G-A-Y - Club reviews and information on scene-OUT.com

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G-A-Y

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Recommended By	Average Price	Average Rating
89% of reviewers	None indicated	7.7

Description:	Located in central London, UK, G-A-Y has an enviable reputation of offering outstanding Saturday night PAs from artists normally associated with arena and stadium performances. Legends such as the Spice Girls, Donna Summer, Boyzone and Bjork have exclusively graced the G-A-Y stage - making it the only club worldwide to offer the biggest names in pop - gay or straight. In addition regular guests include Kylie Minogue, Westlife, Blue, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Geri Halliwell. Hosted by promoter Jeremy Joseph, G-A-Y offers attitude-free clubbing and a camp and cruisy environment. After five years at the Astoria, G-A-Y is now settled into its new home, Heaven, and is established as the leading London place for camp pop fun. From the Monday Pink Pounder through harder Thursdays, the packed Friday Camp Attack glory of 70s, 80s and early 90s to the big Saturday night out G-A-Y has everything for anyone from 18 to 80! G-A-Y is a lesbian and gay venue with a strong camp feel to it. Just ask any gay man or lesbian in London about G-A-Y. Some will hate it, most will love it - but one thing's for sure - they'll all have been there at least once - and may well be in the Saturday night queue in front of you! Got something to say about this club night? You can post a review of the club here or make a general comment on the club message board.
Address:	Heaven, Under The Arches, Villiers Street, Strand, WC2N 6NG - Find it on the map
Nearest station & local bus routes:	Charing Cross, Embankment - Use Journey Planner to plan your route to Heaven.
Opening times:	Every Saturday from 10:30pm until 5:00am.
Website:	www.g-a-y.co.uk
Photo galleries:
Crowd:	LBGT

Author

SceneB.itch

Registered User

Registered: January 2010
Posts: 44

Review Date: 16 August 11

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 9

Pros:	Price, location, night, venue layout, music main room
Cons:	Lighting, toilets,

The Annual G-A-Y Pool Party – 13 Aug 2011 @ Heaven (London)

With Latino-B.itch still partying hard in Brazil, then it was up to Tall.B.itch to entertain friends from Paris, France, in our chic-b.itchin city of London. After a hard days ‘Le Shopping’ it was The Yard that provided a packed bar and even more packed smoking terrace on the day that “everyone” went to Brighton Pride. We find Brighton a little too parochial for our tastes but it does have a handy nudist beach full of fat older men! Our friend arrived to keep my, cough, smoker buddy company and proudly displayed his Lo-Profile wrist band. So upon witching hour of 11.15 pm, we headed over to Profile bar – only to find they stopped serving in the main bar just as it was our turn @ 11.30pm!

My friend from Paris was a little more than amazed - as on Friday night we had had a less than impressive visit to The Village. Arriving we found Heidi Licious and two Go Go boys dancing to some kind of Country & Western music on the bar – thankfully it did improve music-wise. But not having been to that venue in about three years we found the clientele a right mixed bag and it closed at 1.00am huh? So I needed a quick win to get back my b.itchin reputation.

Pointing out my friends Lo-Profile wristband he looked at it in amazement, as he thought it was for Heaven! That will teach him to stop at the first twink he fancies on Old Compton St. But Heaven seemed the more natural choice of a more middle of the road night for our French friends who had ‘liked’ it when they lived here 3 years ago – and that was the last time I had partied there too.

So with £3 entry wrist bands on offer outside G-A-Y bar and we set off to beat any queue. At 11.45 there wasn’t one – and it was pleasant security, not the old Heaven secret police style - and even a free BBQ on entry. If we’d been wearing speedos it would have been free entry, but then we might have caused a riot walking down Shaftsbury Avenue.

Coming back to the revamped format of G-A-Y Heaven made me slightly nervous of course, I have always hated the cheesiness in clubs or a too young excitable crowd and hate ‘compares’ and stuff – hence we don’t go to local bars either – I suppose we have been spoiled by the big professional productions of SuperMartXe and We Party. But I’ve a soft spot for the venue of Heaven after dancing to DJ Pagano and Nick Tcherniak all night long years before.

