“SOHO SATURDAY”
RUPERT ST, KU-KLUB, BARCODE SOHO, REVOLVER, LO PROFILE
REVIEW FOR SEENQUEEN
We love a challenge and when the call of a handful of club promoters and D.J.’s beckoned our presence, we simply couldn’t say no to the prospect of fitting in 5 venues in one night into a Saturday in Soho. Did we have the stamina? Well, it seems we had, as the temptations of this gayest of areas in the gay capital of the world (well we think London is!) were too much to resist.
Familiarity breeds discontent, in this case, most definitely not, as we landed at Barcode in Archer Street, which was to form our base for further launch onto two well known venues, hosting special nights. So, dropping our heavies (bags not bouncers!) into the coatcheck and popping, briefly, downstairs to wave at D.J. Brent Nicholls, we made our way around to our first venue, the ever popular Rupert St. bar in, yes you guessed it, Rupert Street. Wedging our way through the door, the space inside was packed full of a stylish & cosmopolitan mix of boys & girls, intent on having a good time, and for good reason, as Manager Cathy & her team had put on some extra special entertainment in the form of some gorgeously sexy go-go dancers, all in aid of showing of a new range of “police” styled underwear from top smalls designer Andrew Christian.
Well, apart from being extremely scantly dressed (brave, given the wintry & wet conditions outside) in New York Style Cop caps and aptly badged ties, the boys gyrated up and down the bar, dodging pints of beer, bottles of champagne & cocktails (stop it!) a plenty, to the fabulous sounds emanating from the decks under the control of Rupert St resident, D.J. Alessandro. As if these stunning go-go’s weren’t enough to pop out our eyes, the staff had also joined in, and beefy good lookers they were too, doing their best to trade poses with the dancers, sporting complimentary Andrew Christian necklaces (thanks for mine Vlad x) to compliment the underwear peeping out from under their jeans. Whilst we only caught the tail end of the show, it was enough to send our pulses racing and got us well into the mood for our sprint venue marathon around Soho.
So, all too soon, waving goodbye to Cathy, her boys & Alessandro with his moreish house/electro tunes playing in our ears, we headed off across China Town to make our first visitation to Ku Bar’s underground venue, Ku-Klub, and the special night, Surge. Hosted by the enigmatic Lee Yeomans, we had promised a trip here for a while, and a review to boot! Paying our way and clambering down into the Tardis like club space, we immediately spotted Lee by the D.J. booth, with our newbie pal, J.C., in control of the music, playing out to a pop/indie crowd who were lapping up his dance rich tunes, clearly having fun, fun & more fun. Lee greeted us with open arms and immediately introduced us to family friends, who had also made the special trip. Where Rupert St had given us “raunch” Surge at Ku-Klub gave us downright dance, meets camp, meets vamp, the space being adorned with Halloween décor to give it a extra special feel. Despite the space being quite small, the best was made of it, with sound quality which would put some bigger venues to shame & lighting to match.
Stepping outside briefly, we caught up with Lee, who made an attempt to secure our company at Breakfast @ Egg, but with three more venues to go yet, we resisted his kind guest list offer, rather dragging him back into Surge and plying him with lager to keep him happy (it doesn’t take much you know!). J.C. was well into his stride and whilst not to our usual music taste, had us swinging our pants, but we did want to get a piece of Lee’s up-coming set, he also itching to get behind the decks. However, time was moving on in our limited & tight schedule, so we had to say farewell to the boys and head back across Soho. With planned improvements to Ku-Klub on the cards, Surge is set to go from strength to strength and is well worth a visit. We will certainly go again, different to our usual haunts, but then we like to be different!
By now Saturday had turned into Sunday and we found ourselves back at base camp Barcode and the delights of the club space downstairs. After a disspointingly quiet start (probably due to the filthy weather) the room was now packed, helped along in big portions & dollops of funky electro beats combined with happy house mixes from the man behind the decks, Brent Nicholls. An altogether different atmosphere to Surge, Barcode’s club in his hands is guaranteed to get us dancing and smiling from cheek to cheek (yes face cheeks!). Plus, with the odd slip into camp & hands in the air tunes, we find Brent’s influence on the feel, vibe and resultant success of the night out in Barcode Soho, truly satisfying, as we are sure do the Barcode team.
Since it’s revamp back in May, this West End gay mainstay venue has captured the imagination of many newcomers as well as old regulars and the space downstairs is dramatically better than the old, with much more space, better lighting (the lasers are amazing) and an overall more glamorous look, so much so, that it feels like a club destination in its own right. We count it as one of our favourites and recommend that if late night clubbing is not your thing, then you can do far more wrong than making Barcode your destination. We often see the 1 a.m. close time, and with superb music & company to match, tonight was no exception, so why not?
