“FABULOUS FROLIKING FUNFAIR”
LATER GAY PRIDE SPECIAL – SUNDAY 4TH JULY
CLUB REVIEW
Since the launch of a club back in 2003, Sunday afternoons have never really been the same, all for good reasons of course, as our dancing shoes on Saturday night along with our unstoppable energies would easily carry us onto the inevitability of a barnstorming & brilliant Beyond (when isn’t it?!), meaning come midday on Sunday we always felt the need to continue the partying, ignoring the normality of general society, rather revelling in the decadent & debaucherous feel that results from dancing deep into what is considered the holy day of the week. Yes, Later has definitely become an institution in daytime clubbing and whilst its fortunes have pitched & yawed over the years, it continues to satisfy the insatiable appetite for many to keep pressing the accelerator in their partying weekend, savouring both the social splendour & the dancing dervishness that Later provides in bucket loads. Add into the mix, a special party in celebration of gay pride and the writing was very much on the wall, shouting that this was going to be a massive success from the start plus a huge draw. So, how did Later fair this time round? And t it meet fulfil the promise on paper?
Well, we were certainly in full throttle as we made our way across from the boiling point that was a brilliant Beyond bash at Area, the short ramble from one side of Vauxhall to the other with pal Benoit finding us at Fire’s entrance at not long before 1 a.m., ready to dance on deep into Sunday afternoon with Jay Sharp Vokins' special Funfair themed party, no doubt indulging in our fair share of alfresco action to boot. So, with no real queue to negotiate we were soon through Fire’s front entrance and into the main room, which was already pumping with action, plenty of revellers soaking up the dance dish being served up by D.J. & Later resident Paul Martin, his uplifting, chunky & funky house hitting resonance with the petrol fuelled party heads intent on burning up the dancefloor. Having dropped our bits & bobs off in the coatcheck and then arming ourselves with refreshments, we were keen to investigate the infamous Later garden, which we anticipated would look more like a mini fairground, although on stepping out into the sun, the team were not quite ready for the reveal and had restricted us to a small square space to soak up the warm Vauxhall afternoon sunshine.
With numbers outside swelling past comfort levels and it being evident that Jay & his merry men were still preparing the funfair, we decided to retreat back indoors onto Fire’s main room dancefloor to delight in the ever increasing atmosphere & crowd to match, giving this latest Later outing a feel of those heady days a few years back when this main arena would be packed to the rafters with post Beyond hedonists pouring in from Colosseum to continue their cavorting. And just like those delightful days, with Beyond at Area emptying out, many were choosing this special Later party as their next port of call, hoards streaming past us, swelling the numbers dramatically. With the dancefloor already pretty much full, it was evident that the continual line of people passing us by were going somewhere, so we peeled off the main room in search of satisfying our curiosity.
Finding ourselves outside again, the whole extent of Jay’s funfair fantastic was before our eyes, the skyline dominated by a huge helter skelter which looked pretty daunting from where we were standing, but soon proved to be the hit of the afternoon, as one screaming queen after the next climbed to the top and then slid down & round, ending up in a heap at the bottom to continual applause from the hoards of onlookers. For the less brave, there was a camp coconut shy, a few walking away with prizes in their hands, pal Dorin clutching a cute cuddly toy and one guy with an actual coconut which he was close to breaking open on his own head, much to the dismay of his friends. But while these playful activities added some real spice to the Later garden proceedings, many were just kicking back & lapping up the glorious sunshine, some dipping into the hot tub, others just relaxing on the plentiful seating. And it was here where we caught up with Industri pal Chris, a welcome addition to our mini fold of followers, who was to the mood to move & groove. So, back inside we went, although we both decided to stop off in the Mirrorarch room, which had been given away to the massive bucking bronco, a whole load of people braving it, holding on for dear life and eventually coming flying off to rapturous laughter & applause by the audience of onlookers.
With our bad back on our minds, we decided to give that option a wide berth, rather heading into Fire’s main space with Chris to boogie to the beats of Mikey D, who was mashing up the dancefloor with some truly hard hitting house tunes, much tougher than we had witnessed during his back-to-back set with Steve Pitron at Beyond, his diversity & ability to play to his audience shining through like the incredible D.J. that he is. Looking around the room, it very much had the feel of those heady days back close to Later’s launch, when the room would be brimming with hedonistic dancing extraordinaire and Mikey was definitely contributing to that electric feel with his fulsome tracks. With pal Chris in full flow, the transition between Mr Dower on the decks and D’Johnny was a smooth as a baby’s bottom, hardly altering the pace of our gyration on our select spot in this now pulsating main room of madness, all thoughts of the outside antics far away from our minds.