Thankfully it was a swift cash desk operation and then in for a tiny cloak room queue. A well attended main bar which led us through an archway into the main room – playing commercial beats/house (I think) but it was upbeat, vocal and funky enough to get our bums giggling. And oh heavens this was Pool Party night, not that I had paid much attention to that fact, and there is the centre of the dance floor was a large metre deep pool – complete with life guard security staff. Kind of suits an Ibiza or Barcelona outdoor club more but if some people get their kicks out of it, why not – there were a few hotties that came out nicely drenched and slid past us on the dancefloor. But they weren’t the only bits of hot stuff and slowly but surely the tops started to come off and there was a good selection of fit twink bodies on display. One friend commented that there was too much ming on display, apart from asking what that word meant, and nearly fainting, but I felt it was not too overwhelming but more balanced than the Vauxhall clubs which makes Heaven a more welcoming inclusive environment.

The seating booths in the main bar are a great place to get to chat to people but we wanted more and ventured upstairs to find RnB pumping out to a fairly packed room which got our French contingent shaking their ass, but we didn’t stay long and went up one more level to find a less than full ‘star bar’ playing something I can’t even remember and did an immediate u turn.

It was then that we came back down and through into the main room’s bar near the VIP room – which unfortunately our French guests were shooed away from, and up into a ‘games room’ - interesting – although the sofa seats were mighty comfortable to have a lil snuggle on. Here though we watched cute topless twinks play pool, but then lost interest as not so twinky, ‘keep your shirt on’ XXL types took over and ruined the view. Through this space was the fourth room playing it seemed 80’s pop in a misty atmosphere. We withdrew to the bar at the end of the main floor and waited an age to be served but managed to chat to two Spanish twinks who didn’t get the jokes about ‘how many days you been waiting’ but the blonde boy who was in cruising us in overdrive certainly did.

Back onto the main dance floor which is a good size, the DJ booth is a bit remote up high looking down on us but the floor was nicely full and since it was Pool Party it meant there was not going to be any stage show - or big X factor name, that I wouldn’t know, to spoil the party. The stage was full of happy dancers - but there were also plenty of low level podiums and places to stand and be seen – and we certainly were well cruised and were getting plenty of attention from an Italian Brazilian who’s friend whispered ‘my friend really likes you’ awww it’s so sweet – it’s like School Disco once more! But as 4.00am arrived it was time to drag the tired French party goers back home and exited swiftly before my other lanky teenager stalker of the night noticed.

So a revisit to Heaven as G-A-Y was actually a pleasant experience for a central London evening out. A good club layout, a bit of music policy for everyone and unbelievable cheap pricing to get in, an enthusiastic crowd who were kind on the eyes – the old dodgy geezers in raincoats of Heaven old seemed to be absent. Whether this was a completely different G-AY Heaven experience on Brighton Pride day we aren’t sure - but the main room music suited our taste without a star performing and there was enough variation for a wander around. You never know, the SceneB.itches could come back here, but not before we’ve checked out Lo-Profile first.

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heymickey

Registered User

Registered: October 2008
Posts: 11

Review Date: 8 December 09

Would you recommend this club? No | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 5

Pros:	Sound system has improved, cheap
Cons:	Music, act.

GAY used to be a huge night with long queues to get in to see the likes of the big acts.

Now they have the latest loser from X factor. On this night is was the blonde teenager who "had more photo requests backstage than any other artist". It was a whole new level of awful. I felt like a parent wincing at a school concert and I didn't even know the children.

It's cheap to get in. There's a guy outside the sister bar giving out £2 wristbands for the club and most people had these on in the short queue to get in.

The rest of the night was not quite as bad. The music was odd. The crowd was pretty young and given the music included 2 Unlimited I don't think that was too important to them. To me, it just seemed like an endurance test though. At least their sound system has improved and doesn't sound like a shower radio.

heymickey

Registered User

Registered: October 2008
Posts: 11

Review Date: 13 November 08

Would you recommend this club? No | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 5

Pros:	walkable from soho, free wristbands around
Cons:	soulless, terrible sound

I was looking forward to G-A-Y now that it's moved to Heaven. I'm not a huge fan of G-A-Y any more, but moving to Heaven was a step up. The Astoria is the only club that has such a sticky floor that it got stuck and I had to peel it off.

It's definitely not as busy as it used to be. When we left G-A-Y bar they were giving out free entry wristbands.