With our agenda well underway, Brent joined us for our jaunt back over gay-land Soho to the now weekly outing, Revolver, at The Astoria on Charing Cross Road. Catching up on gossip and discussing the merits of the re-focussing of this once monthly event, we soon arrived at Revolver’s doors and were greeted by the effervescent Minty, who beckoned us up past the VIP queue an up to her host station just inside the club. It immediately seemed like a “mini” Industri reunion, with just Paul Heron missing from our clan, so this alone started our visit to Astoria off on the right foot. With Minty doing the biz, we skipped up the steps and with Brent courteously waiting while we dropped our bags into the check, more stairwell steps lead us into the massive main room, which was reasonably filled out with ardent clubbers, who had clearly been there a while.
We left Brent to make his way to behind the D.J. booth afar, to drop off his records (well music C.D.'s, etc, you know what we mean!) by ascending the stage and being subjected to the same advances by the overzealous security guard that had tripped us up two weeks before (what is wrong with that man, does he not know who we are!?) while we headed for the front of the stage, joining our Matinee pals who had come along to support the cute & sexy Beppe (Craig in English), who was part of the dance troupe performing on stage. With Pagano behind the decks, we knew we were in for a great time and before we knew it, we dancing merrily on our spot, although, again, in just the blink of an eye, the show began. With a dramatic huge red draped infused acrobatic introduction & decent from the ceiling, two lithe & toned gymnasts captured the, by now, huge crowd’s attention, with one entertaining us to an energetic floor routine to marvel. The newly formed Revolver dance team were soon out on stage and we spotted the lovely Beppe who was, like the others, aptly garbed for the “Twisted Circus”/Halloween theme, giving us the look from his spot on the stage. With the now characteristically amazing visuals matching the dancers costume theme, & the space around them dominated by a massive scary clown face as well as plenty of other production touches, it was clear that no expense had been spared, so typical of the effort always put into Revolver, by organiser Oliver Mohns & his Evolved Events team. The show was spectacular and it was clear our Matinee posse were all enjoying it too, not to mention Minty, who had joined us from her door duties. Her arrival signalled the inevitable dice of death with the Sambuca bottle as we traded glass after glass enforcing back & forth trips to the bar.
With the show over and Pagano arresting control and commencing delivery of some mind blowing tracks (he is in a music purple patch at the moment), the man himself Oliver, found us at the front of the stage and gave us his usual heart warming collection of hugs & kisses. Not long after that, Brent, having taken plenty of video & picture shots joined us at our newly assumed rest spot at the back of the main room, to compare notes on the night so far, the venue, the show & moreover the people, before taking his leave, to retire home to his man. This also signalled our retreat, conscious that our final venue visit beckoned, so we slipped quietly out to zig zag back over Soho to Lo-Profile.
Despite initial reservations, we were pleasantly surprised by how busy Revolver was and with reports coming in that G.A.Y. was quiet and many other venues in a similar boat, Oliver should be pleased with the turnout he was graced with, albeit that he admitted to us that the event had been an expensive one for him. Bringing fresh, cutting edge club experiences to the West End comes at a cost, but this man is not scared to do it and we take our hat off to him for that.
It was now our final destination of the night, but the vagaries of the Sambuca burst were telling as we arrived on Wardour Street, fortunately meeting D,J, Alessandro outside Lo-Profile (he had popped out for a sneaky one!) which was a blessing in disguise. With our aide by our side we weaved down the brightly lit corridor and down into the club to find a select bunch of well dressed, good looking and sophisticated clubbers, so different to the, dare I say it (no I won’t) previously experienced lot (phew!, I managed to avoid the C.H. phrase! – Brent please note). Alessandro’s tunes kind of brought us full circle from our first venture, Rupert St. Bar, although his selection was slightly harder than before, and rightly so, we loved it (get his new C.D., it’s great!).
With our previous two experiences of Lo-Profile looming heavy in our minds, we are pleasantly surprised to say that we actually enjoyed this one much more. For all the reservations we had before, we decided to dispel them in favour of a good time, and that we had. It has to be said however, for us, it is no Barcode, no Surge, especially no Revolver, clearly set apart from Rupert St., but it has a rightful place in any “potential” Soho circuit and we are pleased we included it in our list of visiting venues on this Saturday night outing.
Well, were we proud of our feat of fitting in 5 venues in one night? Yes Indeed, and five more individual places you couldn’t have chosen. With elements of the great pretender to the gay village phenomenon, Vauxhall, struggling, the West End seems to be coming back into its own. So, if it is circuit style club/pub/bar hopping you want from your free Saturday night, look no further than Soho. The five we made, represent only a handful of what’s on offer, but they rank as our top choices. If you haven’t done so already, try them out, we pretty much guarantee you won’t be disappointed. (DISCO MATT)
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