Popstarz - Gay Bar London

Contents:

• GAY BAR BY JEREMY ATHERTON L – A GOG OUT MEMOIR
• RH, “AN ALL NEW GAY BAR” G TO SHAW, POSTS LIQUOR LICENSE PLARD
• CHIGO GAY BARS AND CLUBS
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• THE DEATH OF THE GAY BAR

GAY BAR BY JEREMY ATHERTON L – A GOG OUT MEMOIR

When promoter Simon Hobart lnched Popstarz 1995, offered a radil alternative to other, posier gay club nights. ‘It was two fgers to the big gay clubs at the time, which were all playg techno and hard hoe.

London had other gay die clubs before Popstarz, but they were more trospective. East London’s epic pansexual party Sk the Pk has a very different vibe, but ptur some of the Popstarz spir the way posns self as a edgier and more welg rival to the mastream gay scene. As Popstarz grew and beme part of London’s gay nightlife tablishment, foced on hong s mic offerg and bookg bigname performers such as Goldapp, Scissor Sisters and Mika.

RH, “AN ALL NEW GAY BAR” G TO SHAW, POSTS LIQUOR LICENSE PLARD

On Irish televisn news, the headl rmed the natn that Panti Bliss, a brilliantly articulate mpaigner, had arrived at Dubl Castle, as ed she gay was all the rage jt then. Leo Varadkar, mister for health, soon to be taoiseach, had announced that he was gay, as did a former mister om the other ma party, as did a well-known TV news journalist.

That day would not have been surprisg had all the bishops of Ireland arrived their fery to let know that they, too, wanted to jo our Gay Bar, a brilliantly wrten and cisive acunt of gay life Los Angel, San Francis and London, Jeremy Atherton L quot the cric Ben Walters on gay history that is “agile om fear and fettg, too often wrten whispers and saved scraps”. I imaged a walk that two men of my generatn – I me to Dubl 1972 – might do to revis the gay plac that have gone, such as The Gym, a sna jt a stone’s throw om Dubl Castle, or Ingno, another sna, much favoured by prits.

Photograph: Clodagh Kilyne/Getty ImagThe arrival of the big, loud gay venu Dubl me at the same time as other eedoms. In Barcelona 1975, when Fran died, there was not a sgle bar that was clearly signated as gay the cy.

CHIGO GAY BARS AND CLUBS

The explosn of gay bars both ci me wh mocracy. ” In gay bars, he beme someone on whom nothg was lost.

“Gays, ” he wr, “n relax a gay bar, people will say, but I went out for the tensn the room.

”His book is also hnted by the dotted le the gay story, the gaps the narrative. He wr about a DJ his 40s lled B Statn John who “played ecstatic sets of arne dis … He was there to bear wns, to ttify, g rare tracks om what he lled ‘the goln age of gay’, the perd between Stonewall and Aids. We were nsc the discs on the turntable may have e om the llectns of ceased gay men.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

”But the ghosts his book are also those who created gay San Francis self, where there were 18 gay bars 1964 and “an timated hundred and eighteen wh a ”. Atherton L registers the nostalgia that me wh all this change, quotg Fouult: “I actually liked the scene before gay liberatn, when everythg was more vert. Some thgs give him the creeps, like a gay thrift shop: “I crged when I passed , imagg the store to be filled wh stuff svenged om the hom of ad queens … I hadn’t found a way to nsir the multifar story of my people – and to read wh, but not through, the disease.

THE DEATH OF THE GAY BAR

When they stop shavg, their beards “were perverted, their bristl perfumed wh the sudor of scrotum” gay group, observed San Francis, “uld be tected om a distance by the stk … Each of them seemed to have a magnificent ass and be wrg a book. ”Atherton L wants to reimage a nnectn between “the goln age of gay” and the future.

There were three bars that he and his partner lled the Triangle: “jolly Gee and Dragon, sordid Joers Arms and laid-back Nelson’s Head – a rpective five-, ten- and fifteen-mute walk om our buildg” wr well about another hntg the London years, the spectre of gay-bashg, quotg Neil Bartlett: “Those nights out were spirg – but the solary walks home were foolish. London, 1986, was not a safe place for a visibly gay man like my twenty-eight-year-old self to be out alone after dark – or even by daylight for that matter.

”The closg of Atherton L’s favoure gay venu London seems to make the cy e alive for him. Popstarz was the first alternative gay nightclub the world and remas the flagship of the gay alternative clubbg scene London and the Uned Kgdom.

HistoryCreated by DJ and promotor Simon Hobart (1964-2005), Popstarz was the first gay nightclub to palise on the Brpop and Indie mic scene that explod the UK the 1990s. Hobart wanted to create a club night that was not based on the formulaic dance/dgs and body betiful scene that domated much of gay nightlife.

It opened s doors 1995 at the Paradise Club Islgton before movg venu to the Leisure Lounge Holborn, Hanover Grand off Regent Street, then back to Islgton, Sla Kg's Cross, and for the moment settled at S on Charg Cross door policy is majory gay and lbian, and the crowd is very mixed and popular bands have graced the Popstarz stage over the years, cludg: Scissor Sisters, The Gossip,, We Are Scientists,, Cansei Ser Sexy, Dandy Warhols, Goldapp, Chicks on Speed, Calv Harris, Mutya Buena, Unklejam, Le Tigre, Alphabeat, The Long Blons, The Pipett, Maximo Park, Ladytron, Electric Six, Pull Tiger Tail, New Young Pony Club, Brett Anrson, Dragote,, &. Old rave, nu-rave, twisted pop remix and electro whe labels this room have Fridays London pumpg like no Alternative Club FollowersFollowg Popstarz's succs, a host of other gay alternative nights sprang up throughout London cludg The Cock, Miss-Shap, Duckie, Shky Shonky, Red Eye, Nag Nag Nag & Rebel Rebel, wh other alternative club nights appearg Manchter and San Francis the Uned subsequently set up two smaller venu, (an credibly succsful unrground nightclub) & Trash palace (bg a bar and a club) weeks after Hobart's untimely ath, a benef night aid of Maclan Cancer Relief was held entled "Popstarz Forever". “Why don’t they have more gay villas, ” Whe said, “I liked wrg Ernte.

Whe, who liv New York, was a -founr of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and of the 1980s queer wrers group The Vlet Quill.