XXL (club)

Last updated

XXL was a gay nightclub in London and Birmingham which catered to the bear sub-group. [1] [2] [3] The club was founded by Mark Ames and his then partner David Dindol in 2000. They separated in 2005, after which Mark purchased his ex-partner's share of the club. It was the largest dedicated "bear" venue in the United Kingdom and the world[ citation needed ]. It was not just the bear scene's longest-running weekly disco but London's too, having not missed a night in over 16 years[ citation needed ].

Contents

Between 2012 [4] and 2019, XXL London was based at Pulse, which closed in September 2019 [5] [6] to make way for a future development of luxury apartments. There are currently no public plans for a future venue but it is understood that discussions are ongoing. [7]

Venue

XXL was based at Pulse in Southwark, on the corner of Southwark Street and Blackfriars Road. Pulse was on the same street as the previous venue, Arcadia. Both consist of a number of railway arches.

After Arcadia became unsafe due to a structural fault in the railway arches (which only affected the nightclub, but not the trains running above), XXL moved to Pulse in March 2012, one of the capital's largest entertainment venues that was developed and converted by Ames and his team. [8]

History

Mark Ames created XXL as he felt disillusioned with how little there was for the London Bear Community outside of one bar in Soho. [4]

In 2003, XXL in London created Bear Necessities, now called XXL London Bear Pride, a weekend-long celebration of everything "big, gay and hairy" with events around the country. A year later this turned into London Bear Pride. In 2006 this was expanded to include the leather community in Bear and Leather Pride. The two subcultures do have a large overlap and a number of leather fetishists patronize XXL.

XXL also operates internationally both in Europe and the US as well as a monthly night in the UK's second city Birmingham and has other events too. In 2014, XXL launched a monthly event in Glasgow.

Opinion polls in magazines such as Gay Times , the Pink Paper and Boyz regularly put XXL in the top two night clubs in London.[ citation needed ] XXL was also the title sponsor of the 2006 Bingham Cup in New York.[ citation needed ] In 2007 the club expanded and also diversified the brand by launching new nights, extending its appeal far beyond the core audience.[ citation needed ] In 2009 Ames became the gay promoter of the year according to the London Boyz Magazine readers' poll and was named as a gay icon in London's QX magazine.[ citation needed ] In the 2017 Boyz Awards, XXL was voted best club, with two of the XXL DJs (Joe Egg and David Robson) appearing in the Top 10 most popular DJs.

There were four resident DJs at XXL; Alex Logan (from 2004), Joe Egg (from 2007), David Robson (from 2015) and Paul Morrell (from 2016). Logan and Morrell play contemporary house and dance mixes with a tribal edge in the main room; occasionally joined by Mark Ames himself. Egg and Robson play an eclectic set of contemporary and retro pop, rock, indie, soul, R&B, bashment and disco in the smaller room, known as 'The Fur Lounge'.

In 2015 it was announced that regular guest DJs would play in the main room rotating on a monthly basis in between the weekly residents' sessions. These DJs are currently The Hoxton Whores (began residency 11 July 2015), Moto Blanco (beginning summer 2015), Fat Tony (from 2017). [9]

In 2019 it was announced that XXL was being evicted from Pulse, as the building was being redeveloped into flats and a shopping mall, by the landlords, Native Land. The last XXL at Pulse was on Saturday 21 September 2019.

Criticisms

In June 2010 the UK gay press reported on comments written by Mark Ames on his Facebook page in which he stated that he would boycott Muslim businesses. [10] He issued an unreserved apology. [11]

Ames caused controversy again in 2018 after a customer was turned away from XXL whilst wearing high heels. After responding to the controversy on Facebook, protests were organised in other LGBT venues. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bear (gay culture)</span> Term for hairy and large men in LGBT community

In gay culture, a bear is a man who is fat, hairy, or both.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leather subculture</span> Subculture involving leather garments

