August Bank Holiday - To be a Sucess or Not to be a Sucess, That is THE Question? - Special Preview

AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY
TO BE A SUCESS OR NOT TO BE A SUCESS...THAT IS THE QUESTION?


With 2009 proving to be a tough year in gAylist/land London for a number of reasons, the previous Bank Holidays have been tricky to say the least, with plenty of events struggling to attract the sort of numbers that would have been a given in years gone by. Many of the expectated launch of new ventures over Easter & then the May Day breaks, fell victim to the ravages of the economic climate, as the big guns stole the lions share of a a declining captive audience. Yes there were some real sucesses, but with the three holidays being so close together, it was always going to be a difficult climate for club promoters and venues alike.

Then, with a predicted hot British Summer season of weather falling flat on its face, the London scene seemed to come to a bit of a halt with no real big club ventures hitting town, all seemingly taking breath as the masses were torn away to the Circuit Festival in Barcelona & mecca's Ibiza, Mykonos and more, to soak up some proper hot action, or maybe, countig their hard earnt pennies, simply stayed at home. But with the tug of September drawing people back & out, will the last Bank Holiday before Christmas prove to be different to the the previous three? Well, there are plenty of reasons to suspect that it will and here is our take on exactly why we think so, with our choice pick of events across the weekend.

For us and many, it all kicks off on the "new Friday", yes Thursday 27th, with both Barcode's enticing you to start off a party weekend as you mean to go on. Industri opens it's doors as usual in Vauxhall, with the magnificient Minty (are we doing "sassy bitches?") hosting as always and Paul Heron on the decks, this being a social soiree spectacular attracting a whole buch of regulars as well as plenty of off-duty scene faces & the like. Over in Soho the Barcode crew are launching a new night "Ursus Cave", aimed at bears, cubs, musclebears & their friends with a rotation of D.J.'s including Hi-Fi Sean & Paul Coles, while back over the river Gravity opens its doors at Fire on the back of its sucessful "Dirty Cash" night of pure scandal drawing in those that either don't need to or decide against work the following day, The Oli, Terry Bryan & guests providing the musical entertainment.

Friday 28th sees the action step up a pace as two of clubland London's heavyweights roll out pre-parties. Matinee takes hold of The Box in Covent Garden, which has a reputation for attracting a beautiful & sophisticated crowd, which will no doubt add to the host of Matinee visuals, concession ticket offers & ofcourse attendance of Mark M Forns Fierce Intl boys & gals to add glamour & glitz to proceedings. Over at Rupert Street, fellow Spanish club icon SuperMartXe takes over the venue for the night to promote their "Circus" party, with non other than D.J. supremo Nick Tcherniak (fab) on the decks, warming us up for his appearance at The Cornet for the main event. Following the last pre-party, we trust that Logan & his team will be pulling out all the stops to show how it should be done and we expect that the imfamous SuperMartXe beachball will take centre stage again. In Vauxhall, Onyx swings into action having cemented itself into the weekly calendar, a welcome gay/metrosexual club at Area, with a star studded D.J. line up across three rooms of fun, including Phil Marriot, Steven Geller, Ariel, Lisa German & Jason Prince, not to mention the amazing Area production, lighting & pyrotechnics as well as drinks offers a plenty.

Saturday 29th is when things really hot up with plenty of events on offer to tempt out all sorts. XXL roll out their leather party although they will have tough competition in the form of Hard On! which swings into action at Hidden in Vauxhall, headed up as usual by the queen of kink, Suzi Kruger, with discounted entry on offer to those wishing to bear all and a pervy performance by Hellfire who will be joined to two porn stars to beef up the action Resident D.J's in action will include Halo-Is, Hugosland & ofcourse Brent Nicholls. For the the slightly fainter hearted folk, G.A.Y. accomodates the camp & Juicy at Fire tempts in the disco dancefloor disciples, with the likes of Steve Pitron, Hi-Fi Sean, Rob Sykes, Gonzalo & David Jiminez spinning the sounds. However, there is little doubt that Matinee is going to draw a massive crowd on the back of its launch over at London Bridge's Cable in July, rolling out an August bak Holiday spectacular with an incredible line up of Matinee group all-star G-Martin & fresh from his stunning set at the Circuit Festival together with a host of eurpoean appearances, D.J./producer Danny Verde (can't wait). They join resident D.J's Guy Williams, Alessandro, Fat Tony & Brent Nicholls, with the addition of Jonny M & Moussa to the line up. The P.A. performance has yet to be confirmed, but Fierce Intl will be providing stunning shows across the three rooms, with the added temptation of a CD giveaway of Pagano's rare Matinee compilation to the first 300 through the door and based on the last party the most gorgeous crowd you could ever want, what more could you ask for?

Sunday 30th kicks off in earnest with Beyond as usual at Area in Vauxhall, which will no doubt be rammed with a colloision of clubbers, although some may decide to rest and re-charge in time for SuperMartXe, which moves from its usual Saturday slot to Sunday evening at the Coronet in Elephant & Castle. The party themed "Circus" should have all the usual ingredients that make this clubbing event really popular and with Pablo Kopanos headlining the D.J. team for the night, sandwiched by D'Johnny & Nick Tcherniak, a P.A. performance by spanish songstress cum diva, Nalaya, as well as aerial performers & fire breathers to add to the atmosphere. Plus, we are told that the stage show will blow your mind with some spectacular circus surprises, so a good reason not to be late. But if thats not your thang, then there is always XXL's Fusion "sunset to sunrise" party, with (surprise, surprise) The Freemasons among the D.J. line up. For those that fancy a quick cocktail (a drink silly) before hitting what will be Sunday's main event, SuperMartXe, you could do worse than popping into Barcode Vauzhall, which is going from strength to strength on Sunday nights and with Hi-Fi Sean on the decks, you won't be dissapointed.

As if that wasn't enough, then the mother of all clubs, Trade, swings into action once againin the early hours of Monday morning 31st August, teaming up with Orange at Fire to bring the second instalment of one of the years most talked about parties. Once again there will be a Trade room with D.J.'s including Pete Wardman, Pagano, Gonzalo (extactly where he belongs) Lady Bianca & Kamisshake, with the added ingredient of a back-to-back set by Steve Thomas & Nick Tcherniak, as well as Fat Tony playing out, accompanied by the voice on Tonnic (maybe with a touch of Laurence Malice thrown in for good measure). The Orange room will feature Steve Pitron, David Jiminez, The Sharp Boys, Jamie Head, Mikey D (sounds like Beyond classic Colosseum days of old!) as well as Paul Martin, Rob Sykes, D'Johnny & more, not to mention sexy go-go dancers along with stunning production. This is likely to be pure clubbing hedonism seeing out Bank Holiday Monday in superb style, or more likely downright debauchery.

So, why do we think August Bank Holiday will be different to the last three? Well, for a start, there is no real clash of the Titans as the big guns have decided to spread out their parties sensibly for a change (or was that pure chance!?!). It seems that lessons may have been learnt and whilst we doubt that promoters are actually working & co-operating with each other, there appears a sense that they have realised that people may have become wise to their stupid games & tactics. We think they may now realise that its more about having a good time, throwing a good party, rather than fiercly competing, which only serves to detriment their own sucess, by alienating the people that line their pockets, the clubbing public, afterall it is and should be "one big disco". Are we being naive in our views? Well we hope not, although this is one question we will only be able to answer, post September 1st. However, what we can say now, is that there are plenty of good nay great reasons to come out to play this August Bank Holiday and we will definately be out to play as well as review it for sure. (DISCO MATT)