Beige Volume 2 Issue 5

BEHIND THE LABEL VODKA PLEASURE THEATRE JULIE ANDREWS HITS LONDON BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2009 SHOWCASE ART FOR WORLD AIDS DAY

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BEATBOX IDOL

BLAKE LEWIS ON USING SIMON COWELL

BRIGHTON PRIDE HOW THE UK’S MOST FABULOUS GAY EVENT TURNED SOUR

YEAR NEW CHRISTMAS AND

HOLLY GETS PRICKLY HOLLY JOHNSON ON MODERN POP

ADVENTURES

HOW TO PARTY IN BEIRUT, PARIS, SYDNEY AND NEW YORK.

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AmericanAirlines, We know why you fly and AA.com are marks of American Airlines, Inc. oneworld is a mark of the oneworld Alliance, LLC. Front page.indd 2

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With convenient connections from the UK, American Airlines can take you anywhere in America.

American Airlines flies to the U.S. from the UK up to 15 times a day, including up to four flights a day from London Heathrow to New York/JFK. Once you reach America, the entire country and continent are just one flight away. For information and to book your flight, visit AA.com.

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Features

Regulars

22

08 Christmas Comes

Peter Burton wonders if there’s an antidote to the festive season

12 Fresh!

Christmas gifts special

19 Hot Dates

10 The Father of my Children

He’s behind you! Panto special

It-Boy Jeff Dorta prepares for his first Christmas with kids

28 Fashion

Red-nosed knitwear

16 OI! NOH8 M8

31 Homestyle

How America is silently protesting against anti-gay marriage laws

The one day Christmas home makeover

22 Brighton Shame

34 Travel

How the UK’s best loved gay event turned sour

Four very different New Year’s Eve party destinations, plus the world’s best ski resorts reviewed

26 Blake ‘beatboxing’ Lewis

The American Idol doing it his own way

44 Books

The best reads of 2009 reviewed

48 Holly, Frankly

47 Music

The Frankie Goes To Hollywood frontman on the state of pop

26

54 Hurling Abuse

The best gay songs of hte Noughties

51 Film

What happens when a sporting hero comes out? Rob Cochrane reviews the revelations of Donal Og Cusack

This months cinema and DVD biggies

56 Theatre

78 At home with...

Robin Anderson

Hair, Zombie Prom and hitting the West End VIP style

16

62 Showcase

The novelist and interior designer invites us to view his ‘coffin table’

100 Artists exhibit for World AIDS Day

66 Hot Spots

Hotels, restaurants and bars ready to spoil you

70 Behind the label Vodka heaven

73 Money

How to budget this Christmas

75 Community

56 Editor Douglas Mayo editor@beigeuk.com Features Editor Torsten Højer torsten@beigeuk.com www.beigeuk.com

Travel Editor Darren Cooper darren@beigeuk.com Advertising/ Subscriptions advertising@beigeuk.com 0203 006 3094

Film Josh Winning Books Peter Burton Behind the Label Mark Ludmon Design Phillip Wentworth

Contributors Jeff Dorta Martin Lewis Rob Cochrane Sam Peter Jackson Scott Brown Tony Tansley

Beige UK is published

by Next Phase Media Suite 404 Albany House 324-326 Regent Street London W1B 3HH T: 0203 004 8133 F: 0871 714 6996 ISSN 1756-7211

Names, numbers, help and social stuff

contents

All rights reserved throughout the world. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written consent of Beige UK. The views and opinions expressed by contributors to this magazine may not necessarily represent the views of Beige UK. Beige UK takes no responsibility for claims made in advertisements featured in this magazine. Beige UK can take no responsibility for unsolicited material. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy and completeness, and the opinions based thereon are not guaranteed. Disclaimer: Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organisation, articles or advertising in Beige UK should not be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organisation or advertiser. (c) Next Phase Media

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© 1993-2009 The King of Shaves Company Ltd. K2695 Beige Advert v1. E&OE

shave.com

kingofshaves.indd 1

The Azor is no ordinary razor.

As easy on the eye as it is on your face, thanks in no small part to great design and its unique flexible head innovation that ensures constant contact between blade and skin. Call it the ‘Technology of Bendology’. Or simply better.

26/08/2009 17:16:55

beigecomment

Christmas Comes

‘I

t’s that time of year again. For those who haven’t already noticed, there are plenty of clues.

There’s the inevitable new version of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol playing on a cinema screen somewhere near you and, inescapably, there will be umpteen versions of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (animated, black and white, musical, technicoloured) playing on your television screen sometime soon.

We’ve already had The Wizard of Oz and Oliver – The Sound of Music and The Great Escape can’t be far behind. Query: Is there something subliminally significant that links this classic movie about a mass bid for freedom and a time of year when we are expected to be snug in the bosom of our families?

Meanwhile, every commercial break on television and every other page in every magazine and newspaper has been stuffed for months with advertisements promoting the kind of gifts you neither want to give or receive.

And then there are all those full colour picture spreads of the kind of festive provender that surely hasn’t groaned on anyone’s board since Queen Victoria shuffled off her mortal coil more than a hundred years ago.

In fact, it’s worth remembering that the popular image of Christmas is an entirely Victorian invention – a Frankenstein creation of the aforementioned Charles Dickens and Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert. That was all a very long time ago and, to utilise novelist L P Hartley’s oft quoted dictum, ‘the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there’.

So, here we are at the end of the first decade of the twentyfirst century and still the invitations arrive for bacchanalian office parties and family gatherings.

And to compound the horrors of each individual’s professional and personal involvements are the dominating Ds: Dyspepsia – caused by over-indulgence in overly-rich food; Drunkenness – prompted by the entirely unnatural bonhomie of the season; and Despair – provoked by the sense of the physical ill-being brought on by the first two Ds in alliance with the certain knowledge that at some point early in the new year an irate letter from your bank will arrive concerning the unauthorised overdraft that has been run up to pay for the festivities.

Remember, those debit and credit cards are all too easy to bring into play when that ‘quick one’ with work colleagues turns into several and leads to your dancing (embarrassingly) in nothing but your aussiebums on the podium at your favourite bar much later that night.

The obvious antidote to Christmas is to ignore it, but that takes an iron will.

Like Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, you can growl ‘Bah! Humbug!’ to every cheery seasonal greeting directed your way. But it’s a ploy that rarely works. Best to bear in mind that this is the one time of the year when we really are expected to feel good will towards all men and have a jolly good time even if it all but kills us.

So, the burying-your-head-in-the-sand approach (basic ostrich) doesn’t work.

Friends simply won’t notice (for a decade at least) that you’ve stopped sending cards and however much they might insist that ‘we’re not buying presents this year’ it’s guaranteed that they’ll have a last minute panic or an attack of guilt and turn up on your doorstep laden with gaily wrapped packages.

If you announce that you’ll be spending Christmas Day happily alone, dining on a boiled egg and a pot of Earl Grey, your nearest and dearest will treat it as a joke and still expect you for their lunch or dinner party.

So – what to do?

Try being sensible. It sometimes works.

Fight off then unwanted confidences or declarations of undying devotion that comes your way at the office party – they will cause embarrassment in the new year. Ignore the insults – they will be regretted even more. Try not to overload with food. Turn down that second helping of turkey and that extra hunk of Christmas pud. “Are you alright?” friends will ask. “Can I get you anything else?”

“I’m being sensible,” you will stoutly answer – and just as stoutly stick your guns as hoots of derisive laughter ring in your ears.

Otherwise… well, it’s dyspepsia and bromo-selzter for you.

And how to cope with the endless alcohol and the hangover which looks set to stretch from one end of December to the other?

Try sticking within the limits of what you are used to – though people will be offended when you refuse that drunk, accusing you of being stand-offish by spurning their hospitality.

Otherwise … well, it’s rampant drunkenness, curative hairs-of-the-dog and a shot liver for you.

And the expense of it all? Try caution, don’t run riot with the credit cards or the overdraft.

Otherwise … well, it’s mounting debt and bleak despair for you.

Ultimately, of course, there is no antidote to Christmas. It is utterly unavoidable. So, take my advice, eat, drink, be merry … and suffer! Because, to be honest, it’s my favourite time of year.

Ho, bloody, ho ho.

© Mark Vessey

Peter Burton wonders if there’s an antidote to the looming festive season

comment “Christmas offers what I call ‘the dominating Ds’ - Drunkeness, Dyspepsia and Despair”

Mr Burton’s opinions are not necessarily those of Beige magazine. If you have a viewpoint on this topic, we would love to hear from you. Write to us at editor@beigeuk.com with the subject line ‘Letter to the editor’.

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beigecomment

I met the father of

my children on the

Jeff Dorta, Manhattan it-boy and PR guru to New York’s great and gay celebrities, is about to spend his first Christmas as a father. ‘It’s completely changed my life,’ he writes…

‘I

t was New York City Pride 2001. Pre 9/11. Everything really was right with the world. Kevin Aviance was even at the top of the American dance charts with Alive, a song I had written with DJ Tony Moran.

Kevin was preparing to perform the track at the Heritage of Pride dance on the pier. To impress the new guy I had just met, I whisked him backstage to meet the reigning club diva. Kevin took one look at Jerry’s crystal blue eyes and purred, “Ooh, he’s got eyes like a husky.”

It wasn’t love at first sight. Jerry and I were (and still are) from two different worlds. I run a publicity firm in New York City that specialises in gay lifestyle companies like Manhunt and artists like RuPaul. Jerry is a healthcare consultant for a global professional services firm.

Our love for each other grew. For me, it was first about appreciating the time we spent together; enjoying the little things like walking to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree and strolling through the West Village to visit the little shops.

What sealed the deal, though, was family. When I noticed that Jerry was willing to care for my English bulldog, Angus – who is still my first baby – it was love. When I brought Jerry home for Thanksgiving and saw how he interacted with my parents and how they genuinely liked him, it was love. When he took me home for Christmas and I noticed how he treated his family and how lovingly they treated him back – it was love. Jerry’s appreciation of family made me realise that he was more than some guy I had met on the dance floor. This was a guy I could grow a family with.

As most gay couples do, we started our family with the canine variety. Two years into our relationship, we welcomed a second bulldog, Tank, into our home. We were a family of four sharing a one bedroom New York City apartment.

It was about six years into our relationship when we decided that it was time to start thinking about children. We were both in our thirties - prime child rearing age.

Did we want a baby or older child? Would we consider siblings? We both agreed siblings would be ideal for us. The siblings could be live in play mates, friends and can help one another through the adoption transition which in turn would make the process a little bit easier for Jerry and me.

Did we prefer a boy or girl? I really wanted a boy but Jerry felt a girl might adjust better to having two dads.

Did we want to raise the child in NYC? We both agreed a suburban setting close to the city would be best. So, we sold our one bedroom city apartment and bought a seven bedroom house in a suburb 20 minutes away.

Our state’s Youth and Family Services (YFS) Department arranged a homestudy of our house where they checked every nook and cranny to certify that our home was safe for child rearing. We were fingerprinted by the federal government and criminal background checks were performed. We were extensively interviewed about every facet of our lives personal, family, professional, recreation, travel, etc…

Then YFS sent us to parenting school. For two months, Jerry and I spent every Saturday from 8am to 5pm in a classroom learning about the adoption process, laws, and parenting skills.

The parenting courses were especially important because most of the children available for adoption through government agencies have experienced significant abuse (physical, sexual, and/or neglect) by their birth families in the past. Parenting children with traumatic pasts requires special skills.

We encountered a lot of discrimination along the way.

Ultimately, the child placement decision is made by the child’s caseworker. If he or she opposes same-sex adoption, they have the power to deny the same-sex couple and the child remains in the foster care system.

We struggled though over a year of rejection notices … “We feel it is in the best interest of the children to have both a mother and a father.”

We were close to giving up when I received a call from a placement team in Montana, a state that does not allow same sex adoption. They had received our inquiry and we were among four families being considered for their sibling group – two boys, aged eight and five. Five professionals from the child placement team grilled me on how Jerry and I would handle specific parenting situations.

After an agonising wait, Jerry and I were chosen as the adoptive placement for eight-year-old CJ and five-year-old Matthew.

Our lives changed dramatically when the kids arrived. We had to enroll in schools, learn playground etiquette, get up to speed on the latest toys, cartoons, and kid fashions, and most importantly we had to care for the two kids who just moved in with us! After about the third week, we finally settled into a routine and life as we knew it changed forever … for the better. Adoption has allowed us to turn our dream of having a family into a reality. For others, we can only hope that our modern family provides an example of how gay adoption and a non-traditional family structure can brighten the lives of children and build a foundation for a hopeful and healthy future.

Our boys are excited to celebrate their first Christmas with their Papa (Jerry) and Daddy (me). We are planning to spend the holidays with extended family in New York and will be celebrating New Years 2010 at home with the kids.

Jeff Dorta with his partner Jerry and their two sons, CJ and Matthew, in New York City, November 2009

“Adoption has allowed us to turn our dream of having a family into a reality … our modern family provides an example of how gay adoption can brighten the lives of children” Jeff Dorta is a partner at Project Publicity, an NYC PR firm that specialises in LGBT companies and talent. www.projectpublicity.com.

Mr Dorta’s opinions are not necessarily those of Beige magazine.

If you have a viewpoint on this topic, we would love to hear from you.

Write to us at editor@beigeuk.com with the subject line ‘Letter to the editor’.

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HERTFORD 90.indd 2

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fresh!

christmas gifts special • christmas gifts special • christmas gifts special • christmas gifts special

Gold headphones The W-Series utilises Audio Chi’s Structural Acoustics™ Technology boasts one of the headphone world’s most exclusive sound units, the Titanium-Mylar Driver - a sure fire way of combining flawless sound, creative design and comfort. And, they’re gold! £69.95 www.audiochi.com

Fabulous, sweetie Sweetie Jars £4.50 each from Boots

The world’s fastest DVD writer This is the fastest external DVD writer in the world, according to the manufacturers, Lite-On. ‘Nuff said. £58 from www.liteonit.com

Leather Shaving Travel Case Luggage Tag

J by Jasper Conran and Passport Holder Set, £20, available from Debenhams

Brown leather case contains: Mach 3 razor and best badger travel shaving brush. £114.99

www.theinsideman.co.uk

Sit on some lurve If you need to inject some love into your home, these love chairs by Barker and Stonehouse may do the trick. £1105.00 from www.barkerandstonehouse.co.uk

Big pink tools What do you mean you don’t ‘do’ DIY? Perhaps this Rolson Pink Tool Bag 25 Piece will lure the men in your life who don’t know how to use a screwdriver into the world of manliness? £15.00 from Wilkinson

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Get your very own star!

Ok, we get that this is vomitinducingly romantic and moreover, cheesy, but people think it costs a fortune to name a star, but (shhh!) this one’s only £19.99. The Name a Star set comes with coordinates and a star wall map so you can star spot your star and details of how to register the issued star on the Star Registry. The star will officially be titled with your chosen name and you can show it off with the certificate you are issued.

www.iwantoneofthose.com

Wireless Floating Speaker

Sock it to ‘em

Topman socks: tell grandma before she knits her own!

Sound gadgets such as iPods and the like are beautiful things, but when you want to listen to your music in the Jacuzzi or out by your luxurious pool, you don’t want to go ruining them with water and dirt - or come to think of it drag round speakers festooned with wires and cables. This Wireless Floating Speaker allows you to leave your high-tech gadgetry (and indeed your stereo system) safe in the warm while you take the speakers wherever you like.

You can even float it in the bath or the pool! A small transmitter hooks up to your sound system (be it big stack or small MP3 player) and wirelessly transmits your tunes effortlessly up to 150ft away, to this speaker. £39.99

www.iwantoneofthose.com

What a mug Stonewall’s ‘Some people are gay, Get over it!’ mugs are on sale… They cost £4.99 plus £3.95 for postage and packaging per mug. All funds go towards Stonewall’s work – including their Education for All campaign, which tackles homophobic bullying in Britain’s schools.

To order, visit

Croc watch J by Jasper Conran G Tonno Chrono Dial with Black Croc Strap, £70 at

Debenhams

www.stonewall.org.uk/mugs OSARE Men’s Jewellery:

Fiamma Ring £369

www.osarejewellery.com

An iPod Jukebox

£120,000 to spare?

If you’re keen to drive like a maniac but clever enough to realise you can’t do that on public roads, then this is for you. “Let’s be clear: this simulator is not a video game linked up to a steering wheel, race seat and pedals,” says Frank Kalff, Cruden’s commercial director. “Although easy to operate, this is the exact equipment used by the top racing drivers to improve their race craft and evaluate new tracks and car settings”. A snip at £120,000 from www.cruden.com

Built in the nostalgic design of the most beautiful jukebox ever built, the Wurlitzer, this jukebox plays directly from the included 60GB iPod or CD, and features Bose speakers for great sound quality not associated with the old jukeboxes! £5,999.99 available from

www.theinsideman.co.uk vol 2 issue 5 | beige | 13

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fresh!

christmas gifts special • christmas gifts special • christmas gifts special • christmas gifts special • christmas gifts special • christmas gifts special

USB Cup Warmer If your boyfriend annoys you with demands for hot cups of coffee when he’s working, then this might be the answer to your prayers.

The USB cup warmer plugs into your USB port, heating up your cuppa on the hot plate, and extending your drinking time by up to 30 minutes - bliss. £9.99 www.iwantoneofthose.com

Snake chamer Sequins!

Erm, if you’re a fan of Elton John’s ‘look’, then this could turn heads at the office Christmas party.

Sequin blazer £69.99 River Island

Continental Mobiles is launching a new selection of skins that will allow iPhone lovers to purchase an opulent hide in snakeskin, python, buffalo or stingray. £199

www.continentalmobiles.com

Fits like a...

Men’s pure black cashmere handstitched cableknit gloves with a ribbed cashmere cuff, and the softest black lambskin suede palm. The ultimate winter glove for men. Handstitched in Italy. £95.00

Vodka and music If you have a music loving friend on your Christmas list this year and are stuck for ideas then the people at Smirnoff have come up with the ideal original gift The Smirnoff No 21 Speaker Pack. Buy one of the special packs and your bottle of Smirnoff vodka comes wrapped in a stylish red zipped jacket, which comes with inbuilt speakers and MP3 connection to get everyone in the mood for festive celebrations. The Smirnoff No 21 Speaker Pack is available exclusively at Selfridges during the Christmas period, RRP £34.99

www.black.co.uk

A watch mobile phone!

Cast out your mobile phones (but keep the SIM card, it’s quite important) and get ready for a new dawn in mobile technology. The sWap Watch has arrived. ‘For years, people have been using their phones to tell the time and discarding their watches… the ‘sWap Watch’ is out for revenge. Want to check your emails? Surf the internet?

Listen to music? Take Pictures? Watch a movie? MAKE a movie? It does ALL of these things. And with an internal memory of up to 2GB, there’s room for lots of stuff. £249.00

www.iwantoneofthose.com

Power on the go...

