Prior to the 2003 Licensing Act, which enabled pubs to open pretty much when they liked, nightclubbing was the only available option to drinkers after 11pm; and meant they could charge an admission fee.
Even then they had to close at 2am, which is when the young and pretty of today are just warming up on a weekend. For the benefit of those with the good fortune to be too young to remember the city’s nightclub heyday, here is a personal reminiscence of 10 of them.
9. No known photographs of the inside of Dixon's in Roker exist. But it looked a bit like this. Honest.
This was a sedate, elegant venue where young executives would meet for Dom Pérignon and mottled oysters of an evening. It was later demolished with a shameless disregard for the city’s cultural heritage; although no one mentioned this at the time. Photo: Sunderland Echo
10. The Toy Dolls (again) performing their flop single She Goes to Fino's outside the venue itself
Upstairs in what is now Port of Call, this was a regular haunt for Sunderland AFC footballers. The music was smoooooth! It was dead sophisticated and that. Also the subject of the Toy Dolls’ flop single She Goes To Fino’s. Photo: Sunderland Echo