was a Monday, and even it had one or two clubs open.

Each to their own but my raving days were the best days of my life. One off events pre Covid in the Point and the revamped Wright Venue (now closed again) always seemed to attract a big crowd of kids, and if anything festival culture, much of it featuring dance acts, is way bigger than it was in the 2000's. These days you have Life Festival, EP, Punchestown, Kilmainham, Dun Laoghaoire, literally dozens of smaller ones in and around Dublin and the midlands, in the mid 2000's the only really guaranteed one was Oxegen, EP was a small avant garde festival for hipsters back then, other stuff like Global Gathering, Godskitchen once or twice a year in the Point, and a dance festival in Fairyhouse (Planet Love was it?) used to make an occasional appearance but it wasn't every year and they didn't always sell out like they do now.

PTH2009

Missing late bars with live music more

crooked cockney villain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117730323#Comment_117730323

True that, I doubt any suburban home in Dublin was more than 3 or 4 miles from a club before about 2010. Bondi in Stillorgan, Paparazzi in DL, Cocos in Clondalkin was it, Heaven in Blanch (whopper spot it was), Ice in Mulhuddart (believe it was called French's in the 90's), Vortex in Dunshaughlin (gets a mention as a lot of Blanch used to go there) ,Wright Venue in Swords, Blacker in Coolock, Jolly Topper in Finglas, was another spot in Leixlip village, possibly a club in Tallaght, Club 92 in Leopardstown, I'm nearly certain I was at a club in Fairyhouse once, there was the awful Barcode in Clontarf, virtually all of the above are now gone or are still there but not operating as a regular nightclub, yet they mostly were in operation through the first decade of the century. Small disco bars upstairs in local boozers seem to be entirely a thing of the past now, in Dublin at least.

I may be wrong but I think the only suburban club left is that Club Diva place at the Red Cow.

Of all the places I mentioned there, of the ones I attended, I never remember a dead night in most of them, they always seemed jammed, even Thursdays and Sundays would get a sizeable crowd, so I really don't know why most of them went under, was the insurance too much or what. I suppose the crash took a few of them down but some clubs opened and thrived during the crash (Wright Venue, Sin, Hangar are three that come to mind)

CantGetNoSleep

That you Tony?

growleaves

Apart from Red Cow, there are suburban nightclubs in Sandyford, Tallaght and Swords. Unless restrictions have killed them?

Until recently many posters were claiming pubs were on their last legs, people don't go to pubs etc.

Plenty of night clubs were busy before March 2020 and could be again.

whisky_galore

Property development, stupid puritan licencing hours and no doubt insurance/claims culture largely killed them off.

The were never all that good outside of Dublin, cheap black painted plywood, a few mirrors, a bitta strip lighting and off you went.

yourdeadwright

Night clubs died here in the early 00's ,

Every local night club and night in Dublin City was out there door packed every Friday & Saturday nights,

Sunday back then was like a Saturday now in terms of numbers out,

On a bank Holiday all 3 nights where chaos ,now a bank holiday you get a smaller number spread out over the 3 nights and Dublin does be dead,

Honestly i don't think we will ever see anything like the nightclub seen of the late 90's early 00's again in this country,

The crash killed them & a lot of the generation headed off to Oz & Canada , It never seemed to fully recover,

Probably for the better the youth of today are more interested in there health & no when to call it a night early on,

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117733520#Comment_117733520

It was never the decor that made a great club.

And it was more likely the relaxation of the licencing hours for late pubs that contributed to their decline

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117733400#Comment_117733400

Sandyford - where? Burn in Stillorgan closed a decade ago

All four in Tallaght are gone, pre-COVID. Abberley is emergency accommodation, Cocos is a Lidl, the one at The Square is now a gastropub with zero intent of ever reusing the dancefloor and the one in The Plaza has been shut for years.

Sword - Wright Venue / Jampark is not reopening, and realistically not due to COVID either. Everything else is a late bar.

L1011

Just realised you probably meant Club 92 which also closed well pre-COVID but not as long ago as Burn/Blakes. The second club at Leapordstown has been closed for a lot longer.

And anyway, those three suburbs as the last standing yet all gone - plus Portmarnock which has Tomangos and the Red Cow as the two that remained in 2020 - are to be compared to when there were also notable/popular nightclubs in most/all of these at various times in the past 20 years

• Clontarf
• Howth (multiple)
• Dun Laoghaire (multiple)
• Mulhuddart
• Ranelagh
• Blanchardstown
• Cabra
• Stillorgan (multiple)
• Cloghran
• Dundrum
• Balbriggan
• Further out in Naas, Leixlip, Celbridge, Maynooth, Dunshauglin, Kill, Johnstownbridge all getting decent amounts of people bussing out to them

As well as inner suburban hotels pretty much all having one - but outside the city centre.

crooked cockney villain

Funnily enough I actually drew up a list just after the first lockdown of every club and disco bar I could think of in Dublin, using both my own knowledge and listings on things like the Nialler 9 site.

