History

The School Disco was started by Bobby Sanchez after he was fired for playing Shakin’ Stevens (a song that reminded him of his school days) at a London club. He foundered the School Disco in a small restaurant called Ormond's in 1999 and since then its growth has been phenomenal. From the 50 people who turned up at Ormond's in 1999 the School Disco now attracts literally thousands of partygoers every week and holds events at the Hammersmith Palais, Sound in Leicester Square and across the country on various tours. The largest event (besides special events such as at the London Docklands Arena) is held at the Hammersmith Palais every Saturday night.

The venue for the Saturday School Disco is the Hammersmith Palais also known as Po Na Na, which is a couple of minutes walk from Hammersmith tube station (Piccadilly, District and Hammersmith & City Lines, Zone 2) on Shepherd’s Bush Road. The place is absolutely huge with an enormous dance floor featuring a large stage at the front and a second balcony floor running around two slides of the room. The bars are scattered liberally around the venue and there is also a separate smaller room and a canteen both at the back on the upper and lower levels respectively.

The small room upstairs plays different music and is sometimes better during the early part of the evening. When we were last there a couple of weekends ago there was karaoke in this room –so I promptly hotfooted it straight back out of there!

1) Because it’s such a large event the security is very tight – bags are checked and men are frisked on the way in.
2) It gets very very hot inside even during the winter.
3) Because of the tiny skirts, heat and I don’t know what else some of the men turn into crazed animals and try to grope girls at any opportunity, for example when you are happily doing the conga across the room thinking your friend is behind you and all of a sudden there is a pair of hands on your bum! It is unwise to linger on the upper balcony by yourself later on in the evening unless you want to fend off endless sweaty desperate men!
4) Once you arrive designate a meeting place in case you become separated from your friends. As you can imagine in a huge club where everyone is wearing white shirts it’s very hard to find people!
5) Drinks are standard London club prices (around the £4-5 mark) served in attractive plastic cups! The whole effect is one of a student union so if you prefer more civilised / upmarket surroundings School Disco is not for you!
6) The bars stop serving alcohol at 2am and after this point only serve water.
7) Hammersmith is not the easiest place to get home from, especially drunk at 3am. Either book a cab in advance or plan your night bus route beforehand.

So how do you book tickets for this fabulous event? Tickets should be purchased in advance from www.schooldisco.com. Tickets are available on the door but the queues are huge and often Saturday nights are sold out way in advance. Tickets cost £12.50 plus a £1.50 booking fee. The Hammersmith event opens at 9pm (Leicester Square at 10.30pm) and it is wise to get there early to avoid queuing too long. There is a pre queue jump bar at both venues. You must be 18 and over.