I was just remembering how much fun it was to go out to clubs back in the late 80s. I actually went to my first adult age club when I was still in high school. The first song that I heard in the club was from Depeche Mode-Strange Love. It was around 1988 when Depeche Mode was taking over the world. I just miss the great music,the smell of clove cigarettes,the energy and the dancing. Does anyone else remember those days? I was really spoiled living in Dallas, Texas during the 80s because we had some great clubs such as the Starck Club( Phillipe Starck design) and many others.

Piper 8) 8) 8)

Clove cigarettes, I remember those.  I do not smoke but I remember trying those out a few times.  They weren't bad at all.  I used to love to try to create rings with the smoke.  I preferred places with live music, beach bars,  rather then just dancing places.  I can't dance.   :-/

I remember one club I always went to just because I had a VIP card for two years and didn't have to pay admission or stand in line.  It was kind of nice to just walk straight in while others had to stand in line.  

I remember those days, they were a blast.  My club days were the early '80's.  It was so great back then, the music was really varied, pretty much anything you could want was played at the clubs back then.  I rarely paid to get in, my friends and I used to bring alot of people with us, so the guy at the door figured they'd make the money up on drinks.

I was too young to go to a club in the eighties  :(
but I bet it would have been so much fun!

I go to 80's night now at the clubs and dress in 80's clothes and I have a blast  :D


SmithsGirl

Cloves?  I remember going to clubs and thinking the club was piping that smell in.  I enjoyed it so much, I asked the bartender about it and he told me it was the cigarettes that people were smoking.  
 We made a road trip one weekend and went to the Stark club in Dallas.  That club was pretty wild!  I remember people standing around with bodyguards next to them in long overcoats.  One thing I didn't like about Dallas Nightclubs was that the Clubs didn't spend much on the Light show.  Houston clubs had huge strobes and other lights that made the music more intense.  I only went to a few clubs in Dallas, so it might not be a correct judjement.
 My first adult club I went to was the Roxy in Houston back in 1982 or 83.  A very small club, but it had a huge equalizer on the wall that went with the beat.  The only song I remember was "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls.  

Quoting:
I was just remembering how much fun it was to go out to clubs back in the late 80s. I actually went to my first adult age club when I was still in high school. The first song that I heard in the club was from Depeche Mode-Strange Love. It was around 1988 when Depeche Mode was taking over the world. I just miss the great music,the smell of clove cigarettes,the energy and the dancing. Does anyone else remember those days? I was really spoiled living in Dallas, Texas during the 80s because we had some great clubs such as the Starck Club( Phillipe Starck design) and many others.

Piper 8) 8) 8)
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I found this page by searching "starck club" on google. I was curious what happened to that club. I was amazed that the first post here was from someone whose first club experience was around the same time as me... in DALLAS too. Maybe this is a Texas website? :)

Anyway, my very first club experience was age 14 or 15 in Dallas. We went to Monopoly's, which by then had become a teen club (we always wished we were older and could have gone back in time when it was "cooler"). I remember that night was the first time I heard "Nemesis" by Shriekback (and THAT song seemed to be played every night at every club I went to in Dallas after that and we always had to do the YMCA-ish dance moves to it). That night we requested Duran Duran's "All She Wants Is". I remember Samantha Fox was also played that night and we actually liked her songs. I remember they played Monkey by George Michael. I remember I wore a vest with some funky old pins on it and a black hat. I don't remember the rest of what I was wearing. None of us could drive yet, so our parents or older siblings had to carpool us.

After going there just a few times, we met a guy who wanted to open a new teen club in Dallas at the West End Marketplace which ended up being called Level V (Level 5). We worked for him the whole time that club was open (which I think was maybe just a year, but it seemed longer in my memory because we had so much fun there). I think it closed because the tourists at the West End were scared of the club kids. I don't think they/we were harmful, but I guess tourists were scared seeing a bunch of teenagers wearing all black with black lipstick, etc. So, the club moved to the old Monopoly's location and was called Metropolis, and then Metro (I was feeling too old for it by then). At some point along the way it opened for a while at the Starck Club and was called DV8 (why they didn't simply stick with the name The Starck Club, I don't know!). We were in LOVE with that club, however, we wanted to be there back in time. A friend of mine was obsessed with the Starck chairs in there and was always drawing them. The decor and design was great, but it was really too awesome for teenagers.

