THEGAYUK

Category: Entertainment

  • COMMENT | Everyone in the World is Bent: Just how gay is The Italian Job

    COMMENT | Everyone in the World is Bent: Just how gay is The Italian Job

    There are things you remember from your childhood. Some help makes you who you are while others still bemuse you some 30 plus years later.

    I’m referring to films our parents made us watch. At a young age and very much below the recommended age of 15, my father sat me down to watch Quadrophenia 1979.

    I understood some of it, didn’t really think twice about the sex scene between Phil Daniels and Leslie Ash in an alleyway. I did, however, question why the film ended as it did in what I thought was suicide with the moped going over the edge of Beachy Head with nobody on it.

    And then there was that film that subjected me to gay culture. No, I am not talking about Dorothy and her woodland cruising chums, I am talking about the 1969 film called The Italian Job. The film with the ultimate cliffhanger.

    Forget all that crap about Colin and Barry in Eastenders sharing a kiss or Brookside‘s first lesbian kiss for that matter. That was in the 80s. The Italian Job was a rich celluloid dream of gayness and camp with a car chase at the end. And all just two years after homosexuality had been legalised.

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    In my eyes, Michael Caine is a love. He has been in some dreadful films that I class as camp classics such as The Swarm 1978 and The Hand 1981. Michael Caine, however, is a gent and it was his portrayal as Charlie Croker that made me take note. He was a man at ease with his sexuality and with others around him. In the film’s first 15 minutes or so you knew about his sexuality as Lorna laid on a spread of woman like a running buffet for him to plough through.

    Throughout the film he rubbed shoulders with all kinds of those queer sorts your grandmother would warn you about. Come with me as we take a look.

    You can’t forget Camp Freddie. The pastel pink suited crook in his frilly shirts and a notion for filing his nails. Freddie was also full of marvellous one-liners delivered as only a queen could do so.

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    And who was Freddie’s boss? Mr Bridger played by Noël Coward. Coward is acting royalty in itself. A crook behind bars still pulling the strings and stealing every scene he was in. I often mumble the line “Last night Mr governor somebody broke (rolling the R’s) into my toilet” and then went on to moan about how his motions that evening had been ruined. Again rolling the R’s.

    Mr Bridger also had a liking for her Majesty the Queen. Having her pictures all over the cell walls like a teenager has Beatles posters. Speaking of queens, Simon Dee’s one of only two appearances in a film can’t go unnoticed. Unlike the previous two actors mentioned, Dee himself is straight. His conviction as tailor Adrian was above and beyond brilliant that you questioned if he was indeed gay in real life. Pursed lipped and disgusted at Croker’s shirts. His line delivery was genius.

    Professor Peach played by Benny Hill is another character rich in campness. He has a childlike quality for the matron and the larger lady. The facial expressions are comical.

    http://gty.im/52180652

    Even the garage manager played by John Clive who fleeced Croker into paying an exaggerated amount of money for car parking was a little bit bent. Now be that as a dodgy crook or not, again it’s the visuals that make you think he’s a bit of a queen.

    While not being that gay or overly camp, two other characters from the film stand out. Both also for their previous acting roles. Admittedly the films I have discovered them both in has been discovered many years later.

    The first is Rossano Brazzi’s portrayal of Rodger Beckerman. His cameo appearance during the opening credits is iconic and memorable for many reasons. His suave sophistication oozed on screen even if it was for just moments. Ultimately it was probably somewhat overshadowed by the destruction of the Lamborghini Miura he was driving. Rossano is also remembered for his part in the musical South Pacific (1958) as Emile De Becque opposite Mitzi Gaynor. You can’t get more camp than that film.

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    The handsomely rugged Raf Vallone presented himself as Altabani, head of the Mafia. Being ferried around in a Fiat Dino coupe was enough for me to cheer the Mafia on.

    I digress a little however he too had a grace about him as he swanned around on screen. His delivery to Caine on the Alps after they had destroyed the two Jaguars and the “pretty car” Aston was both menacing, cutting and a little camp with a nibble on the arm of his glasses. The look he gave when his mansion was plunged into darkness was cinematic gold. He is a beautiful man.

    Raf Vallone is also remembered for a previous role as Eddie Carbone in View from a Bridge (1962). He gave a full on the lips kiss to Rodolpho played by fellow actor Jean Sorel. It wasn’t quite in the guy-on-guy action you’d wish for but Eddie attempting to bring out Rodolpho as a latent homosexual. Quite a visual for 1962 America to take in.