The quality of G-A-Y's acts always depended on how far away from pay day it was - the further it was the worse the act. On week 4 you got something like the Smurfs. This was week 3 so we got ex Come Dancing winner Alesha Dixon whose last real hit was Scandalous from a band she used to be in in 2002. It was the only song the crowd really liked (or knew) but she managed to string the act out.

The sound was awful everywhere. The worst was the pop room hidden away at the back - it was like background music in a pub. The main room music was a mix of Heaven and G-A-Ys' music, so house music interspersed with ABBA. The first floor never really got enough people in. The top floor was rammed as ever - I felt like I was in a long queue all the way around the bar. The whole night didn't really work - the whole group of us felt the same. The whole place was lacking in atmosphere and the VIP area was too calm.

I was intrigued what G-A-Y at Heaven would be like. Now I know - I'm not rishing back.

neilio
One of Ruby's Munchkins

Registered: November 2006
Location: London
Posts: 278

Review Date: 19 June 08

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 8

Pros:	Astoria is a big venue, fun music, Chesney Hawkes (the one and only), Sonia (the better the devil you know she did Eurovision)
Cons:	G-A-Y at the Astoria will not be around for much longer

G-A-Y on a Saturday night. G-A-Why? Well why the hell not? It's probably one of the biggest and best known gay brands on London's gay scene, yet so quickly forgotten thanks to one's coming of age and discoveries of pastures new, niche markets, and a place where one can eventually fit in a bit better. G-A-Y, unlike pretty much every other gay club around, is so un-niche that its generic approach to clubbing with a light "pop" soundtrack is why this to be where young guys and girls get their first taste of a gay club.

G-A-Y is like a first date. You're out for the first time, you're not sure what to do, where to go, or what to expect. But you know you want to feel comfortable and be yourself. It's a genius idea; a brand that is safe for anyone to enter into with a name that says it all - big GAY club - the name is big and garish, not afraid to be what it is.

Saturday nights are known for their special guest performances, which tonight were from Chesney Hawkes and Sonia. Guess which songs they both performed. Highly predictable, but still fun as they hark back to yesteryear. They may be has-beens, but both legends in their oh so unlegendary ways. The crowd loved them. By the way, Chesney looks exactly the same as he did 15 years ago - he must have a portrait in the attic!

The music was a mixture of camp classics, the latest pop tunes, and vocal funky house. In fact, the music is a bit more club-like with proper dance tracks mixed together than G-A-Y ever used to be. Think school disco one-of-your-mate's-dad-doing-the-DJ, and that is what it used to be like. Now it's continuous beat throughout, with some old classics mixed up in there like Dolly Parton and the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, not the mention the obligatory Girls Aloud, Madonna and Kylie numbers.

This was my first visit back to G-A-Y in about 4 or 5 years. I'd been there and done that back then when I wasn't sure what I liked. Going back was like a trip back into my naive youth of styled hair, crisp ironed shirt from Burtons and black trousers, fag hag in toe. LONG gone are those days, but G-A-Y is still good for a bit of fun and holds a place dear in everyone's heart somewhere, I'm sure.

If you haven't been down to G-A-Y recently and want to get there, DO IT SOON! Jeremy Joseph has expanded into two bars locally in Soho in recent years (G-A-Y Bar and G-A-Y Late) but the flagship night is soon to be no more. Weeknights are already ceasing to exist. The famous Astoria is scheduled for demolition to make way for Crossrail so G-A-Y as we know it is vacating the premises on a high in the not so distant future.

As venues go, I forgot how big the Astoria is. Very wide with a huge stage, and the big balcony with tiered seating makes for an excellent chill-out area. It may not have the adornments and embellishments like other venues, but it does what it does well, and it's quite sad that such a huge venue in the middle of the West End will be no more. Is there any other place this big so central aside from Heaven?

I'm not sure what coming (out) of age club venture will take G-A-Y's place. Heaven springs to mind. But can anything recreate the club that spells it out for us and puts gay clubbing right in the face of everybody? Perhaps Mr Joseph will relaunch G-A-Y elsewhere in town. It would be sad if he didn't.