They’ve got an iPhone, an iPod and a handheld games console. So what on earth do you buy them for Christmas? Simple. A powermonkey-classic portable charger for mobile phones (including iPhones and BlackBerrys), iPods, PDAs, handheld games consoles and more! The powermonkey makes flat batteries a thing of the past - keeping gadgets powered for longer. The powermonkey will recharge your mobile phone fully up to three times before you need to recharge the powermonkey unit. It will also give you up to 40 hours of play time on your iPod, 48 hours on your PDA and up to 5 hours gaming on your handheld games console. www.powertraveller.com

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Sail Through Your Winter

Two Fantastic All-Gay Caribbean Cruises.

The World’s Largest All-Gay Cruise Liberty of the Seas • 17 – 24 January, 2010

Solstice Exotic Caribbean Cruise Celebrity Solstice • 7 – 14 March, 2010

Sail into the Caribbean sunshine this winter with the biggest and best Atlantis cruises of the year! Join 3700 gay and lesbian guests on our largest all-gay cruise yet, featuring a brand new itinerary and the most spectacular ship we’ve ever chartered. Or sail the flagship of the world’s #1 cruise line (according to Conde Nast Traveler) for an exotic adventure to unspoiled beaches and sophisticated shores. Either way, you’ll experience the world-class entertainment, outrageous parties, non-stop fun, and incredible sense of camaraderie that has made Atlantis the world leader in gay holidays.

Our rates are lower than ever, with amazing fares starting around £599 for an entire week of fun. There’s never been a better time to try an Atlantis all-gay cruise!

For information about these and our other all-gay cruises, see your travel agent, visit our website, or ring us today on +44 (0)20 7292 2380.

sixsensesad.indd 1

atlantisevents.co.uk

29/11/2009 15:45:35

say

NO H8

to

In America, a silent viral campaign against anti-gay laws banning same-sex marriage is causing quite a stir - and it’s about to hit the UK. Beige investigates...

O

n November 4, 2008 Proposition 8 passed, amending the state Constitution in Los Angeles to ban same sex marriage.

In the wake of the defeat, there has been a groundswell of initiative from within the gay community at a grassroots level. Seizing this opportunity, new political and protest organisations are forming almost daily. The NOH8 Campaign is a photo project and silent protest created by celebrity photographer Adam Bouska and partner Jeff Parshley in direct response to the passage of Proposition 8.

The campaign started with portraits of everyday Californians who support marriage equality and soon rose to celebrities, military personnel, brothers and sisters, law enforcement, lesbian mothers, directors, politicians, newlyweds and more. Photos feature subjects with duct tape over their mouths symbolising their voices not being heard and NOH8 painted on one cheek in protest. “We attended rallies relating to Prop 8 in California and just felt overwhelmed at the level of emotion that this issue was bringing out in people,” Jeff told Beige. “We were all angry and kept seeing the Victim Of Hate logos on people’s online profiles and t-shirts. We decided to do the photo campaign as an extension of that. From there it just grew, our friends wanted one, then their friends and it’s just gone crazy. In our first year alone we will have photographed 2500 people.”

The images are being used now for viral campaigning on sites such as Facebook.

Eventually they are expected to be compiled for a billboard campaign as well as multiple magazine spreads. There’s even an online store where you can buy NOH8 merchandise to help contribute towards the cost of this groundbreaking campaign.

For Jeff and Adam, it’s a simple case of equal rights. “There are a lot of people who support equal rights so it’s a very easy campaign to get behind,” Jeff says.

Even the Brits are now getting in on the act. Beige spoke to one of regular contributors Kevin Tewis (pictured left) about his recent NoH8 photo shoot and why he chose to get involved in the campaign.

“I went for a photo shoot with Adam Bouska following a friend’s recommendation back in May and when I got there his studio wall was covered with all these pictures of people posed with silver tape over their mouths and writing on their faces. He very kindly explained to me what was happening with Proposition 8 in the USA and how it’s bad for gay civil rights. He explained that people from all over were supporting the photo campaign. It was quite interesting for me to see people of some magnitude supporting the campaign. After he’d done my shoot he asked me if I’d like to be part of the campaign and it was very hard to refuse. It’s such a great campaign. The passion behind the message is amazing. I was number 1593 to have my photo done. Before I knew it I was taped up and had the campaign message stencilled on my face and I was photographed.

“In America you can say everything but say nothing, but if you say the wrong thing ...

It’s been amazing that since I have put my photograph up on my Facebook page I have had so many people here in the UK ask me what the campaign is about. I’d strongly encourage anyone here in the UK to support the campaign.”

For more information check out www.noh8campaign.com

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hotdates

panto special panto special panto special panto special panto special panto special

“He’s behind you”

The Snowman at the Peacock Theatre, London

Christmas Pantomime Time Q uite why the Christmas time pantomime remains so successful in the UK is a matter of some debate. After all, almost all other countries manage without it; ‘Panto’, as it is affectionately abbreviated to, is an intrinsically British art form. (If one can call it that, obviously). Americans don’t ‘get it’; Australians and Canadians suffer it occasionally but mainly as homage to the stupidity of the British; other European countries tend to put on a panto production very rarely (in Germany, for instance, Wikipedia states that there is only one pantomime showing each year, offered by the Chaincourt Theatre Group of Goethe University Frankfurt).

Is it that the British have a penchant for camp that they feel more comfortable expressing amid the sparkle of Christmas? Attend any panto performance and the script is littered with sexual innuendo, not to mention the traditional crossdressing, slapstick comedy and audience participation shouts of “He’s behind you” (with most of your fellow audience members thinking exactly the same dirty connotations as you).

Perhaps the key to the unending popularity of panto is the celebrity endorsement each production obtains each year. Panto offers you the chance to see that Hollyoaks hunk in ever-so-slightly-tight tights; the Australian soap stars in the flesh direct from Summer Bay or Ramsey Street; or, if you’re lucky, Hollywood legends swapping Venice beach for the panto stage.

This year, bringing a touch of LA glamour to the humble panto is Pamela

Dick Whittington cast at The Phoenix, Hastings Anderson, (the rumours of her dire financial situation must be true) who will join ex-Eastenders star Anita Dobson, comic Ruby Wax, veteran actor Brian Blessed and every grandma’s favourite homosexual Paul O’Grady to perform Aladdin at the New Wimbledon Theatre. Pamela is playing the Genie of the Lamp (which probably lends itself to her being oiled up rather a lot). 4 December to 10 January, new Wimbledon Theatre, London www.ambassadortickets.com One of London’s biggest panto productions this Christmas is Peter Pan at the O2. vol 2 issue 5 | beige | 19

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hotdates Panto special Panto special Panto special Panto special Panto special Panto special

Julian Clary and cast in Cinderella at The Hawth, Crawley

Peter Pan at Tunbridge Wells

The show has already enjoyed success playing to more than 150,000 people at Kensington Gardens over the summer, taking in excess of £5million, but is moving east to the O2 for six weeks from 1st December.

Directed by Ben Harrison, it’s a stunning production on a grand scale. www.theo2.co.uk

If you fancy a trip to the seaside, Don’t get in Brighton is offering to whisk the audience her way! away over the rooftops of London to an enchanted land of Lost Boys, beautiful mermaids, swashbuckling pirates and a very large crocodile as Peter Pan visits town.

4 Dec – 3 January at Theatre Royal, Brighton www.ambassadorstickets.com/brighton.

Dick Whittington cast at A little further down the coast, The Hastings The Phoenix, Hastings Stage Studio brings a new modern For something a bit different, perhaps Oz On Ice is for you? With a 60-strong cast production of the traditional pantomime Dick of skating children, it promises to be a fresh take on the classic tale Whittington & His Cat but ‘maintains a traditional panto feel’. For some reason, to The Phoenix Arts Rowland Rivron is the compere! 18-21 December, Alexandra Centre. Performances Palace, London www.alexandrapalace.com are December 10-13 Now in it’s twelfth year, the live version of Raymond www.phoenixvenue.co.uk Brigg’s much-loved children’s classic, The Snowman, returns Julian Clary leads a fabulous cast in the magical Cinderella to London’s Peacock Theatre on Wednesday 2 December at Crawley’s Hawth Theatre from 12 December – 3 2009. In the past five years alone The Snowman been January. Panto plus Julian Clary equals serious innuendo! performed at the Peacock Theatre 226 times to more than www.hawth.co.uk 180,000 people. It’s billed as ‘A glittering host of international Gareth Hale (of Hale and Pace fame) heads up the cast ighton Peter Pan in Br snowmen and snowwomen are joined onstage by an array of A Christmas Carol at the Arts Theatre in London. When of colourful characters including dancing penguins, magical Christmas-hating Sidney and his nephew Danny get locked into reindeer, a beautiful snow princess and her abominable beau Jack Frost and of a theatre, the last thing they expect is to have to perform A Christmas Carol on stage in course, Father Christmas himself.’ From 2 December – 10 January, Peacock Theatre front of an expectant audience, aided by two out-of-work actors, the resident theatre www.sadlerswells.com cat, and a mouse with stage fright! Until 10 Jan www.theartstheatre.co.uk.

If you’re taking kids to a show, a good ‘local’ bet is Peter Pan at The Assembly Hall In Manchester, Hollyoaks hunk Chris Fountain is Aladdin at the Opera House, doing Theatre in Tunbridge Wells. The line-up includes Ray Meagher (Alf Stewart from Home all he can to win the heart of the beautiful Princess, but the evil Abanazar will be and Away) as the evil villain Captain Hook and Chris Pizzey (Mr Stephen in the Basil trying to thwart his plans, until 3 Jan www.manchesteroperahouse.org.uk Brush Show) as Hook’s bumbling right hand man Smee. 12 December - 3 January So, get your “boos” ready, and practice your hissing. And remember, if in doubt, look www.assemblyhalltheatre.co.uk around, as he’s probably behind you.

20 | beige | vol 2 issue 5

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2/12/09 12:18:41

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30/10/2009 11:33:19

Shame Brighton

HOW THE UK’S MOST LOVED GAY EVENT TURNED SOUR

by Torsten Højer

Brighton street takeover! © Dominic Alves

W

hen, at exactly 4pm on Saturday 1st August 2009, the heavens opened and rain usually more suited to the tropics than the UK bucketed down on Brighton’s Preston Park, few realised that the downpour could be heralding an end to Brighton Pride as we know it.

There were the usual damp squeals and heels lodged in mud but for many, thoughts

quickly turned to the next event, in 2010. ‘It better be sunny next year!’ they shouted, pissed off that for two years running the UK’s most fabulous free gay party had been reduced to little more than a drizzly washout.

It may well be sunny next year. As technologically advanced as the Met Office is, they can’t accurately forecast that far ahead. But if we are blessed with blue skies and sunshine, the rays may be beaming down on a very different Brighton Pride. A village fete Brighton Pride.

On Sunday 15 November, Brighton’s popular RBar venue was due to host a Brighton Pride fundraiser, to help source cash for the ailing event. The last four months had been a last minute, all hands on deck community in crisis united effort to save Brighton Pride from becoming a ‘massively scaled down event’, as warned by Pride organisers at a press conference back in August. But instead, it chose to reorganise the Sunday afternoon money-spinner to benefit not Pride, but HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Although unwilling to comment on the record about the sudden change in plans, it’s thought that the bar realised that it is not a popular choice to be seen to be supporting Pride in Brighton right now. In four short months, the management team behind Brighton Pride have achieved something quite incredible: to turn almost an entire city – and beyond - against them.

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The Wild Fruit tent at Brighton Pride 2009 © Mark Vessey

There have already been casualties. Yvonne Barker, Chair of Pride in Brighton and Hove, has stood down. Three paid office staff has become two. The Chief Executive, who started on a salary of more than £40,000, has taken a £14,000 pay cut. But more importantly, community and business leaders have lost faith in the event, meaning that the chances of raising the substantial sponsorship and partnerships necessary to secure a progressive future for Brighton Pride have been scuppered.

“Pride has effectively destroyed ten years of community development work at a stroke,” says James Ledward, editor of the Brighton-based gay magazine GScene.

“Pride has survived and developed over the years because the major suppliers who supported Pride love the event. From Bill Cole who owns the funfair to the man who runs the night security, they love Pride with a passion”.

So where did it all go wrong?

“I don’t’ think anyone’s to blame for this situation,” insists Geoffrey Bowden, Brighton Pride trustee and PR man. “This is simply an unfortunate set of circumstances that have combined to create this problem. The bottom line is that Pride doesn’t have the money to pay for the event next year on the scale we’re used to. The fact remains that it was the worst weather on Pride day this year we’ve had for some time and could not collect as much money as we would have liked. We realised we had a shortfall soon after and called a very open press conference to let

the public and the businesses know.”

Many thought the Pride team was calling our bluff. Murmurs of ‘shock tactics’ employed to stun the business community and the punters to cough up more money rippled around the city; many thought that, with a Chief Executive, Lesley Burn, who has sizeable experience in the corporate world, that deals with blue chip companies would be on the table as crisis meetings were speedily diarised to deal Brighton Pride hunks © Victoria Peckham with the deficit.

But no. After four months, less than ten grand has been raised.

“One of my best friends is one of the few CEOs of a major company working out of Brighton and Hove,” offered David Hill, Chairman of the E3 Group, one of the UK’s leading live entertainment groups with offices in both London and Brighton, at the Pride feedback meeting in November. “He has said to me many times that he’d happily sponsor £10,000 – if asked. It’s a tragedy that no one from the Pride office is approaching major gay-friendly businesses for money, because it is out there.”

Mr Hill wasn’t willing to name the individual he was talking about, but the statement struck a chord with the audience, going some way to place blame with Pride’s paid workers, suggesting their inability to take advantage of sponsorship opportunities.

The claim that the rain is the major culprit for a lack of money in the Pride purse is also provoking anger.

“Every businessman knows that you do not rely solely on one revenue stream – where was the contingency plan?” asked one blogger on the Save Brighton Pride Facebook group, which has attracted more than 6,500 members in just less than a month.

The answer, according to Mr Ledward, is that Brighton Pride has made a loss yearon-year and has now used up their reserves. The tragedy now is that the Pride staff have apparently left it too late to fundraise in order to pay for next year’s event. And in a series of blunders they have pointed the finger of blame at businesses who have been major supporters of Brighton Pride – some for a decade or more – and come up with a ‘scaled down’ plan for next year without consulting the community or businesses.

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t always make it drink,” says Geoffrey Bowden, when challenged on Pride’s alleged lack of dialogue with the community.

“We offer lots of options for conversation, but many choose not to take us up on it. We’ve had public meetings, we’ve had press conferences, we’ve had business meetings, and meetings with community groups, we’ve made feedback forms available to the public. Anyone who says we haven’t is very limited with the truth.”

Liars or otherwise, people are now disillusioned with an event that until recently Brighton – and the UK – could be proud of: a weekend where gay and straight people of all ages partied together and provided a model for a discrimination-free society. Brighton Pride is now perceived as an event consumed by in-fighting and petty squabbles.

Proposals for next year’s event are being offered all the time – and the Pride team is keen to point out that they are just proposals currently. They include fencing the park, increasing bucket collectors at major entrance points, charging hoteliers a portion of their takings over the Pride weekend, or – at worst – charging for the event. One of the most popular proposals currently on the table is from Wilde Ones, the event services group that has organised much of Brighton Pride for years (read the proposal at www.wildeones.co.uk).

But the real challenge that faces Brighton Pride in the next few months is how they’re going to win back the hearts and minds of an entire community, because without the support of us lot, there really is no Brighton Pride.

Keep up to date with Brighton Pride developments at www.brightonpride.org vol 2 issue 5 | beige | 23

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beigecomment

30

30 v50 My kind of Christmas...

In an ongoing series, two men, one aged thirty, the other fifty, air their views on aspects of gay life.

50

A JOLLY OL’ TIME

by Tony Tansley

MAKE THE YULETIDE EVEN GAYER?

by Sam Peter Jackson Being thirty sucks at Christmas! You don’t quite get to cut the turkey yet and you’re no longer the brat that gets all the presents and attention.

So to console myself I’m having an eggnog latte with my friend Daniel – well, not really an eggnog latte, I have it without coffee to not spoil the taste of the syrupy foam – when suddenly he tells me what he wants for Christmas. “I want to go to this fetish night,” he says, “but I feel kinda nervous and ashamed about it.” I reach into the liberal champagne socialist drawers of my very being and play the therapist.

“Darling, you don’t have to be ashamed, what the hell did our mothers burn their bras for if not so that you could indulge in the luxury of having your teeth kicked in by a random strange r you need to refer to as ‘daddy’ while he tattoos the word ‘pig’ on your forehead?”

He frowns. “Actually, it’s this ‘Santas and Elves’ night at this underground club in Berlin – a gay Christmas tradition.”

Gay Christmas tradition? Even the term cracks me up. I mean when was the last time you heard someone say “Hmm, you know that big festival with all the glitter, angels, materialism, bright colours, belted melodic tunes, fine wines, kitschy iconography, excessive partying and high drama – how could we put a gay twist on it?”

Biting my lip, I say, “Look, we all have our quirks and fancies. It’s fine! I fully support you. Just make sure you take care of yourself, stay safe…oh, and most importantly – go with a good friend so you can look out for each other.” He grins. Oh no! Oh crap! What have I said?

Two weeks later I find myself in the wrong part of Kreuzberg sipping on a mulled wine caipirinha whilst Daniel is making out with Old Saint Nick in a dark corner.

My costume is ambiguous and I realise the curse of Christmas in my thirties more than ever. Too young to be Santa, too old to be an elf. Bah Humbug! www.sampeterjackson.com

Oxford Street at Christmas

“You know that big festival with all the glitter, angels, materialism, bright colours, melodic tunes, kitschy iconography, excessive partying and high drama – how could we put a gay twist on it?”

Twenty years ago my Christmas preparations started in July by creating one of my famous alcohol-drenched puddings! My shopping for gifts would also begin early during the Autumn sales to catch an expensive item on the cheap. Almost everything including the writing of cards would have been completed by December 1st.

During December, myself and friends would travel into the centre of London to walk around Oxford Street to gasp at the thousands of illuminations and amazing window displays, predominantly Selfridges, then walk down to the Fayre in Covent Garden for mulled wine. My house would be the local power drain with thousands of little flashing lights all over the front and admired by children from the local school. I rarely purchased a tree less than 8 foot high and would decorate every room including the bathroom with an array of tinsel and baubles.Father Christmas would have been proud.

Even though I am an agnostic, I do like a good carol service and would take friends children for a sing song and jolly get together in the local hall (would probably end up in court these days!). Television on every channel turned out the best programming of the year with specials, blockbuster movies and quaint traditional sitcoms. Finally, when Christmas day arrived, the order of the day would be a champagne breakfast, followed my mince pies and sherry for the neighbours with dinner consisting of enough food to feed ten and not two people and a constand flow of people arriving and leaving during the course of the day. Boxing Day was just non existant and usually spent recovering in bed with a bottle of Alka Seltzers.