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    And now to the female stars of which there were three. American actress Margaret Blye played dippy Lorna. Looking through Blye’s film credits on www.imds.com sadly she never really had anything I remember.

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    Lelia Goldoni, on the other hand, had a very small part in the film and was there to just deliver film and plans from her now deceased husband Mr Beckerman. It could be that Italian accent of hers or that she was going to bed a balls empty Croker who can say, she did again like many in the film present larger than life and become remembered for it.

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    This brings us to the last woman and an icon who anyone old enough from 1937 to 1988 will remember. Irene Handl played Benny Hill’s sister Miss Peach. You may remember her as granny in Metal Mickey. And if that doesn’t help then there are over 180 other things she had been in.

    Watching her on screen she was quite camp. Her delivery on time and to the point. Again her lines were memorable with a love for cats and hatred of green fly she could well be a lesbian. An ageing lady known as a Miss. This was 60’s England after all. She also had a maid called Annette who would make any lesbian today scared.

    All this good gayness to come out of a film that predated so many and yet it doesn’t so much as get a mention that watching it will turn you into a massive queen, make you into a dyke or other such names we get called.

    And why?

    I don’t know is the answer. Perhaps because it is just really well put together and has an ensemble of actors who outweighed the bigots then and today. Or that its campness was missed for hi-jinks and feel good factor. Sort of what gays are known for today.

     

    BUY THE ITALIAN JOB on Amazon

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • 60 Second Film Review | La La Land

    60 Second Film Review | La La Land

    LA LA LAND – The Awards vaccum of 2017 and possibly of all time, sings and dances around the Hollywood hills in the straightest musical ever made – but where are the hits?

    La La Land review
    CREDIT: Dale Robinette / Lionsgate

    Nutshell – A very simple girl meets guy tale in and around the modern day Hollywood area of Los Angeles. He wants to open a jazz club and save that brand of music forever, she wants to be a film actress. Cue song and dance numbers, separations and a knock out twist in the last 20 minutes. This is so old fashioned you expect Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers or Fred Astaire to appear at any minute hoofing around but don’t let that put you off.

    Running Time – 128 minutes; Certificate – 12A

    Tagline – ‘Here’s To The Fools That Dream’.

    THEGAYUK Factor – This is as pure a heterosexual movie as you will ever see so just enjoy the musical set pieces like a good little gay boy and imagine Ryan Gosling stripped naked fingering your organ instead of his loving piano.

    Cast – Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, J K Simmons and far far too much of John Legend.

    Key Player – Damien Chazelle, he wrote it, he directed it and it is wholly his wonderful vision. He has come so far since Whiplash and 10 Cloverfield Lane. Next up First Man the story of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon starring, yep you’ve guessed it Ryan big swinging dick Gosling.

    Budget – $30 Million but already made four times that and it is still a month until its big Oscar night marketing boost – this will be very very big indeed and deserves it.

    Best Bit – 0.02 mins; The opening number is possibly the greatest tribute to LA ever. A huge single track production number set on a gridlocked freeway and the poppiest number on the whole soundtrack. It makes you so happy to be alive.

    Worst Bit – 1.02 mins; When Goslings character is showing for the umpteenth time how much he likes old school jazz in a group recording session where the other musicians want him to play modern music. A lot of the jazz in this wonderful film is very dull indeed and there is a reason old school jazz died out – that’s because it was sh*t.

    Little Secret – La La Land won 7 Golden Globes more than any other film in history beating One Flew Over The Cookoo’s Nest. It is up for 14 Oscars… the most ever equal with All About Eve and Titanic. The opening freeway scene was shot on the same stretch as the famous bus jump from Keannu Reeve’s/Sandra Bullock’s Speed movie – yep they still haven’t finished building it 30 years on.

    Further Viewing – Moulin Rouge, Grease, Tommy, Rent, Dreamgirls, Chicago, Once, Hairspray and any musical from the 50s or 60s on BBC2 in the afternoons.

    Any Good – Yes it is very very good and deserves all its plaudits and awards BUT, and it’s a big but, the songs are at very best average and at time maudling. This is not a jazz revival and there are no hit’s here which is a slight issue for a musical. Never mind the leads are great, it looks fantastic and that opening and closing will stay with you for many months to come.

