The Backstreet 40th Birthday Party
£8
The Backstreet 40th Birthday Party!Hold onto your harnesses it’s time for our 80’s Gay Bar night to return! We are really thrilled to be doing this again with our friends from The Backstreet to celebrate their 40th Birthday. There’s live music, archive, chat with John, cake and dancing! Wear your best leather and join us as we celebrate all things Backstreet!
Parlour Gallery will be open showing new work by Matthew Pagget, the Backstreet cloakroom wasn't just a cloakroom. It was a meeting place, a ticket office, a depot, and, crucially, a gateway between two very different worlds. Artist Matt Pagett worked in the cloakroom for the club's final five years and his drawing installation at the Parlour Gallery is the latest part of an ongoing project based on this most individual of spaces.About The BackstreetLondon’s longest running leather bar The Backstreet ran, very discreetly, behind a black door on Wentworth Mews, Mile End, from April 1985 to July 2022. For many of those years, Backstreet founder John Edwards would celebrate the anniversary of the bars opening with a big birthday bash, complete with a birthday cake adorned with edible images of leather and rubbermen, specifically made by a bakers on the Roman Road. As memorable as those celebrations were, none of us were aware that John had saved the decorative icing from those cakes, storing them away in bubble wrap, in a cardboard box in his flat. Some are broken and discoloured with mould, and some are almost immaculate, and all have never been seen since their respective parties. The Birthday celebrations were significant to John, each one a milestone, an achievement of years passed, for a venue, as he himself speculated at the very beginning “probably wouldn’t last 6 months”. Indeed, in his archive is a hand drawn, but unfinished poster celebrating the half-year birthday.It’s now 40 years since The Backstreet opened and we’re very honoured that Triangle is helping us to celebrate its unique history, and doubly honoured that they are allowing us to display some of those aforementioned sexy cake icings.
Age restriction: 18+
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This ticket grants access to The Backstreet 40th Birthday Party on Saturday 12th April 2025
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Triangle LGBTQ+ Cultural Centre34 Watsons Street, London, SE8 4AU