The Ritz on a Wednesday Night is Brutus Gold’s Love Train, not as dodgy as it sounds! It’s a seventies night, playing seventies music, and most of the people here can actually remember what it was like to be going out in the seventies.

In a stark contrast to the Monday night Ritz, if you go on a Wednesday at age 19 you can expect to feel young as people who are 30-40+ along with the student regulars surround you.

There are dancers on the stage who pull up random people to dance with them on the stage in front of a packed room, they also hand out posters and badges to the crowd. If you’re female and dressed in seventies attire you’re more likely to end up on stage or going home with a poster/badge than if you’re wearing modern clothing. So make the effort if you fancy a chance!

The majority of the crowd do wear seventies clothing, take a look around and see more pairs of flares than in a vintage clothing shop, the funny part is, that most of the older crowd look like they’re wearing clothes that really are 30 years old. At some point during the night, three guys will be pulled on stage, and the crowd will be asked to cheer for the worst dressed. This poor guy will win a t-shirt that he has to wear for the remainder of the night.

Because the dance floor is bouncy, it doesn’t hurt your feet, in those 70’s style platform shoes and you can dance the night away to the 70’s music. You can request a song, but it’s rarely played straight away. Most of the popular 70’s songs are played anyway. Most people will hear something they recognize, even if it’s only the 4th Abba song of the night!

The Ritz has a large dance floor on the ground floor, with the bar and a few tables, then an upper level balcony with a couple more tables and chairs. Most people have to stand on the balcony though or dance on the ground floor. Then there’s the lower lev
el, corridors and toilets and the cloakroom is about all that’s down here.

The disadvantage is the price. After 11pm it’s £5 to get in, and drinks are expensive, about £3 each. There isn’t a student discount on a Wednesday night.

The night is good as a one off night, but if you go the week after you’ll find it’s exactly the same, same songs, same people, same clothes. Worth taking your mum to, if she wants to go out!