Ruby Slippers

Scene Diva

Registered: May 2004
Location: London, UK
Posts: 182

Review Date: 10 May 07

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 8

Pros:
Cons:

Toto and I decided to carry on our evening by getting even more excited about Eurovision than we already were, and trolleyed off to G-A-Y for an ice-and-a-slice of camp shenanigans. We arrived just in time for the first act, Right Said Fred, who proved that you don’t need to spend much money, or have any hair to put on a good show. From the VIP balcony it was easy to get blinded as the lights reflected off of their shiny heads. They performed their three biggest hits and even did ‘I’m Too Sexy’ twice, which the crowd absolutely loved.

The main act of the night was of course Scooch. The crowd was filled with Eurovision fans waving Union Jacks and Scooch flags. The band really seemed to be enjoying performing their four old singles and the Littlest Hobo theme ‘Maybe Tomorrow’.

Whilst further flags were being distributed they went offstage for a quick change and returned wearing vivid pink airline uniforms. They then performed ‘Flying The Flag (For You)’ which is the uber-camp entry from the United Kingdom this year. David delivered the line “Would you like something to suck on before landing..?” with exactly the right action expected for a gay club! Somehow I doubt he’ll be doing that on stage in Helsinki! Watching the sea of flag waving and singing along, I got carried away with the thought that they might possibly win. (Only for a moment though!).

The only thing that marred the night was the lack of many Eurovision songs being played on the main dance floor, which left the atmosphere a little flat at times, considering all the ESC fans in the place. Still at least DJ Nick Shepherdson kept the middle bar up to it’s usual level of trashy campness, with his selection of old and new cheesy tunes. Still it was a nice little warm up to the main event.

Dom79

One of Ruby's Munchkins

Registered: November 2004
Location: Norwich, UK
Posts: 664

Review Date: 14 August 06

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 8

Pros:
Cons:

A quick, impulsive stop to Jeremy Joseph's G-A-Y took place on Saturday night. It had been ages since my last visit to this Saturday night clubbing legend, so a G-A-Y session had to be done.

As we were so close to the Astoria, we decided to have a quick look what was going on inside. We arrived a lot later than the masses, so we got into the club and were ordering drinks in a matter of minutes.

We got into the party mood straight away and made our way to the main floor. G-A-Y classics banged out of the sound system one after another. Hung Up by Madonna got a mighty cheer and this was followed by hits from Girls Aloud, Mylo and a strange mix of Dirty Dancing's 'I had the time of my life'. Random, but it worked! The stage was opened for dancing after security had removed a huge bed from it. It was slumber party night and we had missed a performance from X Factor's Maria Lawson.

The middle bar was very busy for most of the night and seemed to play some dig-deep, camp classics. Jason Donovan and Diana Ross had the mainly young, fun crowd dancing and prancing.

A couple of drinks later and we left the Astoria to make our way to Vauxhall. I was pleased that I had given G-A-Y another go. It had been too long since I last attended and being back in the Astoria brought back many happy memories. Oh, those were the days! 17 years old and knowing… Nothing!

If nothing else G-A-Y always provides a fun-packed night where you are guaranteed both value for money and a good party atmosphere!

Ruby Slippers

Scene Diva

Registered: May 2004
Location: London, UK
Posts: 182

Review Date: 2 August 06

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 7

Pros:
Cons:

I clicked my heels to head for home and suddenly found myself on the balcony at G-A-Y where Heather Small was gracing the stage. (Note to self: the magic shoes are overdue for their 1000 click service.) From my vantage point, clutching my G&T, I noticed how ironically small Heather is compared to her backing band.

Starting with Olympic bid song and gay anthem 'Pride' Ms Small has a powerful rich voice that really got the Saturday night G-A-Y crowd going. With a couple of new songs including a cover of Paul Simon's '50 Ways to Leave Your Lover', a stripped down unplugged version of 'Search For The Hero', and it was time for lots of arms waving in the air for 'Movin' On Up'

It was all over so quickly. When Jeremy Joseph came onto the stage at the end the backing singers were still there as if expecting to perform an encore. He just told them to get off! Definitely a missed opportunity, as there are so many old M People hits that would've raised the roof. Then it was back to the usual mix of camp classics and commercial pop music that is the trademark of Saturday nights at The Astoria.

anorthernmonkey

One of Ruby's Munchkins

Registered: November 2005
Location: London, UK
Posts: 129

Review Date: 12 July 06

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 0

Pros:	Fantastic cheesy Pop
Cons:	What a crap PA!

