WE Glaswegians can rightly pride ourselves on how hard our city parties.
I have spent Saturday nights in places like Yarm, near Middlesbrough, where the extent of the nightlife is two local pubs that play ‘90s dance music until 2am.
It made me glad to be from here.
I’ve been out in Leeds, Liverpool, London, New York, Barcelona, Bucharest and Berlin.
All of these cities have qualities that make them great, but Glasgow is home and the crowd are always up for it, and they generally don’t give a flying monkey’s about looking cool.
We’re a city of red-blooded party animals, interested only in drinking and having a good time.
I didn’t think any city could match Glasgow for that kind of pugnacious, self-hating hedonism until I spent Hallowe'en 2013 in Dusseldorf.
Man, those guys can go for it. I was standing (swaying, really) in the Altstadt, or Old Town – known as “the longest bar in the world” for its concentration of pubs – watching a vast crowd of drunk Germans downing beer bottles and smashing them on the ground, fighting, hollering, dancing, pogoing.
There were paramedics attending to bleeding clowns, bouncers tussling with aggressive zombie nurses, Turkish skeletons fighting off gangs of marauding teens.
It was chaos.
I found the same appetite for self-destruction in Dusseldorf as I see here every weekend.
But not every city has such a great variety of venues, and so it is that I haven’t been able to find anywhere quite like the Buff Club.
A dark, sweaty club with fusty tartan carpets and a soundtrack of classic disco, funk and soul, the Buff has become my go-to club as I have settled into my late 20s.
That might not sound like a ringing endorsement, but to get away from house for the night and avoid the tyranny of modern music, there are few other options.
It’s the only club where I feel like the DJ is raiding my Spotify, and for that I will always love it.
Killer Kitsch at Buff Club
Q: What was your worst Hallowe'en Costume?
1. Bryony Kemp, 20, St George’s Cross, a Zombie with Ginger Hair
Sarah Robinson, 20, West End, a Promiscuous Nurse
2. Daniel Stuart, 20, West End, a Fitness Pro
Sean Westwood, 19, Mount Florida, Napoleon Dynamite
3. Hannah Brunton, 20, West End, a Butterfly
Lucy McConomy, 20, West End, Minnie Mouse
Niamh Mussen, 19, West End, Snow White
4. Ella Jaeggi, 21, City Centre, I do not do Hallowe'en
Isabell Ferger, 20, Blantyre, a Clown
5. Lindsay Brogan, 29, Cambuslang
Favourite Club? Buff Club
Favourite Bar? Maggie May’s
Favourite DJ? Calvin Harris
Favourite Band? Florence and the Machine
First Club? The Hamilton Palace
What You Drinking? Rum and Coke
Describe Your Dancing? It’s brilliant
6. Lisa Clark, 25, South Side, a Postbox
Linzi Clark, 22, Paisley, A Playboy Bunny
7. Rona Tron, 25, City Centre, I’ve never had a bad costume
Scott Wilson, 21, East Kilbride, A busy woman
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here