    Rating – 91% out of 100.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Dirty Great Love Story, The Arts Theatre

    ★★ | Dirty Great Love Story, The Arts Theatre

    CREDIT: Richard Davenport

    I’m a bit unconventional in my views when it comes to romance. I strongly believe that sex before the first date is a sensible action (who wants to sit through a tedious meal with a fake smile plastered on your face when you can cut to the chase?) but I also have a secret love of ‘will they won’t they’ romantic comedies.

    Slam poetry champion Richard Marsh and writer/performer Katie Bonna originally conceived Dirty Great Love Story as a short pub performance piece.

    It evolved into a longer two-hander play and was well received at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2012 where the writers also performed the piece. Outlining a meeting between gauche and shy Richard and recently heartbroken Katie on a stag and hen do, followed by a one night stand in a Travelodge, the play then goes on to tantalise with an almost/on and off romance, that burgeons in spite of obstacles.

    It’s classic rom-com but recited partly in verse.

    In this new incarnation at The Arts Theatre, the pair is played by actors with accomplished performances from Ayesha Antoine and Felix Scott. This is where the problem seems to lie, though. Maybe performance poetry works better coming from the mouth of the poet and in this case, fails to translate over easily despite the actors’ efforts.

    In spite of their skill as performers, the verse feels stilted coming from their mouths and sits oddly with a touch of the painfully twee about it in parts. Yes, they’re sometimes talking about the dirty bits of this relationship, but in a Richard Curtis style romantic comedy format with poetry that sounds like Pam Ayres on a 1980s edition of That’s Life.

    It splutters dimly more that it illuminates and feels tired and dated. Not so great and a tiny bit dirty but a love story nonetheless, there are flashes of brilliance but they feel few and far between.

    When the funny moments hit they’re worth waiting for, there’s a clever set by Pia Furtado with bits that drop down and pop up to illustrate various scenes but overall it all falls a bit flat.

     

    Dirty Great Love Story plays at The Arts Theatre until 16th March 2017

  • Jedward get very frothy

    Jedward get very frothy

    So those pesky brothers have been getting all sudded up on Big Brother, making a complete CLEAN mess in the kitchen.

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    CREDIT: Channel 5

    Leave Jedward alone for more than 2 minutes and you never know what will happen. Today they had a bubble bath. In the kitchen.

     

    The flamboyant pair decided that they needed some frothy fun.

    ALSO READ: 8 things you probably didn’t know about Jedward

    Jedward bum
    CREDIT: Channel 5

     

  • Roxane Gay pulls her forthcoming book from same publisher as Milo Yiannopoulos

    Roxane Gay pulls her forthcoming book from same publisher as Milo Yiannopoulos

    Author Roxane Gay has decided not to have her book published by the same publisher as Milo Yiannopoulos.

    By SLOWKING (Own work) [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
    The Bad Feminist writer, Roxanne Gay has decided to ditch Simon & Schuster as her forthcoming book’s publisher over a decision by another of their imprints to publish Milo Yiannopoulos’s forthcoming book, Dangerous, which is due out in March 2017.

    How To Be Heard was due to be published by TED Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster in March 2018. Speaking to Buzzfeed News, Roxane said that she asked her agent, Maria Massie to “pull the project” last week saying that she couldn’t in “good conscience” let them publish the book, whilst they also had the rights to Milo’s book.

    She said she was putting her “money where her mouth is”.

    “I kept thinking about how egregious it is to give someone like Milo a platform for his blunt, inelegant hate and provocation. I just couldn’t bring myself to turn the book in. My editor emailed me last week and I kept staring at that email in my inbox and finally over the weekend I asked my agent to pull the book.”

    Simon & Schuster’s CEO claimed that Milo’s book would not contain hate speech.

    The book has not found another publisher yet.

     

  • Stacy Francis is the sixth housemate to be evicted

    Stacy Francis is the sixth housemate to be evicted

    If you’re still watching and you’re still interested…

    CREDIT: Channel 5

    Following nominations on Sunday, only three Housemates survived nomination. The fate of the remaining eight lay in the hands of the public who voted to save Coleen, Jedward, Nicola, Jamie, Jessica, Kim and Stacy. Speidi received eternal nomination from James C so automatically face the public vote.

    Tonight, Emma announced that the housemate with the fewest votes and therefore sixth to be evicted from the Celebrity Big Brother house is Stacy. Stacy said her goodbyes and left the house to a mixed reaction from the live audience.

    On how it feels to be out, “I’m so happy, I wanted to go to the final but I get to see my babies.”