So, 20 years on and it’s though Christmas has become just another marketing campaign to buy more goods and drink and another excuse for extended time off work, get drunk, send texts and emails instead of hand written cards. I will only have the 25th off and will be at home snuggled up under the duvet with a nice bottle of Laurent Perrier Champagne (rose, of course), a pre-cooked Marks and Spencer meal and a good selection of movies. It’s just like any other day off... anyone got a humbug? www.abstractdreams.org www.bprlondon.com

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2/12/09 12:19:07

5 GROSVENOR STREET MAYFAIR W1K 4DJ LONDON 020 7495 3177 WWW.TERENCETROUT.NET

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30/10/2009 12:09:58

doing it his own way

blake lewis Two years after being crowned Best Boy in American Idol, Blake Lewis is back with what is arguably the most schizophrenic record of the year. “It’s good to stick two fingers up at Simon Cowell,” he tells Torsten Højer.

A

s

Simon

Cowell’s

mighty

X

machine

nears

of genres that Cowell, in all likelihood,

Factor

couldn’t work out how to market.

its

The legendary American music mogul

grand finale, the press

Clive Davis – the man who ‘discovered’

coverage heats up and

Whitney Houston, among others –

more ‘real’ musicians

told an interviewer recently that for

come out to criticise the show’s karaoke

a businessman working in the music

credentials, it’s good to meet a man who

industry American Idol “represents a very

has endured Cowell’s pop conveyor belt

strong business opportunity. But I am not interested in simply producing souvenir

and come out kicking and screaming with two fingers stuck sturdily up at the whole damn thing: Blake Lewis.

Standing tall two years after coming

Bless: Blake Lewis with fellow American Idol contestant Chris Richardson in the famous photo that sparked those gay rumours

second in American Idol – Simon Cowell’s US sister show to

of their first release as a matter of course

–what I’m looking for is sales in the millions.”

the UK’s The X Factor – and still sporting his trademark multi-

Cowell, somewhat a protégé of Davis’s, perhaps agreed. And,

coloured spiky rocker hair do, twenty-eight-year-old Lewis is a

yes, Lewis’s first post-Idol album, ADD (or Audio Day Dream)

man who admirably admits to using the sensationalist show to

shifted 305,000 copies in the US, a tad shy of Davis’s prediction.

further his own career, and makes no apology for it.

So now, two years on, he’s going it alone.

“I don’t think you’re as good as you think you are,” said a bored-

“American Idol doesn’t really support its own,” Lewis admits.

looking Simon Cowell when Lewis first auditioned for American

“The show pulls you in, chews you up and then spits you out.

Idol, singing Seal’s Crazy in Seattle in 2007.

Once you’re off the show, you’re off the show, and that’s it.”

“I’ve been doing this for seven years, I’m a performer,” Lewis responded, sticking up for himself.

“Well why haven’t you been discovered already, then?” Cowell shot back. “You’re obnoxious.”

It wasn’t what one would class as a successful first impression.

But, utterly unphased, Lewis snatched his ‘golden ticket’ to the next round in Hollywood and, smiling, exited the room.

It was the first glimpse of a guy bent on wiping the smug smirk of Simon Cowell’s face and determined not to be swallowed up by the Idol machine but to do it his own way.

Heartbreak on Vinyl, Lewis’s second solo album, is released on the hugely prestigious New York-based Tommy Boy Entertainment. Widely recognised for its significant contribution to the development of hip hop, dance, and electronica since its inception in 1981, it’s the label supporting Lewis’s undoubted talent in the form he wants it to take.

“I’ve had huge respect for Tommy Boy all my life,” he said.

“What they do for music, in my opinion, is incredible.”

It’s clear from listening to Heartbreak on Vinyl that musically, Lewis is about as schizophrenic as they come. The title track from

And it worked: Lewis’s version of Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad

the album’s introduction could easily be a Vince Clark production

Name, featuring Lewis’s captivating beatboxing talents intertwined

(he says is a huge Erasure fan, and massively inspired by Pet Shop

with his natural, boyband-like singing voice, has become a reality

Boys). SuperScratchaVocalisticTurnatablelicious, on the other

TV classic moment (at the beginning of the performance Lewis

hand, is 1 minute 4 seconds of Lewis beatboxing and producing

physically mimes the act of putting a stylus on a record whilst

frankly inhuman sounds with his voicebox. The Point is a ballad

mimicking the sound of the arm swing and scratchy vinyl with his

that could be being performed by an American Christian soft-rock

mouth) and has achieved almost 2.5 million YouTube views.

The Idol audience was enchanted, voting him the winning male of series six (Jordin Sparks pipped him to the post at the final).

“The ironic thing was that I had never really watched television before I auditioned for American Idol,” he laughs. “I was only a fan

group. The lead single, Sad Song, features the most immediately catchy-chorus, which comes alive only when remixed by gay favourite Jason Nevins (remixer of Dannii Minogue, Madonna and Britney Spears, to name but a few). It’s these remixes that are exposing Lewis to his loyal gay fanbase.

of British shows like Poirot and Sherlock Holmes and old black

He’s playing gay Pride events across America as you read this,

and white English movies. Suddenly, I found myself on one of the

actually: Los Angeles Pride was a storming success, according to

highest-rated TV shows in America. It was an amazing experience.

reports. Atlanta Pride too. ‘The gays’ love him. And Lewis loves

I was extremely hesitant about even auditioning, actually, but

the gays – after all, it was the Photoshopped photo of Lewis

then I realised I could use the show as a means to an end. I had

apparently caressing fellow Idol contestant Chris Richardson as

been singing and performing for almost a decade without major

they sat closely together that set the internet ‘more than just

success, so I saw that this could be my chance.”

friends’ rumour mill on fire and catapulted Lewis into the gay

This, presumably, is why he and Cowell never really got along.

Lewis, revelling in his headstrong sense of self and artistic Blake Lewis’s Heartbreak on Vinyl is available now www.blakelewisofficial.com

records – any runner-up can expect to sell between 450,000 and 650,000 units

direction, was not a singer malleable enough for Cowell to mould to his own liking; Lewis was an established artist mixing a range

arena, earning him a male fanbase overnight.

But, whether Heartbreak on Vinyl can set the American airwaves on fire remains to be seen. Just don’t expect Simon Cowell to buy a copy.

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“Shows like American Idol don’t support their own. Once you’re off the show, that’s it”

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knitwear Festive

is back!

Modelling for George at ASDA (boy not guaranteed to be in store)

Star Knit Jumper £85, available from French Connection

When Mark Darcy bumped into Bridget Jones at a Christmas party sporting a home-knitted reindeer sweater in the 2001 film Bridget Jones’s Diary, he was embarrassed. So was she. Festive jumpers, they understood, were the height of fashion faux pas.

But no longer. Eight years after Bridget Jones’s Diary, Christmas knitwear is definitely in. “Retro Christmas jumpers are having style revival,” insists Rafael Fernandez, co-founder of www.christmasjumper.co.uk. “They’re an essential addition to any festive wardrobe, whether for comedy value at the Christmas party or as genuine gifts for trend setting fashionistas.” Here’s a selection to tickle your fondant fancy.

Hooded Christmas Knit, £25, available from George at ASDA

Snowflake Knit, £18, available from George at ASDA

John Smedley Reindeer Knit £104 available from ASOS.com

Mustard fairisle shawl neck cardigan, £39.99, available from River Island

28-29 Fashion PW V3.indd 28

Grey Fairisle zip up jumper, £30, available from Sainsbury’s Tu Clothing

2/12/09 12:21:03

beigefashion

Grey chunky reindeer knit cardigan £120 Diesel, available from House of Fraser

Carolyn Massey Snowflake cardigan, £80, available from Topman

Junk De Luxe FairIsle Sweater £70, available from ASOS.com

ASOS limited edition 1 of 100 Knitted Hooded Cardigan £70, available from www.asos.com

Navy Fairisle Cardigan, £45, available from Burton Menswear

Fairisle belted long cardigan, £59.99, available from River Island vol 2 issue 5 | beige | 29

28-29 Fashion PW V3.indd 29

2/12/09 12:21:25

Enjoy the Art of Fine Living with Creatively Different Roller Blinds

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Audley40.indd 1

07/12/2009 11:23:25

beigehomestyle

THE ONE-DAY CHRISTMAS

T

he season has arrived where a lot of home owners have nightmares and palpitations just considering the train wreck of Christmas decorations that transform a stunning stylish contemporary home into Santa’s fairy grotto on an acid trip. When you were a child you made paper chains and tree decorations and anything that didn’t move was covered in tinsel. You do not have to continue this tradition.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Scrooge by any stretch of the imagination. However, as an interior designer and home stager I believe you can achieve a festive look with style, panache and create the essence of Christmas without making your house look like a low rent Blackpool bed and breakfast.

Getting a tree can encompass all things seasonal, however you are not forced to drag the biggest one home. The size queens among us may feel slightly smug by putting a wide load sign on the back of their sporty convertible while transporting it home, but the bigger it is the more you have to decorate. Keeping to a four to five foot gives you an appropriate essence of what you are looking to achieve. At a Michelin restaurant you get small portions and at a trucker stop you get a plate full, it’s the same principle, style is not based not on quantity but on quality.

If you are a traditionalist and want a real tree, be warned. In modern centrally heated homes the pine needles will drop and you will be finding them in the most peculiar of places until June of next year! This is never fun when passion takes you onto the sitting room carpet - needles pricking your nether regions is not a happy experience. An artificial tree is a valid alternative but a huge faff to store, and it never looks the same in following years.

It’s comparable to shoving that dry clean-only cashmere top in the standard wash. It may look okay, but it’s never quite the same.

There are alternatives to use for a tree: design-led austere skeletal structures that represent tree re flat packed and built in seconds, look stylish but don’t exactly create a warm and welcoming environment.

A great alternative I pinched from a window display on a recent buying trip to Munich was the tree alternative: construct a thin curtain poll, using hooks/chains to fix on the ceiling, where you would put up tree and wrap ribbons in the seasonal colours around it and let them cascade down around four to five feet creating a festive waterfall style. From each ribbon hang a selection of feature decorations, not too many, just enough to make an impact. It’s the update on the Blue Peter suburban incendiary device ‘The Advent Crown’, however DO NOT put anything flammable near the ribbons! Sometimes creating a little feature like this gets you in the mood, especially as it’ll take less time to do than watching yet another re-run of The Wizard of Oz. A lot of friends and clients send me piles of gorgeous cards for which I am of course extremely grateful, but cluttering up the designer sideboard or coffee table is just not going to happen. Neither is the traditional approach of hanging them from string taped to my designer feature wallpaper! So as an alternative, get a wide flat bowl and have it as a feature for the season on a dining or coffee table and have your cards displayed face up. Just remember to bring to the top the one your friends sent you when they come around for Christmas cocktails.

So with the alternatives it’s worthwhile investing in just a couple of decent feature decorations.

Swarovski releases an annual limited edition Christmas decoration each year, priced from £29 to £181. Much as it annoys me, as I have an avid dislike for the general household knick-knack ornaments that clutter the suburbs of middle England, the Christmas ones look amazing.

Plus it’s an investment - the value will hold and possibly even increase.

The colours for this year are mainly metallic silver and gold (the classics never die). Try and keep your tree decorations in one or two colours and avoid the multicoloured fairy light display, unless of course you have a plastic Santa Claus with Rudolph bolted on the roof and you have a Blackpool bed and breakfast!

Jonathan Welford is a property specialist and home stager.

Visit him at www.dearjonny.co.uk

Homestyle

MAKE OVER

Jonathan Welford offers his home decorating advice when it comes to Christmas baubles

Circuitree £45, Habitat – www.habitat.co.uk Black with multicolours bulbs (I would suggest changing the bulbs for something less coloured).

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65 Abbeville Road Clapham SW4 9JW 020 8673 0572 www.eclecticinteriors.co.uk info@eclecticinteriors.co.uk

Audley40.indd 1

07/12/2009 11:08:23

THE ONE-DAY CHRISTMAS

MAKEOVER

Sophisticated, with exquisite handembroidery and beautifully crafted open hemstich border, this Christmas table runner will create a very festive table.

“Promenade à la campagne “ has been embroidered by hand. Made from high quality pure cotton, it is machine washable and easy to iron and measures 210 cm x 50 cm. £38, available from www.villeetcampagne.co.uk

If you don’t fancy cranberry sauce stains all over your table, these table mats with exquisite hand-embroidery and beautifully crafted open hem stich border will do the trick. “Noel” has been hand embroidered on each table mat, which are made from high quality pure cotton. £12, available from www.villeetcampagne.co.uk

It is extremely hard to find proper upmarket crackers - these are hand made in Dorset and full of gifts that you actually want to keep.

Boxed in six: 3 green and 3 red. All include a snap, hat, motto, and fabulous present. £35, available from www.thepresentfinder.co.uk. And for a bigger bang, these indoor table fireworks shower confetti and stars, rocket balloons, foil streamers, blow shooters and balls, holographic eye masks, bow ties and a lot of fun all over your table! One bomb contains enough goodies for 10 people. £22.50

Hyacinth Bucket would be proud: Christmas platinum band diningware with crsytal stemwareplatinum coloured band. Bowls from £3.99, available from www.homesense.com

Homestyle

Designer dining at its best. Solid wood and glass construction with matching cabinets and units from Team7 of Austria. This red dot award winning Magnum table and chairs incorporates one handed operating extension system.

Table from £2,000 and chairs from £600, available from www.wharfside.co.uk

Yes, we know you’re a great cook, but even if the turkey, the trimmings and the pud is looking tasty, it’ll be let down if you don’t have the right Christmas tableware. Here are a few ideas to turn your table into a feast of fabulousness.

beigehomestyle

This set six square cut Crystal Napkin Rings bring some sparkle to your table. Approx 60mm diameter, £28, available from www. figaandco.co.uk

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adventure A New Year

Scott Brown parties in four cracking cities on four different continents on New Year’s Eve to discover the best destination to see in 2010

I

t’s so draining isn’t it - this whole New Year thing I mean. Don’t you find that it’s just not fun anymore?

Well, not like it used to be anyway. I mean, where do you go? Who do you go with? What and who do you do when you get there? How do you survive the whole ordeal without offending at least four of your best friends in the build up to the night and then making things worse by snogging one of their boyfriends at midnight when a New Year kiss goes a little too far?

Jesus, there is so much pressure attached to all that surrounds New Year’s Eve that it kinda takes the edge off having fun… which made me address the thought that none of us dare admit to thinking – is New Year’s Eve the worse night of the year? I think it could be, you know.

I have a cycle of revelation in my life which acts as a religion of sorts - ‘Scott’s ten year epiphanies’, I call them. When I was ten I stopped believing in Santa and the Tooth Fairy (I guess I was a late developer). When I was 20 I realised that love was going to hurt me more than once in my life (I became a quick learner). And now, in my dirty thirties, I’ve seen New Year’s Eve for what it really is: an ugly commercialisation of just another night of the year.

And so it’s with this revelation in mind that I’m launching a campaign – right here, right now – to call on all of you to boycott the English New Year’s Eve charade and to go somewhere new, somewhere different, somewhere fun, somewhere without the pressure, somewhere that isn’t rainy, wet, miserable, expensive London.

New Year in New York means doing things the American way – bigger, better, louder and prouder I’ve reviewed four cracking cities on four different continents, which wasn’t easy, and now I’m sure there is something below for everyone - so don’t let all of my hard work go to waste, find a place that ticks your box, stick the holiday on the credit card and treat yourself, forget London for a while, she’ll still be here in 2010 - and she’ll be a whole lot cheaper and less busy than she is on December 31st 2009.

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beigetravel

Photos, clockwise from top: New York’s Times Square; revellers in Sydney, Australia; Sydney Harbour at dawn; New York’s Stonewall Inn; Sydney Harbour Bridge’s famous fireworks capabilities.

The Americas: New York – for the traditionalists Predictable, but it’s got to be in my selection otherwise those hardcore New Year purists would string me up. New York, NYC, The Big Apple, is one of those places we all fantasise about when it comes to New Year’s Eve celebrations… New York at New Year is one of those things in life that you simply can’t let pass you by.

New Year in New York means many things, not least of all doing things the American way – which generally means, bigger, better, louder and prouder… look at Halloween and Thanksgiving if you need examples. New Year’s Eve here is a rampant night of wild celebration; a time when an island full of people who as a rule are not the friendliest of folk becomes a place that resembles a neighbourhood once again, that old community feeling floats back to the surface and strangers become friends once more as partying spills out on to the streets. That melting pot of cultures we were always told New York was, that friendly place we always wished it would be, is what suddenly lies before us. New York becomes welcoming; the locals lift the lid on what lies beneath, and we see what a glorious underbelly she has.

Naturally, Christopher Street, the Village, and Chelsea are the places to head for as it is here that the best of the fun is to be had. These cobbled streets are well trodden by all that visit NYC, but it’s very different on New Years Eve; mix in some booze, add in the festive cheer and consider the fact that everyone has been in isolation with their families for a few days and are now gagging to escape and you’ll find a hedonistic perfect storm brewing. You can bet your arse the gays will party like its 2010.

Australasia: Sydney – for the party monsters

I call on all of you to boycott the English New Year’s Eve charade and to go somewhere new, somewhere different, somewhere fun, somewhere without the pressure, somewhere that isn’t rainy, wet, miserable, expensive London.

Oh this one is too easy - for those seeking sun, sea, sand and sex there can be nowhere else on this earth but good old Sydney. And what a place in which to spend New Year’s Eve… take a blanket, a picnic, a cooler full of beer and find yourself a space which overlooks the bridge and just wait for darkness to fall. Sydney and its New Year ‘Harbour Bridge’ show are now famous world over and this glorious city leaves the rest of the world trailing in its wake when it comes to putting on a show to herald in a new year.

I confess to loving Sydney with all of my heart. If I ever grow tired of London then Sydney will be my port of call. A home from home. A place where work/life balance tips in favour of life, and the people relish in that fact at every turn. Beaches, surfers, BBQs and zinc, all stereotypes, but all evident in everyday Sydney life.

And it is this overwhelming life balance that makes Sydney the antithesis of the stresses of London at this time of year.

But firework shows and a restful existence aside there is so much more to entice you on to a plane for this journey Down Under… Sydney is in summer at New Year, which means New Year’s Day will naturally be spent with sand between your toes as you nurse a hangover with a cool hair of the dog and ease in to 2010 with the sun beating down on your back. BBQs at sunset whilst England floods and shivers sounds good to me. Bronzed boys in Speedos and hot surfer types washing sand off their abs sounds even better… why stay on rainy Oxford Street in London for the night when you could be strolling Oxford Street in Sydney vol 2 issue 5 | beige | 35

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beigetravel

Beirut

The party awaits in Sydney

Revellers in Beirut

Manhattan

Beirut has a tangible vibrancy that runs through it and there is a strong and visible undercurrent of homosexuality that throbs along in the mainstream of life here.

- where you know all of those parties that start on December 31st will roll right through to January 5th without coming up for air.

to Paris for New Year and you’re planning to be at the Eiffel Tower at midnight then you may as well pop the question whilst you’re at it).

