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  • THE UNDATEABLE GAY | His Second Chance

    So, I’m laying in bed the morning after the night before.

    In case your memory needs jogging, the night before was when Houdini, AKA Michael twat bag wank piece, vanished from sight on our first date. Ooh, if my mum is reading this, she will wash my mouth out with fairy liquid.

    I roll over and pull open the curtains. Cor, the sun hits my eyes like a slap around the chops with a wet cod. And the realisation dawns on me that the previous night’s date was not a dream. It was a harsh reality. What could have happened to him?

    I suddenly become all drama queen. What if he was kidnapped? What if he’s laying in the bottom of the Thames, with bricks tied to his feet? Before my imagination runs anymore wilder than John Wayne’s stallion, my phone beeps with a text message. My jaw slaps down on my blue pillowcase like a sack of potatoes. It’s only from Michael.

    My first instinct is to lob my phone out of the window. But my calm, non-drama queen side kicks in and I decide to press open on the message instead. what a novel idea.

    “I’m really sorry about last night. Everyone decided to move on to another club and we couldn’t find you to tell you.”

    Mmm, my mind starts ticking. It seems a plausible excuse but then I think, why didn’t you just text me last night to tell me where you were?? I quickly text him my thought and he replies,

    “I was just so drunk. I didn’t think. Sorry again.”

    At least I now know he’s not a captive on some pirate ship or fish food at the bottom of the Thames.

    As I drag myself from my pit, he texts again.

    “Do you wanna do something tonight?”

    My nostrils flare like George’s dragon. The bare-faced cheek of the man. Actually, not man. Boy.
    But then I suddenly think to myself, I can’t be a bitter old queen for the rest of my living days.

    “I’m going to an aerobics class with my mate tonight. You’re welcome to join.”

    He accepts. But how events unfold later, it’s a decision he comes to regret.

    Cue my very long and dear best friend, Tullene. Hell hath no fury like this girl when her gay best friend has been scorned by a boy.

    I drive to Michael’s house and he jumps in the front seat. He is very bashful but he starts talking and I decide to let bygones be bygones. As we pull up outside Tullene’s house, I see her walk towards the car abnormally and uncharacteristically fast. She throws a death glare at Michael. If looks could kill, he’d been ten foot under. I can’t work out whether it’s her protective nature or the fact that she’s had to sit in the back of the car.

    The car journey to the leisure centre is rather frosty and for a girl with a gob the size of the Grand Canyon, it’s also very quiet. I break the awkward silence.

    “Tullene! This is Michael.”

    Her nostrils flare. And if you know Tullene, this is a very scary prospect and sight.

    “So you’re Michael? That scrawny little runt who just upped and left mark in a London club.”

    She barked worse than a Jack Russell.

    As if the car ride wasn’t awkward enough. I look in the rear view mirror and see Tullene’s ears doing an impersonation of a kettle.

    Michael seemed lost for words which didn’t help his case against Tullene. She hates to be ignored. I see her arm reach for the seat belt and she goes to tug on it. I gasp and shout, “TULLENE!”
    Phew! I saved the poor boy from seat belt strangulation.

    In my capacity as peace maker, I defuse the situation.

    “I’ve given Michael a second chance. So I’d really love it if you did too. For me.”

    Her nostrils start to deflate to a normal size and I can see her starting to calm down. She also loosens her grip of his seat belt.

    As we enter the aerobics class, I start to take a dislike to Michael’s personality. He’s very cocky and he actually begins to get on my moobs.

    We manage to get through the aerobics class without talking and towards the end, he gets a stitch. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.

    As we dab the sweat from our brows, I decide I can’t bear to spend another minute in the presence of Michael. I feel like I might develop a rash just by breathing the same air as him. We all go to get in the car and I turn to Michael.

    “There’s only enough room for me and Tullene.”

    His jaw drops.

    “There’s a bus stop over there!”

    Tullene high fives my orange palm and we drive off, leaving Michael doing a very impressive impression of a fish.
    Now that’s gay power.