Will be interesting post reopening....whenever that is, doubtful this winter the way these idiots are running it...to see how many survived. I might stick her up around then.

Really is amazing to think they are fully open in England and Wales now and that Scotland and N.I won't be more than a few weeks away, yet realistically it looks highly unlikely there will be any movement on it here before next April, if even then. It isn't about public safety, it is psychological warfare, seeing how far they can push people.

That's what you get when you have ageing nerds like Harris in government.

ceadaoin.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117733690#Comment_117733690

What was the one at the square? I can't remember. Also you forgot fables lol

No real difference between a proper pub and a night club really the last 10 years.

Once you hit 28 night clubs are really a no go.

Its the table service that sucks in the good pubs at the minute.

Mrs OBumble

I'm sure the STD clinics are enjoying their reduced workload

I think a factor contributing to the demise of nightclubs is the advance since the early 2010s of streaming services like Netflix, reducing the boredom of not going out somewhere.

Also, the younger generation are so much more in contact with each other at all times due to having had Whatsapp and social media their entire lives and I don't imagine "meeting up with your friends" is as much of a enticing thing as it was back in the hey day of nightclub culture.

Dating apps have diminished, to some extent, the attraction of going to nightclubs to pull.

Factor in that something changed at the start of the last decade where it seemed to stop being embarrassing for men to be concerned with their appearance and gym and fitness culture took off, people stopped smoking, drinking heavily on nights out etc. and the drinking culture that was here certainly as late as 2009/10 is something that the generation of that time moved on from, and the generation coming after them did not feel inclined to propagate.

I think anyone over the age of say 30 would find it hard to relate to how the typical 18 - 21 year old of Ireland thinks today.

Place yourself back in say 2004, you're at college or working during the week and its a Thursday night; the choice of entertainment options for you and/or your housemates is pretty limited (dvds, a few terrestrial tv channels on a big CRT tv, playstation 2 etc.).. you know that sitting in to do these things while others are out having fun is just depressing and FOMO-inducing and your friends know that too, so you all decide to go out. It was taken for granted that it was fun to drink lots and you were a buzz-kill if you protested this fact. I personally used to feel nervous going to nightclubs for some reason but I obviously just suppressed this and didn't discuss to my friends my full thoughts on nightclubs - I just went to them and accepted it was the done thing. Zoomers are more individualistic and self-confident in standing up for themselves and their opinions I reckon (which is a good thing) and so if they don't want to do something they just say they don't want to and if they have personal anxieties etc. they know they live in a culture where they can say it to their friends and their friends will be like "yahh man, it's okay not to feel okay man etc.". Zoomers have things harder than previous generations in some ways, but better in other ways.

I think another factor is that late teens and 20-somethings seem to be far more serious, for want of a better word, about life nowadays then they would have been on average 20 or 30 years ago. They are more focussed on their education, career, saving money etc. and less inclined to hedonism and vices like smoking, drinking, eating junk food, commit less crime, have less young pregnancies etc. although the numbers taking cocaine are apparently way up so I don't know what the full picture is.

I think the nightclub culture shifted between 2011 and 2014, and I do wonder what contribution the recession and emigration etc. made to this fact. The kind of music that is popular at a given time has an effect. I think as always there are many sociological factors which have contributed to this particular change but the culture has definitely declined from its hey day in the late 90s, early 2000s.

bucketybuck

If there had been more late bars when I was a kid then that is where I would have been, we went to nightclubs because that was the option if we wanted to stay out late.

Queues, bouncers, rip off drinks in plastic glasses, we certainly weren't going to niteclubs out of any intrinsic enjoyment of them, we went because that was the option and because accordingly that was where everybody else was going.

Better options from the pubs killed niteclubs, and good riddance.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117735928#Comment_117735928

Madison/Blu

Where was Fables? Well before my time I suspect.