Europe: Paris – for the romantics

Middle East: Beirut – for the accidental tourists

For the romantics this one was a no-brainer. Paris in the wintertime is cold, crisp and beautiful… and what’s more it is only a short hop, skip and jump away from London by plane or train.

Paris’s pull factors are all world famous; she is a city like London or Berlin which has far too many treasures to begin to list but of which everyone knows. New Year consolidates this diversity though and brings things into focus, allowing the genuine romance of the city to shine through. Evening strolls on the Champs Elysees are pleasant (then one can always duck into The Queen to dance the night away) and a ramble to the top of the Sacre Coeur (via the Moulin Rouge) is an energetic experience that offers a reward in the form of stunning views across the rooftops of Paris.

New Year should be spent in the company of the Eiffel Tower, if the setting isn’t stunning enough, then just watch how she lights up in a blaze of splendour at the stroke of midnight – breathtaking. Naturally after such an experience you will need comfort in the company of others, and so highly recommended is a wander in to the Marais, where a whole world of gay fun and celebration awaits you.

For time, price and location Paris is the perfect choice - the French are charming and the city quite wonderful. For cost you could probably ‘do’ Paris for the same amount of cash it would cost you to spend New Year partying in London… however an additional cost to ponder could be the price of a ring (after all, if you are going

Not so predictably, but as a random (and very sensible) suggestion for those just wanting an escape from the mainstream on December 31st, I’m going to suggest Beirut - a quirky destination that is becoming the Middle Eastern hotspot once again.

After a period of healing following the civil war a few years back the city is now rejuvenated and oozes life and energy from every pore. The city has a tangible vibrancy that runs through it and there is a strong and visible undercurrent of homosexuality that throbs along in the mainstream of life here.

Despite possessing a plethora of cultural and heritage offerings Beirut is essentially a party city, with the people being the thing that makes the city what it is. For the Lebanese people drinking, smoking, and partying are as much a way of life as breathing, eating, and sleeping. At any time of year in Beirut there is a party to be had in any one of the many venues that make up the city’s wide and varied underground scene, and so come New Year the DJs are primed and the city is ready to blow the lid and party hard. Really hard. For days on end.

The place is raw and real, yet at the same time beautiful, ancient and historically poignant. It’s a mixed up city that doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up so it has a bit of everything just in case – which means that for the accidental tourist not knowing what it is they are looking for this New Year Beirut is just perfect… they are both as confused as each other, which could well be a match made in heaven.

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Your journey starts here.

The best information on destinations and travel needs all for free.

Hotels, Airlines, Travel Agents and More in over 55 countries.

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22/06/2009 22:47:20

beigetravel

BEST SKI FORWARD T

here was a time when a ski holiday used to be the preserve of the upper classes and you had more chance of spotting the abominable snowman than an out homosexual on the slopes of most ski resorts.

Thankfully, all of that nonsense has changed and the winter, once the dreariest season for gay events has been transformed by the rise of the snowmosexual. The world’s finest and most prestigious resorts are now battling it out to attract gay winter sports fans with ever more elaborate and entertaining line ups of clubs, parties, events and après ski extravaganzas.

One of the beauties of joining a ski week is that no matter your skiing or snowboarding ability, there will always be people of the same level that you can ski with. Complete beginners have the luxury of joining a group and making friends while learning in a fun and friendly environment. Intermediates and advanced skiers can join people of similar abilities for guided ski tours or just heading out together to explore the mountains with new found friends. So whether you have never been before, or you are a seasoned pro, there is a week to suit your taste and budget. We certainly think that a winter week spent in the mountains is an experience that once you try, you will certainly be back for more.

Gay & Lesbian Ski Pride – EuroSki Pride, Saalbach, Austria. 20th – 27th March 2010 Euro Ski Pride is proud to be raising money for and working on behalf of Children With AIDS Charity. This Charity does an amazing job looking after children and their families in the UK, Europe and indeed worldwide that suffer with HIV and AIDS offering all kinds of services and opportunities to help improve the quality of their lives.

The charity has a number of high profile patrons and supporters including George Michael and Christopher Biggins but like all charities is in constant need of further funding.

You can read a statement from George Michael regarding C.W.A.C on the Euro Ski Pride website. www.euroskipride.com

The Skiing The Saalbach-Hinterglemm ski area is one of the biggest liftlinked resorts in Austria with 200km of runs that cater for all abilities. As with many other Austrian ski resorts the town is an attractive Alpine village with bags of charm, but it also combines the convenience of having excellent lift system and great piste maintenance of the larger French resorts too. The skiing in the resort is particularly suited to better intermediates although around 10% of the ski terrain is graded as advanced, most notably the area around the challenging Glemm Valley. The ski school in Saalbach-Hinterglemm provides excellent tuition for all abilities and beginners will also appreciate the fact that there are excellent nursery slopes for. Other runs in the resort are perfect for those on their second or third weeks, or perhaps even those who progress quickly. Boarders are also well catered for in the resort with 2 snow parks, a half pipe and 13kms of runs marked for boarders only. The children’s facilities are centred in the neighbouring village of Hinterglemm which is geared much more towards families than adult orientated Saalbach.

The ski area in Saalbaach-Hinterglemm covers both sides of the valley with an excellent mix of sunny south facing slopes and shady north facing runs to choose from. Five main peaks are serviced from the base of the valley rising to over 2,000 metres which means over 1km of vertical drop from almost everywhere in the ski area. 61 marked pistes served by a modern system of 55 lifts provides access to this impressive ski area where the longest run stretches for 7kms. There is also a massive network of 384 snow cannons ensuring that conditions for skiing in the resort are always maintained at an optimum. A high-speed six-

Slippin’ and slidin’ on the mountains with a group of gay men hasn’t been as fun since Brokeback Mountain.

Beige went to check out gay ski trips around the world (it’s a hard job, but someone has to do it). vol 2 issue 5 | beige | 39

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beigetravel seat chairlift links Hinterglemm to Saalbach, which runs parallel to the valley where the village of Leogang is set in a natural basin.

The Resort Saalbach-Hinterglemm is well known for the variety and the fun of its après-ski and nightlife, so much so that the resort is well known as a party destination for people from all over Europe including Dutch, Brits, Scandinavians and Germans who flock here. Saalbach is the epicentre of the resort’s après ski activity and the considerable Alpine charm of the village is added to by the fact that the village is completely car free. The traditional village buildings are overshadowed by the church’s custard-yellow steeple and the beautiful mountain backdrop makes this a very picturesque resort. The village itself is home to a large number of bars and clubs and of all the villages in the ski area is by far the liveliest.

There are also a large number of traditional mountain lodges on the slopes where long lunches and soaking up the sun are, if not compulsory, pretty hard to resist for all but the most avid skiers. Overall, Saalbach-Hinterglemm blends Alpine charm, great skiing and fun après-ski in what is one of Austria’s top ski destinations. At just 60 miles from Salzburg airport resort transfer times can be less than an hour and a half from the airport too.

The Event Descending on Saalbach, Austria; Europe’s Sexiest Ski Town.

Take one of the world’s most beautiful ski resorts in the heart of the Austrian Alps, add a whole host of top entertainment, parties and outlandish activities and you have what promises to be the most anticipated gay and lesbian winter event of the year. Euro Ski Pride is all set to bring together all of the elements of a world class pride event to the Austrian Tyrol and unleash a spectacular event the likes of which has not been seen before. For 7 days and nights in March 2010 the resort of Saalbach is ready to host the first ever Euro Ski Pride, and thanks to unprecedented support from the Austrian tourist board this is gearing up to be one of the must do events of 2010.

Euro Ski Pride has been given a huge amount of access to the resort of Saalbach from the Austrian Tourist Board which will enable the event to almost take over the village for the week. During the week of parties there is also permission for 3 large scale outside dance sessions/parties at the Mid-station and Top-station of the main resort mountain. Permission has also been granted for an outside ‘Main Stage’ event which will also double as both an après dance session and for the pool parties. Amongst the acts, artists, DJ’s and performers already confirmed include Boy George - experience live! who will be performing a special ‘An Audience With’ evening. There’s also DJ Phil Romano (Italy) (Rapido Holland / Brussels / Tel Aviv / Rome Italy / Amsterdam). Joining Phil is DJ Rick Parker resident and favourite on Canal Street Manchester. Further artists are yet to be confirmed.

On arrival mingle and meet other guests at the welcome cocktails where information about the whole week can be found. It’s a great excuse to have a drink on the house and get into the mood for the official opening party, Snowballs and Snowgirls. Canal Street resident Rick Parker will be kicking off the proceedings with his very own special blend of Funky Vocal and Electric Dirty House mixes to get everyone in the mood. For those that arrive too late for the first night’s opening soirees welcome cocktails will also precede the second night’s Sinful Sunday party.

Monday 22nd March sees the first of the week’s outside parties which takes place at the Mid-Station of the main Shattburg Mountain in Saalbach. DJs Phil Romano and Rick Parker will be providing the sounds as the sun sets over the Valley Of Dreams, an unforgettable après ski experience. Access for non skiers to the party is available by using the Saalbach Lift Service. The evening’s themed party will be courtesy of ManHunt who will be providing dancers, DJs and loads of free goodies for the Hunter and Hunted party.

On Tuesday it’s the turn of Amour après ski party to sooth you into another night’s entertainment. This time it is the turn of local hotel and bar Eva who will be hosting a pool party. Wednesday and the après ski action takes place at

altitude as Up Rise is hosted at the top-Station of the main Schattberg Mountain in Saalbach. This is the second and largest of the outside après ski dance extravaganzas. The evening will see the Boy George experience performing some of the most iconic tracks from the 80s supported by DJ Rick Parker.

Thursday’s après ski event will be the second beach party of the week, this time the venue is the nursery slopes of Saalbach which will be followed by some high octane fun, the toboggan run for those that feel up to it that is. Friday and the main stage will be the centre of the last nights activities. Live DJs and performers will be the main attractions for the finale along with fireworks and a very special headline act to top off what a ski week to remember.

There is a choice of 3 star and 4 star accommodation packages.

Prices include a bed in a double/twin room, 6 days lift pass, 7 days all areas event pass for all the events and parties and the EuroSki Pride guide.)

• 3-STAR HOTEL - Double/Twin Rooms (Single rooms also available) Per person: 682,00 Euro (with 10% discount - normal price: 750,00 Euro) Includes: 7 nights half-board accommodation (breakfast buffet - four course evening meal - daily salad buffet • 7 days Euroski Pride all areas event pass • 6 days ski pass • 4-STAR HOTEL - Double/Twin Rooms (Single rooms also available) Per person: 822,00 Euro (with 10% discount - normal price: 904,00 Euro) Includes: 7 nights half-board accommodation (breakfast buffet - four course evening meal - daily salad buffet) • 7 days Euroski Pride all areas event pass • 6 days ski pass • Return airport transfers (collection and drop off) Per Person: 54,00 Euro (save 15 Euro - normal price 69,00 Euro)

Arosa Gay Ski Week, Switzerland. 9-16 January 2010.

The pretty ski resort of Arosa is situated at the top of the beautiful Schanfigg Valley in the Swiss Alps. Arosa is a winter resort that caters for everyone rather than just skiers and boarders. This pretty little town is popular with a wealthy yet unpretentious crowd who come here to enjoy this charming village that packs in loads of Alpine charm and a traditional Swiss atmosphere. Sitting at an altitude of 1,800 metre the snow record of the resort is generally very good, particularly in January when Arosa’s gay ski week takes place. There is a small but efficient lift system in the resort serving 70kms of pistes up to a very respectable altitude of 2,653 metres. The variety of runs in the resort favours mainly beginners and intermediates with experts having to make do with a handful of black runs and limited off-piste when the snow conditions are right.

There are several hotels to choose from although most people choose to stay at the Eden Hotel which hosts many of the events including welcome cocktails.

The fun continues throughout the week on and off the slopes including guided mountain skiing, après ski entertainment and the official closing party to end proceedings. www.arosa-gayskiweek.com

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Luxury Travel to the Far East Visit our website for inspiration or contact one of our specialists to tailor-make your dream holiday

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beigetravel snow conditions and phenomenal terrain make this one of the world’s most sought-after ski locations. The skiing here is well known as favouring experts with large areas of open bowl skiing and a vertical drop of nearly 1,000 metres.

Intermediates will also find a good variety of well groomed pistes to keep them occupied and for beginners the tamer slopes of Mountain Village are the place to head for. In keeping with the exclusive atmosphere of the resort Telluride’s gay and lesbian ski week focuses more on upmarket events and entertainment. The excellent restaurants and shopping in the resort are showcased with fine dining and a fundraising fashion show, as well as some chic après ski entertainment. www.telluridegayskiweek.com

Aspen Gay Ski Week, Aspen, Colorado, USA. 17-24 January 2010.

Aspen is home to the original gay and lesbian ski week which has now been running in this great American ski resort for 33 years in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. The resort has a reputation as being one of the most upmarket in the world attracting both the wealthy and the famous to its slopes. This doesn’t mean that people on a lower budget cannot enjoy the charms of this beautifully restored Victorian town which has a superb snow record. Aspen includes 4 mountains in its pass, Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass which combine for over 200kms of runs to suit just about all abilities.

The 4 areas are separate but linked by a very efficient bus system which runs the 12 miles between Aspen (boarders are banned here but extremely well catered for in other areas) and Snowmass, which has the largest vertical drop in the US at 1,342m. As well as world class ski facilities and 4 excellent resorts Aspen’s ski week hosts one of the best programmes for everyone to enjoy.

As well as guided ski and snowboarding in that famous champagne powder, superb instruction and fun on mountain events there’s also a great range of après ski, parties, entertainment, comedy and music laid on too. www.gayskiweek.com

Winter Pride, Whistler, Canada. 1-8 March 2010.

With over 81,00 skiable acres of terrain Whistler-Blackcomb is the largest ski area in North America and has consistently been voted one of the best too.

As well as having one of the most efficent ski lift systems in the world and superb resort facilities Whistler-Blackcomb has also benefitted from upgraded facilities thanks to the 2010 winter Olympics which will be hosted in nearby Vancouver. Whistler will itself host all of the Nordic, Sliding and Downhill events.

The mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb provide one of the most varied winter playgrounds in the world with challenging off-piste areas, perfectly groomed motorway pistes and plenty of parks and half pipes to keep boarders and free style skiers in their elements. This year Winter Pride comes of age and celebrates its 18 birthday returning with a packed programme of events and entertainment to enjoy both on and off of the slopes which will run between the Olympic and Paralympic winter games. The resort of Whistler also has one of the most enviable selection of accommodation too, with top class hotels, lodges and self catering apartments for you to enjoy the most of your big mountain get away. www.gaywhistler.com

Telluride Gay Ski Week, Telluride, Colorado, USA. 20-27 February 2010.

Telluride started life as a mining town and with prospectors flocking to this remote valley in search of gold and silver and it was also here that Butch Cassidy embarked on his celebrated career as a bank robber. Over one hundred years later Telluride has reinvented itself as a purpose built upscale ski resort yet still retains all of the Victorian charm of a frontier outpost. Telluride’s location has never been an easy place to get to but the majestic scenery, excellent

European Gay Ski Week, Tignes, France. 20-27 March 2010.

Once again the European Gay Ski week returns to the French resort of Tignes, set high in the Savoie region of France. As with many French ski resorts built during the 1960s Tignes is severely lacking in Alpine charm, however it does make up for this with the huge variety of skiing available. Linked with Val D’Isere these two resorts combine to make up the Espace Killy with 300kms of marked piste spread over the two resorts. In Tignes itself the highest lift serves the top of the impressive Grande Motte glacier and at 3,400 metres high this represents some of the most snow sure conditions in Europe. There is a huge variety of skiing in Tignes and although the vast majority caters for intermediates there is also plenty of scope for beginners and some runs that will challenge even the most advanced skiers. Once again there is a variety of accommodation available for the event from self catering apartments to 4 star hotels. The European gay ski week will also be hosting plenty of parties and après ski events from some of the biggest club names from across Europe including Trade and La Demence.

For discounted access to all parties and events, plus other discounts and special offers the event pass can be purchased before the event which guarantees access to all paid parties and happenings throughout the week. www.manmountain.co.uk

Gay Snow Happening, Solden, Austria, 20-27 March 2010.

Celebrating an impressive 11th successive year in 2010 the beautiful Tyrolean town of Solden once again welcomes back over 400 ski aficionados from all over Europe to enjoy one of Austria’s finest Alpine resorts. Solden has a reputation as having one off the most lively bar scenes in the Alps, and when we were there for last year’s Gay Snow Happening, there certainly wasn’t any holding back on the après ski entertainment. The local tourist office has been extremely supportive of Solden’s gay snow happening in recent years and the many bars, clubs and restaurants in the town fully participate in making this a great event for everyone concerned. As good as the après ski is in Solden it isn’t overshadowed by the skiing available in the resort, which covers a large area and is extremely varied. Starting at 1,300 metres in the town the lift system takes skiers to an altitude of 3,250 skiers and with nearly 2kms of vertical drop in the resort this is a great ski area to explore. Most of the skiing takes place above 2,000 metres, ensuring good quality snow well into the season. Add to this the extensive skiing on the Rettenbach and Tiefenbach Glaciers and Solden makes not only a great resort for skiing, but also for a great ski experience.

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7 nights

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The Two Mrs Grenvilles

by Dominick Dunne (Arcadia Books, £8.99) Urse Mertens, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks in rural Kansas, changes her name to Ann Arden, moves to New York and establishes herself as a showgirl. Beautiful, but not particularly talented, she has a series of associations with wealthy men which culminate with her marriage to William Grenville Junior, heir to a banking fortune.

However, with the exception of her husband, Ann is loathed by her new family, most especially by her powerful mother-in-law, Alice Grenville.

Increasingly dissatisfied, Ann is blatantly unfaithful to William and, after a spectacular row, shoots him. Yet he conviction for the killing would lead to an unthinkable scandal and the family close ranks to protect her.

Pronounced innocent, Ann never the less finds herself ostracied and moves to Europe where she leads a sybaritic life that centres on her bedding increasingly younger men. Her tragic end, provoked by the actions of a vengeful gay writer, is all-too-inevitable.

The Two Mrs Grenvilles is a thoroughly engrossing, satisfying and utterly spellbinding novel about a privileged American elite in the 1940s looking after its own.

Lost Boys

by James Miller (Abacus, £7.99)

A Trick of the Dark

by B R Collins (Bloomsbury, £7.99) Like Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1885) and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1981), J M Barrie’s Peter Pan (1904) has had an extraordinary impact upon our culture. Published little more than a hundred years ago and within twenty years of each other, these three books focused on characters who have become archetypes, achieving mythic status and being absorbed into our consciousness.

Peter Pan (the boy who never grew up) has percolated through a surprising amount of the literature of the twentieth century – in the novels of the William S Burroughs, for instance – and it comes as no surprise that this sinister yet sexually alluring character should still be making his presence felt in the fiction of the twenty-first century.

