Trade: So Farewell Then...

“Imagine ‘Dante’s Inferno”. * That’s what it was, you’d go down the stairs and there were people dancing on every single surface. It was the most hedonistic place to be – there were people dancing on tables, dancing on the bar, they were everywhere. The place was rammed to the rafters. A lot of people that originally went to Trade were very intimidated when they walked down those stairs for the first time at Turnmills,” Malice says. They soon changed their minds, at the heart of Trade was a community of like-minded souls, passionate and in love with the place. Newly-converted Trade fans (tagged ‘Trade babies’) really got the sense of that after a few visits.Stewart Who's Turmills and Trade Wave Goodbye to the

The backdrop to the 90’s was also a time of uncertainty, underneath a seemingly hedonistic lifestyle the frightening prospect of HIV/AIDS lurked. Treatments for managing HIV/AIDS were still in the experimental stages, and you just didn’t know what the outcome might be if you got the virus. The community lived under a shadow, and places like Trade allowed people to escape for a few hours and celebrate life...

Laurence Malice recalls the good old days of Trade with Princess Julia on Attitude online.

Trade - The Final is held at Egg, London today.

25 years on what's billed as

A Fond Farewell To Trade in Vice. and Stewart Who?'s Turnmills And Trade Wave Goodbye To The Rave.

For further reading see Cliff Joannou's A Fond Farewell To Trade in Vice. and Stewart Who?'s Turnmills And Trade Wave Goodbye To The Rave.

Oh, and last and most certainly most, here's Richard Smith's classic essay from 1994, Us Boys Together Clinging'.

I guess you had to be there, really etc.

Makes a nice change to see some articles about gay men and drugs that talk about pleasure, rather than the pearl-clutching narcophobic nonsense the media normally push.

Goodbye and thank you.
x

* Not sure Dante's Inferno - where sodomites were condemned to burn in Hell's fires for eternity - is an appropriate comparison, but we'll let this pass.

Trade: Last Dance

Considering the recent club closures, and the increasingly identikit options that are left, that an ordinary night out in London might entail club-hopping around Soho, scooting across the central line to an east London warehouse rave and then ending up at a club in a disused toilet until lunchtime the next day feels like something from an alternate universe. Or just plain made up.

But that’s exactly what used to happen when Trade began in November, 1990. It was London’s first legal carry-on party, which raged at the now-defunct Turnmills in Clerkenwell from 3am every Sunday, and kickstarted an intrepid after-hours clubbing scene that would last two decades. Masterminded by Laurence Malice, it was billed as a gay club but it attracted a diverse crowd and, thanks to its DJs like Tony De Vit, became famous for pushing the breakneck hard house sound (“he took techno and basically camped it up a bit,” says Malice).

At the time, most clubs ended at 2 or 3am and after-hours parties were illicit, even dangerous. The Aids epidemic had also erupted and Malice wanted to create a safe environment for gay men – with a pumping soundtrack. “It was a ridiculously homophobic time,” says Malice. “No one knew what Aids was about so you would have guys leaving clubs at 3am and they wanted to meet, get off with people, whatever, and they were being attacked.” It’s why Trade’s assorted audience was so important. “I wanted straight people to show that gay people are not a problem – that we can mix.”

This inclusivity is one of the most significant aspects of Trade’s legacy, inspired in part by acid house’s togetherness rather than the attitudinal, fashion-focused clubs of the 80s. “It was a crazy group of characters from different walks of life: rent boys, trannies, working girls, muscle marys, industry people,” says regular Trade DJ Smokin Jo of the club’s clientele. “It was such a mixed bag and that added to the fun. It wasn’t a serious night full of musos, it was everyone there with their hands in the air going crazy.” An article first printed in 1994 in Gay Times, now republished on digital dance music anthology DJ History, perhaps sums up Trade’s significance best: “Here there’s a real sense of belonging, of community,” says its writer Richard Smith. “Coming here did me at least as much good as coming out.” ...

Kate Hutchinson, The Guardian.

That article by Richard Smith really is brilliant!

Trade The Final - billed as the last ever Trade - is at Egg London, Sunday October 25th.

Trade: Often Copied, Never Equalled - an exhibition on 25 years of Trade - is at Islington Museum from Friday.

David Hudson writes about the end of Trade here.

Guardian online ran a guide to gay London last week, not sure why.

Fagburn: In Briefs

There are two big gay stories running at the moment, but apart from them there's not much been worth commenting on in the papers this week.
A friend told me it was half-term. Dunno why, but this always seems to happen on shool holidays.
YOU TELL ME!!!
So here are a few things "in brief" that Fagburn thought may be of interest...

• Although a current obsession of the media is babies as a lifestyle accesory for rich and famous gay men, new American research - All Children Matter: How Legal and Social Inequalities Hurt LGBT Families - suggests "Contrary to stereotypes, children being raised by same-sex couples are twice as likely to be living in poverty as children raised by married heterosexual households" (Summary). More on the media and marketing myth of gay men as a monied class - also much loved by our enemies on the right, of course - on the excellent Gay Money blog.

• Hopefully Fagburn won't be the last person in the virtual world to draw your attention to the genitaltastic, hilarious, but ultimately rather disturbing new video for Duck Soup's Big Bad Wolf. Can't wait to see Diva Fever do this.

• Fagburn is but of course in solidarity with everyone at Occupy London. And is so proud that two voices often heard speaking up for #occupylsx in the media have been our friends Naomi from UK Friends Of Bradley Manning and Ronan from Queer Resistance.

• It's Trade's 21st birthday on Saturday night Sunday morning - which makes Fagburn feel very old. Here's an interview with Laurence Malice to mark the occasion from the Independent blogs. One point on Axl Rose (note spelling) though: Fagburn witnessed this and it was one of Guns N Roses entourage asking if they could come along later, not Axl himself. Ever wondered what all the fuss was about? Here's Richard Smith's "award-winning" essay on a night at Trade Us Boys Together Clinging.

• Fagburn is gagging to see Lawrence Of Belgravia - the new documentary about my favourite failed Pop star, "Mad" Lawrence of Felt (and Denim fame). If you're not stuck in Brighton like me, you can see it at the London Film Festival this week.

• If you are stuck in Brighton, Owen Jones - author of Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class - is talking at Waterstone's this evening. I'm going. It's great that young Owen has become the go-to guy for sharp and fresh left-wing comment in the last few months, so why the hell wasn't he on the Newcomers section of The Independent's Pink List 2011?!!

• Flaunt magazine has a choice of two covers this month. One of James Franco sitting at a desk and one of his naked butt. Quite possibly a publishing first.

• Some bloke called Gareth Thomas is retiring from rugby. Snore! How many times? We don't do sport. But apropos of nada did you hear about the GT-tribute designer shoes by his chum, Christian Louboutin? A snip at £640!

• Russell Tovey returns to BBC3 with a new series of Him & Her. Not til next Tuesday mind, but there's a thing about it in The Independent today. And it means we can print a nice picture of the lovely "Ears" in his briefs. Enjoy!