     

    Follow Mark Woollard on Twitter

     

    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.

  • INTERVIEW |  Manuel Blanch

    INTERVIEW | Manuel Blanch

    Manuel Blanch

    Aaron_Holloway-_ADH4068
    CREDIT: Aaron Holloway

    Age: 25
    Lives in: Paris
    Eye colour: Blue
    Favourite drink : A (Double 😉 ) Mojito Bull.
    Favourite food : Alternating between delicious healthy food and super-fattening filling fast food.
    Favourite place to go on holiday : I don’t like to go to places “on holiday”, I like to go to places for work 😀

    Paris, France – I first met Manuel earlier this year in Nice at the Queernaval celebrations. At that party, he was dressed in an impossibly tight t-shirt with a large set of angel wings strapped to his back. He was there to be the poster boy, lead of the parade and to play a few tracks to the crowd. He would later play a full set at one of the local nightclubs. Fast forward a few months and I find out that Manuel is now playing fairly regularly at Paris’ largest gay club Gibus (Jee-boos). I decided to go along, check out the night and explore some of Paris’ nightlife.

    We met Saturday night, before the party at a little cafe restaurant in the Republique square in Paris, along with his very good friend, French singer Angie Be. Blanch began mixing a few years ago in Marseille in the south of France but soon decided that he would need to be in Paris if he was going to go pro and be a full-time DJ. Since making the move he has been featured in France’s largest LGBT magazine Garcon, appeared in Nice at the Queernaval, and had a short residency at Nice nightclub Le Six. He is also a regular DJ at Gibus. The night I visited, he was the final DJ to end the night for their Heros XXL event which was a massive 10 hours of clubbing in Paris’ gay district.

    Blanch’s style is described as Trance – a mixture of solid base beats and remixed dance tracks by performers like Sia and David Guetta. His sound is a happy, upbeat blend of seamlessly mixed tracks that matches his sunny and always enthusiastic personality, and had the crowd at Gibus dancing until nearly 10am. His musical influences include the 2001-2004 period and German and Belgian dance and trance projects.

    CREDIT: Aaron Holloway
    CREDIT: Aaron Holloway

    Strikingly beautiful, Blanch gathers followers whenever people see him or hear his music, which attests to the large groups of screaming fans when he took to the decks in Gibus Sunday morning at 7am – fans who had waited all night to hear him play.

    For those of you in London, you don’t have to travel so far or wait that long to see and hear Manuel for yourselves. He will be appearing at the Mighty Party, an upcoming tea dance in London, this December. Despite the cliché, Blanch hopes to score a gig in Ibiza soon, but in the meantime, I’ll be heading across to Dresden next week to hear him play there on the 20th at the Gaynight Pool Party at Puro, and he’ll also be appearing at the Sinners Party in Munich in October.

    To hear Manuel now check out his soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/manuelblanch

     

    Follow Aaron Holloway on Twitter

  • Gawker down

    Gawker down

    Gawker, one of the world’s leading news sites is to close down.

    Gawker_LogoGawker is to cease operation from next week after nearly fourteen years of service. The news comes after Univision successfully bid $135m for Gawker’s six media sites a few days ago.

    It is believed that no staffers at Gawker will lose their jobs – as staffers will be assigned to other outlets in the portfolio or be adsorbed into Univision.

    In a memo to staff Nick Denton, the site’s founder said neither he or Gawker.com would be included in the new venture with Univision.

    “Sadly, neither I nor Gawker.com, the buccaneering flagship of the group I built with my colleagues, are coming along for this next stage.”

    Why is Gawker closing?

    Gawker filed for bankruptcy after a lawsuit, brought by the former wrestler Hulk Hogan, awarded $140m in damages to the TV star.

    The lawsuit, reportedly costing $10m was funded by Paypal co-founder, Peter Thiel. Mr Thiel, one of the world’s richest openly gay men said that he aided the lawsuit because he wanted to curtail the company’s “bullying”.

