ABBA Show at The Imperial
ABBA Show at The Imperial – wondering who the third female member of ABBA is – possibly Benny in a frock

The musical genre, “retro” has always been a 70’s thing to me. ABBA. Village People. Racey. Even a bit of Bay City Rollers. You might even extend the genre at the absolute extreme to include music from the early to mid 1980s.

But at about one o’clock this morning at Palms on Oxford Street I suddenly realised “retro” now seems to kick in at about 1990. “Oh my God”, I thought to myself, “I’m too old for even retro”.

Of course I was listening and buying pop music in the 1990s, but it wasn’t until tonight that I’d even begun to think music from that period was now “the music of the parents” of a large number of people on the dance floor. That’s when I reflected even deeper and realised a fair number of the people on the dance floor were probably born in about 1990. OMG.

I can only blame the full moon to explain how I ended up at Palms on a Friday night along with a whole bunch of people who had left work at about five o’clock, went to the pub, and then also somehow ended up at what I call “The Blue Light Disco of Oxford Street”.

It’s a great venue and the place where you go for a night of absolute indulgent pleasure. Nobody dances particularly well, nobody looks particularly cool, but everyone has a great time.

The only downside with Palms is its location right next door to the Adult World Sex Shop. You’re standing in the queue and you run into someone you know who asks what you’re up to tonight, undecided if you’re in the queue for Palms or just killing time before heading upstairs to the sex shop. In fact, it occurred to me a few of my favourite places on Oxford Street including Never Mind bar and Snake Bean restaurant are located right next door to sex shops.

Anyway, it was a fun night even if I did discover I’m practically ancient and that “retro” is an ever-expanding musical genre.

One response to “Almost too old for retro”

  1. Andrew Avatar

    It is an odd thing that young people like the music of both your and my youth. I generally hated my parents music.

    PS Why can’t your blog remember who I am? I have to add my details every time I want to make a comment.

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  1. Fantastic station James. I remember a time (57 years ago !) when as a night announcer at 2LM (& pre-recorded…

  2. I’m so glad you have patience and a sense of humour. And I get the invisibility thing. The older I…

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