spring fever
Friday
night
Genevieve Cutts
Remember the days when it was a mission to find something to do on a weekend in Johannesburg? Well, those days are over. My Fridays now begin (please note I say begin) vegged out on my couch in front of the TV as I am e-ntertained and e-nthralled by the new free TV channel’s daily broadcast of Friends.
Don’t ask me what I did in the days before we were blessed with e-tv – I don’t remember that far back. Refreshed and invigorated by my pseudo buddies I move on to louder pastures.
I am proud to announce that as far as
I am concerned rave is dying and with it (thank goodness) are rave bunnies.
I’m even prouder to announce that in its place is a new, yet retro, hip yet not too hip, funky yet bearable, completely danceable phenomenon – the return of the Eighties. This particular Friday begins with Bourbon Street in Randburg. Not an exclusive Eighties jol, but the attentive DJ is willing to switch disks if he sees a drastic decline in body movement on the dancefloor so one is willing to forgive the odd early Nineties or even late Seventies track.
In fact one is so grateful to be able to move on a dance floor (this is not a comment on lack of space but rather on lack of rhythm – of the music that is!) that you will even get down and boogie to the likes of Michael and Whitney – yes I do mean Jackson and Houston.
I know I shouldn’t admit this if I value my reputation, but believe me once you’re on that dance floor and you start to get flashbacks of your first disco party and your first kiss (depending on where you were when the Eighties hit) you will find it difficult not to “Wahoo!” with the rest of the crowd.
With this nostalgic trip starting to get stale (a girl has to keep moving to keep fresh), we move on to Bump nightclub in Midrand. We’ve been told their new Eighties dance floor is a “boogie must”.
After trekking half way to Pretoria, wrestling our way through an abundance of testosterone at the door (and I thought the days of fighting with bouncers because I’d left my ID book at home were over), we find, tucked away in a corner, Studio 88, Bump’s Eighties dance floor.
This one is purely Eighties and, as it turns out, the perfect way to see in Saturday morning. We were not the only ones who thought so – as we left, we had to work our way through hordes of rave bunnies but this time they were on our turf, dancing away to the likes of U2, Duran Duran, A-Ha and Bananarama.
Who knows? Maybe they aren’t dying – just reinventing themselves. I end the evening, dozing off, dreaming of another possible nostalgic hangout – an Eighties club opening in Rosebank? Let’s hope the rumours are true!
Genevieve Cutts is a publicist at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg