These Five Couples Found Love In a Hopeless Place— The Club
Gordon Anthony McGowan

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These Five Couples Found Love In a Hopeless Place— The Club

"We told each other that we loved each other at Berghain."

This article was originally published on THUMP UK.

I think it was Shakespeare who said that, "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind," which is a nice romantic sentiment, isn't it? Old Will's 16th century observations still remain prevalent to this day, especially on the dance floor. These days, love brews beneath the flashing strobe lights and bone-vibrating sound systems where it's actually really difficult to see a thing. But who cares if you can't see anything when you're fucked and you're feeling absolutely fantastic and dancing the night away. The poor guy really missed out on a great time to be alive. Sure, he got to wear a ruff and everything and he invented 1700 words which was pretty cool, but he never snogged anyone by a fruit machine at closing time. Times have changed, and love isn't found where it used to be.

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In reality these days, when we reflect on how many relationships came to be, did they really begin in coffee shops, libraries or bus stops? The reality for a large portion of music-loving couples looks more like getting really wasted at their favorite club and necking someone in the middle of the d-floor. It might not sound romantic, yet it's on that sticky dance floor, where the flashing strobe lights can only at times show the full view of another's face, that secret love stories take shape.

With all that in mind, we asked some lovers how they met the love of their life on the floor.

Jack and Libby
Rhythm Section, Peckham, England

THUMP: How did you first meet Libby at Rhythm Section, Jack?
Jack: My jaw was going around like a baggage carousel as she stood next to me, and her eyes met mine just as she finished taking a long deep swig from her water bottle. At that point she knew I needed water, and kindly obliged when I gesticulated with a sipping motion. Afterwards, she took me to a nearby park and we watched the sunrise together.

What's Rhythm Section like and can you remember what music was being played when you first met Libby?
Yeah it was brilliant as always, people from different backgrounds are all strutting their stuff. A remix of the classic "Gypsy Woman" by Crystal Waters was playing.

Good song. What happened after that, why did you agree to see each other again after meeting on the dance floor?
It's rare that I meet someone who I feel like I can completely be myself around, whether that's goofing around or getting on it, and I could tell that she felt the same way, so we became partners in crime from then on.

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Have you been back there since then?
Any time I get the opportunity to relive it again.

Linn & Chad
Revolver, Melbourne, Australia

How did you meet Chad, Linn?
Linn: We met at Revs (Revolver). It was midday on a Sunday, which is always the best time of the week to go. I finished work and went straight there with my work friends at about 4am. Meanwhile, Chad had come in to pick up his friend Mitch, but Mitch dragged him inside for one more boogie.

What's Sunday Revs like?
I can't really think of how to describe Sunday Revs, it's so special. Everyone is kicking on from the many (many) hours or days before and everyone is just becoming best friends to the deepest music.

So how did you and Chad hit it off?
Well actually this huge British guy got really mad and yelled at me because I spilt my drink on him. I got really flustered so I went out to the smoking area and looked for someone or anyone to talk to about it. Chad and Mitch were sitting on the ground and I said, "DO YOU GUYS WANT TO HEAR WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO ME?" The boys nodded so I explained the story. Mitch got a bit distracted and Chad was just staring at me listening so intently so I ended up just telling the whole story to him. I had to apologize to him after and thanked him for being the only one listening. After that we had a little boogie. Chad was meant to go to a family dinner but instead we went to Lucky Coq for cheap pizza after Revs. Chad paid for my pizza and bought me a glass of shiraz and skipped his family dinner.

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How did you get together after that and how long have you been together now?
We talked heaps on Facebook and stuff and then our next date was at a different club, Killing Time. After that we went to Revs again. We've been together for three years and we've been to Revs plenty of times since then, and met a lot of our best friends there also.

You guys seem to love the dance floor. Would you say it's a significant part of the love that you have for each other?
Yeah, Chad and I have a lot of love for the dance floor and aren't a couple that stay at home on the couch on a Saturday night. We always go out dancing, almost always together.

That's bloody beautiful.

Tara and Andy
Hell, Melbourne, Australia

So Tara, how did you and Andy meet?
Tara: We met outside a strip club in the line.