    Stacy had a word for the producers of Celebrity Big Brother: “Thank you for bringing me on this show, overall I’m so grateful that they gave me this opportunity.”

    On her arguments in the house: “I snap then feel really bad if I hurt someone’s feelings, I’m a fireball.”

    On the new Housemates, “New people didn’t have a chance to really know me, they didn’t give me a real shot. I kind of went into animosity, it’s not their fault.”

    On Kim putting her washing on the floor: “It wasn’t the actual (act), it was like lots of things, then boom! I always made sure I was considerate of my Housemates then Kim came in and was very selfish.”

    Stacy’s general thoughts on Kim: “Is Kim senile, we did a task yesterday and Kim just never got it, she’s 75 years old now and I think she just doesn’t care?”

    On who she thinks is the real Kim: “She’s watched the show over the years, she came in with preconceived ideas of what she has seen on telly, I feel like overall she is a good person.”

    On figuring out the game and how to play it: “I had Nicola giving me tips and stuff, if I had (played properly) I would have made it to the final.”

    On who is playing a the best game, “Speidi, they have a good game going on.”

    Stacy says she would like James C to win.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Bitches Ahoy!, Above The Stag

    THEATRE REVIEW | Bitches Ahoy!, Above The Stag

    ★★★★ | Bitches Ahoy! : Above The Stag

    Batten down the hatches, all hands on your AussieBums, and anchors – prudes advised to stay on dry land – aweigh.

    Bitches Ahoy review
    CREDIT: Above The Stag

    Gareth, Max and Fat Pam set sail for a new adventure on the Mediterranean awash with a couple of love interests in close-quarters.  This is up-and-coming Playwright Martin Blackburn’s second production – an all-at-sea sequel to Aright Bitches! – and in Blackburn’s previous style: pummelled with more innuendos than a Navy Officer in the engine room after six months at sea.

    Buoyant party-buoy Gareth (Ethan Chapples) is holibobing with new squeeze Drew (Chris Clynes), and giving monogamy a stern-go onboard a queer cruise with two thousand homo-hotties – will either walk the plank of infidelity?  Nothing’s ever plain-sailing on this ship.

    Max has embarked on a new career as a cabin boy with a firm eye in every porthole and a love/hate taste for his surroundings. Pam (Hannah Vesty) has harpooned the Moby of all Dicks and flaunts new French fiancé Patrice (Simon Burr) from port to starboard causing a splash with the whole crew’s rudders. Straight guy aboard a gay cruise – what could possibly come adrift?

    Blackburn clearly knows how to quill a boat-rocking quip, but on this voyage, some of the jokes were washed ashore unnoticed, mainly due to the delivery.

    Come aboard this vessel for cock-capers, tampon-tomfoolery and to catch a glimpse of Pam wet wiping her lady bits.  This is a camp factor 50 with the potent UVAs radiating from Vesty and Chapples  – giving you the Jolly Rogers and the January blues the heave-ho.

     

    Bitches Ahoy is at Above The Stag Theatre until 26th February

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Holding The Man, Jack Studio Theatre

    THEATRE REVIEW | Holding The Man, Jack Studio Theatre

    ★★★ | Holding The Man, Jack Studio Theatre

    Holding The Man
    CREDIT: Nicholas Chinardet

    Holding the Man is a play by Tommy Murphy (Strangers in Between) that was also made into a film in 2015.

    It’s based on Timothy Conigrave’s 1995 memoir, an elegy to his late partner, John Caleo. The pair met as teenagers in 1970s Australia and fell in love, facing parental disapproval, trying to find where they fitted into society and experimenting with their sexuality. Sadly, Conigrave died aged 34 from an AIDS related illness shortly after completing the book. This is more than just a play about the AIDS crisis, though. It’s a tender love story and a reflection on the problems faced by young gay people, which is still pertinent today.

    Director Sebastian Polka has taken a clever starting point to staging this play. The play is wide in its scope, covering Tim’s Catholic school upbringing through to his death, looking at his first experiences of the gay scene and gay activism, his career as an actor and the highs and lows of his relationship with John. Polka takes Tim’s acting career as a point from which to present the characters with the stage being a dressing room where Tim conjures up scenes from his life. Tim is played with skill and sensitivity by lean and angular Christopher Hunter along with astonishingly good muscle hunk Paul-Emile Forman as John. The astonishing thing is that this is Forman’s professional debut and he gives an incredibly subtle and nuanced performance. The rest of the characters from Tim’s life are played by four actors who constantly change clothes and accents along with their roles.
    It’s an interesting play that is well staged but ultimately the problem lies in the play itself. It’s a major task to try to present twenty-five years of a man’s life in such detail in one play.