Leather subculture denotes practices and styles of dress organized around sexual activities that involve leather garments, such as leather jackets, vests, boots, chaps, harnesses, or other items. Wearing leather garments is one way that participants in this culture self-consciously distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual cultures. Many participants associate leather culture with BDSM practices and its many subcultures. For some, black leather clothing is an erotic fashion that expresses heightened masculinity or the appropriation of sexual power; love of motorcycles, motorcycle clubs and independence; and/or engagement in sexual kink or leather fetishism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folsom Street Fair</span> BDSM and leather fair in San Francisco

Folsom Street Fair (FSF) is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair, held in September that concludes San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week". The Folsom Street Fair, sometimes referred to simply as "Folsom", takes place on the last Sunday in September, on Folsom Street between 8th and 13th Streets, in San Francisco's South of Market district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G-A-Y</span> Gay nightclub in London

G-A-Y is a long-running gay nightclub brand, based at the Heaven nightclub in Charing Cross, London, owned by Jeremy Joseph.

Singapore's first public LGBT pride festival, IndigNation, took place during the month of August in 2005, with a second annual IndigNation in August 2006. Previous gay celebrations, exemplified by the Nation parties held annually in Singapore since 2001, were private commercial events held for LGBT recreation, but were also socio-political statements of significance in Singapore gay history and milestones in Singapore's human rights record.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heaven (nightclub)</span> Gay club in London, England

Heaven is a gay superclub in Charing Cross, London, England. It has played a central role and had a major influence in the development of London's LGBT scene for over 40 years and is home to long-running gay night G-A-Y. The club is known for Paul Oakenfold's acid house events in the 1980s, the underground nightclub festival Megatripolis, and for being the birthplace of ambient house.

Sex on premises venue (SOPV) is the term used primarily in British and Australian medical literature for the various commercial venues expressly for engaging in public sex, as opposed to spaces such as parks which may be used for sexual behavior but are intended for general public use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trade (nightclub)</span> Defunct gay nightclub in London, England

Trade was a culturally important gay club night held at Turnmills in London founded in 1990 by Laurence Malice.

<i>Boyz</i> (magazine) London-based magazine targeted at the LGBT community

Boyz was a free, London-based magazine targeted at gay men and the LGBTQ communities. It was distributed mainly through gay bars, pubs, clubs shops and saunas in the United Kingdom. In July 2019 Boyz moved from a weekly to a monthly frequency of publication with its August edition, its first monthly issue. Boyz focused on news, features and photospreads about the gay scene. Boyz website has now been replaced by DirtyBoyz.

Gay bathhouses in the United Kingdom are referred to as "gay saunas", as opposed to gay bathhouses, the term more commonly used in North America. There are gay saunas throughout the UK in most major cities, including eight in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Fritscher</span> American writer

John Joseph "Jack" Fritscher is an American author, university professor, historian, and social activist known internationally for his fiction, erotica, and nonfiction analyses of pop culture and gay male culture. An activist prior to the Stonewall riots, he was an out and founding member of the Journal of Popular Culture. Fritscher became highly influential as editor of Drummer magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Vauxhall Tavern</span> Building in London, England

The Royal Vauxhall Tavern is a Grade II listed gay entertainment venue in Vauxhall, London. It is also known as the RVT. It is South London's oldest surviving gay venue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birmingham Gay Village</span> LGBT district in Birmingham

The Birmingham Gay Village is an LGBT district next to the Chinese Quarter in Birmingham city centre, centred along Hurst Street, which hosts many LGBT-friendly businesses. The village is visited by thousands of people every week and has a thriving night life featuring clubs, sports bars, cocktail bars, cabaret bars and shops, with most featuring live entertainment including music, dancing and drag queens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBTQ culture in Liverpool</span>

The LGBT community in Liverpool, England is one of the largest in the United Kingdom and has a recorded history since the 18th century. Many historic LGBT firsts and pioneering moments in the LGBT rights movement either took place in Liverpool or were achieved by citizens of the city.