The first adult age club I went to was a very small gay bar that had very minimal space to dance, so we sat and watched a guy on a stage doing a stripper type dance in a G-string. I was 16 or 17. I'm a woman and had never been to a gay bar/club til then and I remember that night worrying that people there might mistake me for a drag queen. Now I think that's so funny that I even thought that then! I remember that seeing a man dance in a g-string like that right in front of me made me feel awkward, so I started giggling and then couldn't stop laughing. So, the guy came down off the stage after a few songs and asked me what was so funny & he was really concerned that I was laughing AT him. I felt so bad... I told him that I was only laughing because I laugh when I'm nervous, which was true. As outgoing as I felt at all the other clubs, THAT club made me feel shy. The dancer told me that he was straight & married, but that he danced at gay bars because he earned more money.

I moved away from Dallas in the early 90's and have only been back once since. Before I moved away I went to the Village Station a lot (at that time it was mostly gay males and straight females - I don't know what it's like there now). Of all the places and clubs I've been to since I moved away, nothing compared to my 80's club days in Dallas. In fact, after I moved away I was no longer a regular "clubber" and only went to clubs every now & then. Now I haven't been to a club in a few years. I've seen teenagers on MTV doing some weird dance moves that I don't even relate to. I don't get it at all.

There was something special about the Dallas dance scene in the 80's. When I visited in the late 90's things had really changed. Or, maybe I had. :)

By the way, I remember the cloves smell too - I LOVED it. I never smoked, but I took a few puffs from a cloves cigarette once to see if it tasted like the smell. It didn't. It burned. But, maybe since I wasn't a smoker, any cigarette would have burned. I bought a pack of cloves gum every now & then when I went out because I loved that smell so much. Sometimes I wish to smell cloves cigarettes again when I listen to my club music. I've thought about buying a pack and trying to burn them like incense, just so I can smell it. :)

The last song every night at Level V was "Madame Butterfly" by Malcolm McLaren, so I'll end this post with a quote from the lyrics (I had to google these... I never even knew them myself):
"Calling Butterfly, Madam Butterfly
that's the name he used to give me
he's my man till the day I die
oh sweet Butterfly, so sweet Butterfly
she's waiting
he'll be back, I have faith in this love track"

;D  I GOT A GOOD LAUGH READING ALL THESE. tHE CLUB WAS 321 IN SANTA MONICA CALIF. tHE CLOVES WERE EVERYWHERE WHEN I SMELL THOSE IT TAKES ME BACK 20 YEARS TO 1984...........

What timing! Days after I posted that there was a special on TV (I think it was Dateline) about the truths about ecstasy and the history of it. I had no idea that it started in Dallas until I saw this show! They even showed lots of old video footage of people dancing at the Starck club! I wish I would have taped it, but I had no idea as I was watching it that the Starck Club would show up!! Whoah! Those hairdos!!

After all this talk about how cool I thought the club seemed before I was old enough to go, when I saw it now, the crowd there actually looked pretty dull then... not at all like the club kids that NYC had. Maybe the video was shot on a mainstream type of night. Who knows? Anyway, it was awesome to see it again regardless. I love the front doors to that club.

I remember before I could go there reading about drug busts at the club. Little did we know that the Starck was the first club ever to have people using X. The special on TV also showed footage of people dancing at raves in the 90's. Things had changed by then. The dance moves involved people doing rhythmless arm moves with glow sticks. Boo Hoo. I couldn't get into that. But, maybe that's because I never did use X. :)

I remember in the 80's dancing to songs about X though... or E, I should say. Such as "I'm on Planet E... It's the joy that I'm feelin' I'm on Planet E". That was great dance music. I didn't need to be on E to dance to it. Who was that song by, by the way? I remember another song called "Cocaine and Sex".

That special on TV was one of those ones that will make non-club goers assume that everyone who went to clubs and raves was a drug user. Sure, it was definitely there, but not EVERYONE used. I sure loved to smell cloves in the air though.

When I see teenagers today that look like the 2004 version of the "new wavers" we were back then, I notice that they have a self conscious look about them, as though they are secretly worried what people think about the way they look, but ready to be on the defense about it in case anyone says anything to them. I think my friends & I must have looked like that too back then. The young'ns probably think I look very "mainstream" compared to them. I feel like an old granny at those moments and I'm tempted to lean in and say to them in a quiet old granny voice, "Back in my day, I used to wear my hair over one eye too."

Did you go to Numbers or Eden 2000, Club 6400 in Houston? I visited some of the cool clubs there in Houston. The club scene there was really cool. Its hard to compare those clubs to the Starck. Starck was a culture in Dallas. It was the first club of its kind in the States. Many other great clubs followed. It had an understated design that was a result of Phillipe Starck. The first house music played in Texas was at the Starck. I am glad that there are other people out there that had a chance to experience such a great place and era.

