Pleasure Gardens, cabaret, nightclubs, rave & 350 years of the Big Night Out

Pleasure Gardens, cabaret, nightclubs, rave & 350 years of the Big Night Out

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold May 7, 2026 Duration: 30:11

Mass commercial nightlife began in a Japanese Pleasure Garden in 1657 and it’s blossomed ever since – via Victorian Vauxhall, cabaret Paris, jazz-driven New Orleans, flappers, speakeasies, moonshine, Studio 54 and the rave palaces of the 21st Century. Imogen Willetts tracks its riotous evolution in ‘Up All Night: A History of Going Out’ and wonders if the invention of the iPhone has burst the balloon. She talks to us here about …

 

... the Tango, the Can-Can: dances that got you arrested

 

… how bourgeois French ‘slummers’ found a taste of danger

 

… the heady allure in the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens as an escape from Victorian squalor

 

… how Anita Berber’s chloroform ballet shocked and delighted Weimar Berlin

 

… when dancing was a mating ritual and the impact of Dating Apps  

 

… democracy on the dancefloor: the unrepeatable mix of punters and celebrities at Studio 54

 

… and how the invention of the electric light got people going out and the iPhone made them stay home

 

Order ‘Up All Night’ here: https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/imogen-willetts/up-all-night/9781399617093/


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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