What were you doing at a strip club?
We both went there because some guy was walking up and down Elizabeth Street handing out free entry cards so we both decided to go. There was some random German bloke in the line behind me so I was trying to speak German to him. Andy thought I was convincing him in German that I was a stripper. We went inside the strip club together and I told him that I wasn't a stripper. We watched a bit of the strippers then we decided to go to Hell (the club) together.

What's Hell like?
It was really cool. We had a big old boogie together and hooked up on the dance floor. It was one of the first places I went out and it was this place with heaps of strobe lights, smoke machines and a ball pit.

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A ball pit? That's cool. Did you guys go in the ball pit? And what happened after that, how did you decide to start dating?
I don't remember if we went in the ball pit! All I remember was dancing and then smoking darts in the alley. I said we should get dinner after that. I really, really wanted to see him again and so did he. I said he couldn't come home with me because I had work the next morning, which fucking sucked. I got to work the next day and told one of the girls there that I got a boyfriend last night. She said she gets a lot of boyfriends on her nights out too and I was like, "lol, you'll see!" I accidentally gave him the wrong number and turns out he was texting some random for a while thinking it was me. But then we finally met up again because I went for coffee with my friend Eleanor and a guy she was seeing, and by chance Andy came too. I had to convince him so hard that it wasn't planned. After that, we all went out and loads of people came back to mine. It was me, Andy and Eleanor in my bed and me and Andy where like, great, this is our first date! We've been together for about 18 months now.

Steph and Beau
Beaver Bar, Banff, Canada

How did you meet your dance floor partner, Steph?
Steph: Well, I'd first seen him around town a bit and I always saw him hogging the mic at karaoke a few times prior to this. They were the loosest karaoke sessions you would ever witness. People get pretty into the dance floor there. So I always knew him as that hilarious guy at karaoke.

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It sounds like you just had to meet him. How were you introduced? Did you approach him for his musical talent?
I'm unsure if I would call it musical talent but he was definitely a crowd pleaser on the mic. It was actually my birthday and we decided to have my celebrations at Beaver Bar. Saturday nights are always pumping with classic sing-a-long tunes; I especially remember Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten" going off that night. A fight actually broke out at one stage and we kind of found ourselves stuck in the middle of it trying to calm stuff down before it got out of hand (which it kind of did). I could tell he felt bad for me because it was my birthday and the vibe kind of got shitty after that. That's what got us talking; he kept asking if I was ok.

Is that when you got together?
Nothing happened that night but I was keen on bumping into him again. A few nights later my friend's work hired out one of the clubs in Banff called Sasquatch and threw a massive party. That was where we had a proper boogie for the first time. Things got pretty loose that night and all I remember was having a chat with him about what happened on my birthday and having a cigarette with him out the front. From that point on the night is pretty blurry but I know things definitely escalated from there!

Do you regularly go back to relive the boogie-times there?
We do it all the time! The Beaver Bar is like a home away from home. Every time you go there you know you'll be surrounded by familiar faces on the dance floor.

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Alex and Claire
Trouw, Berghain, Panorama Bar, Salon Zur Wilden Renate

So how did you and Claire meet, Alex?
Alex: Claire's originally from the Netherlands. I actually first met her cousin at Trouw in Amsterdam, I swear it's one of the best clubs in the world. Her cousin and I had a serious night, then I coincidentally met her at a Dixon and Âme gig in Melbourne a couple of months later. She had to leave so I promised her that I'd come and see her again, on the other side of the world.

That's so cute, what was it about her that made you travel all the way to the other side of the world to see her?
I dunno, she was gorgeous and smiley and really sweet…and intelligent. She really motivated me. We've partied in LA, Berlin, Madrid, New York and Amsterdam. We went to Salon Zur Wilden Renate and Panorama Bar in Berlin, and that's where I asked her to be with me. We told each other that we loved each other at Berghain.

Wow, you confessed your love for one another at the mecca of clubbing. How did it feel traveling around to the best clubs in the world being together on the dance floor?
It was party surreal. It was like we were getting the best snippet out of every club culture, experiencing other electronic music cultures around the world. It was almost an ethnographic experience.

Sam is on Twitter.