Lost Boys is James Miller’s first novel and it is both disturbing and timely and a reminder that Barrie’s feral boy is as much a threatening figure today as he was at the beginning of the last century. In Miller’s vivid and richly allusive narrative, boys in contemporary London (and everywhere else in the world) are disappearing into another dimension in which they become fighters against the structures and aspiration which we take as a given. They are lured away by a boy called Peter and there are echoes of everyone from the Old Man of the Mountain and Burroughs’s Wild Boys. Lost Boys is a powerful and impressive debut.

There are resonances, too, of Barrie’s boy hero in B R Collins’s A Trick of the Dark in which a brother and sister unwillingly in France with their warring parents encounters something sinister which seems set to destroy them. From the author of 2008’s griping story of adolescent homosexuality The Traitor’s Game. A Trick of the Dark is a worthy successor.

Gentlemen’s Relish

by Patrick Gale (Fourth Estate, £14.99)

Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth

by Chris Priestley (Bloomsbury, £10.99)

Gentlemen’s Relish, Patrick Gale’s second collection of short stories, consists of sixteen tales, many of which feature gay characters and several of which are best described as ‘nicely shuddery’.

‘Cookery’, for instance, tells of a much put upon youth who discovers that a well-cooked meal is as much a means of control as it is a means of showing love and how he uses his culinary skills to revenge himself on a despised and homophobic father. ‘Hushed Casket’, in which the sex life of a recently civil partnered couple is perked up after their discovery of a mysterious wooden chest, could have been penned by a liberated MR James and ‘The Excursion’, which might have been inspired by a headline in a lurid tabloid newspaper, is a subtle study in a horrid Christian prejudice.

Chris Priestley’s Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth is the third in a series which began in 2007 with Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror and continued in 2008 with Tales of Terror from the Black Ship. Primarily aimed at young adult readers, these volumes of chilling stories (with wonderfully sinister illustrations by David Roberts) are cunningly contrived and as likely to disturb as well as younger readers. Both Gale’s and Priestley’s collections are ideal reading for chilly winter evenings curled up before a blazing fire.

Treasures of the British Museum

by Marjorie Caygill (The British Museum Press, £25) The British Museum, established in 1753 and the oldest public museum in the world, is in some respects a magnificent repository for all of those artefacts accumulated as Britain expanded into an empire.

‘The Museum has some six to twelve million objects,’ Marjorie Caygill points out in her Preface to Treasures of the British Museum, indicating that ‘any selection must … be arbitrary, as no book could deal in detail with all the “treasures” …’

Divided up into twelve sections (including Sculpture, Temples and Tombs, Pottery and Porcelain and The Art of the Craftsman, Treasures of the British Museum is a delicious sampler of just a few of the wonders the world-renowned collection contains. Published in a large format and with colour illustrations of every page, the book allows the reader too lazy to visit the museum a chance to marvel at such things as the colossal seated statue of the pharaoh Ramesses II; one of the cast and mysterious statues from the Easter Island; the delicate gold work – jewellery as well as sculpture – from the Royal cemetery at the biblical Ur of the Chaldees; the Elgin Marbles; items such as the Portland Vase and the Warren Cup (dating from Roman times), the ivory chessmen from the Isle of Lewis; Persian miniatures and drawing by Botticelli, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Treasures of the British Museum is simply gorgeous.

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beigebooks

Beside Myself: An Actor’s Life

by Antony Sher (Nick Hern Books, £10.99)

The Vegetarian Option

by Simon Hopkinson (Quadrille Publishing, £20) Vegetarian cookery has progressed a very long way in the last thirty years (Colin Spencer’s groundbreaking Gourmet Cooking for Vegetarians was published in 1978). Gone (though not entirely) are those days of worthy salads of fruit, nuts and pulses. Bookshop shelves now groan under the weight of books on healthy eating (mostly recipes that utilise protein from plants rather than from animals or fish) and many of us are happy to eat vegetarian meals while not considering ourselves vegetarian.

Chef and food writer Simon Hopkinson – his Roast Chicken and Other Stories was recently voted ‘the most useful cookery book of all time’ – is one such. ‘I shall never be vegetarian,’ he emphatically declares in the Introduction to his The Vegetarian Option, before going on to qualify the remark by adding ‘dishes cooked without carnivorous and piscatorial leanings can be every but as exciting as those with.’

Divided up into seven sections (Vegetables, Herbs, pasta, Pulses and Grains, Rice, Eggs, Fruit), the book is a positive cornucopia of recipes which look delicious (photographs by Jason Lowe) and, for the most part, appear fairly straightforward to produce. The section on leeks and onions, for example, has enough recipes to tempt for a full week – including an onion and blood orange salad, a leek and cheese pie and boiled onions with poached egg and Lancashire cheese.

The Low Road

by James Lear (Cleis Press, £10.99) Originally published in 2001, The Low Road was the first homoerotic novel from the rampant pen of James Lear. In the intervening years, first editions have become scarce and collectable and Lear has gone on to produce award-winning and award-nominated titles such as The Palace of Varieties, Hoe Valley and two stimulating homage’s to Agatha Christie, The Back Passage and The Secret Tunnel.

Newly reissued, The Low Road was inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Kidnapped – in which there are moments that could be described as covertly gay. In Lear’s makeover, eighteen-year-old Charles Gordon, only son of a brutally murdered Jacobite commander, finds himself on the run from the English troops and enthralled by a sadistic soldier who is not all he seems. Charlie finds himself enjoying anal and oral sex with just about every man he comes across as he tramps across the lowlands looking for his own true love.

The well-deserved success of James Lear’s homoerotica is surely based upon his skills as a writer – for, unlike most of his American counterparts, the very British Lear creates strong plots and fully rounded characters and these nicely enhance his erotic situations.

Devil in Disguise

by Julian Clary (Ebury press, £14.99) Because Simon has enough money to live on without having to work, he has the time and the means to indulge in his favourite pastimes: getting riotously drunk and cruising the open spaces of London in pursuit of sex with straight men. Molly, his best friend, is an actress and singer aspiring to the big time but seemingly doomed to provincial tours of tacky productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. But everything changed when Simon becomes the protégé of Lilia, a seemingly kindly eccentric with a glamourous theatrical past.

But nothing is as it seems…

Devil in Disguise provides proof positive that Julian Clary is much more than a pretty face and a string of salacious one-liners. Following his autobiography A young Man’s Passage and his first novel Murder Most Fab, he has come up with a second story which adroitly mixes murder and mirth and which comes replete with well-developed characters, a terrific plot and an easy conversational style that never lets a pace flag.

Devil in Disguise is a real page-turner.

Off the Shelf

Born in South Africa to comfortably-off Jewish parents whose antecedents were Eastern European, Antony Sher was the kind of child (hopeless at sport, good at art) who was bullied at school but sustained by intellectual pursuits. Initially determined to become a painter, his interest switched to theatre and he moved to England to train as an actor.

Surprisingly, for someone who has become one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation (he was knighted in 2000), success did not come easily and although gay he was still in the closet when he played drag queen Arnold Becknoff in the London production of Torch Song Trilogy in 1989.

Over a glittering career, Sher has memorably appeared on stage (his Richard III has become legendary) and television and has enjoyed success as both a painter and novelist. His autobiography Beside Myself (revised and reissued to coincide with hi sixtieth birthday) is a remarkably honest account of his life – his difficult relationship with his father, his sometimes problematic gay life and lovers, his addictions to wine, whisky and cocaine. Acutely and unusually self-aware, this is a moving and compelling book.

Peter Burton chooses his books of 2009

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MTYG/BARB A4_Layout 1 30/11/2009 11:03 Page 1

Raymond Gubbay presents

BRIGHTON GAY MEN’S CHORUS

Presented by

SANDIE SHAW Christmas songs with carols for all

Stars of the BBC’s ‘Last Choir Standing’ sing their hearts out in an exhilarating Christmas concert brimming with energy and festive cheer

Winter Wonderland Walking in the Air Silent Night Hark! the herald angels sing Ave Maria Pie Jesu O come, all ye faithful Santa Claus is Coming to Town I saw Daddy kissing Santa Claus Ding Dong Merrily On High Santa Baby and hits with a special flourish!

Angels I Am What I Am The Sound of Music All I want for Christmas is You Big Spender There Is Nothing Like a Dame Baby One More Time Stand By Your Man What A Wonderful World

Saturday 19 December at 7.30pm

RAYMOND GUBBAY presents

Wednesday 23 December at 7.30pm Tuesday 29 December at 7.30pm

Saturday 2 January at 3.00pm

THE TRADITION

RUTHIE HENSHALL presents showstopping hits from the greatest Broadway and West End musicals.

CHICAGO KISS ME KATE MAMMA MIA MY FAIR LADY HIGH SOCIETY LES MISERABLES CRAZY FOR YOU GUYS AND DOLLS WEST SIDE STORY THE SOUND OF MUSIC THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA with glittering stars from London’s West End DEBORAH MYERS TIM HOWAR JAMES GRAEME Richard Balcombe conductor London Concert Orchestra

CAROLS & CLASSICS OF

CHRISTMAS

Glorious seasonal and traditional music that perfectly captures the true spirit of Christmas.

BACH Jesu, joy of man’s desiring HANDEL Zadok the Priest FRANCK Panis Angelicus ADAM O Holy Night SCHUBERT Ave Maria Plus CAROLS FOR ALL James Edwards tenor Crispian Steele-Perkins trumpet The Bach Choir Trinity Boys Chorus David Hill conductor London Concert Orchestra

SIMPLY GERSHWIN

Broadway glamour and toe-tapping tunes in a new all-Gershwin show of song and dance Rhapsody in Blue S’Wonderful Strike Up The Band Lady Be Good The Man I love Fascinatin’ Rhythm I’ve got a crush on you Excerpts Porgy and Bess Dancing from three times World Champions Chris Marques & Jaclyn Spencer plus Douglas Mills tap dancer Special guest vocalists Nicola Hughes & Rodney Clarke Gavin Sutherland conductor London Concert Orchestra

Sunday 27 December at 7.30pm

CLASSICS WITH THE PHILHARMONIA

A great evening of classical music.

MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides Overture STRAUSS Emperor Waltz GRIEG Piano Concerto BEETHOVEN Symphony No.3 ‘Eroica’ Piers Lane piano Matthew Wood conductor Philharmonia Orchestra

Thursday 31 December at 3.00pm

JOHANN STRAUSS GALA

Waltz back in time to the ballrooms of 19th Century Vienna with a magical mix of music, song and dance.

THE BLUE DANUBE WALTZ TRITSCH TRATSCH POLKA RADETZKY MARCH PIZZICATO POLKA THUNDER AND LIGHTNING POLKA DIE FLEDERMAUS OVERTURE DAVID JURITZ directs from the violin in the traditional Viennese manner Sparkling soprano soloist CAROLINE MACPHIE JOHANN STRAUSS ORCHESTRA and DANCERS in beautiful costumes of the period

THE SOUND

OF

MUSICALS

Saturday 2 January at 7.30pm

OPERA GALA NIGHT

JENNIE BOND hosts a royal tour of glorious arias and timeless music from the world’s best-loved operas.

BARBER OF SEVILLE LA TRAVIATA RIGOLETTO IL TROVATORE NABUCCO AIDA FAUST EUGENE ONEGIN TALES OF HOFFMAN TOSCA MANON LESCAUT LA WALLY LA BOHÈME Linda Richardson soprano Rafael Rojas tenor The London Chorus Andrew Greenwood conductor London Concert Orchestra FANFARE TRUMPETERS OF THE WELSH GUARDS

BARBICAN HALL

BOX OFFICE 020 7638 8891

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beigemusic

★ Pet Shop Boys New York City Boy (1999, but just tipped over into the Noughties on radio airplay) Sounding like a cross between Village People’s YMCA and the Pet Shops’ own Village People cover of Go West, New York City Boy drafted in male choir singers that sounded like they were marching along Christopher Street in tight-fitting sailor outfits and 70’s disco percussion to create a modern day super gay anthem.

★ Lady Gaga Just Dance (2009) Perhaps less about the song and more about her insistence that ‘the gays’ is why she makes music? ★ Tatu All The Things She Said (2002) Were they lesbian schoolgirls or was it all just a publicity prank? Either way, they were the gay sensation of 2002.

Beth Ditto

★ Kylie Minogue Your Disco Needs You

★ Madonna Hung Up (2005) Abba plus Madonna equals gay anthem. Whether you like it or not.

(2001) Ditto on the gay choir, big brass and 70’s bassline, Kylie’s biggest gay anthem since Better the Devil You Know set gay dancefloors alight with gay boys attempting to recite the four line French chorus with little success, despite only being released in select territories outside of the UK, such as Germany.

★ Mika Grace Kelly (2007) Take one Queen, mix with Scissor Sisters, and add a dash of The Darkness. And - Ooh! -the mincing Mika appears.

★ Heather Small Proud (2000) The foghorn

★ Scissor Sisters I Don’t Feel like Dancin’

M-People singer’s first solo hit unwittingly became a gay anthem after being heavily used in the American version of Queer as Folk. Expect to hear the song at Pride event worldwide until the end of time.

(2006) Bringing the sexy New York underground scene to the mainstream was a topless Jake Shears, parading his gayness all over the place squealing out a song co-written by Sir Elton John.

Kylie

★ The Darkness I Believe In A Thing Called Love (2003) Justin Hawkins hit all the high notes with his ridiculous falsetto delivery and reminded us all of Freddie Mercury and that no one should wear tight-fitting black leather trousers, even if they are rock stars. ★ La Roux In For The Kill (2009) With odd hair, odd make up and an even odder singing voice La Roux became a lesbian icon within moments of releasing this record.

★ Will Young Leave Right Now (2003) The Willster proved his worth with this lounge ballad, cementing him as a credible artist and not just ‘the gay winner of Pop Idol’.

Mika

★ Boyzone Better (2008) The boys, tragically minus Stephen Gately, won the Stonewall Entertainer of the Year Award in 2009 for their video to this single, which didn’t hide Gately’s sexuality and featured him caressing another man.

★ The Gossip Standing In The Way of Control (2006) Probably the biggest lesbian icon to have emerged this decade, and we don’t just mean in body size. Beth Ditto redefined large, lesbian and girl rock in one fabulous song.

★ Rufus Wainwright Rufus Does Judy

★ Antony and the Johnsons Hope There’s Someone (2004) The Southampton-born but America-based warbler made us all cry with his heart-wrenching song about human vulnerability. And wore clothes more suited to a middle-aged female faith healer.

★ Christina Agiulera Beautiful (2002) The video, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, features a gay couple, portrayed by Jordan Shannon and Justin Croft, kissing on a bench and ignoring the stares of people who pass them. The song is about self-esteem and confidence in being yourself.

Music

Times, as they say, are a changing. Gay liberation has moved on leaps and prances since the dawn of the new millennium, paving the yellow brick way for musicians to sing about same-sex love and include boy-on-boy action and girl-on-girl affection in their pop videos.

Or has it? Some may argue that the 60s, 70s and 80s offered more groundbreaking works of musical genius challenging stereotypes and bringing free love and gaiety to the forefront of social consciousness (what did happen in the 90s, anyway?), but it’s true that there were at least some high notes when it came to musical homo-ness in the Noughties… here’s our pick of the best gay songs of the Noughties.

As a new decade of music dawns, Beige looks back at the best gay songs of the Noughties

(2007) Recorded live during his sold-out summer 2006 Judy Garland tribute concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall, this album earned Wainwright critical acclaim, and was just a touch on the side of gay, for obvious reasons.

Scissor Sisters

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beigeinterview

Holly, frankly

Holly Johnson

A quarter of a century since we first heard Relax, the Frankie Goes to Hollywood spectacle is back with a greatest hits compilation, Frankie Say Greatest. Rob Cochrane talks to his great friend Holly Johnson about the changing pop landscape.

In

order to remember, it is sometimes necessary to revisit the scene of former crimes. The release of the new 25 years on, Frankie Goes To Hollywood compilation reminds the succeeding generations of music buyers for whom that band are only a name, or those whose memories serve them well, just what a slap to the senses, wanted or not, these Merseyside miscreants provided.

Relax still sounds fresh, fun and filthy and snaps into life with an energy and enthusiasm that still kicks ass and makes you want to move. We may have progressed from coloured vinyl to digital silver to invisible downloads, but the music of Frankie Goes to Hollywood continues to weave a strange spell. The ringmaster to the insane success of the ‘Frankie’ cavalcade was their delightfully witty, discreetly anarchic vocalist Holly Johnson. He now views the furore he helped unleash with wry hindsight, and remains a wisely analytical presence in a world of vapidly brief celebrity for the sake of itself.

“I suppose there always will be boundaries that have to be breached, but now controversy is much more carefully orchestrated,” observes Johnson. “Relax happened fairly spontaneously. It may seem like a storm in a teacup now but in 1984 the song was considered flagrant and outrageous, especially the video, which was really why the record was banned by the BBC. In my view, it was the imagination of the BBC executives that created the concept of depravity or obscenity. Since then, many artists have openly courted controversy as a way of gaining success Madonna being the most obvious example.”

Twenty-five years is, of course, a long time in pop. Times change; social attitudes, lyrical content and production techniques change. How does Johnson see Frankie fitting into the cultural landscape this time around.

“In my opinion, Pop has somehow lost its cultural supremacy; TV, the internet and computer games have all exploded since the 1980s … There are more things out there to distract the teenager and the young adult. The 80s was perhaps the last decade where Pop music was the sole art form that appealed across the generations, although it has found a slightly different role in the TV spectacles of Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor. Social change occurs in slow motion and Pop moves so fast that the sharp edge has worn off. But still, occasionally, some incredible records are created that push the boundaries. For me, Antony and The Johnsons’ album I Am A Bird Now was a very important record, it changed everything. It was beautiful and heartfelt and unexpected in its success. A timeless sound, dealing with human emotions. Rufus [Wainwright], at

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best, was John The Baptist to Antony’s Jesus as a Trans gender being”.

Holly Johnson has always been that rare creature: a successful recording artist who has never been closeted about his sexuality. He never coyed it like Boy George, never got outed as a means of misadventure a la George Michael, or remained steadfastly in

“I suppose there always will be boundaries that have to be breached, but controversy is much more carefully orchestrated now”

Holly Johnson

denial of everything, like the dubiously iconic Freddie Mercury.

Having done so much to assist in the liberalising of attitudes, he is, despite the apparent acceptance of gay men in the media, anxious to raise awareness about the rise in attacks on them, and to dissect the underlying reasons.

“Issues of sex and sexuality are still around forty years after The Stonewall Riots,” he says. “Many performers are still in the closet. The whole civil partnership issue has only inflamed the Church, Temple and Mosque goers. The Pope with his ‘threat’ statement and the Catholics with their anti-gay adoption issues. In times of economic meltdown it’s always the gays that get it in the head. The hate is turned on those that the haters feel they can get away with hitting”.

Listening to Frankie now, it’s clear that there is a sad timeliness to this compilation. Two Tribes and their version of War are as relevant now as they were in a post-Falklands climate.