    The company published an article outing Mr. Thiel in 2007.

    What was the lawsuit about?

    Gawker was sued by Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) after they published a video of him having sex with the wife of a friend from 2007. The trial lasted 3 weeks and Gawker was ordered to pay $115m compensation and $25m in punitive damage.

    What will happen to Gawker.com?

    In the long-term nobody knows what will happen to the Gawker brand – however it’s six sister sites: Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, and Jezebel, will continue as normal.

  • Is this the most insightful thing Joey Essex has ever said?

    Is this the most insightful thing Joey Essex has ever said?

    Joey Essex isn’t known for his smarts, in fact he’s made a career out of being/playing well simple, but if you read some of his instagrams you might just be surprised.

    CREDIT: Joey Essex / Instagram

     

    The gorgeous Joey Essex has looks on his side as well as the ability to hang out with Nigel Farage for the day and for it not to affect his likability – it’s an uncanny talent.

    But is there a deeper more meaningful person beneath all the silly questions?

    Taking a look at his Instagram, there’s some gems there and show that the boy is deep and insightful – not what we expected at all!

    In one of his latest post the reality TV star told his fans,

    “Enjoy your life today, because yesterday is gone, and tomorrow is never promised…”

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BJMzc3WhWLL/?taken-by=joeyessex&hl=en

    Pretty darn deep.

     

     

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Chemsex Monologues

    ★★★★ | The Chemsex Monologues

    Introducing a hexagon of narratives that will surge a memory, ignite a demon or pep your G spot.

    PR Supplied

    If you’ve never darkened the dimly lit doorway of a chill-out, you’ll grasp that the etiquette for accepting others’ pharmaceuticals is to putout; sexual health workers hand out condoms in saunas to the beats of Kylie; Bermondsey is a hotspot for Roman style orgies; gays high on meth get lost buying cigarettes; G-o’clock equals a contorting face; overdoing the liquid-high could leave you with an unexplained bleeding rectum.

    Writer Patrick Cash leans on the darker side of the drug-fueled free-for-all, with more authenticity than an Eastenders’ Christmas double bill – graphically touching on a mosaic of very real circumstances.

    Sex, high on narcotics, can rocket your orgasm to another sphere, but, for some, what happens when the euphoria fades?

    Denholm Spurr (Nameless), snorts Andrex-Puppy-ness into a character you’ll know, have seen or can relate to. Charly Flyte (Fag Hag Cath) is credible and injects a decent size syringe full of humour.

    Leave ya poppers at home and there’s no need for laughing gas. You’ll rush, and sink to the bottom, in this well-quilled chem-hole.

    The Chemsex Monologues plays at The Kings Head Theatre until 20th August 2016, 0207 226 8561 

  • Frankie Grande gets completely naked again

    Frankie Grande gets completely naked again

    Frankie Grande has shown off a lot this season of Celebrity Big Brother – but today he went one step further and gave his housemates a strip tease.

    CREDIT: Channel 5/ Youtube

    This was no sneaky bum cheek sneak in the bedroom, no this was a full-blown striptease. Frankie Grande treated his fellow housemates to a full-on striptease.

     

    Click here to see the NSFW pictures.

  • Calm down! Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black aren’t married YET!

    Calm down! Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black aren’t married YET!

    Dustin Lance Black set social media on fire after tweeting something that made fans think that he and Tom Daley had gotten hitched… without telling them.

    CREDIT: Dustin Lance Black / Instagram

     

    Love birds Dustin Lance Black and Tom Daley set the rumour mill on fire after DLB tweeted something that made their fans suspicious last week.

    DLB inadvertently managed to make people believe that the pair, who are engaged to be married, had actually gone ahead with the big day without telling anyone.

    Tweeting about watching his fiance diving at the Rio 2016 Olympics last week, the Oscar winning writer said,

    “3M Finals with Johnny Chaillot. Watch out #FootballWives, the #DivingHusbands are in the house. #Rio2016 #Diving”

    With DLB suggesting that he was a “Diving Husband”, social media went into overdrive speculating that the adorable duo had married – when the world wasn’t looking.