Raheny and Artane/Clonshaugh can be added to suburbs that had clubs going well back also come to think of it; plus Coolock more recently.

melekalikimaka

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117737075#Comment_117737075

There has been a bit of a transition from clubs to late bars, alot of places open til all hours playing banging rock and punk if you know where to look, suited me grand

Dickie10

its hard to know the situation. Some people on here that are kind of dancing on the graves of nightclubs i would recognise from my youth, they were the type who usually didnt enjoy dance music or cheesey euro pop etc, which i would have liked from 18-28. they were usually more into indie and rock and gigs , for some reaon i never got that type of music til i was around 27/28 and never really enjoyed gigs the same way i loved clubbing I never even took drugs just drank, danced and shifted and loved ever minute of it. really up until lockdown i would be out 48 weekends on average out of 52 and always had a decent sat night, like out from 9-3 am, the nighclub was replaced by late bar but I would always hit the nightclub with friends after a GAA game on a sunday maybe a couple f times a year, I find them great fun every so often really miss them, just happy times listening to cheese and having a few drinks.

Now I never really went to really busy city nightclubs where you had trouble from doormen or had to que in so never had any of those negatives. I know among my friends in 00s that the local nightclub was treated the same as a local pub, you went in had a few pints and in and out to the smoking area and had a bit of a dance to a cheesy tune then maybe pull a bird along the way, it was a very relaxed experience. so I am thinking its a bit of a difference to some nightclubs in more city locations. But really is there much difference between say Flannerys or somewhere like that and a nightclub? I wouldnt say there is. I still find the right type of nightclub great fun, coppers is always fun. I find it not bad for door staff, drugs or any hassle , very relaxed. Am i right in saying coppers wouldnt be the typical nightclub experience most have had?

hynesie08

Coopers, Krystle, everleigh and the like would be closer to the traditional European "discobar", nothing particularly wrong with it, but it wouldn't be my style.

A proper nightclub has it's own identity, and everything from the music to the clientele to the drugs just fits that identity. Dublin had a few places that fit that motif, but they never really lasted.

whisky_galore

I found it embarrassing when entertaining visitors from abroad, expecting a long night of this legendary 'craic' they had heard of, going home when a night out elsewhere in the world would be only half over.

There's really no proper late night entertainment options here, be it clubs or anything else.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117738305#Comment_117738305

Some excellent indie and rock club nights at various locations throughout the 90's and 0's

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117738364#Comment_117738364

I find this exceedingly low embarrassment threshold that some have to be really curious

Dickie10

now that im in my mid 30s and have a love for all types of music , recently really got into 80s alternatve music like morrisey, depeche mode etc. i think we always wre behind britain in catering for all types of music /comedy /arts in general. like in UK most average cities had lots of music 'clubs' , like small bars and even ran down places that had a bar but it was music was the selling point. just looking at music documentaries from late 60s to mid 90s these were breeding grounds for everyone from the Beatles to David Bowie to Boy George to Elton John to Queen, like in this new Ireland where on earth can anyone say you would wander in off the street to a dingy bar/venue and hear a new band of youngsters like many music moguls and agents did in the 70s and 80s Britain, no wonder we may never see bands or musicans like that again and just get made on TV boybands and girlbands. this is a serious thing for irish life, like its probabaly the reason we dont have any more U2s or the like of phil Lynnott. Surely teenagers still want to be musicans and rock stars? but where would they ever get the chance again ? what of DJs in the dance music scene, maybe theres a case for smaller type nightclubs , it dosent need to be 400 capacity does it? A friend of mine has just taken over his uncles pub in a decent sized town 35k population near dublin and has definitley gone for alternative ideas such as chess competitions in beer garden and table football games, hes looking to comedy nights midweek for people to get up and have a go, i think its a great idea but would have thought with the rise of the hipster in Ireland we would have lots of these type of places , seems not or do we? i think its a great chance now in post pandemic time were entering.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117738684#Comment_117738684

Whatever.

Blut2

The Dublin suburban nightclubs died a death between 2000-2015 roughly due to a few factors - fewer young people in their 20s due to a demographic dip, fewer young people drinking in general, young people having less money for booze, dating apps making single young people less desperate to go out, and deregulation of the taxi industry meaning getting home from town was no longer a huge pain.

But there were still plenty of nightclubs in town pre-corona despite all of that. Bucks, Leggs, Coppers, Diceys, Krystle, Dtwo, Xico, Everleigh, Opium, Pygmalion, Tramline, Twenty-two etc. And gig spots like the Button Factory or Academy or Whelans. Tens of thousands of young people would have been in them every weekend night, plus the staff and owners, so I'm willing to bet quite a few people are missing them.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117742371#Comment_117742371

I agree that tens of thousands frequented niteclubs in the cities before the covid closure but there has been little clamour by anyone (aside from owners) for their return. It's that what I find surprising. Pubs, restaurants, gyms cinemas had the Twitter army fighting their case, but no one really seems to care about what happens to clubs

Now, I'm a bit long in the tooth to care about clubbing now but up till my late twenties it was a big part of my life. That said I never really liked them (and I believe Iwas no way unique in that), you went because the crowd went and it was really the only place to get a late drink.

