The Beating of Your Heart is the Only Sound

[commonpeople1]

I went to a Roller Disco last night. You could bring your own rollerskates or rent pink & white ones at the premises. They converted a music venue across the street from Hackney Empire into the rink; the DJ sat on the stage, playing funk and 70s music (with a liberal dose of 80s pop), underneath the glittering sign Guilty Pleasures while, through out the night, people skated, drank, danced and had their broken bones tended by "Skate Marshalls".

Kevin, Osmo, Anu and I were one of the first people to arrive. We watched the rollerskaters for a while - some keeping close to the barriers; others in the centre, showing off - before getting our own skates. One of my co-workers, Robin, arrived with two friends. We said hello and he told me he had never rollerskated before. Twenty minutes later, he fell right in front of me, on top of his rollerskates. They carried him into the back room and, later, Kevin saw him escorted out on a wheel chair.

My first song on the rink was "Flashdance... What a Feeling". It didn't take long for me to realize a few things about Roller Discos:

• If you see giggly girls holding hands on the rink, for the love of God stay away from them. These type of skaters collect people, holding hands with friends they encounter along the way until they are the equivalent of a tsunami, taking everything and everyone down with them.
  
• Also stay away from people in funny costumes or suit jackets. They may look cute but they are destined to spend half the night on their asses, staring up at the passing skaters as if they couldn't possibly be funnier. They seem to be on a mission to dislocate their shoulders for a laugh.
  
• 70s disco only makes true and perfect sense on a rollerskating rink.
  
• When falling on your ass (like I did), make sure you don't break the fall with your left arm and nearly snap it in half.
  

I kept hoping for the DJ to play Blondie's "Atomic"; I'd had that song stuck in my head all week ever since we planned at work to go to the Roller Disco. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. My favourite tunes of the night were Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough", Tiffany's "I Think We Are Alone Now ", The Trammps "Disco Inferno" and just about anything else that made me feel like a Studio 54 old timer.

Comments

[rozallin.livejournal.com]

It wasn't the Ocean by any chance? I used to live in that area of Hackney and I like to hear people talking about it because I miss it in a way.

I haven't been to a roller disco since I was six but your realisations are spot on the mark.

Poor robin! I hope he is okay.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Yup, it's the Ocean. They turned the area by the stage into the rink, and the rest of the area was for dancing. I'd never been to that venue before but I quite liked it.

It was my first time at a roller disco, and the first time on rollerskates since I was, oh, 10? Thankfully, I remembered fairly quickly how to use it and saved myself the indignity of falling a hundred times in front of the crowd.

I spent most of the time worrying about Robin. :-/

[rozallin.livejournal.com]

The Ocean is quite a nice venue.

My mother kitted me out in neon pink, yellow and green knee and elbow protectors and I think I may have had a helmet as well. I would have fallen a lot less if the older kids hadn't decided to pick on me and take every opportunity to knock me over. That kind of ruined roller discos for me for life.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, I'm surprised they didn't offer helmets and protectors last night. Some of the more inebriated could have done with them.

[rozallin.livejournal.com]

I can just imagine!

[amberholic.livejournal.com]

Skating sounds an awful lot more dangerous now than I used to think it was.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Skating + alcohol + flashing lights + exhilarating music + people who don't know how to skate = potential disaster.

[amberholic.livejournal.com]

Did they have rollerblades or just skates? Rollerblades I can do. Rollerskates I can't.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Only rollerskates, though you could have brought your rollerblades if you wanted.

[foucaultonacid.livejournal.com]

you have perhaps more than anyone else beeen able to summarise in such few words some of the major disappointments of my life between the age of 9 and 14... thank you *sobs*

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

The perils of reading Livejournal...

[foucaultonacid.livejournal.com]

and of roller skating my hornisiness into transcendaental blisters to the sounds of def leppard and debbie gibson at christian youth group outings... and no, not outing in the good way either

[punk-in-chains.livejournal.com]

Aww, roller discos! I used to go to one every Friday at the YMCA with my cousins when I was a kid. It was an amazing waste of Friday nights for a good couple of years.

