“Bet this girl wouldn't last 5 minutes in a mosh pit” - Readers' share their thoughts on nightclubbing for the over-40s

We asked our readers for their thoughts on the comments, here are a selection of the responses we received:

Jodie Hiley’s reply was straight to the point, “no! We went to a club a few nights ago. I'm 38 and husband is 41. Bet this girl wouldn't last 5 minutes in a mosh pit.” A view point that was shared by many judging by the ‘likes’ received.

Jill Grieve says that “You are having a laugh. It should be the under 40’s"

A clearly irked Chaelra Tosct replied saying, “Well from what i’ve seen the oldies may well be “ cutting shapes” or dad/ mum dancing but we are having a good time. Younger ones holding phones up videoing each other, the dj, themselves”, before tagging “Grant Hughes.. pacha?” And Grant Hughes responded with “not that we’ll care what they think, let’s keep clubbing and dancing”, which is clearly the best way to respond.

Meanwhile, Helen Cowley added the benefit of hindsight, saying that “Karma will come around let’s see what she has to say when she reaches that more mature age.”

Kai Aberdeen responded fairly rationally, “If you ban over 40’s from night clubs who is gonna show the kids how to do it properly?”, that is something that many could not really argue with and quite a few people agreed with his take. Apart from Nikki Brown, who said “I've banned myself from nightclubs.”

Not everyone was happy with Tallia’s choice of words though, as was the case with Sharon Groom, who responded with “Say's it all about the younger generation. Me me me brigade! Get a life love as there are far more important things to worry about ! Block the 22 yr olds until they can hold their drink Anyone can go - we live in a free country”, and Julie Sykes added her thoughts, saying “is this a joke I'm 51 years of age and not ready to give up my dancing shoes just yet ...when you see the youngsters out raving today they haven't got a clue what the 80s and 90s was like we set the stage for them ...rave on and dance until you drop...” Keep on partying Julie, don’t stop.

And Stew Axon added “This is ridiculous, going to nightclubs with my old man for several years as been one of the most valuable time ls we've spent together. So no it shouldn't be”, nightclubs are a place where the music brings everyone together, age regardless and families too, so it seems.

On the otherhand, others thought that Tallia could probably do with some lessons on clubbing, as was the case with Nicola Beecroft, who said “Seriously I think she needs to be educated that when us over 40s partied at her age we was hardcore lol we went out to pubs and nightclubs and still managed to go to work with about 3 hours sleep. Then did it again following night. All I can say is grow up come back when you have some experience in life.” This reply got well over 160 approvals, perhaps Nicola needs to be leading the way here?

Evidence that this was an escalation came from Alexander Barahona, who said “Why not just ban Michael Gove? This seems an overreaction”.

Chris Dutson is of the belief that age isn’t a barrier but also a means of passing on the baton of the culture contained within the music scene, he said; “The northern soul scene is brilliant, and has always been a huge part of my way of being, my life. I'm almost 63. If we continue to have only a very few young people (teenagers, 20's, 30's, even 40's), attending our soul nights and niters, the "scene" will soon die out altogether. Yes, we can still dance well, but we won't be able to in our 70's and 80's. All who love northern soul should be trying to get young people into the music, and then to get them to an event. If we don't, and this is an inescapable fact ,the scene will die.”

Couldn’t put it any better ourselves Chris, music, clubbing and being out with all ages is clearly important to many of our readers, of all ages. And it's very clear from the responses that we should all be able to enjoy those moments shared with others of similar musical tastes, whatever our age may be. Keep on rocking, dancing, shaking and bopping, from 18 right through until you late 70s/80s, if you like. Just be happy, eh?

Thanks for all of your wonderful, humorous and enlightening comments everyone, even the ones we (sadly) couldn’t use in this piece.