Lost Spaces: Memories from Gay Bars, Lesbian Clubs, and LGBTQ+ Parties

Doug Crossley is an award-winning writer and artist based in the UK (and - spoiler alert - he also recently won a baking episode of Kirstie's Handmade Christmas which was on Channel 4 over the festive period!). He moved to London in the early 00s to study musical theatre at the infamous BRIT school, and came with a set of preconceptions about the big city and how his life would be there.  We caught up to talk about Popstarz, London's legendary weekly indie rock night that started in the 90s. Along the way we discuss teenage insecurities, showing up to work hungover, and Doug tells me all about the one that got away....  Do you have any memories of Popstarz, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Follow Doug at his website (https://thedougiestore.com/) on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thedougiestore) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/thedougiestore/)

Having been an in-demand DJ for the better part of the last 20 years there were a lot of queer spaces that I could have talked about with DJ Dan Murphy,  but we decided to go with the venue that gave him his big start all those years ago...  And so we're headed back to the early 2000s to talk about Arq, the legendary superclub at the tip of Sydney's queer district of Oxford Street.  At this time in his life he had just returned from living in London, where he sold t-shirts and lollipops at Heaven nightclub, and moved to Sydney from his native Brisbane for adventure and purpose.  We talk all about making queer friends as an adult, Dan remembers a time when you could go out clubbing every night of the week, and I get to use the Australian phrase 'dud root', which excited me no end but didn't seem to impress Dan that much...  Do you have any memories of Arq, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Follow Dan on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DJDanMurphy) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/DJDanMurphy/) If you liked this episode I'd really appreciate if you subscribe, leave a review on your podcast platform, or just tell people that you think might be interested!

Have you ever had someone try to coax you out of the closet by asking the seemingly innocent question 'is there anything you want to tell me?'?  Do you remember the anguish and pain of simply muttering the 3 or 4 words needed to just confirm their suspicions?  Well, if you have, I have a feeling you'll love this week's episode.  I'm talking to comedy writer and actor Lisa Haas about her very first trip to the lesbian bar Three Sisters in Denver, Colorado in the 80s.  We talk about how depressing a lesbian bar can be on Christmas eve, the awkwardness of coming out support groups, and what signal your sister might be trying to send you when she offers to buy you a plaid shirt!  Do you have any memories of Three Sisters, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Listen to Lisa's podcast 'IN HEAT: A Lesbian Comedy' wherever you stream podcasts, and follow her on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/lisahaasactor/)

There's nothing quite like a small town gay bar. This week we're catching up with Martin J Dixon, a stand-up comedian who is really into soft core porn and hard core hand holding. He lived in Truro between the ages of 16 and 18, having moved there to live with his grandparents and finish high school. It was here that he snuck in to Eclipse, and had his first gay bar experience. During our conversation we veer all over the shop, and discuss what we think is the appropriate Grindr etiquette, what we even mean when we talk about the queer community, and what kind of decisions amorphous spiritual blobs would make about our lives... But before we get in to that we talk about Martin's very first night at the bar as an unsure 16 year old... he's snuck in with friends from his college, the lights are low, and Destination Calabria by Alex Gaudino and Crystal Waters is playing. All of a sudden a stranger hops in to Martin's lap... Listen to the episode to find out what happened next... Do you have any memories of the Jack Horner, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Follow Martin on Twitter (www.twitter.com/martinjdixon)

Self confessed pop culture expert Charlie Sayce, creator of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Fans, and host of God Save the Queens, a drag race review show on Glitterbeam Radio, is this week's guest.  And he's taking us on a trip back in time to his uni days in Worthing, a small seaside town in the south of England. It was here that he found the only gay bar in town, the Jack Horner. Despite it looking like a generic old man pub they played Britney Spears, had dodgy karaoke nights, and gave him an opportunity to explore his identity.  Do you have any memories of the Jack Horner, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Follow Charlie on Twitter as either his personal account (https://twitter.com/IAmCharlieSayce) or the account for RPDR UK Fans  (https://twitter.com/rpdrukfans). 