When asked if this is a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same, he responds, “I like to think everything changes and nothing stays the same”.

Holly Johnson is true to this dictum, is these days a recognised painter, but he also experienced major success as a solo artist. His three solo albums are now available for the first time as downloads, so if this compilation makes you curious as a listener, venture further. It can only be hoped that with this revival of interest he decides to record afresh. We need artists with something to say, but they mostly seem more interested in themselves. Johnson, like Morrissey, is a star of the old school, ironic, iconic, and with a wealth of wit to share.

Frankie Say Greatest is out now

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02/11/2009 17:22:23

screener

beigecinema

now showing

the

words: Josh Winning

Me and Orson Welles

Showing: 4 December

Zac Efron has found the perfect transitional vehicle in this 1930s-set drama, as he attempts to graduate from the bubblegum world of High School Musical and screaming tweens. Playing impressionable teen Richard, who is inexplicably cast by an on-the-rise Orson Welles (Christian McKay) in his groundbreaking re-imagining of ‘Julius Caesar’, Efron occasionally succumbs to the odd moment of Disney training. But on the whole he proves himself a diverse and adaptable talent who is more than just a pretty face. It’s even more impressive considering he’s up against Christian McKay, who turns in a career-defining performance as Welles. It’s an Everest of a role, but McKay is spellbinding, exuding just the right amount of charm, arrogance and bombast required to play the towering auteur. And the film?

Its gentle nature means that although it steers clear of entirely unpicking the myths and whispers that constituted Welles’ character, it remains a cheerful, energetic romp that never outstays its welcome – and is as charming as the man himself.

Unmade Beds

Showing: 11 December

How many beds have you slept in during your lifetime? Axl (Fernando Tielve) has got to 21. (Beds that is.)

He’s come to London from Portugal to search for his English father, who walked out on him and his mother when he was just a baby. Vera (Deborah Francois) likes taking pictures of beds she has slept in – in hotels, houses. Although it takes them a good hour to meet, Axl and Vera live in the same indie squat. There, in a dreamy, alcohol-fuelled haze, they experience life and love, lust and limits. Yep, this is Arthouse with a capital A, featuring storylines that flutter and falter, and loose camerawork that recalls the French New Wave at its most adolescent. But there’s also something innately endearing about Unmade Beds and its oftentimes twee anecdotes. Vera’s tentative romance with X Ray Man (Michiel Huisman) is sweetly rendered, while Axl’s full-blown threesome is handled with a twinkly-eyed restraint. If you’ve ever felt lost, bored or confused, this one’s for you.

Mr Right

Showing: Now

Forget the actors, the real star of this gay soap opera is London herself. Set and shot around Soho, Mr Right milks Old Compton Street and the surrounding quarters for all that they’re worth. Which is quite a pleasant breath of fresh air in a time when recession-hit productions are retreating into studios for much of their filming. But then, Mr Right was shot back in a pre-crunch 2006, and has only just now been gifted a release. Normally such a protracted production doesn’t bode well, and to be fair Mr Right is all a bit cheap and obvious. Following the lives of six scene queens, this is very almost the Love Actually of the gay world, as characters’ comings-and-goings (mostly comings) inexplicably intertwine.

Cute wannabe actor Alex (Luke de Woolfson) comes out on time, as does rugby star William (Rocky Marshall), whose nine-year-old daughter causes all kinds of problems. Fresh and fun, Mr Right has its charms, but we’d take Mr Big over it any day.

Bunny and the Bull

Showing: Now

Director Paul King is known for his quirky comedies, which mix live action with bijou animation. He was the man behind The Mighty Boosh, after all. With this, his first filmic outing, he sticks to the same tried and true formula of man versus animation (manimation?), and delivers an oddball road movie – entirely set inside its main character’s flat. Stephen (Ed Hogg) hasn’t left his pad in a year. The definition of a loner, he stores his urine and labels his toe clippings. He’s also hiding from something. But the more Stephen tries not to remember, the more his surroundings force him to. Soon enough we’re on an animated journey (both literally and figuratively) through Europe, as Stephen relives the incidents that forced him into hiding. Beautifully crafted, with some astounding animated details, Bunny and the Bull has moments of predictability, but is filled with heart and humour.

best of the rest Planet 51 | Reverse E.T. set on an alien planet. Animated fun strictly for the kiddies | Fri 4 December Avatar | Jim Cameron thinks his 3D CGI epic, 15 long years in the making, is the next big thing in cinema | Thurs 17 December St Trinian’s 2 | Sarah Harding of Girls Aloud returns to cause more mayhem in a mini-skirt | Fri 18 December Sherlock Holmes | Guy Ritchie updates the old Baker Street investigator with the help of Robert Downey Jnr. | Sat 26 December

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Nowhere Boy

W

hatever you do, don’t call Aaron Johnson 19-year-old Aaron Johnson as John Lennon a heartthrob. “I don’t wanna be like Zac Efron,” the young actor asserts as we talk during the filming of his in-production thriller Chat Room, directed by Ringu’s Hideo Nakata. “I don’t want to be the next anyone, just myself. I mean, it’s fine, and some guys are really happy about the girls and they’ve got that little fan base.

But it’s not for me. It’s just embarrassing, really.”

Embarrassing it may be, but Johnson better get used to it. If Nowhere Boy is anything to go by, he’s going to be making a thousand more girls and gays swoon in the coming few months. Playing a young John Lennon on the cusp of musical superstardom, Johnson is a magnetic presence, delivering a nuanced, assured performance that even the most seasoned of performers struggle to achieve.

Not bad considering he’s playing a legend adored by millions. “It was the best experience I’ve ever had on a shoot,” Johnson says in his enthusiastic, slightly cockney parlance. “We had the most fantastic crew and it was just a wonderful experience. Lennon was the most interesting character for me to portray.”

The film arrives on a wave of tabloid gossip. Just weeks after shooting of Nowhere Boy wrapped, its 42-year-old director, conceptual artist Sam TaylorWood, admitted that she and Johnson were dating. They’re now engaged. But the press doesn’t bother Johnson. “I avoid all that!” he shrugs. “I’ll stay away from any reports and stuff. I’d rather not be anxious and paranoid of what people comment

on and what people say. I don’t follow any of that.

Somebody might tell me a couple of little details, but apart from that...”

Just a few short years after he appeared as the object of affection for Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging’s tween heroine, Johnson is establishing himself as a talent to watch, with a career that is increasingly diverse. After Nowhere Boy, he will be appearing in Kick-Ass, an action comedy strictly for adults that draws on comic book lore and a million slick action flicks.

Johnson plays a superhero. Who doesn’t have any powers.

The business of show is a tricky one, though. And considering Johnson quit school at just 15 to concentrate on acting, surely he had a back-up plan in case it all went Pete Tong? “No, not at all. I couldn’t have a back- up plan because I’d be fucked,” the actor reasons. “People always say, ‘You should have a plan B, you should’ve done your studies at school,’ but I knew what I wanted to do. If you have a back-up plan, you fall back on it and that’s just what you do. For me, I just want one thing. You can’t help but keep going forward and do what I love doing. I’ll fight any way I can to keep doing what I want to do.”

So it’s onward and upward for the rising young star. Just don’t call him a heartthrob.

NOWHERE BOY IS SHOWING FROM 26 DECEMBER (ICON)

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DISTRICT 9 28 December, Sony

Best sci-fi film of the year?

Quite possibly. Brought to the screen by first-time director Neill Blomkamp, District 9 is set in Blomkamp’s native South Africa, where giant prawn-like aliens have been colonised in rundown Johannesburg slums. Yep, this is sci-fi for the thinkers, taking the idea of illegal aliens to its otherworldly extreme. Shot in the spirit of a documentary, Blomkamp’s film is superbly observed and wildly entertaining. Its CGI aliens are never anything less than utterly convincing, while anti-hero Wikus (Sharlto Copley) is a true sci-fi stalwart. Poignant and thrilling.

dvd

screener the

COFFIN ROCK 28 December, High Fliers

FAMILY GUY: SOMETHING, SOMETHING, SOMETHING DARKSIDE

Australian producer David Lightfoot is singlehandedly reshaping the Australian landscape. First Wolf Creek, and now this second Aussie-set horror both smash to smithereens the Home and Awaycum-Neighbours iconography of sunny beaches and toned, muscle-bound bods. Oh there’s a beach in Coffin Rock, of course, but it’s a grey, howling place devoid of colour and life. When a woman desperate for a baby drunkenly beds a young stranger, she has no idea what horror is to come. Cranking the tension in nerve-jangling slow motion, Coffin Rock sways between the sublime and the ridiculous. We’re not in Erinsborough anymore, Toto.

An intergalactic follow-up to Family Guy’s hilarious Blue Harvest (itself a Star Wars spoof-slash-loveletter), S, S, S Darkside sees the Griffin tribe once again taking an affectionate dig at its favourite movie franchise. Luke (Chris), Leia (Lois), Han Solo (Peter) and Chewbacca (Brian) have evaded the clutches of the Imperial Starfleet, setting up a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth.

But with the rebellion in trouble, young Skywalker must learn the ways of the “farce” under Jedi Master Yoda (Carl) before Darth Vader (Stewie) seizes control of the galaxy. Pure geek opium.

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

7 December, Warner

Now, Paramount

Hormones by the handful for HP’s sixth filmic outing. Even soapier than anything presented thus far, Half-Blood Prince plunges headlong into its now-teenaged characters’ protracted growing pangs. So Hermione (Emma Watson) thinks she likes Ron (Rupert Grint), but Ron is too busy chasing anything with a pulse to notice. Meanwhile, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe, is it wrong we sort of fancy him?) is having funny feelings about Ginny (Bonnie Wright). And something dark is brewing on the horizon that doesn’t bode well for Hogwarts. Like the doorstep-sized book, Half-Blood Prince has a distinct feeling of treading water. We’re desperate for the two-part explosive finale.

The universe according to famously ADD director Michael Bay consists solely of gorgeous girls who are perpetually horny, Megan Fox bending over stuff, and nuclear-sized explosions. Oh and cars that turn into robots, natch. This second Transformers flick is longer and more bloated than its predecessor, and lacks even the meagre charms proffered by that first machine mash-up. Plot? A giant transformer ejected into space millennia ago wants revenge. There are explosions. And Megan Fox bends over stuff. At two-and-a-half hours long, you’d do better to read a book. The filmic equivalent of a vehicular penis extension

28 December, Fox

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Hurling

Abuse When one of the most famous, respected and masculine sportsmen in a country’s national game comes out, what happens? Rob Cochrane reports on Donal Og Cusack - the man who rocked Ireland.

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he death of Stephen Gately rang out the bells of irony, but their chimes were absent from the mournful proceedings in Dublin. What occurred amounted to a state funeral, in a Catholic country. The deceased, an openly gay, married pop star, was given respect, the kind of respect he would still have been denied had he not been famous. Ireland pretends to be a modernist state, but the Catholic Church still casts a disquieting shadow over the lives of those of whom it disapproves. Priests have been routinely exposed as child abusers, money has been paid to the victims, yet their church continues to rail against homosexuality, without ever wondering if truncating the sexuality of young men might not be the major mitigating circumstance in such unhealthy manifestations later on.

A mere smattering of weeks after Gately’s pomp and circumstance, the bastions of Irish expectation took another kick to the vulnerable parts, when one of their major sporting heroes, the hurling star, Donal Og Cusack, announced that he preferred the physical company of men. Teacups rattled, pints of Guinness were spluttered into, and what had been an occasional rumour, became an undeniable fact.

Cusack used his autobiography Come What May as the vehicle to explain himself.

It was serialised in the Daily Mail, the paper that suggested Gately’s death was a result of his sexuality and lifestyle, whilst praising the bravery and honesty of their new exclusive.

Cusack has been remarkably direct and unapologetic, appearing on television, giving press interviews, and momentarily the conventional world faltered, gawped, then dusted itself down, and got on with things. However when he took to the field in Semple Stadium, Tipperary, in front of 50,000 fans, a disgruntled idiot with a megaphone kept chanting ‘He’s gay! He’s bent! And his arse is up for rent!’ This sort of treatment has been more difficult for the parents than their son, who retorted ‘A guy like that? I don’t really care. If he wants to amuse himself by calling me brokeback, or imagining my arse is up for rent, he has paid to see me play. I’m playing the greatest game in the world in the Mecca of the game.

I’m playing with my friends and comrades for the place I come from. I’m doing something I love. Fuck it! His little problems don’t concern me. I’m obviously far happier for being what I am than he is.’ Cusack’s mother no longer goes to watch him play because of the homophobic abuse she hears vented towards him.

The book bristles with passion, but not of the sexual kind. There is little soul searching, or sexual pondering. Cusack’s heart belongs to hurling, a violent, often brutal sport which in Irish homes rivals Catholicism in the influence and drive it exerts. What gets him through the occasional night, isn’t much discussed, although what does keep him awake is doing badly in a match, especially losing one. He was instrumental in fighting against the injustices heaped upon players by self-serving officials, even instigating strikes to improve their facilities, and their medical and personal care. The moment he confesses all to his parents and siblings is tactlessly lightened by his brother suggesting that the news will give their father something to broaden his mind with.

Come What May isn’t really a gay book, it is a fairly standard sporting memoir, but one where the author mentions in a few brief chapters, that he isn’t quite what he seems. Cusack remains a hurling icon; his masculinity hasn’t been altered from what it was before. If people saw him as such, he remains as such.

That he doesn’t look gay is part of the fascination, and his value as a breaker of conventional stereotypes. He isn’t the only gay hurler, or whatever other sport may spring to mind, but he will likely remain the only publicly recognised one for quite some time. His treatment from the stands would suggest that erring on the side of caution might not be a bad idea. In 1982, only yards from Croke Park, the scene of many of Donal Og Cusack’s sporting triumphs, a young gay man, Declan Flynn was lured to his death. Eventually his killers had their manslaughter sentences suspended, and the local community took it upon themselves to organise a celebratory march through the area. Flynn wasn’t protected by the trappings of fame, and his treatment is more telling, than the bowing and scraping involving those in the glare of the spotlight.

Sport is a forger of powerful emotions, strong bonds, and blurred boundaries.

Generally, the news has been greeted with a positive air, and his teammates have been refreshingly supportive. One shocked friend touchingly arrived with a list of hand written questions. Donal Og Cusack is going to be a subject of speculation and gossip, but the world changes slowly, and his stance will make life easier for others, because he comes from a sport many respect. Gay or straight, his achievements remain. In the end, that is all it should really come down to. Sadly, as we know, that isn’t the case.

Donal Og Cusack’s autobiography, Come What May, is available now

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upstaged plays and musicals

Zombie Prom (review) Landor Theatre

The downside of publishing a monthly magazine is that by the time you read this review the little gem that is/was Zombie Prom will have moved on to the realm of not so distant memory. This quirky little musical was never designed to be a long runner nor a multi million pound production. It is and remains a great little show with all the zip, zing and vigour of a cult classic in the making. Ok, so the plot is a bit whacked – boy meets girl, boy loves girl, girl spurns boy, boy in depressed state jumps into nuclear reactor, boy comes back from dead as Zombie to take girl to prom. It’s nothing if not original and it’s one brilliantly funny night at the theatre. Performed in the intimate confines of the Landor Theatre in Clapham, director Ian McFarlane used every inch of the small space to create the nuclear phobic USA of the 50s. Plaudits must go to musical director George Dyer, who with a small compliment of musicians had the Landor rocking. The standout performance of the evening for me came in the form of Sophie Isaacs as Toffee, this pint sized bundle of dynamite is set for much bigger things. It may be a while before Zombie Prom rolls around again but remember the name and keep your eyes out. It’s a joy to behold.

Coming soon: LONDON WELCOMES JULIE ANDREWS

Musical legend Julie Andrews is returning to a London stage for the first time in 30 years, bringing her one-off show An Evening with Julie Andrews to the O2 Arena on 8 May 2010.

The 74-year-old Oscar winner will be joined by an ensemble of five other performers and backed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the concert, which will feature songs from her stage and screen hits, which include The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady.

In a statement, the British-born star said: “To perform once again in my homeland on the London stage will be a wonderful moment - it is where it all began for me. I am so excited to be able to share a brand new work with audiences.”

Tickets can be purchased at www.theo2.co.uk

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hair: coming soon

For the first time ever an entire Broadway cast is being bought to the West End by producer Cameron Mackintosh. The award winning Broadway production is headed to the Gielgud Theatre in April 2010. A celebration of life, a love letter to freedom and a passionate cry for hope and change, Hair features some of the greatest songs ever written for the stage including its title song, Aquarius and Good Morning Starshine. When Hair first appeared in London in 1968 it was the first musical to do so after the abolition of the Lord Chamberlains office and it caused a sensation closing only when the theatres roof collapsed. This is sure to be one of the hottest tickets in London and one not to be missed at any cost. www.hairthemusical.co.uk

MAKE THE YULETIDE GAY!

This year sees a festive concert from the Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus at London’s Barbican. Hosted by the 60’s Princess of Pop Sandie Shaw this Christmas concert will be brimming with energy and festive cheer.

Expect a programme of Christmas favourites including Silent Night, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and Hark the Herald Angels Sing and popular favourites like There Is Nothing Like A Dame, Angels and Big Spender. Saturday 19th December 2009 Bookings 020 7638 8891 Kerry Fox and Ian Hart (photo by Johan Persson)

Speaking in Tongues Duke of York’s Theatre

Review: Mark Ludmon Andrew Bovell’s Speaking in Tongues has been performed several times since its premiere in 2000 and a film version, called Lantana, two years later. It is an intricate narrative of nine characters, played by just four actors, each doubling or tripling up, to add extra dimensions and complication to the story.

It begins with two couples contemplating a one-night stand with each others’ partners, played out in two different hotel rooms but occupying the same stage space.

To make matters more complex, the parallels and differences between the simultaneous scenes are emphasised by the actors speaking many of their words and lines in perfect unison with each other – a fascinating but disorienting technique that thankfully ceases until later in the play.

After the repercussions of these bedroom infidelities, the story suddenly opens out, switching to new characters mentioned only in passing earlier in the play – a man spotted throwing a woman’s shoe onto a building site late at night, a woman missing in the woods, a discarded pair of brogues belonging to a man distressed by the disappearance of his fiancée.

While the characters weave in and out of each others’ stories, they share a feeling of isolation and inability to trust despite the connectivity of their lives. There is a strong ensemble cast of John Simm, Lucy Cohu, Ian Hart and Kerry Fox, matched by some interesting staging including effective use of sound and video to add nuances to the stories being told. vol 2 issue 5 | beige | 57

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upstaged plays and musicals

The only way to catch a show

Planning a trip to a West End show for a special occasion in the near future? Really want to blow the budget on something special and truly unique? Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Theatre Group is offering some incredible VIP packages at their theatres across London that offer us show queens an experience that we won’t forget anytime soon.