    A spokesperson for the pair told The Mirror that it wasn’t true and that the pair weren’t married – yet.

    We want first row seats when it happens. In fact scrap that – we want to be the ring bearers.

    … take your mind out of the gutters.

  • Why do some people think Ellen’s meme is racist?

    Ellen DeGenres is being accused of being racist after tweeting a picture which shows her sitting on Usain Bolt’s back.

    CREDIT: ©-Jean_Nelson-Depositphotos
    CREDIT: ©-Jean_Nelson-Depositphotos

    The photoshopped picture in which the US comedian appears to be seated on Bolt’s back as he is running is captioned “This is how I’m running errands from now on”.

    The post attracted a lot of criticism from some who think the picture is racist.

    Some even went as far as to say that the comedian and talk-show host should shut down her show.

    https://twitter.com/MikeAllen_47/status/765332700194443264

    https://twitter.com/sIymm/status/765719240024399872

    https://twitter.com/Mikeliving783/status/765934165120266241

     

    However many people were quick to dismiss the claims that Ellen had been racist in posting the picture. Usain Bolt was also noted to have retweeted the post.

     

    https://twitter.com/AdamMcKola/status/765855721292431360

    https://twitter.com/fourfivehours/status/765334471251927040

     

    Ellen was quick to refute the accusations of being racist saying,

    “I am highly aware of the racism that exists in our country. It is the furthest thing from who I am.”

    Ellen has been a long time support of equality, calling for more diversity in film saying it was long overdue.

    Talking about diversification of the Oscars she said,

    “It’s always amazing to me that it’s taken this long for all of us to realise we should all be represented in film and television,

    “There’s a planet full of people that aren’t white heterosexual. There’s a lot of people of colour, fat people, people that aren’t absolutely perfect.”

    So do you think Ellen’s meme was insensitive or a ill-thought out joke?

  • Stephen Fry is back on Twitter

    Stephen Fry is back on Twitter

    Acting legend Stephen Fry is back on Twitter.

    © Jean_Nelson Depositphotos

    Stephen Fry is back on Twitter after he left the social media networking site back in February over an uproar over a “bag lady” comment made about costume designer Jenny Beavan, who was collecting a Bafta, for which Fry was the host.

    The backlash against Fry started almost immediately and he released a statement saying,

    “So just a word to the tragic figures who think calling Jenny Bevan a bag lady was an insult. She’s a dear friend and she got it. Derrr.”

    Another tweet said,

    “Will all you sanctimonious f***ers f*** the f*** off Jenny Beavan is a friend and joshing is legitimate. Christ I want to leave the planet.”

     

    However this after it appears as though the actor is back on Twitter.

    In a blog on his site, told his fans,

    “After five months of life away from social media I have reactivated my Twitter account.

    “From time to time you will now be able to read news of what I am up to, along with occasional redirects to causes important to me.

    “I started work on a comedy series for CBS television in the US this week and I will certainly keep the @stephenfry feed up to date with information and pictures about this exciting new project as well as, perhaps, subjecting the world to a mini-blog or two on my website.

    “While I won’t be burdening you all with personal observations or visiting the Direct Messages page, Twitter can still reward with its marvellous uses as a bulletin board and information exchange.

    “Had anyone suggested that such a service might exist ten or fifteen years ago I would never have believed them.”

     

     

  • RESTAURANT REVIEW | ‘O ver Italian Restaurant

    If a Londoner wants white, earthy, luxurious truffle oil, or by chance pungent époisses, or perhaps is in the mood for Pacific fresh rock oysters – where does an Old Smoke dweller go?

    Borough Market’s a given. But what if you’ve a hankering for seawater pizza? Up until now you’d have had to cross the Channel and head to southern Italy. But as of 29th July 2016 you can now hop on the Jubilee line to south London’s borough of Southwark, where the Big Smoke’s first seawater pizza restaurant resides – a mozzarella-ball’s throw from Borough Market.