    The focus on so many events ends up detracting somewhat from the whole effect and leaves it feeling oddly bloodless. The actors barely have space within the dialogue to convey much and the piece occasionally feels superficial and has less emotional depth than it could have.

    Holding The Man plays at the Jack Studio Theatre until 4th Feb 2017

  • FILM REVIEW | Lion

    FILM REVIEW | Lion

    ★★★★★ | Lion

    Lion review

    Photo: Mark Rogers

    A young man attempts to trace his roots in the moving and excellent film Lion.

    Dev Patel is Saroo Brierley. He’s adopted by Australian couple John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman) and vaguely aware that he had a life in India when he was a very young boy – it’s all just a very distant memory. Now in his 20s, and in college, him and his friends (including girlfriend Lucy – Rooney Mara) have a discussion about their origins, and Saroo tells his classmates that he was adopted and born in India, and probably still has family there, but he hasn’t been there since when he was a little boy. This puts a spark in his head to try to find out where in India he comes from.

    There are still a few very vague images in his mind he can recall from his childhood, and especially from when he got separated from his brother (a water tower, a train station). Saroo sets about determined to discover where he’s from and starts to map out India until he can pinpoint an area where he believes he came from.

    But this is the not the entire movie. The first half of the film has Saroo as a little boy (played amazingly by Sunny Pawar), who along with his brother Guddu (Abshishek Bharate), are lost, so Guddu goes in search of help, and leaves Saroo on a train platform. Saroo falls asleep, then wakes up a bit disoriented, and calls out for Guddu, but he’s nowhere to be found. Saroo walks around the train station calling out for Guddu, but then ends up falling asleep on a train that accidentally takes him 1,000 miles away to Calcutta, taking him far away from home, far away from Guddu, and far away from his life.

    Lion, as mentioned above, is a film with two halves; Saroo as a child and Saroo as a young man. And the first half of the film is simply amazing. It’s all down to Pawar, who as the young Saroo, after losing his big brother Guddu, is lost and confused and scared and aimlessly wandering around looking for food and trying to survive. He knows no one, is totally lost and alone, and is very very frightened. Eventually he is taken in by an orphanage which is where the Brierley’s adopt him and take him to their home in Australia, which is when the second half of the film begins.

    Pawar deserves a Supporting Actor nomination or a special child Oscar for his sensitive and heartbreaking portrayal of Saroo (Jacob Tremblay in last year’s award-winning Room didn’t receive either but deserved one). Pawar is excellent. Patel is very good as the grown-up Saroo who is determined to find out where he comes from. Patel here proves that he was not just a one-hit wonder in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. Kidman is fine as his adoptive mother, but it’s hard not to look at her on screen and think you’re seeing Nicole Kidman and not the character she is playing. The screenplay, adapted from the book A Long Way Home, written by Saroo Brierley, and adapted by Luke Davies, tells the story in a way that will tug at your hearts more than any other film this year. Director Garth Davis (who has done mostly television shows) directs with such a fine balance of drama and emotion that it’s a perfect film which tells a true story that truly deserved to be told. It’s the best film of the year.

  • Four gay plays to look out for this spring 2017

    Four gay plays to look out for this spring 2017

    As the spring theatre season starts to gather momentum, there are some great gay-themed plays in and around the UK. Here are four plays to keep an eye out for.

    Everyone’s Talking About Jamie – Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.

    Jamie New is sixteen. He’s from Sheffield. And he has a secret. He doesn’t quite fit in at school. His Dad’s left home. He’s about to sit his GCSEs. The future is terrifying. With his brilliant mum behind him, will Jamie be brave enough to stand up for who he really wants to be? A coming-of-age story with a twist, with catchy new songs by lead singer-songwriter of The Feeling Dan Gillespie Sells and writer Tom MacRae (Doctor Who), this brand new musical will have everybody talking about Jamie for years to come. Based on the BBC3 documentary, Jamie – Drag Queen at Sixteen, the world premiere of this new musical runs at Sheffield Theatres from the 9th – 25th February 2017. Visit www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk for details and listen to the first song from the show below.

    https://soundcloud.com/user-872483887/dont-even-know-it-featuring-betty-boo

     

