Flesh: Gaychester, So Much To Answer For...

Three years after the 1988 'Summer of Love' the gay scene had really started to blossom after fears of Aids in the 1980s. The arrival of ecstasy had revolutionised clubbing and the time was right in Manchester for a new kind of gay club.
I had done the Gay Monday night at the Hacienda but it had always been a small affair, with just 80 or so alternative-minded people in a venue of 1,200. Then a friend of mine put on an event called the 'Lesbian Summer of Love', which attracted 800 women, and I thought: there should be a market out there for a gay club night too.
The monthly Flesh night launched in October 1991 in the Hacienda with an in-your-face ad campaign all around the city, using political-sexual phrases such as 'Queer as Fuck' and 'Practice makes Pervert'. This was the first time the phrase 'It's Queer Up North' was used, which later became the title of the festival – and the TV series 'Queer as Folk' essentially came out of this too...

Paul Cons, former Flesh promoter in The Guardian.
God, I feel old.
We used to drive up from Brighton to Manchester for them, but liked Bang Bang Techno, and thought your Northern House music was too slow.
Also I found it difficult to buy any good drugs.
But apart from that it was great.

Thank you, Paul, you're a major league chap.

x

• 'Remembering Flesh' is at MOSI on Friday 8 February, 6.30pm-8.30pm. Tickets are £5 and are available at http://rememberingfleshatmosi.eventbrite.co.uk

PS Here's a video of the benefit gig at the Hacienda for Lesbians And Gays Support The Miners Paul Cons helped organise in 1985. Dude!