Pic

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Any songs that bring back fond memories?

[blu-bear.livejournal.com]

Do people drink at these things? I imagine that would be quite disastrous.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

They drink, and they arrive drunk. Luckily, I only had a pint and a bottle of beer in my gut before braving the rink.

[noondaydemon.livejournal.com]

Rollerskating always reminds me of Kim Wilde's 'Kids in America'.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I think they played that song last night. :-)

[tashaa.livejournal.com]

I love roller skating..!!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they'll have other nights dedicated to it. If you don't mind the 70s music... ;-)

[tashaa.livejournal.com]

I love 70's music as well!!

Ben likes roller skating but he looks like a spider with no balance..:>

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Well, I would be up for organising an outing when I'm back from Brasil (end of August). :-)

But if you can't wait that long, I highly recommend you get some people into going (or just go you and Ben.) Just make sure not to drink any alcohol beforehand.

[la-magarita.livejournal.com]

Que legal essa balada!!! Bem que podia ter uma aqui em SP!!!
Parece auele lugar do clip da Madonna, pode ser??? Ou só lembra mesmo?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Eh bem parecido com aquele clip da Madonna. A differenca eh que a maioria das pessoas caiam pra caramba.

[la-magarita.livejournal.com]

Imagina se todo mundo caisse no clip dela!
Hilário!!!

[tonight-we-fly.livejournal.com]

...and just about anything else that made me feel like a Studio 54 old timer

Ah, you old man!

Oh shit, whoops; people who live in glass houses, shooting yourself in the foot, etc...

Children behave!

[stormecho.livejournal.com]

It's been too long.

Growing up, a friend's father helped build a roller rink in Brooklyn. We had the whole place to ourselves for awhile. I learned to dance backward.

Never got into the roller blades.

My biggest memory is the Hampton Bay Roller Rink - Home of the Ocean Rollers. I must've been about eleven. Holding hands during couples dance/ladies choice; jumping over fallen bodies, etc.

Re: Children behave!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

You must be very good at dancing and moving with roller blades! I was slightly jealous of all the people doing special moves on the roller rink.

Re: Children behave!

[stormecho.livejournal.com]

It was roller skates, not blades that I moved in. I can shake it okay. :)

[sallypointzero.livejournal.com]

I live about 8 mins walk from Ocean and I've never even been in it. Now i want to go rollerskate-discoing.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they'll have other nights this summer. Go check them out! :-)

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

Haha, awesome! The last roller rink in the city closed a few months ago. :*(

Now I need to hear "Atomic".

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

That's so sad; in my mind, America is the Queen of Roller Discos (especially Brooklyn.)

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

Well, in my home town, we used to go to Rainbow Lanes all the time as a kid. We always loved the stuff in the Pro Shop, from fancy wheels to stuff for kids like plastic earrings tha looked like lightning bolts - they were split in the middle and you hooked it onto your earlobe from the back so that i looked like the lightning bolt went through your earlobe.

[easterbunny.livejournal.com]

That looks like so much. I haven't rollerskated in ages, although the roller skating birthday parties of childhood are shadowed by memories of having to sit out the "Hokey Pokey" because I couldn't figure out how to turn on skates without falling on my ass.

Skating rink skiball was a bonus, though.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

This was my first time at a roller disco; and the last time I rollerskated I must have been 10 years old.

I highly recommend going there if they have another roller disco.

[msanthropist.livejournal.com]

This sounds like SO much fun!!!! We have Adult Skate at our local rink but it's on a night that I have class...maybe next year. Keep those cards and letters coming Ollie - living vicariously through your adventures is keeping me young!!!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

How about skipping your class once for a trip to the roller disco? ;-)

[sor-eye-ah.livejournal.com]

oi! That sounds super, let me know if you go again as a group thingy?!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Will do. :-)