Piper

Quoting:
Cloves?  I remember going to clubs and thinking the club was piping that smell in.  I enjoyed it so much, I asked the bartender about it and he told me it was the cigarettes that people were smoking.  
 We made a road trip one weekend and went to the Stark club in Dallas.  That club was pretty wild!  I remember people standing around with bodyguards next to them in long overcoats.  One thing I didn't like about Dallas Nightclubs was that the Clubs didn't spend much on the Light show.  Houston clubs had huge strobes and other lights that made the music more intense.  I only went to a few clubs in Dallas, so it might not be a correct judjement.
 My first adult club I went to was the Roxy in Houston back in 1982 or 83.  A very small club, but it had a huge equalizer on the wall that went with the beat.  The only song I remember was "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls.  

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Well, I was going to clubs in the '70s too  :-'80s style '80s club, I guess, was The Blitz in Covent garden in London. Very small, very crowded, very 'New Romantic' (as a male it was pretty much impossible to get past the bouncers unless you were has at least as many flounces on your shirt as Nick Rhodes and as much makeup as Boy George!)

The first big club I went to was a place called The Camden Palace in North London. Steve Strange was the 'figurehead' of the place and, in the early days, you could be fairly sure to see a fair smattering of Spandau Ballet and the likes there though that changed later. A very impressive club actually - it used to be a cinema so there were tables and seats arranged on many levels where the cinema seating had been arranged in the circles previously, all looking down onto the dancefloor.

Happy days...  :D

best wishes
Huw

I liked to go to #'s on Thursdays as it was $1.00 import beer night back in the late 80's.  We used to drink Corona's and for a $1 a piece, that was a bargain.  We also went to a few concerts there as well.  When you say Eden 2000, do you mean the club Garden of Eden?  That was a late night club that was near Taum on lower Westhiemer.  I don't remember Eden 2000.  I remember when 6400 first opened and it was only open on Sundays.  We got there around 12:30 or 1:00 am and the club was empty.  The doormen were going to let us in free, but we left.  As soon as they put it on the radio, you would have to wait at least a hour to get in, and the club was so packed you couldn't find room to stand much less dance.

Quoting:
Did you go to Numbers or Eden 2000, Club 6400 in Houston? I visited some of the cool clubs there in Houston. The club scene there was really cool. Its hard to compare those clubs to the Starck. Starck was a culture in Dallas. It was the first club of its kind in the States. Many other great clubs followed. It had an understated design that was a result of Phillipe Starck. The first house music played in Texas was at the Starck. I am glad that there are other people out there that had a chance to experience such a great place and era.

Piper

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I just saw the program you are talking about.  It was 20/20 with Peter Jennings.  It was on my front page at yahoo.com.  The shot of the Starck club's front door looked as I remembered, but the dance floor shots don't look like I remember.  I didn't go to the club until 1988 and by then the club had been raided a few times.  The dance floor was sunken with lights all around the side.  Was the club remodeled?  When were you at the club Starckstruck and what do you remember about the dance floor?

Quoting:
What timing! Days after I posted that there was a special on TV (I think it was Dateline) about the truths about ecstasy and the history of it. I had no idea that it started in Dallas until I saw this show! They even showed lots of old video footage of people dancing at the Starck club! I wish I would have taped it, but I had no idea as I was watching it that the Starck Club would show up!! Whoah! Those hairdos!!

After all this talk about how cool I thought the club seemed before I was old enough to go, when I saw it now, the crowd there actually looked pretty dull then... not at all like the club kids that NYC had. Maybe the video was shot on a mainstream type of night. Who knows? Anyway, it was awesome to see it again regardless. I love the front doors to that club.

I remember before I could go there reading about drug busts at the club. Little did we know that the Starck was the first club ever to have people using X. The special on TV also showed footage of people dancing at raves in the 90's. Things had changed by then. The dance moves involved people doing rhythmless arm moves with glow sticks. Boo Hoo. I couldn't get into that. But, maybe that's because I never did use X. :)

I remember in the 80's dancing to songs about X though... or E, I should say. Such as "I'm on Planet E... It's the joy that I'm feelin' I'm on Planet E". That was great dance music. I didn't need to be on E to dance to it. Who was that song by, by the way? I remember another song called "Cocaine and Sex".

That special on TV was one of those ones that will make non-club goers assume that everyone who went to clubs and raves was a drug user. Sure, it was definitely there, but not EVERYONE used. I sure loved to smell cloves in the air though.

When I see teenagers today that look like the 2004 version of the "new wavers" we were back then, I notice that they have a self conscious look about them, as though they are secretly worried what people think about the way they look, but ready to be on the defense about it in case anyone says anything to them. I think my friends & I must have looked like that too back then. The young'ns probably think I look very "mainstream" compared to them. I feel like an old granny at those moments and I'm tempted to lean in and say to them in a quiet old granny voice, "Back in my day, I used to wear my hair over one eye too."

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