Last weekend, G-A-Y swapped round the usual Friday and Saturday nights for some reason, so that Friday was the act and Saturday was Camp Attack. The act for this week’s perusal was Rhianna.

It actually didn't fill up until about 1am, which was nice as I actually managed about an hour and a half of dancing in the upstairs 90s bar (rather than having to leave after two minutes due to sweating my balls off and not being able to move in there) so that was fantastic. The night after the act was good, we got drunk, danced on the main floor (again not too packed which was lovely) and generally had a good night.

The downside here was the act, G-A-Y is good as a lot of acts go there and show their support for the gay scene who support them by buying their stuff - you can tell they appreciate it. Oh my god Rhianna was obviously ONLY there to sell her album, and didn't look like she wanted to be there at all. She couldn't be bothered to dance in time, was MIMING out of time and didn't even speak to the crowd (shouting 'G-A-Y!' once and 'Don't forget the album is out on the ___ of the month' doesn't count). Much as I like her singles, this really wasn't a good act and really put a dampener on the night for people that I chatted to about it afterwards - I guess people don't really like being treated like a cash cow. I look forward to going back to G-A-Y in the near future when they will have better acts on. I think Vengaboys next week will do ten times better that the pile of crock that was.

anorthernmonkey

One of Ruby's Munchkins

Registered: November 2005
Location: London, UK
Posts: 129

Review Date: 13 June 06

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10

Pros:	Err both Minogues on stage!!
Cons:	Way way too hot in there!

Oh lordy, Saturday I noticed on the G-A-Y roster that Dannii Minogue was on, being a fan of all things Minogue I trotted on down to hear her 'Greatest Hits and Beyond' show that had been specially put together for the G-A-Y crowd.

We got there nice and early about 11ish, dumped the coats off and then went for a drunken wander. First of all I will say it was hotter than usual (which is saying something) and more packed than usual (again that's saying something), but then the Astoria is always like that in summer. Drink prices in there on a Saturday are ridiculous as well. However the main act more than made up for it.

Dannii came on quite late, but the crowd were all up for it despite the heat. Come 2ish there were claps and chanting for Dannii, then she came on and the place erupted. Introduced by Jeremy as our 'queen of clubs', she started with Disremembrance (one of my all time top songs accompanied by massive playing cards with Dannii on as the queen) and then melted into 'All I wanna do', all of her hits new and old followed, including 'Put the needle on it', 'Perfection'. 'Love and kisses' and her brand new 'So under pressure'. The visuals, dancing and live singing were all fantastic and she clearly loved the reception from the crowd. I know she can get bad press sometimes but there was nothing to fault. The show was stunning and has left most music boards demanding an accompanying tour. It's nice to go to G-A-Y when the artist sings more than three songs (or actually has more than three they can sing), and acknowledges that the homo crowd form a large backbone of their audience and clearly love us too.

I'm sure you have heard by now what happened next. With a 'hang on a minute, I've got a surprise' from Ms Minogue Junior - KYLIE (looking much better) came on to hand out the usual bunch of flowers. The crowd thinking 'that's not Jeremy' took about three seconds before realising who it was and the place went into uproar. Screaming, cheers and clapping like you have never heard before. I had to be taken outside and fanned/slapped to calm down. Then after a few words about her sister and a chorus of 'Jump to the beat', she was off again. The two of them were so taken aback by the reaction to them and were visibly moved, Dannii was also so happy to see Kylie on stage and looking well it was quite moving.

I have to say that was the best £10 I have ever spent. I would have given it 10/10 just for Dannii's show without Kylie to be honest as she was fantastic, but that was the icing on the cake. Love or hate G-A-Y, you can't deny that they pull some good coups off act wise. I left very much sated.

Ruby Slippers

Scene Diva

Registered: May 2004
Location: London, UK
Posts: 182

Review Date: 7 June 06

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 8

Pros:
Cons:

Quite a busy night really considering the headline act has been virtually unknown in the U.K. until recently. First up was Tara McDonald singing her vocal contribution to the new Armand Van Helden single “My, My, My” (Nice dancers but no sign of Mr. Van Helden himself!). From my VIP vantage point, rubbing shoulders with X-Factor judge Louis Walsh, I had a good unimpaired view not blocked by the over-eager security and the hoard of photographers. Next up was special (but not really that surprising) guest Sharon Osbourne who was introducing page three girl Michelle Marsh. As usual the crowd went wild for Sharon, and Jeremy Joseph surprised her with a bouquet. (The Astoria seems to be becoming a second home for these X-Factor celebrities!).

