Gay & Lesbian

It’s the early hours of Monday morning at Fire on South Lambeth Road and after-hours club Orange is just warming up. Some people here only got out of bed a few hours ago. Others have been hard at it since Friday. First they went to A:M, then when that closed at 12noon on Saturday, they rested up before the big night out at Crash or Juicy or LoveRevolution. From there it was onto the Colosseum for Beyond, then back to Fire for Later, then to the Vauxhall Tavern and Horse Meat Disco, possibly returning to the Tavern for Sunrise before the doors of Fire opened again for Orange. In a few hours, some people will go to work, though hopefully not in a job that involves heavy machinery. Most have flexible working hours. Some are self-employed. Others will phone in sick. Feature continues

It’s a hard enough job being a 24 hour party person. Imagine how much harder it must be now that the party lasts not for 24 hours but for 48 or possibly even 72, but that’s what life in the Vauxhall gay village is like. Today’s village people don’t just party all night and then go home. They keep on going, night after night, until work beckons or reality kicks in. And if the scene at Orange is anything to go by, reality is a long way off yet.

Ever since Vauxhall established itself as the gay clubbing district a few years ago, the demand has been for more clubs and longer hours. The proliferation of after-hours clubs means that, as the weekend approaches, Vauxhall becomes a 24-hour gay clubbing zone. The weekend used to end on Sunday. Now it stretches until Monday, or Tuesday if you’re still up for Open.

How clubbers keep going for all that time isn’t a mystery (it’s the drugs, stupid). What is strange is that nobody questions why they’re listening to the same music, often played by the same DJs, wherever they go. Funky house is the soundtrack to Vauxhall’s after-hours club scene, and can be heard everywhere from A:M to Beyond and back to Fire in time for Later.

Of course the gay after-hours club scene didn’t start in Vauxhall. It started 15 years ago in Clerkenwell with Trade. Billed as the ‘first ever legal all night dance club in England’, Trade was a hit right from the outset. It’s hard to imagine now, but back then, queuing for a club at 3am on a Sunday morning was considered a novelty. It’s no wonder the club developed such a fanatical following. Even today, people describe their first visit to Trade almost as a religious experience.

After Trade, it was only a matter of time before other clubs opened their doors to people who just weren’t ready to go home. And so it came to pass that the Sunday afternoon club was born, with the original DTPM at Villa Stefano. Then someone declared Sunday the new Saturday and pretty soon clubs like Orange and Salvation were muscling in on the act.

But it was when Orange moved from Deptford to Vauxhall that things really went into overdrive. Together with Crash, Orange launched Beyond at the Colosseum and Trade’s days as the reigning weekly gay after-hours club were numbered. It’s the almighty Orange empire we have to thank for the subsequent growth of the after-hours scene in Vauxhall. It’s not just Orange and Beyond they’re responsible for, but Thursday’s Gravity, Friday’s A:M, Sunday’s Later and Monday’s Open.

Of course, the reason such clubs are so successful has its dark side. Today’s 24-hour party people aren’t just high on Ecstasy. The impact of GHB and crystal meth on the gay scene has been enormous. And just as Ecstasy was the catalyst that helped create Trade, crystal has shaped the way the scene has evolved these past few years. People on crystal don’t just party all night. They party for days at a time. When you’re wired on crystal, sleep is the last thing on your mind (unless you’ve also taken GHB, in which case you may well find yourself in a coma).

Where the after-hours scene goes from here is anyone’s guess. Maybe some enterprising club promoter will decide that Tuesday is the new Monday, or that Wednesday is the new Tuesday. But one thing is certain. When the comedown finally comes, it’s going to be a big one.