Every Friday and Saturday night, more than a thousand twentysomethings attend a club night in London known as School Disco. The dress code is strictly school uniform, the music 1980s disco. Smoking in the toilets is encouraged. The man who started it, 'in a small back-street restaurant . . . back in September 1999', Bobby Sanchez, explains its origins on the website, www.schooldisco.com (which also carries a list of school uniform shops):

It all started when I got fired from a top London club for playing Shakin' Stevens . . . That night I drove to my old school in South London. Walking up to the school gates threw me into a flood of memories: playing football, school dinners, 100 lines, music period, Kum by Ya my Lord, assembly . . . Could I go back and not have to deal with mortgages, girlfriend problems, 9 to 5 etc. What was the one thing that I could do again that would make me taste, feel and relive my youth.

LRB 29 November 2001 | PDF Download