When people say there's been a downturn, I just look at them and think, And when was the last time you went out?" "London's like an explosion of glitter in your face. "We go to Orange every Sunday night," says Simon, 19, who moved to London from a small Sussex town last year. "Gay men are still having a good time." And for a younger generation without the benefit (or detriment) of hindsight, who don't remember how things were, gay nightlife is certainly not for wont of excitement. "'The scene' is an eroded idea," says singer David McAlmont. "There's drinking, using, and shagging all in the comfort of your own home or of near-neighbors thanks to the apps." "Clubbing has suffered at the hands of home-based chill-out and recreational drugs," says a patron of London's Fire. The explosion of chemsex culture, as well, provides further competition for promoters of gay nightlife. "For me, after 35 years, gay nightlife is no longer interesting," says London-based photographer Jamie McLeod, "unless I'm somewhere untouched by commercial Western influences-places like Turkey, Mexico, Lebanon, Egypt, or Iran." "When was the last time you heard an underground New York record that you couldn't wait to get home and download? Or been in a group grope, like at the Cock when it was on Avenue A?" "When Giuliani started his New York nightlife crackdown, I remember watching the sexiness of sleazy dark rooms and sneaky shared bumps disappear," says Tee. As Tee points out, the shift bodes poorly for the former. But location is important as well-increasingly, such events are held not in London or New York but in smaller, more relaxed cities like Berlin. That's a task some parties and promoters are up for, such as Larry Tee's Berlin-based KRANK, a monthly bender where dildo-sporting, PVC-clad bears mingle among beautiful young twinks. It's created a climate where clubs must push envelopes in their programming more than ever to survive. Or, as Clayton Littlewood, author of the seminal 2008 gay book and play Dirty White Boy, puts it: "Why go out when you can order in?"īut whether gay or straight, clubs are closing across the UK: According to the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, the number of British clubs dropped from 3,144 in 2005 to 1,733 ten years later. Nightlife is a product that supplies two demands-sex and music-and the way gay men seek both have seen a historic shift with the rise of the internet. "But," he adds, "it's created a landscape that, hopefully, people will want to change." "Thus, is empty and lonely––more so when you factor in chemicals people are using to destroy their souls and brains. So why would I go? If I want sex, I can just go on Grindr."Ĭlubbers, ex-clubbers, promoters, and DJs who spoke with VICE cited two main issues in explaining why clubbing today is, well, lamer than ever: gentrification and Grindr.įor former Queer Nation DJ Jeffrey Hinton, they form a problematic constellation: "So-called social apps like Grindr and our modern obsession with wealth reflect a language of surface, greed, and image," he says. The music's not great and the people who are there tend to be off their faces and messy. "A lot of my friends are straight, so I go to the same places that they do," adds Brad, 25, an HR director. Everyone's chasing money––no one can afford to spend four days off their face anymore." They're climbing the ladder, and places like NYC and London are too expensive.
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And there's a lot more at stake with their careers. "Life's changed a lot since the 90s," says Simon, a 27-year-old media planner, by way of explaining the generational shift.
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While London residents lament the loss of several gay nightlife venues over the past two years-from the Joiner's Arms to George and Dragon-once-iconic parties like Trade, which reigned as one of the fiercest events from 1993 to 2008 (with subsequent special events up to 2015), are now a misty-eyed memory.