G-A-Y is a long-running gay

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gen ...

, based at

Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It started in 1976, and for many years was based at the

London Astoria The London Astoria was a music venue at 157 Charing Cross Road, in London, England. Originally a warehouse during the 1920s, the building became a cinema and ballroom. It was converted for use as a theatre in the 1970s. After further developme ...

History

G-A-Y started in 1976 in the Sundown club in the basement of the

(later LA2) as a Monday night event called ''Bang!''. It was started by club promoters Norman Scott, Damien Tony and Jerry Collins, who worked as a DJ under the name Gary London. During the 1980s, ''Bang!'' (which had by then also expanded to Saturday night) and ''Propaganda'' (Thursday night) were run by gay club promoter and DJ Colin Peters (Peter Daubeney), whose brother Jamie continued as promoter for a period following his death. In the early 1990s, ''Bang!'' was acquired by DJ and promoter Jeremy Joseph, formerly employed by Peters, who oversaw its change of name to ''G-A-Y''. At this point, G-A-Y expanded further from two nights a week to four, hosting at the LA2 on Mondays and Thursdays and the London Astoria on Fridays and Saturdays. It operated from the

music venue for 15 years until July 2008. The

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described it as "London's largest gay-themed club night", '' NME'' reported that it "attracts 6,000 clubbers each week", and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' described it as "the one London gig that really matters" for "today's pop stars". G-A-Y is associated with ''G-A-Y Bar'' and ''G-A-Y Late''. A major stake in the brand was bought on 13 August 2007 by the MAMA Group. On Friday 3 October 2008, G-A-Y moved to the famous gay venue

, which MAMA Group had acquired a few weeks earlier on 22 September 2008.

The G-A-Y Album

In 2000, a 40 track compilation album was released, featuring songs from some of the artists who had appeared at G-A-Y. A promotional campaign took place in the weeks leading up to release, including television and radio advertisements, a nationwide poster campaign and magazine advertisements in both the gay and teen press. On Saturday 1 July 2000, a show was held at G-A-Y to promote the release of the album. Seven acts who appeared on the album performed. These acts were

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, All Saints,

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, Dina Carroll,

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and Louise. Each act performed only one song, apart from Louise, who also performed her new single "2 Faced". The G-A-Y album was released on Monday 3 July 2000 and peaked at number 18 in the UK compilations chart.

G-A-Y brand

The G-A-Y brand has expanded to two other bars in the same area: G-A-Y Late (located near the former Astoria site) and G-A-Y bar (located nearby in Soho's

Old Compton Street Old Compton Street is a road that runs east–west through Soho in the West End of London. History The street was named after Henry Compton who raised funds for a local parish church, eventually dedicated as St Anne's Church in 1686. Th ...

). In April 2011, the G-A-Y brand arrived in Manchester's Canal Street gay village, with a G-A-Y bar opening in the former venue of Spirit Bar. On October 28th 2021 Jeremy Joseph announced that G-A-Y Manchester would be sold to Lee Kellow as a G-A-Y franchise. Jeremy Joseph remains the owner of G-A-Y Bar, G-A-Y Late & Heaven.

Controversies

In March 2019, staff refused comedian Rosie Jones, who has

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, entry into one of his nightclubs after they believed she was drunk. Owner Jeremy Joseph later apologised on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. In 2011, Joseph tweeted that straight people were not welcome to a

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gig, stating: "My birthday wish is for little girls to realise that G-A-Y is a lesbian and gay club so there's only one direction and that's no direction for them". Joseph was also accused of racism after blaming a rise in crime in Soho on "Somalians"; this led to criticism from Black and South Asian LGBT groups. In early 2022, G-A-Y Bar was reported to have been issued the lowest hygiene rating of '1' by Westminster City Council following an inspection in November 2021 after it found fruit flies, mould-covered and bacteria-laden ice machines, and water filtration systems which had not been cleaned nor serviced for 5 years.

Performances

Saturday nights at G-A-Y/Heaven have seen many performances from a wide selection of artists and genres. Acts who have appeared at G-A-Y include: *

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Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage producti ...

Ellie Goulding Elena Jane Goulding ( ; born 30 December 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. Her career began when she met record producers Starsmith and Frankmusik, and she was later spotted by Jamie Lillywhite, who became her manager and Artists and ...

Enrique Iglesias Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (; (born 8 May 1975) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican indie label Fonovisa and became the bestselling Spanish-language act of the decade. By th ...

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

Leona Lewis Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Born and raised in the London Borough of Islington, she attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieved natio ...

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

Marina and the Diamonds Marina Lambrini Diamandis (; el, Μαρίνα-Λαμπρινή Διαμάντη; born 10 October 1985), known mononymously as Marina (often stylised in all caps), and previously by the stage name Marina and the Diamonds, is a Welsh singer and ...

McFly McFly are an English pop rock band formed in London in 2003. The band took their name from the '' Back to the Future'' character Marty McFly. The band consists of Tom Fletcher (lead vocals, guitar, and piano), Danny Jones (lead vocals, har ...

Olly Murs Oliver Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and television presenter. He was runner-up on the sixth series of '' The X Factor'' in 2009 and was subsequently signed to RCA Records and Sony Music in the United Kingdom ...

The Human League The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

G-A-Y website
LGBT nightclubs in London Music venues in London