Nightclubs are transient phenomena. Like fashions, they last
two or three seasons at the most - as long as the next style
in music takes to arrive. Their only chance of any
continuity is revival. The Trauma has all the typical
features of a classic 1970s disco, and has braved and
survived changes in contemporary taste four or five times
already. (What a name for a nightclub! It makes you wonder
what kind of injuries people inflict on each other when in
the grip of disco fever...). Mirrored pillars and a
shimmering ceiling open up the space: the spotlights provide
rhythmic reds, blues and greens; and floor lighting flashes
yellow, red and yellow again, even when the dance floor is
empty and the relentless thumping has long since stopped. -
Another kind of revival is being enjoyed by the large dance
halls, where an elderly clientele shuffles its afternoons
away to live music it has rehearsed with precision over the
decades - Cha-cha, Tango, Paso Doble - while the Cibeles,
the Apollo or the La Paloma now contain clubs frequented
during the late hours by a young clientele. The striptease
club Bagdad has been spared any kind of revival, however.
Unchanged for 30 years, it continues to satisfy its
customers' needs in time-honoured fashion. Even when similar
establishments moved several streets farther out of the city
many years ago, the club survived. The establishment's
valued customers continue to point out that everything
behind the oriental-style facade is real - nothing gets
simulated.
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