I think the lack of caring about them points to the existential crisis that the industry is in. Now that there is a choice in late venues, people are not choosing clubs, and once the crowd abandons a club there is no way back.

rob316

We dont have nightclubs, we have late bars that play pop music

UI_Paddy

I've missed them, from my exposure, which is not a lot compared to most people, as I have only been to The Palace, Coppers, The Church, Leggs, Mantra and The Foundry, all the rest were late bars. I wasn't the most sociable person pre-COVID, although when I did get to meet people I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Going to clubs was a natural extension to that, I got to spend hours with friends from college, listening to music, just letting loose, and then all the hugs before we all got our night links or taxis home. They were good times, even now at 30 I'd be down for doing it all again, with my fiance and all our friends if the opportunity arose.

Dante

If I was young I probably would, but I'm the wrong side of 30 now so I guess not.

lawred2

Night clubs in Ireland are generally an appalling scene. The likes of Sir Henry's was fantastic but the dance scene in general always attracted an unsavoury element in Ireland. So you ended up in mundane middle of the road dives. Clubbing here just wasn't really a thing.

The licensing hours have a lot to answer for. Night clubs were given about an hour of opening time after pubs closed. Simply killed their selling point.

Night clubs should be allowed open until 6 am in my opinion..

Had many a great night in the Viper Rooms until 5 am. Think all those theater licenses dried up. Is there anything like that any longer?

A 90’s Galway institution getting knocked in the coming days years after being left to decay

Chris_5339762

This is a nightclub

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT3Nu1nKc38

So is this

https://youtu.be/id9DW6xXYtU?t=57

...and this

We do not have nightclubs in Ireland. Nothing even close. Belfast might have one or two, but certainly down south we have nothing that can be classed as a "nightclub". They really are just late bars with a small dance space.

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744649#Comment_117744649

100%

Just isn't a scene like that here at all. As you said, just an extension of a publicans existing trade.

dasdog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jYBVXYo1H4

Good documentary about the early days to what some here are alluding to as the heyday. My slightly older and wilder friends would tell me tales of going to The Asylum. My favourite place of the lot was The Funnel. I pretty much stopped when it closed.

Beechwoodspark

There’s no real nightclubs in ireland.

theres late night bars that play mainstream pop music with a small square dance floor hidden away in the corner. And don’t forget the high prices for drinks.

Dickie10

OK then as someone who ould have thought i spent all my time from 18-30 in nightclubs i must have been not in a proper one at all. i actually love the cheesy pop and wandering around checking out the talent. i guess a nightclub shouldnt be an extension of your local where you can actually go in and out to smoking area without ever even taking off your jacket, wouldnt really be a nightclub? i hear a lot of people on here saying im in my 30s so wouldnt go to one, i still love to head every month or two just for the craic with mates, but like i say its probably not a proper hardcore nightclub.

were not nightclubs kind of laidback type places in late 70s and 80s, like loads of tables , you could sit and chat to people, go and dance or just mingle. has anyine seen forest gump moviee? im thinking of the nightclub where the girl jenny and friends are taking drugs and later in scene she attempts suicide off a building? would that be classed as a club?

Blut2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744605#Comment_117744605

There were still plenty of places serving until 4-5am in Dublin pre corona - Bucks, Leggs, Coppers, Black Door etc would all serve you booze until well after the sun comes up in summer.

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117733400#Comment_117733400

Where's the nightclub in sandyford?

growleaves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744893#Comment_117744893

I think I was mistaken about that, as L1011 said it had already closed pre-covid, but I was thinking of Club 92.

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744912#Comment_117744912

I thought someone was going to tell me there's a back room to the sandyford house or something...

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744660#Comment_117744660

Traffic/Twisted Pepper/Wigwam was a good spot, as was Redbox/Tripod. I also had a few good nights in district 8. Two of those are due to become apartments or hotels.

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744912#Comment_117744912

Was that in the racecourse?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744977#Comment_117744977

Yes. There was also a second club in the old Baileys Visitor Centre which is on site there called "Rocksy" or similar for a while.

As goes the big superclub footage upthread - we did have some of those. Redbox/Tripod, South in Tramore and Lush! in Portrush (not Belfast - Belfast was always a bit cack for that) for instance. All gone.

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117745002#Comment_117745002

Lush! was a great spot.