Why at the age of 47 I need to go clubbing more than ever

I probably haven't reacted so fast in a long time as when I read my favourite DJ was doing a five-hour set at a pub in deep Yorkshire. Within minutes, I had a flat booked in the village, despite being put on a waiting list for tickets. Where there is music to dance to, there is always hope.

I have been thinking a lot recently about this resurgent, deep need to go clubbing and to embrace these nights. As I hurtle quick speed towards 48, many of you will probably be thinking it's time to grow up, sit down and act my age. But in an age where so much life is idly bypassed through our phones; where romance is found – or likely not – at a swipe left or swipe right – and social media often pushes both the unkind and the hollow, I say: take me to the club.

To me, more than ever, that need for human connection and a real, collective response keeps beating like a kick drum. Some may find it at church or a big sporting event. To me, I always find it in a very bassy, darkened room with others who feel the same.

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Of course, at this stage in life, you have to choose your night wisely. Once, I was mistaken for one young clubber’s maths teacher. He kept calling me Miss but, to be fair, I had on a high-neck blouse and smart boots having just come from a nice dinner. Another said I was at the best club in Glasgow. Truth is, I had probably been going there since before he was born.

Alison Campsie still craves the real human experience of clubbing, even at the age of 47. PIC: G Patchett.Alison Campsie still craves the real human experience of clubbing, even at the age of 47. PIC: G Patchett.
Alison Campsie still craves the real human experience of clubbing, even at the age of 47. PIC: G Patchett.

At a recent festival, our group was easily in the top five per cent age bracket of around 20,000 people, the older punters naturally gravitating towards each other. It’s true some ibuprofen gel was applied to a sore hip on day three.

My favourite DJs and producers are probably around 10 years older than I am, their collections akin to the greatest libraries of musical culture, the lesser found, the old and the perpetually new, their loaded shelves built over decades of commitment to the sound, the club and the people within. The late, legendary Andy Weatherall would have been 60 next month. He still sounds like the future to me.

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