    At the opening night we arrived to chaos – it was like feeding the 5000 without the miracle. Prosecco and pizza were being served as if they only had five loaves and two fish – at first, not a lot didn’t go very far.

    The space is bright, clinical and intimate – fresh white walls, marble counters, a wood-fired pizza oven and being able to see the chefs beavering from every angle, make up the main fixtures. A neat, boutique Pizza Express, with a White Cube gallery feel.

    ‘O ver’s mantra is healthy, delicious, genuine Neapolitan street food. Eventually, when we were able to bypass the other locusts we were able to try:

    First up: Regina, Neapolitan buffalo mozzarella, piennolo cherry tomatoes, San Marzano tomato sauce and fresh basil. Our moods lightened instantaneously – the pizza base is almost crape floppy, light and beautifully salty. Ripe tomatoes lifted with aromatic and peppery basil – scrumptious.

    We did manage to get our hands on a glass of Prosecco, but there was so little in the glass it’s not worth writing about.

    Margherita: Fior di latte from Monti Lattari, San Marzano tomato sauce and fresh basil. It’s all ’bout that base, ’bout that base, no treble. Instead of adding salt and water to make the dough, they add purified seawater from an already ‘pure section’ of the Mediterranean – apparently, withholding its 92 minerals and the sea salt – making a lean, moreish lip-lickin’ pizza.

    After wrestling a few hacks out the way, we made it to the bar. We were offered: Aperol Sprits, Aperol, “Mabis” Prosecco Millesimato DOC, Soda. It took two staff six mins to make two drinks – serving others in between was apparently more important. Thanks were given to the second member for taking over the process, at which she retorted “I don’t like the way you were looking at me – I can do two things at once”. Pleasant. The Sprits was bitter, sweet and orangey – decent, unlike the service.

    The last we tried: Paloma, smoked mozzarella from Sorrento, Chiodini mushrooms, rolled Italian pancetta, black pepper and fresh basil – again, limp and luscious. Truffly mushrooms gave the spicy meat and smoking gooey cheese a sophisticated edge.

    Mama Mia the ingredients are fresh, pizzas are £7 to £15 and so worth a jaunt to SE1. Hopefully, after a few weeks of being open, they would have regained that Neapolitan charm.

    Star Rating: ★★★
    Price Rating:
    Website: http://www.overuk.com
    Phone: 44 2073789933
    Address: ‘O ver 44 Southwark Street London, SE1 1UN

  • Another London gay bar closes, Queens Head set to close in September

    Another London gay bar closes, Queens Head set to close in September

    A legendary gay bar in London has announced it is to close.

    CREDIT: Google Maps 2016

     

    The Queen’s Head in Chelsea, London, is set to close after its management said it was unable to “come to reasonable terms for renewal of the lease”.

    The pub, which is one of London’s oldest gay bars is just one of over 100 gay bars that have closed since the year 2000 in London.

    It was an interesting concept for a bar as its setup was mixed for LGBT+ and mixed customers. Two sides of the bar catered for two different audiences.

    A Facebook message confirmed the closure, revealing that the last day of trading would be the 6th September.

    The statement said,

    “Unfortunately it’s true, the Old Lady of Tryon Street will be closing her doors,

    “We’ve been unable to come to reasonable terms for renewal of the lease on the building with our landlords and therefore we’ll be shutting up shop.
    The Queens Head will be back in some form or another but the place that we all know and love will cease to be.

    “We’re bloody gutted as well by the way.”

     


    ALSO READ: One of London’s most iconic gay bars has been saved from the developers.


     

    In a later post, management of the Queen’s Head explained that the pub’s owners, Stonegate Pub Company where not to blame for the closure but the building’s owner saying,

    “If the landlords are asking for too much money then it’s untenable for them to keep the place.

    “They honestly didn’t want to let us go and have been trying for months to come to an agreement with the landlords.”