Then it was time for the main act, Danish dance duo Infernal (Lina Rafn and Paw Lagermann). They kicked off (spot the football metaphor creeping in!) with their version of Ultravox’s Vienna which starts slowly before building into a dance anthem of its’ own. Then followed “Keen on Disco” and “Cheap Trick Kind Of Girl” before the one everyone was waiting for. Played in G-A-Y since last summer, “From Paris to Berlin” has become THE dance tune of 2006. They have recorded several new versions for different countries to celebrate (or is that cash in on) the World Cup. The first chorus was the football version before they reverted to the original. (“From London to Berlin, we’re gonna win the World Cup!”). This had me wondering what the German version might be like (From Berlin to Berlin??) This was quickly followed by Lina singing about bondage (Dressed in Blue!). It was great to see a dance act playing and singing live at G-A-Y as well as looking good. (Shirtless Paw was showing off his drop-dead gorgeous muscled body, which was sprinkled with glitter, while at the same time he was played keyboards – he can play my keyboard any time!). Quite wonderful but there was no time to hang around to ask Louis about whether a certain G-A-Y flyer boy would make it through the auditions for the next series of X-Factor….

Ruby Slippers

Scene Diva

Registered: May 2004
Location: London, UK
Posts: 182

Review Date: 25 November 05

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 8

Pros:	Fabulous show from Madge.
Cons:	Astoria is a bit of a dump.

Saturday night Toto and I headed in different directions. I made my way into the West End and off to G-A-Y dressed up to the nines to see her Madgeness. The show was billed as Confessions On A G-A-Y Dancefloor with no mention of Madonna anywhere and quite possibly the worst kept secret in the history of the world?ever! Purple wristbands instead of tickets for those who queued up in the early hours (well 10:30 in the morning IS early!) allowed a speedy entry for the queue that snaked around Soho Square well past The Edge. Even the outside of the dive that is the Astoria was transformed with large promotional images, a projected cover of the album on the side of the building, and a large mirror ball over the entrance.

From my reserved table on the balcony I had a good view of the G-A-Y regulars, who were given priority, and the assorted freaks who camped out overnight. After three hours of DJ Craig Jones' pop fabulous set which included a sing-a-long-a-Madonna half hour, it was time for the main event. The crowd was shouting "Ma-don-na Ma-don-na" and though I'd accidentally gone to an Argentinean football match.

The Material Girl made an entrance worthy of myself, coming onto the stage through a video screen showing a giant mirror ball! (How appropriate! She must have known I was there!) Straight into "Hung Up" the uber-successful single, was then followed by "Get Together", "I Love New York" and "Let It Will Be". All taken from the new Confessions On A Dancefloor album. One song in, and her pink jacket was discarded to reveal the rest of her one-piece pink leotard-cum-bathing suit. (Pink was definitely the colour for the night!) Throughout the show the giant video screen provided a back drop of different images including a New York skyline and silver spinning Madonna record, which was augmented by the best lighting effects ever seen at the club.

Between songs there was a bit of banter with the audience; "I love New York but London has the best fags!" "Do you know who I made this record for? I made it for you f****rs!" "I won't do the next song until the front row takes their shirts off" "Who threw water on my stage?" (with a slapped wrist to the culprit who owned up - followed by more of the front row owning up, in a Life of Brian "I'm Brian and so's my wife" way). Mostly this was the same show as Koko last Tuesday, with Maddie much more at ease and clearly enjoying her visit to G-A-Y. Whilst writhing on the catwalk, showing off her fanny-flaps through her leotard, she even let some of the audience touch her legs and arms. The final song was an updated version of her first ever single "Everybody" which included a traditional G-A-Y balloon drop, giving the bizarre sight of a superstar trying to sing and dance and kick pink balloons out of her way. A quick couple of choruses of "Jump" and she disappeared back through the video screen, and it was all over. After a long silence and lots of cheering, the DJ started up with "Like A Prayer" and some of the out-of-towners thought she was doing an encore. I was already at the bar!