1 December is World Aids Day, an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic.  To mark this day on this week's show I'm joined by De'Vannon Hubert, podcaster and author of 'Sex, Drugs, and Jesus', a memoir about his struggles with his HIV+ diagnosis, drug addiction, homelessness, and rejection from his church for his sexuality. And the venue we're discussing is F-Bar in Houston, Texas, a place that holds bittersweet memories for De'Vannon - it was here that he celebrated, danced, and made friends and chosen family. But it was also here that he received the phone call telling him that he'd contracted HIV.  Do you have any memories of F Bar, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about De'Vannon at his website - (https://www.sexdrugsandjesus.com/) , or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SexDrugsAndJesus/) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/TabooTopix) 

So, if you've ever listened to this show before you'll know that I often talk to my guests about straight people in queer spaces... and, for the most part people are not exactly against the idea, but fear that it can compromise the integrity of a space, or... just make it a bit more boring... Well, this week's guest, Gretchen Phillips, has an entirely different view, and wants to see a world where there is more integration, and more 'reaching across the aisle', as she puts it... Gretchen is an influential singer-songwriter, who currently lives in Ottawa, Canada, but spent a good proportion of her life in Austin, Texas, where she was involved in cult bands Meat Joy, Girls in the Nose, and Two Nice Girls.  It was with Two Nice Girls that she released her best known compositions, 'The Queer Song', and 'I Spent My Last $10 (on Birth Control and Beer)', a song which sends up heterosexual relationships. We got together to talk about Chances, a lesbian bar in Austin that Gretchen started visiting in the 80s, and the space where she first laid eyes on her partner of 30 years....  Do you have any memories of Chances, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about Gretchen at her website - http://gretchen-phillips.com/

This week's guest is Reese Williams, host of the Not Another Drag Race Podcast.  If you follow me on social media you'll have seen this week that I was the guest on his show, spouting my ill-informed opinions about last week's episode of Drag Race UK, and now it's time to return the favour! Reese grew up in Melbourne's outer suburbs and still remembers the long train ride he'd take to come in to the city and explore queer nightlife... The place that's left the strongest impression on him is The Greyhound Hotel (or, as it came to be known, The GH), which was in the seaside area of St Kilda, and which was closed in 2017 to make way for some luxury flats (sound familiar?). We talk all about taking your straight female friends out dancing, seeing drag for the first time, and we even have a little lesson in Aussie slang! Do you have any memories of The Greyhound, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Follow Reese on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/notanotherdragracepod/ and https://www.instagram.com/reesieboi/

Michael Ryan, who leads the Gay Bars That Are Gone walking tour in NYC, and loves queer spaces as much as I do, is this week's guest. Originally from Augusta, Georgia, he first moved to New York for college, and although he quickly threw himself in to the scene, he wasn't sure what kind of gay he wanted to be... It wasn't until he found Splash, one of those old school gay bars that was bold, trashy and, invariably, the place you'd end up at the end of the night, that he found his tribe... And that tribe was the people that went to Musical Mondays, a night that celebrated all things musical theatre.... And, if you've listened to the show before you know that I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to musicals, but through this conversation I feel as though I'm starting to understand the appeal a little bit more...  If you're listening to this on Spotify I'm experimenting a little with their new interactive features - I've set up a simple question - 'What is your favourite musical of all time?' - so if you can have a look at the episode there and answer the question that'd make me super excited.... and I'll be your best friend FOREVER if you say Grease 2! Do you have any memories of Splash, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about Michael at his website https://michaelryanlovesplaces.com/, or follow him on IG https://www.instagram.com/michaeljamesryan/ and https://www.instagram.com/gaybarsthataregone/ If you're in NYC and you want to go on Michael's walking tour you can book through Bowery Boys Walks - https://www.boweryboyswalks.com/walking-tours/gay-bars-that-are-gone-tour/

The story behind how this week's conversation happened is almost as good as the interview itself! So, you may know this already, but I’m a big fan of Grease 2, which I think is a far superior film to Grease.  Having heard me rant about it on a previous episode of the show (see 'Queer as Punk' with Demi Wylde) a follower on twitter, @rnfrw, who is also a long time listener of the show (hello!) reached out to disagree, and we had a little bit of a back and forth about it.  This got me thinking about Grease, which led me to wikipedia, and then I fell in to a bit of a wiki-hole and now I have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the two films… But, one of the things that I didn’t know before I fell in to this wiki-hole, is what happened to the singer behind my absolute favourite song from the soundtrack to the Grease movie, which is obviously ‘It’s Raining on Prom Night’.  And my internet sleuthing led me to the singer/songwriter Cidny Bullens.... Cidny has had a long and fascinating career, and made the brave decision to transition in 2010 in his early 60s… We had a really great conversation about his life, but I have to admit that we’re kind of stretching the theme somewhat, and rather than talk about one physical space we are talking about the spaces that were created on the 1975 Elton John West of the Rockies Tour. Cidny was a back up singer on this tour, and is currently in the process of writing his memoir, so had a tonne of stories and insights to share about that experience and creating magic in front of an audience every evening.... Do you have any memories of clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about Cidny at his website (https://www.cidnybullens.com/), or on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/cidbullens/), or Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/cidnybullens/)