    Gypsy Queen – Doncaster CAST and National Tour

    Photo Credit: PR Supplied

    Written, in part, as a response to Tyson Fury’s comments that “there are only three things that need to be accomplished before the devil comes home and one of them is homosexuality being legal.”; this play tells the tale of The Gypsy King, a boxer who leaves his travelling community roots behind him to pursue his career. “Gorgeous” George O’Connell is taken on by a professional boxing coach, whose own son Dane ‘The Pain’ Samson is openly gay, and as they train together, George learn much more about himself that he ever thought he would. But Dane is fighting his own battles that lead to a tragedy that neither could predict. Set in the testosterone-fuelled world of boxing, this play looks at what happens in the traditionally masculine world of the sport when everything about someone’s culture and identity are confronted by their greatest fear. This play contains strong language, full frontal nudity and scenes of a sexual nature. Gypsy Queen plays at Doncaster CAST Theatre on the 12th April 2017 (www.castindoncaster.com ) and national tour.

    La Cage Aux Folles – Leeds Grand Theatre and National Tour.

    Photo Credit: PR Supplied by Leeds Grand Theatre

    Georges is the manager of a Saint Tropez nightclub, his partner Albin is a drag artiste and the club’s star attraction. They live an idyllic existence in the south of France until Georges’ son Jean-Michel announces his engagement to the daughter of a notorious right-wing politician; a politician who is determined to close down the local colourful night-life. This lavishly funny tale follows the gay couple desperately trying to “play it straight” as the families meet; and celebrates unconditional love, family values  and that life’s not worth a damn ‘till you can say I am what I am.’ Better known to many as “The Birdcage”, this 1983 classic musical is embarking on its first ever national tour, and stars John Partridge (Eastenders), and West End leading lady Marti Webb. La Cage Aux Folles is at Leeds Grand from the 20th to the 25th March 2017 (www.leedsgrandtheatre.com), as part of its current national tour (http://www.kenwright.com/microsite/la-cage-aux-folles/ )

    Miss Meena and the Masala Queens – West Yorkshire Playhouse and National Tour.

    Credit – PR Supplied

    Dazzling saris, grand Bollywood lip-sync dance numbers and queues of adoring fans – for Miss Meena this is all now a distant memory. The once famous and fabulous drag queen has lost his sparkle and like his nightclub is washed up and out of date. The punters have gone and whilst the other drag queens are strutting their high-heels elsewhere, property developers are circling like vultures waiting for Miss Meena to give up the lease to the club. With the club on its knees, a new arrival brings a glittery rainbow of hope. But just as things are starting to look up for Miss Meena, a visitor from the past makes him question everything he ever stood for. This new production promised to be fun, vivacious and heart-warming. Ms Meena and the Masala Queens is at West Yorkshire Playhouse from the 13th to the 17th June 2017 (www.wyp.org.uk ) as part of its national tour. Visit http://rifcoarts.com/shows/miss-meena-the-masala-queens for details.

     

     

  • Campaigners plan protest outside Joiners Arms two years after it closed

    A protest will take place outside the Joiners Arms on Saturday afternoon over owners’ and developers “greed”, two years after the legendary gay venue closed.

    CREDIT: Friends of Joiners Arms / Facebook

    The Joiners Arms was shuttered two years ago and now campaigners are planning to hold a demonstration outside the Joiners Arms, Hackney Road, on Saturday 21st January.

    The demo is organised by the Friends of the Joiners Arms, a community group founded in 2014 to save and evolve the Joiners Arms pub. The group hopes to bring the pub into community ownership, so it becomes London’s first cooperatively owned, LGBT+ community centre, with the pub a central part of its operation.

    In 2015 the pub was closed after owners working with property developers – planned to bulldoze the venue to make way for new homes. The pub has remained empty since its closure. One of the Friends of the Joiners Arms co-chairs called the motive to close the iconic venue as “greed and nothing else”.

    Jon Ward, co-chair of the Friends of the Joiners Arms, said,

    “The Joiners was one the few late night LGBTQIA venues in the east end, and its closure has left a massive hole in queer night scene and in our hearts. The venue closed because of greed and nothing else – why should such an important queer space be left to rot when it could be such an asset to the community?”

    Amy Roberts, co-chair of Friends of the Arms, says:

    “We invite everyone to join us at 1.30pm on Saturday to show the strength of feeling that remains – the Joiners Arms is our space, and the community wants it back!”