But the inevitability of the outside was going to draw us away from the dancing, especially as our legs were now a good 30 hours into their rest free activity. So, finding a comfortable spot to lay our lallies for a while, we watched the world go by, including a whole host of familiar faces & scene party heads, including Rob Ferguson, Romain Lopez, Heidi Liscious, Graham Mellors, and a resplendent Jay loving his funfair creation & rightly so, as well as that cheeky photographer Chris Jepson, who caught us in more than one embarrassing pose, our back giving no quarter to a dodging move from his lens, but probably safe in the knowledge that his fleeting shot of our nether regions would not make it into the popular gay press. With the sun beating down on our now tender head & joints, we didn’t really want to move anywhere, instead deciding to soak up the brilliant atmosphere & audacious funfair antics that were making this one very special Later party.
One last dive onto the dancefloor was the most we could muster now, as the toll of our pride partying was now beginning to tell, although with D’Johnny stirring plenty of emotions & much more besides with his breathtaking tech infused & funky beats, we could hardly resist indulging in what would prove to be our final moving & grooving of the weekend, his magical music & hard hitting house the perfect curtain call to our weekend of clubbing and partying activity, a brilliant Beyond set of his earlier in the day equalled by his lavish Later showing spectacle that was well deserved of the packed out place he was playing to, everyone around us seemingly having the energy & vitality to see this special pride devoted party through to the finish at 8 p.m. However, our weary legs were never going to carry us that far, and as a result our proverbial towel was thrown in on proceedings at just turn 5 p.m., although we were safe in the knowledge that we had savoured all the brilliance of this latest Later outing, one of the best for us in a long while.
Having been bitten by the Later bug a few times in recent weeks now, especially as an audacious antic of a party following the afterhours bash to end them all, Beyond, it was never going to take much for us to extend our already lengthy weekend outing in the hands of Jay & his team this time round. Having said that, the special funfair theme was very much an attraction and given the fact that so much effort had gone in to laying on all this extra entertainment, it made for a fabulous froliking funfair of a party. For those that braved the helter skelter, many were caught in photographic or video pose, for those that bucked the bronco, they had plenty of fun and for the hoards of hedonists that chose to dance their Sunday afternoon away in the hands of Paul Martin, Mikey D, D’Johnny & then The Oli (sorry missed your set), there is absolutely no doubt that the magic of Later parties in bygone years was more than re-captured. We loved every minute of our stay and, for us, this special outing was as good if not better than the Beyond before it, so the only way to conclude is by saying “Jay & your terrific team, keep up the good work”. (DISCO MATT)
LATER GAY PRIDE SPECIAL – SUNDAY 4TH JULY
CLUB REVIEW
Since the launch of a club back in 2003, Sunday afternoons have never really been the same, all for good reasons of course, as our dancing shoes on Saturday night along with our unstoppable energies would easily carry us onto the inevitability of a barnstorming & brilliant Beyond (when isn’t it?!), meaning come midday on Sunday we always felt the need to continue the partying, ignoring the normality of general society, rather revelling in the decadent & debaucherous feel that results from dancing deep into what is considered the holy day of the week. Yes, Later has definitely become an institution in daytime clubbing and whilst its fortunes have pitched & yawed over the years, it continues to satisfy the insatiable appetite for many to keep pressing the accelerator in their partying weekend, savouring both the social splendour & the dancing dervishness that Later provides in bucket loads. Add into the mix, a special party in celebration of gay pride and the writing was very much on the wall, shouting that this was going to be a massive success from the start plus a huge draw. So, how did Later fair this time round? And t it meet fulfil the promise on paper?
Well, we were certainly in full throttle as we made our way across from the boiling point that was a brilliant Beyond bash at Area, the short ramble from one side of Vauxhall to the other with pal Benoit finding us at Fire’s entrance at not long before 1 a.m., ready to dance on deep into Sunday afternoon with Jay Sharp Vokins' special Funfair themed party, no doubt indulging in our fair share of alfresco action to boot. So, with no real queue to negotiate we were soon through Fire’s front entrance and into the main room, which was already pumping with action, plenty of revellers soaking up the dance dish being served up by D.J. & Later resident Paul Martin, his uplifting, chunky & funky house hitting resonance with the petrol fuelled party heads intent on burning up the dancefloor. Having dropped our bits & bobs off in the coatcheck and then arming ourselves with refreshments, we were keen to investigate the infamous Later garden, which we anticipated would look more like a mini fairground, although on stepping out into the sun, the team were not quite ready for the reveal and had restricted us to a small square space to soak up the warm Vauxhall afternoon sunshine.
