Soul Boys, Ravers, and Pillheads: Sweaty Photos of Classic British Club Culture

The UK has the best club culture in the world. That might sound biased, considering I'm from the UK and grew up on speaker stacks and squat, stocky men eyeballing my fake ID and 45-year-old divorcee pillheads losing half their body water in sweat at drum-and-bass parties… But it's true. Germany might have Berlin and the States might have Miami, but the UK's got London, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, and, if you're into really gabber and/or not paying very much for alcohol, Glasgow.

Tomorrow, London's theprintspace are launching Lost in Music, an exhibition that charts the history of dance music and club culture with a collection of 500 images. They're kicking everything off with a party at Shoreditch's Village Underground, which is completely free; all you need to do to get in is register for tickets here, or just turn up after 9 PM for one-out, one-in.

The exhibition will span a number of countries—basically anywhere a culture has developed around clubbing, but theprintspace kindly sent us the photos below that show the many eras of British nightlife over the past 40 years.

The "Lost in Music" show opens on Friday the December 4 and runs until Wednesday, February 17 at theprintspace gallery, 74 Kingsland Rd, which is open from 9 AM to 7 PM, Monday to Friday.

At the Village Underground party in Shoreditch this Friday, there will be DJ sets from photographer Dean Chalkley, World Dance's Simon Kurrage, photographer Gavin Mills, the Balearic Queen Nancy Noise, acid house pioneer Danny Rampling, and Ministry of Sound's Shea Burke, along with performances throughout the night from special guest Shovell, The Drum Warrior.