REVOLVER AT THE ASTORIA – SATURDAY 22ND NOVEMBER
REVIEW FOR SEEQUEEN
Since it’s launch back in May, Revolver has been at the forefront of a step change in gay clubbing in London, spearheading the move to superb production, lighting, sparkling stage shows and cutting edge (if sometimes daring) music styles which have set it apart from the “commercial” offerings which have so often had a stranglehold on the scene.
At it’s initial home, Scala in Kings Cross, Revolver proved that spectacular cinema style venues was just what the brand needed and a chain of awesome shows combined with scene favourite & talented D.J’s, drew a fabulous mix of latino’s, scene faces, party boys & girls who (like us) were tempted not just by great music, but by all round entertainment in truly circuit style surroundings. Despite all on offer, it is fair to say that turnout was modest, some pointing the blame at the locale rather than the brand.
With this backdrop, a bold decision was made to move Revolver from Scala to a West End location, choosing The Astoria as its new home. As part of this move, the promotions team opted to go for the daring step and make Revolver a weekly event. The launch was a huge success, with stunning visuals from massive screens, amazing go-go dancers performing, a superb PA on stage, wonderful lighting and a transformation of Astoria never seen before. Evolved Events (the promotion engine for Revolver & Matinee) really put “their money where their mouth was” and expectations already high were certainly met in this launch party.
So, just four weeks after moving to Astoria and having supported each weekly party since hitting the West End, we once again opted to attend Revolver in a the wake of a Saturday offering little or no choice of “big style” clubbing, making our decision very easy indeed. Having warmed ourselves up with a pre-club circuit roving trip to Ku-Klub, Rupert St & Barcode Vauxhall (the latter in the hands of Revolver residents Nick Tcherniak & Brent Nicholls – what a warm up!) we were raring to go upon arriving at Astoria’s steps to the welcoming arms of Minty who was managing to door in her usual fantastic fashion. Now, as you are probably already familiar, the night couldn’t go any further without offering up shots of Sambuca, ideal for chasing away the artic style conditions outside, something that has become a tradition between us & Minty.
Moving into the club and on the promise of hooking up with friends, Lee Yeomans & Max Sanna (both acclaimed D.J’s/Producers) as well as Industri pals Chris & Stephen, we hit the main room and instantly recognised a change to the layout. The massive stage had been shrunk by a huge black backdrop and with the D.J. booth moved right forward to give the room a more intimate feel. Three dancing podiums were in place on the expanse of the dancefloor and go-go dancers had already assumed position to entertain the crowd, gyrating to the tunes of Oliver M, who was in command of the decks. Immediately spotting him, we ran up to greet him and savoured his usual warm welcome, sharing, momentarily, news before he was torn away back to his D.J. duties.
Retiring through the crowd towards the back of the room, we soon bumped into all our pals, Chris, Stephen & Lee, almost missing our tallest friend Max (how could we not see him!) and caught up on the evening’s events, also spotting other familiar faces who, just like us, were here to support one of our favourite club concepts around. Nevertheless, it was clear that the small crowd was speaking volumes and despite the great music being delivered by Oliver and the go-go dancers making every effort, the atmosphere was nothing like previous parties and the move to make the room more intimate, whilst probably sensible, in some ways took away the whole ethos of Revolver, massive production, superb stage shows & sparkling entertainment.
Being joined by Minty and also spotting and being greeted by Pagano as he arrived for D.J. duties, we continued to dance & socialise with our pals, further added by the arrival of the cute and cuddly Eduardo De La Torre, with whom we are soon to be privileged to share the same birthday week, Eduardo lined up to deliver the last set of the evening. With Oliver handing over to Pagano, the great music continued, although his task was difficult as the dancefloor remained far from full and indeed the crowd was most “un-Revolver” like. Despite all efforts by the team, despite our efforts to inject energy by dancing away, despite the superb company we were holding (Lee, Max, Chris, Stephen, Minty & more) and despite the brilliant music, the atmosphere just wasn’t there and we soon decided our time at Revolver was up.
Leaving our friends behind, shunning a trip to Egg in favour of a return to Barcode Vauxhall, we fell on Evolved Events supremo Oliver M & his boyfriend outside Astoria, both with disappointment written across their faces. We consoled them but given the lack of turnout tonight, claimed that moving to weekly was always going to be tough. We agreed that swapping from Scala to the West End was probably the right move, but with Astoria’s history and reputation, we suspect that choosing the venue was probably the wrong move. Oliver continued to talk about his passion for everything, the music, the shows, the production but mostly putting on a great party and we agreed that he is very much renowned for all of this. There was no doubt that this enthusiasm had shown through in previous Revolver parties and is trademark Matinee London, so typically Evolved Events. Nevertheless, the writing for the immediate future of Revolver was “on the wall” and Oliver confirmed to us that the club would be no more at Astoria. With this stark news on our minds we headed back across south of the river to forget the woeful end to weekly Revolver’s.
So, does this mean the end of this club brand, well definitely not! More likely is that it will take a well deserved break and then come back bigger & better than before. Given the fact that few weekly clubs of this size work, currently, it is doubtful that Revolver will ever be that again, but it is possible that its ties with Matinee (THE most successful club in gay London) will become closer and we can look forward to some amazing parties from a potentially combined effort.
Revolver, on this occasion, sadly fired blanks, but over its short history has been fully loaded & charged and has made a considerable impact on the scene. It our eyes, it changed the whole face of gay clubbing and we will miss it tremendously but hope to see it return soon. (DISCO MATT)
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