A Nottingham club night, billed as a "throwback to the hedonistic days of the 1980s", is set to turn 20 years old. Wildside, held monthly at Ye Old Salutation Inn, is believed to be city's longest running independent rock club night.
Running on the first Saturday of every month, the nights are full of glam and cheesy rock, and attract punters from all over the world. "It's glam, hair metal so think of Bon Jovi, Motley Crew, Aerosmith, big, hard, fun metal, big hair and spandex," describes its founder Al White.
"We're a throwback to the hedonistic days of the 1980s. Big power ballads and cheesy rock. It's the sort of stuff you used to hear in Rock City through the late '80s and '90s.
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"We have people travel from all over the country and even from abroad. People have flown over from Spain, Sweden and even from America just to come to Wildside."
Mr White, a 42-year-old IT worker from Wollaton, started the night after becoming "fed up" with the clubs never playing the music he loved. "I thought if I can't go to any of those nights anymore I best start one up myself," he told Nottinghamshire Live.
"I went round and looked where a venue could be and I found Spiders which had just opened at the time on Pelham Street and asked if I could have a club night. It was a super popular night and it carried on from there and got bigger and bigger. Twenty years later I'm still going and we're bigger than ever."
On June 3, Wildside will throw a special celebration to mark 20 years since its formation, almost half of which has been at its current venue after a spell at Junktion 7. "There's not really any other club nights that do what we do regularly in the country," continued Mr White.
"You have the people who grew up with it and the kids who listened to it through their parents, there's a mix of ages that come here. Because it's such a fun genre everyone can enjoy it. Even if you don't know the music you can have a good time here."
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