With numbers outside swelling past comfort levels and it being evident that Jay & his merry men were still preparing the funfair, we decided to retreat back indoors onto Fire’s main room dancefloor to delight in the ever increasing atmosphere & crowd to match, giving this latest Later outing a feel of those heady days a few years back when this main arena would be packed to the rafters with post Beyond hedonists pouring in from Colosseum to continue their cavorting. And just like those delightful days, with Beyond at Area emptying out, many were choosing this special Later party as their next port of call, hoards streaming past us, swelling the numbers dramatically. With the dancefloor already pretty much full, it was evident that the continual line of people passing us by were going somewhere, so we peeled off the main room in search of satisfying our curiosity.
Finding ourselves outside again, the whole extent of Jay’s funfair fantastic was before our eyes, the skyline dominated by a huge helter skelter which looked pretty daunting from where we were standing, but soon proved to be the hit of the afternoon, as one screaming queen after the next climbed to the top and then slid down & round, ending up in a heap at the bottom to continual applause from the hoards of onlookers. For the less brave, there was a camp coconut shy, a few walking away with prizes in their hands, pal Dorin clutching a cute cuddly toy and one guy with an actual coconut which he was close to breaking open on his own head, much to the dismay of his friends. But while these playful activities added some real spice to the Later garden proceedings, many were just kicking back & lapping up the glorious sunshine, some dipping into the hot tub, others just relaxing on the plentiful seating. And it was here where we caught up with Industri pal Chris, a welcome addition to our mini fold of followers, who was to the mood to move & groove. So, back inside we went, although we both decided to stop off in the Mirrorarch room, which had been given away to the massive bucking bronco, a whole load of people braving it, holding on for dear life and eventually coming flying off to rapturous laughter & applause by the audience of onlookers.
With our bad back on our minds, we decided to give that option a wide berth, rather heading into Fire’s main space with Chris to boogie to the beats of Mikey D, who was mashing up the dancefloor with some truly hard hitting house tunes, much tougher than we had witnessed during his back-to-back set with Steve Pitron at Beyond, his diversity & ability to play to his audience shining through like the incredible D.J. that he is. Looking around the room, it very much had the feel of those heady days back close to Later’s launch, when the room would be brimming with hedonistic dancing extraordinaire and Mikey was definitely contributing to that electric feel with his fulsome tracks. With pal Chris in full flow, the transition between Mr Dower on the decks and D’Johnny was a smooth as a baby’s bottom, hardly altering the pace of our gyration on our select spot in this now pulsating main room of madness, all thoughts of the outside antics far away from our minds.
But the inevitability of the outside was going to draw us away from the dancing, especially as our legs were now a good 30 hours into their rest free activity. So, finding a comfortable spot to lay our lallies for a while, we watched the world go by, including a whole host of familiar faces & scene party heads, including Rob Ferguson, Romain Lopez, Heidi Liscious, Graham Mellors, and a resplendent Jay loving his funfair creation & rightly so, as well as that cheeky photographer Chris Jepson, who caught us in more than one embarrassing pose, our back giving no quarter to a dodging move from his lens, but probably safe in the knowledge that his fleeting shot of our nether regions would not make it into the popular gay press. With the sun beating down on our now tender head & joints, we didn’t really want to move anywhere, instead deciding to soak up the brilliant atmosphere & audacious funfair antics that were making this one very special Later party.
One last dive onto the dancefloor was the most we could muster now, as the toll of our pride partying was now beginning to tell, although with D’Johnny stirring plenty of emotions & much more besides with his breathtaking tech infused & funky beats, we could hardly resist indulging in what would prove to be our final moving & grooving of the weekend, his magical music & hard hitting house the perfect curtain call to our weekend of clubbing and partying activity, a brilliant Beyond set of his earlier in the day equalled by his lavish Later showing spectacle that was well deserved of the packed out place he was playing to, everyone around us seemingly having the energy & vitality to see this special pride devoted party through to the finish at 8 p.m. However, our weary legs were never going to carry us that far, and as a result our proverbial towel was thrown in on proceedings at just turn 5 p.m., although we were safe in the knowledge that we had savoured all the brilliance of this latest Later outing, one of the best for us in a long while.
Having been bitten by the Later bug a few times in recent weeks now, especially as an audacious antic of a party following the afterhours bash to end them all, Beyond, it was never going to take much for us to extend our already lengthy weekend outing in the hands of Jay & his team this time round. Having said that, the special funfair theme was very much an attraction and given the fact that so much effort had gone in to laying on all this extra entertainment, it made for a fabulous froliking funfair of a party. For those that braved the helter skelter, many were caught in photographic or video pose, for those that bucked the bronco, they had plenty of fun and for the hoards of hedonists that chose to dance their Sunday afternoon away in the hands of Paul Martin, Mikey D, D’Johnny & then The Oli (sorry missed your set), there is absolutely no doubt that the magic of Later parties in bygone years was more than re-captured. We loved every minute of our stay and, for us, this special outing was as good if not better than the Beyond before it, so the only way to conclude is by saying “Jay & your terrific team, keep up the good work”. (DISCO MATT)
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