Roller rink-disco emporium

Remember when Pleasure Island had a nightclub where the hottest music would play while you enjoyed an adult beverage and roller-skated around the club? Yeah, it sounds and looks like a great concept, doesn’t it? The reality, however, may have given the imbibing public a bit too much credit as to know whether or not they should be strapping a pair of wheels to their feet and start dancing as they rolled through the club.

Presented in 1987 as a ‘roller rink-disco emporium,’ the concept would eventually be known as the XZFR Rockin' Rollerdrome. According to the legend of the Rollerdrome, one of Merriweather Pleasure’s passions was the idea of life beyond our planet. In this warehouse he built experimental aircraft and beamed messages, including a beacon that used Morse Code to spell out W-E-L-C-O-M-E, to reach out to intelligent life elsewhere.

Having opened with Pleasure Island in 1989, the XZFR Rockin' Rollerdrome lasted less than a year due to safety concerns in 1990. It would be replaced by the Rock ‘n’ Roll Beach Club, which would stay open until the nightclubs of Pleasure Island shuttered in 2008.

Still, it’s nice to see what was or could have been, even if the public couldn't actually handle the concept!