BondageBoy
One of Ruby's Munchkins

Registered: September 2005
Location: London, UK
Posts: 5

Review Date: 16 November 05

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 0

Pros:	It can still pull the in the big names for an appearance!
Cons:	Still a dive!!!

Uncle Pete Waterman was behind the DJ decks on Saturday night, to remind us just how fabby those old Stock Aitken and Waterman tunes were! (And by co-incidence to promote the new SAW compilation CD and DVD). The previous week we were treated a trio of SAW performances (Jason Donovan, Sonia and Sinitta) but this week we had only the X-Factor reject Maria, who proved what a travesty her being voted out was. She received the kind of reception from the G-A-Y crowd that wouldn't be out of place this coming Saturday for her Madgeness and rightly so, because this gal can certainly sing.

Uncle Pete played tracks from the new CD (assisted by regular DJ Craig) and worked the faders in an eighties-stylie - ducking the volume every time Steps sang "Tragedy" so the bemused crowd could sing along. After a few goes everyone got into the swing! How fabby to hear Sam Fox (Nothing's Gonna Stop Me) and Cliff Richard (I Just Don't Have The Heart) in G-A-Y again!

After PW departed there was a prize balloon drop with the chance to win copies of the CD, DVD and poster! After a mad scramble I managed to secure one of each for myself, although the scene was reminiscent of the January sales!

One big attraction for regulars was Jeremy giving out vouchers to give priority for the wristbands for this coming Saturday's Confessions On A G-A-Y Dancefloor. Interesting to see how many pretend regulars couldn'tt answer the simplest questions about the club!

BondageBoy
One of Ruby's Munchkins

Registered: September 2005
Location: London, UK
Posts: 5

Review Date: 10 October 05

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 7

Pros:	Relatively cheap club night. Pop/NRG (no Hip Hop!)
Cons:	Dive of a venue

The Sugababes have a new album out this week. To promote it they did a one hour live show (instead of just a mimed PA) at G-A-Y on Saturday night (8th) (actually Sunday morning 2-3 a.m.) which was also broadcast over the internet. G-A-Y hasn't been that full to the rafters on a Saturday for a long while now (although a couple of weeks it came close when Charlotte Church was doing a PA) The old cheshtnut about equality and gay clubs raises it's head again with all the straight girls hogging the front of the stage from opening time (If only I had a cattle prod!). Despite being hotter and sweatier than a wrestler's jock strap, most seemed to be enjoying themselves with the middle ('Trash') bar left looking rather sad and desolate when the 'babes took to the stage (although earlier it had been full to bursting with the fabulous mix of trashy pop that DJ Nick plays!).

Basically the show consisted of their greatest hits with a smattering of tracks from the new album, the most notable being the infectious Push The Button (still the UK's favourite track at the moment). Such a concentrated dose of Sugababes does unfortunately highlight how similar sounding a number of their tracks are, and leaves me wondering just what the appeal is, although most of the 2000 clubbers seemed to be whooping it up. To me though, the show was just 'singing with a bit of waving'. (I'll probably buy the album anyway!).

kitsch bitch
Registered User

Registered: November 2004
Location: London, UK
Posts: 38

Review Date: 25 September 05

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 9

Pros:	Constant Pop, NRG and dance music - no RnB
Cons:	Vile twat of a blonde skin bouncer who gives everyone grief.

A great night, and always guarenteed to see some of the biggest names in pop!

Ruby Slippers

Scene Diva

Registered: May 2004
Location: London, UK
Posts: 182

Review Date: 26 August 05

Would you recommend this club? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 4

Pros:
Cons:	Girls Aloud gave a decidedly lack lustre performance

After some consideration we decided to stick with the camp disco theme (it was a visit to The White Swan on Friday night) and Saturday saw us heading into the West End to go to G-A-Y for Girls Aloud. It wasn't as busy as G-A-Y usually is, maybe because it's the peak of the holiday season. Over all we had a good evening, but Girls Aloud gave a decidedly lack lustre performance. They opened their set by badly miming their way through the current single 'Long Hot Summer' and continued at the same poor level. Obviously after two successful shows at G-A-Y and being one of the best acts at Big Gay Out they felt they didn't need to make an effort. I certainly wouldn't bother seeing them again.

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