Packages can be tailored to suit most budgets, starting at £80 per person and includes a top price ticket, pre-show drink, programme to share, sweets, your own private table in the bar and interval ice creams. Beige was invited by Really Useful to try out the Luxury Experience package recently and we are pleased to report that this is definitely the only way to go if you want an amazing night in the theatre.

We were greeted at the door of the theatre by our own personal red coat Paul (yes, no queuing for tickets) who escorted us to our own private room just off to the side of the dress circle. It’s quite an amazing feeling to be guided through the theatre when it’s empty - you get a chance to really capture the feeling of the building and get a chance to look at the building from a different perspective.

Once settled we were treated to vintage Moutard champagne, a selection of amazing canapés, presented with show programmes and were told a bit about the history of the venue. Just before curtain up Paul guided us to our seats and left us to enjoy the show. At the interval, Paul was back and whisked us to our VIP room before most people had made it to the bar. During the interval, champagne and canapés were served. You really notice how enjoyable an interval can be

when you don’t have to queue to use amenities or wait to be served at the bar. At interval’s end, we were taken back to our seats and when the show concluded we had access to our room again to collect coats and were guided out into the night via a side exit to avoid the crowds.

The package we enjoyed costs from £190 per person, but if you really want to splash out on something truly spectacular Really Useful offers a Platinum Experience package in which just about anything is possible (and we mean anything). The package includes Dom Perignon Chapagne, your own personal chef to create dishes designed to suit your taste, a behind the scenes visit after the show, a bouquet of flowers, a personalised momento and show programme and brochure. Starting at £500 per head including tickets this is a truly amazing night at the theatre.

The whole evening we experienced was brilliantly handled by theatre staff including our Red Coat Paul who ensured we wanted for nothing. The only comment I would make is that once you try a night at the theatre like this you’ll never want to go back to “coach class” again. VIP packages are available for Priscilla at the Palace Theatre, Sister Act at the London Palladium, Chicago at the Cambridge, War Horse at the New London, Phantom of The Opera at Her Majesty’s or you can pre-book your VIP slot for Love Never Dies when it opens at the Adelphi in 2010. It’s worth every penny to enjoy a show this way!!

To book a package call 0207 379 4981 or email hospitality@reallyuseful.co.uk

Doug Mayo is treated like a queen in the West End

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Suzie Toase and Leanne Rowe (photo

by Catherine Ashmore)

plays and musicals

Talent - Menier Chocolate Factory

Review: Mark Ludmon Long before the days of Acorn Antiques and Dinnerladies, a 25-year-old Victoria Wood wrote a short play set backstage during a talent contest at a Manchester variety club, Bunters Nitespot, focusing on aspiring singer Julie and her best friend Maureen. Starring Julie Walters, it had some success and was made into a play for TV, providing a push for the pair’s careers. Thirty-one years later, it has been revived at the Old Laundry Theatre in Bowness-on-Windermere and then at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory.

Still set in the 1970s, it gets much of its appeal from now-kitsch references to Babycham and Lena Zavaroni, with some hilarious lines that are now familiar to Wood’s fans, such as the tale of the woman who laughs to much that “a Malteser came down her nose” and the nun who left the monastery because “they were always having tomato soup and she lost her faith”.

The play is more like a musical, featuring many of Wood’s comic songs, with new ones added for this production which aim to “open up the lost world of the cabaret club”, according to Wood who has directed the revival. There are some good performances, most notably from Suzie Toase as Wood’s original character, Maureen, and Mark Hadfield as both Mary the club’s front-of-house manager and the charmingly hopeless assistant to Jeffrey Holland’s ventriloquist. But funny lines and nicely drawn characters are not enough to make this more than just an extended sketch with songs.

SIMON BURKE – SOMETHING ABOUT ALWAYS

Having just completed a lead run in the West End production of La Cage Aux Folles, Simon Burke is no newcomer to the world of musical theatre both in London and in his native Australia. This beautifully produced album showcased his lyrical tenor voice at its best. The album features an eclectic mix of tracks from big musicals and some interesting tracks from Australian composers. It’s quite refreshing to hear a selection of show music without a Les Mis song in sight. Beautifully arranged, this is an album that lends itself to repeat plays. Burke’s engaging tenor voice brings life to this great selection of material.

SHREK THE MUSICAL

It was with some apprehension that I listened to this recording. Based on the original Dreamworks animated film, it had the potential to be truly awful. I am pleased to say however what I got was a truly delightful score full of wit, boundless humour and loads of showstoppers.

There’s no doubt that the part of Princess Fiona is going to be one of the most hotly contested parts if this musical epic ever hits the West End stage. Favourite tracks for me included I Know It’s Today, Who I’d Be and The Ballad of Farquaad – a comedy 11 o’clock number that is a real showstopper.

CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK

This CD release is timed to co-incide with this years offering from the Notes from New York team. Christmas in New York is fast becoming a West End tradition and each year the quality of performances gets better and better. This CD offering reflects the quality of the material on offer with some of the West End’s most talented performers delivering festive fare. Highlights include Daniel Boys singing Ave Maria, the dashing Oliver Tompsetts This Christmas, and Leanne Jones’ rendition of White Christmas. The knockout performances on this CD come from two of our most talented leading ladies – Louise Dearman and Julie Atheron. Atherton delivers yet another of her knockout comic numbers with My Simple Christmas Wish whilst Dearman’s All Those Christmas Cliches is lush and a real Christmas treat. If you’ve not been before don’t miss this years offering on 6th December at the Prince Of Wales Theatre.

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‘A BIG HIT MUSICAL’ Evening Standard

Sundayy Express p

���� Daily Telegraph, The Times, Evening Standard, Sunday Express, The London Paper, London Lite

‘ENERGY, FUN ‘WILDLY CONTAGIOUS

WISECRACKS GALORE’

INSANELY EUPHORIC’

The Times

The Daily Telegraph

JASON DONOVAN TONY SHELDON OLIVER THORNTON

0844 755 0016

www.priscillathemusical.com

MEDIA PARTNER

Front page2.indd 2

PALACE THEATRE Shaftesbury Ave, London W1

0844 847 2440 SUPPORTED BY

19/06/2009 15:05:02

beige vol ume 2 issue 1

‘THE BEST FEEL-GOOD SHOW SINCE MAMMA MIA!’

Vince Laws A poem, Human, written out letter-by-letter on the artist’s empty HIV medication bottles/boxes.

‘Human’ - £286

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1 0 0 A RT I S T S F OR WOR L D A I D S DAY

Kitty Finegan - ‘Maybe Baby’ Giclee Print on Fine Art Paper - £TBC www.kittyfinegan.com www.popchoc.com www.rocknrollboudoir.com

Nick Eastham ‘Steve McQueen in Brighton’ Photo, mounted and framed. 50cm x 40cm. £60 nick@nickeastham.com www.nickeastham.com

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ne hundred of the UK’s most fabulous artists working mainly on LGBT-related projects exhibited together in Brighton to mark World Aids Day 2009.

The main event, on Sunday 29 November, was the second annual event ‘100 Artists for World Aids Day’ and took place at the beachfront Concorde 2 venue in Brighton.

“This is our second year and we are once again overwhelmed by the generosity of our community who are eager to contribute to this worthwhile project,” says event organiser, Hizze Fletcher of Thirteen Art Productions. “We are open to artists of all levels and pride ourselves on making this a platform for all. We hope to repeat the positive message of last year and raise much needed funds for HIV and Aids.”

Twenty per cent of all money raised from the sale of artworks is being donated to Brighton-based charity The Sussex Beacon, a nationally recognised centre of excellence in HIV care.

Opened in 1992 as a hospice for people dying of AIDS-related illnesses, the Beacon is now one of only two centres of its kind in the country, with 10 residential beds and a range of community services.

With the advent of new treatments, the focus has changed to that of providing specialist care and support to individuals living with HIV. The exhibition features some of Brighton’s best-known LGBT artists, such as Mark Vessey, Romany Mark Bruce, Enzo Marra and James Robinson alongside other professional and amateur artists of all sexual orientation and backgrounds. By making this a platform for all organiser and contributing artist Hizze Fletcher hopes it will truly represent that HIV can affect anyone.

Jack Hardpoint ‘Spirit Of Ecstacy’ Mutoid Waste Company £1400 Richard Newman The Banjo & The Fiddle (At Mrs Fitzherberts Pub, Brighton) 20”x16” Oil on Canvas. £tbc www.richard-newman.co.uk

Lisa Pieca Cake innit inaminute! Photo on Canvas £ to be confirmed... www.festivalphotographer.co.uk

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Mark Vessey ‘BUTT’ archival fuji crystal print 63 x 75 cm signed and numbered from the edition of 25 Framed £375 mark@pointandsnap.com Charis Williams ‘Flood’ £550 www.brightonwallart.co.uk

Romany Mark Bruce ‘Untitled’ Oil on Canvas £650 www.romanymarkbruce.co.uk A variety of musicians and entertainers performed at the event including trans musician Jake Cattell, female vocalist AMiTY and singer/songwriter Alan Bonner.

Contributing artist Vince Laws also read a poignant poem that has been meticulously written onto the bottles of his HIV medication. The proceedings were hosted by club hostess and Brighton favourite, Dolly Rocket.

All information about the event and all artists work can be found on the website www.100artists.co.uk. All work will remain for sale on the website, with twenty per cent going to The Sussex Beacon. vol 2 issue 5 | beige | 65

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hotspots Places to be seen....

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THE GORE HOTEL LONDON estled away between Knightsbridge and Kensington, the four star Gore Hotel is a hidden gem. Stepping through its doors you soon discover why this hotel is so popular and dubbed one of the most romantic hotels in London. The Gore is a fabulous place to locate yourself if you are coming to London for a Christmas shopping expedition or indeed for any special occasion.

Located close to the Royal Albert Hall and only minutes from the shopping delights of Knightsbridge it’s the perfect launching pad for that mad day out shopping.

The decor at the Gore is something to behold. With 50 rooms in all, the hotel blends modern conveniences with the traditional. We stayed in The Tudor Room which is the hotel’s signature suite. Stepping into the room you can’t help but catch your breath. It’s completely over the top and nothing short of amazing. Complete with an oak four poster bed, 15th Century minstrels’ gallery, fabulous oak beamed ceilings and a Portland stone open fireplace this room has been called the most beautiful in London. The hotel also boasts a number of other suites including the Judy Garland and Dame Nellie suites which have to be seen to be believed.

The bathroom in the Tudor room features a fabulous old style bath with well crafted copper panelling around its sumptuous shower. The Gore is quite reasonably priced with a number of special offers available through their website.

My only comment about the hotel would be that on the night we visited it was impossible to get a wireless internet connection in the room. Whilst one was available in the downstairs bar it was disappointing that overall enjoyment of this fabulous hotel was dampened by such a small thing.

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ed Carnation Hotels certainly know a thing or two about running first rate hotels. Their suite of first class properties consistently ranks top in the most prestigious awards for the world’s best properties. The blend of small, intimate hotels and immaculate service certainly seems to have won over both the critics and their loyal following of guests too.

The appropriately named Milestone in upmarket Kensington sets a rather lofty standard at which most hotels can only aspire to, having been voted the No.1 British Hotel in the Condé Nast Traveller Gold List World’s Best Hotels for both 2008 and 2009. However the public thought differently and the UK people’s choice award for the best UK hotel went to Red Carnation’s very discreet and ultra discerning ‘41’ hotel in Victoria.

Internationally Red Carnation hotels are also setting the standards in style and service too, from Geneva to Palm Beach but perhaps most notably in South Africa.

The magnificently located 12 apostles in Cape Town wowed Condé Nast Traveller enough to be voted 3rd “Best Spa Hotel” in Africa, the Middle East and Indian Ocean Islands and if that wasn’t enough wilderness retreat Bushman’s Kloof was voted number one hotel in the world by Leisure and Travel 2009.

I was lucky enough to be given a taste of Red Carnation’s award winning red carpet treatment myself at Summer Lodge in the beautiful county of Dorset.

Tucked away in the scrumptious village of Evershot, this boutique country house hotel also packs a few heavyweight titles under its belt too. Most recently Summer Lodge picked up the award for “Most outstanding service” in the Condé Nast Johansens Annual Awards for Excellence for the UK and Ireland.

Summer Lodge is set in four acres of beautifully manicured gardens, this Relais and Châteaux property ranks amongst the finest country house hotels in England.

Thomas Hardy in fact was responsible for enlarging the 18th-century manor for his friend the 6th Earl of Ilchester in 1893 and the hotel remains the epitome of English country elegance.

With just twenty four bedrooms the attention to detail doesn’t just extend to the immaculate grounds and traditional decor though. There’s a real art to making each and every guest feel special, it’s something that the immaculate and friendly staff at Summer Lodge have down to a tee though.

Red Carnation is one of the oldest members of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association in the UK, and it shows. I’m always pleasantly surprised to receive exactly the same warm welcome that I presume my straight counterparts

Summer Loving: The summer lodge hotel do, but when you check in with your same sex partner that’s not always the reality you can expect, especially in deepest Dorset. Thankfully that’s not the case here; I couldn’t detect even the faintest bat of an eyelid as we were shown up to, and around our luxurious double room.

It’s one life’s little pleasures, exploring your hotel room, after you have been given the obligatory tour of course. I don’t really appreciate the little luxuries with hotel staff still hovering, however attentive as I’m still in best behaviour mode. As soon as the door clicks shut though I can kick of my shoes and take it all in. Wardrobes are explored to extract goodies and complimentary toiletries can be opened, sprayed and savoured. Luckily I’m not found wanting at Summer Lodge as the room yields some lovely treasures.

There are two bathrooms to explore, whilst munching on the contents of the complimentary fruit bowl. Soon I’m, showered, moisturised and wrapped in the impossibly soft robe lying on the huge bed whilst gazing at my reflection in the mirrors that cover the ceiling!

Fully refreshed and ready for dinner it’s time to sample to culinary delights of head chef Steven Titman. After much debate my choice of pan seared Lyme Bay scallops with golden beetroot Carpaccio, red wine, shallot and beetroot dressing followed by medallion of Casterbridge beef with braised oxtail strudel, caramelised onions, creamed potatoes and red wine sauce is perfectly prepared, presented and polished off. Once again the attentive staff find exactly the right balance of service and friendly formality which is as agreeable as the food itself.

Eric Zwiebel, Master Sommelier at Summer Lodge was also invaluable in his choice of wines to accompany our meal. Tempted to join the hotel from Cliveden with the offer of carte blanche when building the impressive wine cellar, Zweibel’s knowledge is an essential part of the Summer Lodge dining experience.

As a countryside retreat from the stresses of the modern world it’s hard not to be seduced by the charms of this lovely hotel. Of course this part of the country and the nearby coastline also offers a whole range of outdoor pursuits and tranquil surroundings for visitors. You may just wish to relax with a treatment at the spa, wind down in the pool or Jacuzzi, or perhaps relax in a hammock in the garden with a good book from the library though.

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hotspots Places to be seen....

DECADENCE RETURNS FOR A FIRST BIRTHDAY BASH!

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f you, like us, enjoy the finer things in life, there’s only one place to be on Sunday 13 December, as Decadence – The Secret Society (shhhh!) – celebrates its first birthday. Expect style (of course!), glamour (naturally!) and sparkling conversation in the beautiful surroundings of No5, 5 Cavendish Square, London. The Sunday Tea Dance will offer an afternoon of dining, socialising and dancing into the early hours in this spectacular venue, the service will extra special too, with beautiful boys in powdered wigs adding a touch of the Versailles to this special evening.

Decadence is offering a pre-party dinner (meals are from £25 for two courses) and the opportunity to spend the night at the wonderful hotel. The party starts at 6pm and continues until 2am.

For more information, email thesecretsocietyparty@live.co.uk or call

Richard Urban on 07951314486

THE GRAND UNION, kennington

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his fabulous pub is one of London’s best kept secrets. Serving a extensive selection of burgers, the Grand Union is one of those fabulous places to pop in for an inexpensive dinner or to laze away a Sunday afternoon with the papers. Decorated in an eclectic style, the pub boasts comfortable seating and an amazing roof terrace which is usually packed during the summer months. With drinks at pub prices, the star of this experience is the enormous variations of burgers available. Junior burgers start at £4.45 and basic burgers at £5.95 but expect to be tempted (as we were) by delights such as the Smoked Chilli Burger, Avocado & Bacon Burger, Greek Lamb Burger and Chargrilled Aubergine & Goat’s Cheeseburger ranging in price up to £7.95. Incredibly fresh and flavoursome, Grand Union represents a tempting alternative to some of the high priced gourmet burger joints springing up around town. There are other Grand Union venues across London and we hope to report on these in subsequent months but if they are half as good as Kennington they are on a winner and come highly recommended.

111 Kennington Road, London SE11 6SF www.gugroup.co.uk

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behind the label

Mark Ludmon finds out that the days when good-quality unflavoured vodkas were championed for their pure lack of taste are coming to an end, with many exciting new vodkas coming onto the market

taste A matter of

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or decades, the public has been fed the conventional message that unflavoured vodka is tasteless and odourless. But Diageo, the owner of vodkas Smirnoff and Ketel One, has introduced a new approach to tasting vodka as part of its training for barstaff. Inspired by the diamond industry’s “4Cs” of cut, colour, clarity and carats, it is using the “4Fs” of fragrance, flavour, feel and finish. “We try to educate the consumer that it is a bit of a myth that vodka is odourless and tasteless”, says Justin Smyth, European brand ambassador for Ketel One. “We try to work with drinks that showcase the flavour of the products so that they can appreciate its characteristics.”

The nearest most people come to discerning differences in taste is through a Vodka Martini, best known as James Bond’s favourite cocktail. Traditionally shaken or stirred with little more than a few drops of vermouth, with perhaps an olive added, the drink can change noticeably depending on the characteristics of the vodka used.

However, for most people vodka is about mixing, which led to it taking over whisky as the number-one spirit in the UK. The misconception about vodka being tasteless dates back to the 1950s, explains Jacob Briars, brand ambassador for vodka 42 Below and “vodka professor” for its global trade training programme. “This is how vodka was sold to consumers who knew nothing about what was an old and venerable category, so vodka was ‘dumbed down’, and it’s been an albatross around the neck of the spirit ever since.”

“Certainly vodka has less inherent flavour than a whisky or a gin where the flavouring is effectively added later through ageing or botanicals, but you only have to taste a few vodkas side by side to see what the eastern Europeans have known all along: that vodka is a spirit with its own special characteristics. Some are hot, some peppery, some softly sweet, and some rich and oily, and all shades in between.”

A new book by drinks writer Stuart Walton, called Vodka Classified, provides tasting notes on over 80 vodkas, explaining how to taste the spirit and highlighting the impact of different ingredients, from wheat and rye to potato. “You’re bound to be surprised by the nuances and complexities it can offer and you’ll also be appreciating it in the way the drink’s progenitors intended.”

Sipping vodka may be popular in eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia, but few people drink it this way in the UK. However, the team behind Swedish superpremium vodka DQ want the “soft and velvety texture” of their spirit to be enjoyed not just in cocktails. “We would like our customers to drink it straight with ice,” says co-founder and marketing director Renate Mjelde.

