A night down the social club!
Roll out the Barrel!! Get on your best Saturday night togs and come and join us as Londons Best Regional Gay Bar celebrates the fabulousness that is the working men’s clubs and social clubs! (we are in fact modelled on these amazing spaces). Social clubs were important community hubs and also fostered solidarity and camaraderie in times of struggle and hardship and as community spaces, clubs like this are being shuttered and lost (as are so many LGBTQ+ spaces) so we pay homage to them all in their regional fabulousness!
A main feature on any Saturday night was the Star Turn alongside local and regional performers and our night is no exception, if you come for 7pm you can step back in time and watch our archive of working mens clubs and social clubs.
At 9pm Performing live will be the amazing dance artists Thick and Tight with Pink Narcissus, a homage to the super kitsch, weird romantic fever dream that is Dame Barbara Cartland, watch in awe as the prolific romantic novelist and stubborn vision in pink charms us with her wholesome views. Theres astounding magic by Not Paul Daniels wowing us with his box of real Paul Daniels magic tricks from 1984, singing live from the valleys is Port Talbots very own Medusa Has Been and fresh from a stint in the Tower Ballroom Blackpool is Northern Nightingale Jewelly Cockles!
There’s tip top standard bar food (sandwich platter, crisps and pickles) available and we will also be doing a game or two of bingo, dabbers are available unless you want to bring your own lucky one! This is included in your ticket!
So join us for a night down the social for nostalgia, class acts, start turns, top tunes, bar nibbles, solidarity and bingo!
LGBTQ+ History Fact…
Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) is 40 years old this year and was an historic alliance between striking miners and the LGBT community. During the national miners strike, LGBT activists became unexpected allies, united against the Thatcher government during the year-long strike of 1984 - 1985. By the end of the strike, eleven LGSM groups had emerged in the UK and the London group alone raised £22,500 by 1985 (equivalent to £73,000) in support. It was centred in the mining town of Onllwyn near Port Talbot and in particular the Onllwyn Miners' Welfare Hall which still operates today!