I was lying in bed the other night thinking about the lounge and tiki scene and after the disaster of the pandemic which has now dragged on for two years it made me wonder about the success of retro culture and where it’s headed.

The reason I started thinking about this was because I had been listening to my old shows which I publish as “Cocktail Nation Twilight” shows which I run across late November through to early February.

I’ve been running these shows as a way to take a break and plan for the next season of the show for quite a few years now and as I listened to the old shows I was hearing myself speak about all the cool events across the globe and it struck me that it was really quite vibrant two years ago and since then there has been nothing on at all.

Even locally at the end of 2020 a couple of bands I knew managed to sneak in a show before it all went belly up. At that point I warned them they were taking a risk putting a show on, but they did and managed to get out of it without losing their shirts. 

I fear that the pandemic could be the death knell for the retro scene and I wonder how long it will take for things to get back to normal. Sadly I am sure many bands have broken up and promoters have lost the will to put on events, couple with a fear that some other random variant will be announced.

I hope it’s all done and I hope things return to normal, but you do have to wonder.