The LGBT community in London is one of the largest within Europe. LGBT culture of London, England, is centred on Old Compton Street in Soho. There are also LGBT pubs and restaurants across London in Haggerston, Dalston and Vauxhall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pulse (nightclub)</span> Establishment in Orlando

Pulse was a gay bar, dance club, and nightclub in Orlando, Florida, founded in 2004 by Barbara Poma and Ron Legler. On June 12, 2016, the club was the scene of the second worst mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history, and the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since the September 11 attacks. Forty-nine people were killed and 58 other people were injured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starky's</span> Defunct gay bar and restaurant in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Starky's Restaurant and Bar, or simply Starky's, was a gay bar and restaurant in Portland, Oregon's Kerns neighborhood, in the United States. Established in 1984, the venue became a fixture in Portland's gay community before closing in 2015. It hosted LGBT events and served as a gathering space for leather enthusiasts and the Oregon Bears, among other groups. Starky's received a generally positive reception and was most known for its Bloody Marys, brunch, and outdoor seating.

Recon is a location-based online dating application and service specifically for gay men interested in fetish and kink. It launched as a website in 1999, and as an iOS app in 2010. It has 189,000 active users as of 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DTM (nightclub)</span> Gay nightclub in Helsinki, Finland

DTM is an LGBTQ nightclub in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 1992, it was once the largest gay club in Northern Europe. The venue was initially situated in Helsinki's Kamppi neighborhood, having since relocated twice: first, to Iso Roobertinkatu in Punavuori in 2003, and second, to Mannerheimintie in Kluuvi in 2012. Popular with gay men, DTM also caters to a straight and lesbian customer base. The club's playlists contain primarily pop songs, dance music, techno and Finnish hits, with live entertainment often taking the form of drag shows. Through an agreement with UK-based promoter Klub Kids, DTM hosted visiting performers from RuPaul's Drag Race from January 2019 to early 2020, when the Mannerheimintie venue closed.

Hercules is a gay bar and nightclub in Helsinki, Finland. Operating since 2000, it is the third establishment opened by Moek Trading Oy. The venue caters primarily to gay men over 30, and its live entertainment features drag queens and strippers. The bar was located in Helsinki's Kamppi neighborhood until the end of 2015, when a hotel took over its space. It subsequently reopened at an address in Etu-Töölö, where it endured a number of events that caused financial strain. That location closed in December 2020, when the building was sold to new owners. The club then reopened across the street from Helsinki's central railway station in October 2021. Critics generally describe Hercules as popular, edgy and welcoming.

References

  1. ↑ Jason Cochran (5 February 2009). Pauline Frommer's London: Spend Less, See More . John Wiley & Sons. p.  320. ISBN   978-0-470-46511-0.
  2. ↑ Editors of Time Out (2 January 2014). Time Out London. Time Out Guides Limited. p. 581. ISBN   978-1-84670-426-0.
  3. ↑ Lonely Planet; Emilie Filou; Steve Fallon; Damian Harper; Vesna Maric (1 October 2013). Lonely Planet London. Lonely Planet Publications. p. 285. ISBN   978-1-74321-833-4.
  4. 1 2 "History and Highlights | XXL London" . Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  5. ↑ "XXL, one of London's leading gay clubs, is being forced to close". Mixmag. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  6. ↑ Cross, Dave (4 October 2019). "XXL The Last Dance at Pulse: Saturday 21st September". Boyz. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  7. ↑ Cross, Dave (18 September 2019). "XXL Last Dance at Pulse this Saturday". Boyz. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  8. ↑ "XXL club moves home". Out in the City. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  9. ↑ "QX Gay London Issue 1059". Interview with Mark Ames. 9 June 2014. Archived from the original on 21 July 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  10. ↑ Lloyd, Peter; Reid-Smith, Tris (30 June 2010). "EXCLUSIVE: XXL owner Mark Ames slammed for Muslim boycott". PinkPaper.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011.
  11. ↑ Lloyd, Peter (1 July 2010). "YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: XXL's Mark Ames makes heartfelt apology". PinkPaper.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011.
  12. ↑ "London gay club XXL's controversial door policy banning femme clothing sparks protest - PinkNews · PinkNews". www.pinknews.co.uk. 12 September 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2019.

51°30′26″N0°06′14″W / 51.5071°N 0.1038°W / 51.5071; -0.1038

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.