I was in Frankfurt last night and I swear some of the bars had stepped back 15 years without anyone noticing.

What is this fascination Germans have with Michael Jackson...?? In one place - with a €6 entrance fee - all they played was Wacko and Cool and the Gang (well for the half an hour I stayed there for at least....) - But the thing was - everyone loved it. I frankly found it quite unsettling - the place was full of 20 & 30 yr olds grooving away to no end of shite, as if "Bad" was the best thing since sliced bread.......one chap was even moonwalking - like he was the dog's bollocks & it's the newest thing invented......

And as for dance moves and the general look of people, well, let's just say David Hasselhof is alive and well and never went out there.....

Gawd, Brew'....don't they have live TV or what?

Didn't you know even Boney M is still performing in Germany?

It's the ironic late seventies/early eighties revival and it's everywhere. One of my 19 year-old students in Antwerp has a Dire Straits 'Brothers in Arms' t-shirt and he's the hippest cat on the block.

Must be fantastic for all those bars that haven't invested in decor for about twenty years.

I was at a club on Saturday night where the young twentysomethings interns knew all the words to Grandmaster Flash's "Rapper's Delight", released in 1979! It's got to be a retro-cool thing.

Often clubs do theme nights so maybe you were just lucky ...
On tele shows about the 70´s and 80´s are very popular at the moment maybe it´s caught on.

"(well for the half an hour I stayed there for at least....) "
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Scene - bar in Frankfurt...

Manager: "Ach, zo, Brewer has gone"
DJ: "Where?"
Manager: "Probably to the bar next door"
DJ: "Ach, gut zo! Now I can put der real musik back on, ja??"

Jaaa!

LOL Marcel!! <img src="../images/emoticons/ytongue.gif">

I read today Frankfurt ranks on place 5 concerning life quality. Try again, Brewer.

Next move is a teeny boppers bar swinging to Clive Dunn singing 'Grandad',

(Who?? What??)

OK! What about about Max Bygraves singing the Antwerp anthem 'You need Hands'?

(Who?? What??)

Don't you lot know a good tune when you hear it?

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I read today Frankfurt ranks on place 5 concerning life quality. Try again, Brewer.

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I agree with Brewer. Frankfurt is ugly, boring and hopelessly uncool. In fact, I find most German cities I've been to uncool (Frankfurt, Mainz, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hanover), with the exception of Munich and Berlin.

Kew, put that skiffle board down!

This didn't feel "retro" so much as just plain nerdy. (And Det stop feeling like you need to defend it...)

And ~ something I don't think I've ever seen before: a group of 3 couples were sat near the dance floor, on came Wacko and the three MEN got up to dance together, leaving the girls sat together on the table - what's all that about? In my book you have to have a very good reason to want to dance with your (male) mates exclusively - like maybe one of them has cancer and it's his last wish or something. It's just not right.

Brewer, I don´t feel like I have to defend anybody but the need to explain that not everything and everybody in the world is like in good old Britain.

And yes it´s quite normal that men dance with their friends without the girls. They just dance, they don´t really dance with somebody in particular. Mr. DDet does that, too. It´s the 80´s style.

My boyfriend only dances on his own when he's drunk. Once, at my sister's wedding, he and two of my (male) cousins did a champagne-induced karaoke strip-tease to the tune of "I'm Too Sexy". He particularly appealed to the over-50 female guests who all wanted to know who was the cute blond Eurotrash guy with all the right moves. My sister, however, was un-thrilled.

Seeing that dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal intention, maybe they were trying to make a statement!

Said the shrink and shrank as he remembered his former dance partners.

I think nowadays you just dance when you feel like it as a way of expressing yourself but you don´t necessarily need a partner to dance with. It´s called intuitive dancing.

I agree with Brewer that it's just plain weird to see guys dancing in men-only groups. Last month a friend and I were at a club in Brussels and noticed two nice-looking, well-dressed guys dancing together, laughing, patting each other on the back and leaning in to talk into each others' ears. To my great surprise, after 1 hour or so, they worked up the nerve to hit on us. I had wrongly assumed they were gay from the way they were carrying on. (They were English, BTW.)

Did they chuck their wallets into the middle and dance around them?

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I agree with Brewer that it's just plain weird to see guys dancing in men-only groups. Last month a friend and I were at a club in Brussels and noticed two nice-looking, well-dressed guys dancing together, laughing, patting each other on the back and leaning in to talk into each others' ears. To my great surprise, after 1 hour or so, they worked up the nerve to hit on us. I had wrongly assumed they were gay from the way they were carrying on. (They were English, BTW.)

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Withdraw that last bit straight away please or be more specific, no man from anywhere north of Watford would be seen dead a) Dancing with another man on the dance floor for an hour c) whispering in another mans ear.

I don't know about you lot but when I was young(er), free and single I'd go to clubs with me mates, we'd dance near each other (I wouldn't say 'with' each other) and try and pull any cheeky young ladies that wandered into our field of (our quite often blurred) vision...

When I started going clubbing (at the beginning of the 90's), well lets say the clubscene was becoming a mass market leisure activity, and it was something to do with your mates. Dancing was something males could do (without women). I'm guessing you're a bit older monty (no offence).

Perhaps its the fact there were two of them that's the issue here, and therefore assumptions about their sexuality was made...

(and no I'm not from North of Watford... are they more insecure about their sexuality up north? ;O)

Oh Ventho offence is taken!!

Though thinking about it I did start clubbing in the 80's, mid to late before you ask.

Up north we have no hang ups about our sexuality but dancing with blokes is something to be avoided lest the same problem occurs as witnessed here, ie mistaken as gay.

Sorry Monty just joshing with you...

its also to do with the music too ... in them days at some clubs/venues you could jabber nonsense for hours with a bloke you just met in the toilet and neither of you would think the other batted for the other side... it was probably a bit different before and after... happy days )

If I'm honest there are plenty of occasions when I've danced with mates - I've just never stopped to consider just how stupid it looks, most of the time.

As DB's post confirms, it's basically only something you do if there's nothing else to do, or before something better turns up to do.

They only looked stupid because they kept dancing near us without daring to talk to us. After more than 1 hour, they finally spoke to me (in very bad French) when my friend excused herself to the ladies room and I went to the bar for my obligatory Diet Coke. Apparently approaching two women at once is intimidating? I must admit I find all of this vastly entertaining...

if you'd said 6 women I would have said yes...

They do sound a bit gay to be honest!

Well, I wouldn't expect any less from a Brit.

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Well, I wouldn't expect any less from a Brit.

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Thats good coming from a Yank!

Only joking!!!!!

I'm going to a club in Ghent this Friday (the Dewaele brothers are DJ'ing at the Vooruit) which is largely Flemish in terms of its clientele, so I'll be sure to report back whether I see any Flemish guys dancing together.

Michael Jackson is peanuts compared to David Hasselhof.