Thank Duckie for Gay Shame | Theatre | The Guardian

Contents:

• DUCKIE: STRAIGHT PRI/GAY SHAME
• LIVG AUTHENTILLY THE LGBTQ COMMUNY: HOW TO MOVE PAST “GAY SHAME” [VIO]
• GAY SHAME 2018
• GAY SHAME 2018
• DUCKIE GAY SHAME (04 JULY 2009)
• THANK DUCKIE FOR GAY SHAME

DUCKIE: STRAIGHT PRI/GAY SHAME

It’s tly the end of an a gay teenage Londoner the mid-90s, the first club I went to was Heaven, which felt somehow pulsory. And, like many other misfs, weirdos and queers, I felt right at this went agast the gra of the 90s gay scene.

Rather than gym culture, dance mic, strippers and pills, Duckie meld the boozy bonhomie of gay die-pop night Popstarz wh the live-art vibe of the ICA, creatg what lled “homosexual honky-tonk”.

LIVG AUTHENTILLY THE LGBTQ COMMUNY: HOW TO MOVE PAST “GAY SHAME” [VIO]

Ls nsumerist-aspiratnal gay, more sarky art-school queer, the crowd was thoughtful, bolshie and (mostly) kd. The RVT beme a space of gay socialisg after the war and was central to London’s 60s drag boom.

GAY SHAME 2018

And 2014, after the pub’s sale to ternatnal velopers, helped secure legal protectns safeguardg s future, cludg makg a Gra II listed ’s Summer Tea Party, hosted by Amy Lamé Hull, part of the LGBT 50 celebratns markg the 50th anniversary of the crimalisatn of homosexualy England and Wal.

Photograph: Keh Larby/AlamyBeyond the RVT, Duckie creat big immersive parti such as the sbroly ironic Gay Shame, held each year on the night of Pri London. Ben Walters Duckie’s Saturday nights at the Royal Vxhall Tavern end wh Gay Shame on 2 July. There was a sense of havg a shared aim and beg an alternative to mastream gay culture.

GAY SHAME 2018

I’m performg at Duckie on 18 June and when I was wonrg what to do, I sudnly remembered a character I ed to play – a gay man who talks about sex all the time.

DUCKIE GAY SHAME (04 JULY 2009)

So I will be reprisg has been very fluential the sense of puttg forward what I would ll a queer athetic, as opposed to a gay athetic. Photograph: Am Lennon/The ObserverDuckie was such a clear alternative to the sanised, cynil, money-makg London gay clubs of the 1990s. It’s such a wonrfully queer and creative world and has been pivotal the gay muny.

We were playg rerds that you didn’t really hear clubs – X-Ray Spex, Kate Bh – whereas everythg on the gay scene back then was hoe or really chey pop. We had no experience of playg to gay crowds, even though we’re gay ourselv, so we were like: “What are the gay people gog to do when they hear Jilted John or Sound and Visn, are we gog to get attacked?

THANK DUCKIE FOR GAY SHAME

I thk the ls rigid mic that you hear on the gay scene now has que a lot to do wh and the fact that people are more open about what you n have on stage, rather than jt a drag queen. Born the Wt Midlands, he worked as an NHS dlogist before beg a wrerWhen I moved to London the mid-90s, I uldn’t fd any plac on the mastream gay scene that felt like they were for me.

Wh the Saturday night endg, feels like the gay scene is beg that b more homogenised. [The night] was unashamedly, proudly, liberately and flamboyantly gay and that’s always cheerg. I talked about my gay life.