Marblehead Brand Development handles Polish vodkas such as premium potato vodka Luksusowa and rye vodka Siwucha.

“The industry [in the UK] has developed along the lines that we are all about purity but this is at odds with cultures where vodka has been manufactured for centuries,” says business development director Dave Steward. “In the home of vodka, it is more about character. The art of distilling is not about removing the character but knowing when to stop the process to give balance of character to the vodka.”

Despite its prosaic main ingredient, vodka made from potatoes is perceived as a luxury product in Poland. In the UK, one of the most exciting brands is Chase, described cunningly as the “world’s only English potato vodka”. Made in Herefordshire using the same potatoes that go into Tyrrell’s crisps, it has notes of mashed potato and butter, leading onto a slightly smoked almond finish, with a hint of black pepper. The William Chase Distillery has now extended the range by adding Naked Chase, the first vodka made from organic cider apples.

While many vodkas owe much to marketing and bottle design, brands such as Sobieski have focused more on what is

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beigebehind the label

inside the bottles, says Helen Tungland, trade marketing executive for premium spirits at Global Brands. “As UK consumers become increasingly educated and interested in factors such as country of origin, production processes and base ingredients used to create vodka, I think there is a real opportunity.”

Ingredients are essential to some of the newer vodkas. Babicka is the world’s first wormwood vodka, with a delicate wormwood flavour that makes it versatile for mixing as well as for Martinis.

The first Fairtrade-certified vodka, Fair, has just been launched in the UK, and the brand’s spokesman, Jean-François Daniel says its appeal will come from not just its ethical sourcing but also the quality of the quinoa grain from Bolivia, the column still production and the use of local water from the Cognac region. “We want concrete action in the middle of this huge marketing fiasco of ‘bling bling’ vodka brands,” Jean-François says.

The producers of new Karlsson’s Gold Vodka stress its use of Swedish golden potatoes and the resulting flavour, comparing it to the provenance of Calvados or Armagnac. The virtues of Akvinta vodka from Croatia include a light lemon citrus nose and a smooth finish, with a hint of pepper that means it enhances mixed drinks, according to its UK brand director John Jeffrey. Made with organic Italian wheat and spring water from the hills of Dalmatia, it has an “appealing and distinctive taste”, he says.

The recession has not dampened consumers’ interest in premium vodkas but the taste and quality have become more important, points out Jeremy Hill, chairman of distributor Hi-Spirits which handles Dutch vodka Effen. “Consumers are still spending but they are more discerning. The aspirational and lifestyle connotations of ordering a premium brand are still there, but they delivery is crucial. “Whether it’s sold with a mixer or as the base of a cocktail or long drink, the vodka has to deliver.”

Jacob Briars, the vodka professor at 42 Below, says that awareness of vodka’s characteristics is growing on the back of a rediscovery of cocktail heritage and a “second golden age of mixology”. “A lot of what has been driving that is a move to drinking less but drinking better. What this means is that spirits that have been carefully made rely less on additives such as sugars or other flavourings and need less ‘masking’ in a cocktail.

“Admittedly, if you’re drinking a vodka and Red Bull or a Long Island Iced Tea, you’re unlikely to notice the difference, but those drinkers are less likely to trade up anyway. But if you’re taking the time to craft cocktails with fresh juices, hand-made gomme and proper ice, then your base spirit should be of a quality that reflects that. Better spirits have fewer rough edges and contribute to a more balanced cocktail.”

Mark Ludmon is editor of Bar magazine, the leading monthly publication for people working in the bar trade. www.barmagazine.co.uk

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beigemoney

the twelve saves of

Christmas 1. Get up to 5% off everything.

To encourage you to spend on them, cashback credit cards pay you each time you use them, in the hopes you’ll rack up great swathes of interest. Yet set up a direct debit to repay in full each month, and you’re not charged a penny.

Currently the top card’s the American Express Platinum, which gives 5% cashback for the first three months. Apply now, and it’ll be in time for the crucial Christmas and January sales period.

You need £30,000 family income to get it though; for alternatives see www.moneysavingexpert.com/cashbackCC 2. Ask the right question.

Most people wrongly decide what they want for a perfect Christmas then ask “What’s the cheapest way?” yet actually you need to be guided by your finances, so instead first ask, “what can I afford to spend?”. Then work out what the best possible Christmas is with that amount of cash and stick to it. It’s better to have a financially fit New Year, than a tiny bit better Christmas.

There’s a free budget planner at www.moneysavingexpert.com/ budgeting 3. Don’t use Tesco Vouchers for Christmas food.

Lots of people store up Tesco’s Clubcard vouchers for Christmas treats, yet this is a massive waste. You get 4x the value, ie, £5 becomes £20, if you redeem them on things in the Tesco Clubcard Rewards brochure www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals.

4. Agree a No Unnecessary Present Pact While it feels generous to give gifts, it creates an obligation on the other person to buy you one back, and they may not be able to afford it. In this year of recession, why not agree a pact with friends or colleagues, to just send a card, or give gifts under a certain value? If you’re embarrassed to ask there’s a special tool to do it for you at www.moneysavingexpert.com/nupp 5. Find the cheapest prices in seconds If you do buy gifts, don’t do it on impulse. Create a list then search for the cheapest prices using a shopbot (shopping robot). This is a price comparison website, like www.twenga. co.uk or www.foundem.co.uk, which searches scores of internet retailers to find the cheapest, whether for books, games, CDs, DVDs, electrical goods or more. Or try www.megashopbot.com which combines different shopbot results.

6. Spread the cost without a special credit card.

One big mistake people make is to try and pay for this massive event out of December’s income. If it’s unaffordable, you end up borrowing cash, leaving them starting off the new year in hock.

So if you’ve not started saving, there’s still time now to put away money for October, November and December. And it is also possible to spread the cost into January interest-free, even without a special 0% credit card, by spending on an empty card in December, and ensuring you repay it in full in January.

7. Use discount vouchers rather than pay full price.

In the run up to Christmas, shops are desperate to attract new customers, with discounts and deals, but don’t want to give reductions to their walk-in trade who’d be shopping there anyway. To do this they use special click ‘n’ print web vouchers for those prepared to look. As we near Christmas there are loads around; a daily updated list of all the hot legitimate ones is at www.moneysavingexpert.com/discountvouchers and a wider range at www.myvouchercodes.co.uk 8. Grab store card discounts at no cost Pre-Christmas high street retailers try to bribe us with huge introductory shopping discounts if we sign up for their store cards. The problem is the disgusting 25-30% interest rate. Thus never, ever, ever borrow on store cards. Instead, the disciplined can spend on them to bag the discount, and immediately repay in full, so there’s no interest charge.

9. Get expensive perfume on the cheap!

Forget big department stores for perfume. A whole bunch of specialist online sellers flog it for a fraction of the price. Better still, buy the even cheaper unboxed bottles, then get a pretty box and wrapping for a couple of quid. This way, they think you went to extra effort but actually you saved extra cash. For a full breakdown go to www.moneysavingexpert.com/perfume 10. Use a Money Mantra before you spend.

Financial discipline’s important with temptations all around, so before you buy anything use the relevant one of my two money mantras … remember these questions:

money It’s already December and the Christmas store displays are out in force at a last minute attempt to make you buy – and buy big. Now’s the perfect time to prepare your pocket for this Christmas, explains Mister Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis

IF YOU’RE SKINT: Do I need it? Can I afford it? Have I checked if I can find it cheaper anywhere else?

IF YOU’RE NOT SKINT: Will I use it? Is it worth it? Have I checked if I can find it cheaper anywhere else?

IF THE ANSWER IS NO TO ANY QUESTION. DON’T BUY IT! 11. Knock £100s of your Christmas food & drink shop.

Use www.mysupermarket.co.uk to compare the cost of your big Christmas shop at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Ocado (Waitrose) and Asda online. Even if you don’t want to actually buy online, it’s a good indication of which store is generally cheapest. Also try my downshift challenge to drop down a supermarket brand level this Christmas, eg, from finest to normal, normal to own brand, or own brand to value brand.

12. Delay Christmas, Bah Humbug.

If you’re buying a big purchase for you and the family, like a hi-tech TV or Playstation, it’s likely to be vastly cheaper after Christmas as retailers can’t hold us hostage. So why not give friends a nicely wrapped IOU for the January sales, and a small present saying you could afford extra because of that? vol 2 issue 5 | beige | 73

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1989

‘I am homeless because my parents threw me out on the streets just because of I’m gay’

1999

‘I am homeless because my parents threw me out on the streets just because of I’m gay’

2009

‘I am homeless because my parents threw me out on the streets just because of I’m gay’

20 years on and the story is still the same For as little as £21 per night, we can provide a young LGBT person with a safe and supportive home with AKT carers.

To make a donation, go to www.akt.org.uk or you can contact us on 020 7831 6562 supported by

Registered Charity No. 1093815 Audley40.indd 1 20 Years on 3.indd 1

07/12/2009 11:50:46 25/11/2009 15:27:57

beigecommunity

Community

gaytoz.com search and find

(www.gaytoz.com) - the search engine for gay Britain.

Find thousands of gay and lesbian businesses, organisations, listings and events in the GAY to Z Directory

COMMUNITY GROUPS East London Out Project - ELOP 020 8509 3898 Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club

Boot Scoot Line Dancing 07912 641 562

(www.gaybiker.co.uk)

Gay Gordons

Gay Birders Club 01732 360 527

(www.gbc-online.org.uk) Gay Outdoor Club - General Enquiries 01673 861 962 Gay Surrey 01932 571 286 Gay West 01225 858 528 (www.gaywest.org.uk) GUMMI – rubber club

(www.gummi.org.uk)

www.rainbow-voices.org.uk

Herts Gay Community 07071 880 103 (ww.hertsgaycommunity.org.uk) HuGG - Huddersfield Gay Group (www.hugg.org.uk)

Hull LGBT Forum 07743 520 928

(www.lgbtforum.co.uk) Icebreakers - Manchester 0161 235 8035

(www.icebreakersmanchester.org.uk)

Jewish Gay & Lesbian Group 020 8952 0137 (www.jglg.org.uk) Kairos in Soho 020 7437 6063 (www.kairosinsoho.org.uk)

LMG - London Monday Group 020 7229 8272 (www.slago.org.uk) London Gay Reading Group (www.lgrg.org.uk)

Long Yang Club - for guys and girls from the East & West 020 8311 5835 (www.lyclondon.com) Manchester Lesbian Community Project 0161 273 7128 (www.manchesterlcp.org.uk)

Metro Centre - Greenwich 020 8305 5000 (www.metrocentreonline.org)

MSC London

ADVICE & HELPLINES Antidote - at Hungerford Drug Project 020 7437 3523 (www.turning-point.co.uk) Bede House - Domestic abuse hate crimes 020 7232 1107 (www.bedehouse.org)

Dazz-elle - drug and alcohol support for women 020 8257 3068 (www.dazz-elle.org.uk) Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays - FFLAG 0117 942 9311 (www.fflag.org.uk) Frank - information and advice on drugs and drug use. 0800 776 600

(www.talktofrank.com) GALOP Shoutline - for victims of hate crime 020 7704 2040 (www.galop.org.uk)

London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard 020 7837 7324 (www.llgs.org.uk)

Mobility Advice Line 0121 486 2155

(www.mobility-advice.org.uk)

UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group 020 7620 6010 (www.uklgig.org.uk)

choirs & Music Diversity Chamber Choir 07976 896 809 www.diversitychoir.org.uk) London Gay Men’s Chorus 08458 382 059 (www.lgmc.org.uk) London Gay Symphony Orchestra LGSO 07963 853 099 (www.lgso.org.uk)

– Motorcycle Club

(www.msclondon.co.uk)

Manchester Lesbian & Gay Chorus 07931 703 371 (www.mlgc.org.uk) Rainbow Voices - Birmingham’s Lesbian & Gay Chorus 07841 755 379 (www.rainbow-voices.org.uk)

CLINICS Ambrose King Centre Whitechapel 020 7377 7307 Camberwell Sexual Health Centre Kings College Hospital, Camberwell 0207 346 5000 Jefferiss Wing Centre for Sexual Health Paddington 020 7886 1697 Marlborough Clinic Royal Free, Hamsptead 020 7830 2047 Mortimer Market Centre Off Tottenham Court Road 020 7530 5050 Victoria Clinic Westminster 0845 811 6699

COMMUNITY GROUPS Barnet Lesbian and Gay Group (BLaGG) 07845 055 966 (www.barnetgay.co.uk) Bearhug 07967 101 887 (www.bearhug.net)

Out & About 020 8989 5295 (www.outandabout-london.org)

Outsiders - for people with social and physical disabilities seeking partners (www.outsiders.org.uk)

Plymouth Pride Forum 01752 265 653 (www.plymouthprideforum.co.uk)

South Asian Group 020 7791 2855

(www.bootscoot.co.uk) (www.thegaygordons.org)

Pink Jukebox at the Loom Bar 07774 443 627 (www.pinkjukebox.co.uk)

(www.goc.org.uk) (www.gaysurrey.co.uk)

Rainbow Voices Rainbow Voices is a Midlands based choir which was established in 1995 with the intention of providing an opportunity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people and their friends to meet together in a safe space and celebrate their diversity in song. The choir welcomes members from all sections of the community and sees diversity as a strength. Members are encouraged regardless of their previous musical and singing experience.

In the past Rainbow Voices has performed with London’s Pink Singers, Gay Abandon from Leeds, Loud and Proud from Edinburgh and London’s Gay Men’s Chorus as well as making our regular appearance at Birmingham Pride.

DANCING

- Himat

(www.positiveeast.org.uk)

South London Gays - SLG 020 8674 5191 (www.slago.org.uk/slg) Surrey and London Assocation of Gay Organisations -SLAGO 020 8660 5619

(www.slago.org.uk) TAGS - The Arun Area Gay Society 01273 204 050

(www.tagsonline.org.uk)

Wandsworth LGBT Community Network 07967 101 887 (www.wandsworthlgbt.org.uk)

West London Gay Bridge Club 020 7537 2481 (www.wlgbc.co.uk)

COUNSELLING PACE - Project for Advice Counselling & Education 020 7700 1323 (www.pacehealth.org.uk)

DINING CLUBS Gusto Dining Club 07941 045 102 (www.gusto-dining.co.uk)

FESTIVALS & EVENTS Bear Pride (www.bearpride.co.uk) Birmingham Gay Pride Festival (www.birminghampride.org)

LGBT History Month 07960 493 544 (www.lgbthistorymonth.org.uk)

London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 020 7928 3232 (www.llgff.org.uk) Manchester Pride 0161 236 7474 (www.manchesterpride.com) Pride in Brighton & Hove 01273 775 939 (www.brightonpride.org) Pride of Leeds (www.leedspride.com) Pride London 020 7494 2225 (www.pridelondon.org)

Queerupnorth 0161 234 2942 (www.queerupnorth.com)

HIV & AIDS Crusaid 020 7539 3880 (www.crusaid.org.uk)

Elton John AIDS Foundation 020 7603 9996 (www.ejaf.org) Food Chain 020 7354 0333 (www.foodchain.org.uk)

GMFA - charity for Gay Men’s Health 020 7738 6872 (www.gmfa.org.uk) National AIDS Trust – World AIDS Day 020 7814 6767 (www.nat.org.uk) Sexual Health Information Line 0800 567 123 (www.playingsafely.co.uk) Terrence Higgins Trust THT - helpline 08451 221 200 (www.tht.org.uk)

HOUSING Albert Kennedy Trust - Housing Advice for L&G Teenagers London - 020 7831 6562 Manchester - 0161 228 3308 (www.akt.org.uk)

Lewisham Housing Support Team 020 8463 1170 (www.thamesreachbondway.com)

Stonewall Housing 020 7359 5767 (www.stonewallhousing.org)

OLDER PEOPLE CAFFMOS for older, mature gay men (www.caffmoscommunity.com) Polari 020 7255 4480 (www.polari.org)

Croydon Area Gay Society - CAGS 020 8686 1550 (www.cags.org.uk) Ealing Gay Group - EGG 020 8870 4549 (www.ealinggaygroup.org.uk)

vol 2 issue 5 | beige | 75

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nextphasemedia POSITIONS VACANT ADVERTISING SALES STAFF Next Phase Media are seeking talented, entreprenuerial sales staff to work on our range of titles including Beige & Beige Travel. The candidates we are seeking should be highly motivated, have good written and verbal skills and work well under pressure. A knowledge of the gay market place and gay publications would be highly desireable.

OFFICE JUNIOR Next Phase Media are seeking an enthusiastic office junior to help with the day today administration of our offices. The ideal candidate would have a working knowledge of Microsoft Office, a pleasant phone manner, good written skills and the ability to work under pressure. This is a chance to join our team with excellent opportunities for promotion from the ground up.

Salary commensurate with experience.

Salary commensurate with experience.

WEB DESIGNER Next Phase Media is currently looking to develop its online presence and seeks a talented designer/ programmer. This will be an ongoing programme and we are seeking someone who has vision and the talent to make our vision a reality.

Applications for the positions outlined should be sent to paul@nextphasemedia.co.uk by the 30th November 2009.

Next Phase Media is an equal opportunities employer.

Project fee negotiable.

subscribe BEIGE IS EVOLVING! Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss out on a single issue of Beige or Beige Travel.

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beigecommunity

Community PARENTING

the food chain

Group For LGBT Adopted Adults 020 7284 0555

The Food Chain’s practical approach to fighting HIV includes the delivery of hundreds of meals, tailored to take full account of an individual’s cultural and medical requirements, every Sunday.

Groceries delivered to those who are unable to shop for themselves, at risk of malnutrition or in a difficult financial situation. ‘Eating Positively’ is a series of nutrition and cookery classes for service users in London which offer practical advice and nutritional information to those who are well enough to shop and cook for themselves.

(www.postadoptioncentre.org.uk) LGB Post-Adoption Group 020 7284 0555

(www.postadoptioncentre.org.uk) Pink Parents - Bristol 08701 273 274 (www.pinkparents.org.uk) Rainbow Families - for lesbian parents (www.rainbowfamilies.co.uk)

POLICE LIASON Islington LGBT Forum 07989 747 824 Out in Southwark 020 7525 5659 (www.southwark-lgbt.org)

POLITICAL Abortion Rights 020 7923 9792

www.foodchain.org.uk

(www.abortionrights.org.uk)

Birmingham Community Pride Trust 0121 236 0537 (www.trustinpride.org.uk) Broken Rainbow LGBT Domestic Violence Service 08452 604 460 (www.broken-rainbow.org.uk)

Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgendered Voluntary and Community Organisations 020 7064 8383 (www.lgbtconsortium.org.uk) DELGA - Liberal-Democrats for Lesbian & Gay Rights 020 7227 1395 (www.delga.libdems.org) Hall-Carpenter Archives 020 7955 7223 (www.hallcarpenter.tripod.com)

Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism LAGCAR 020 7247 9907 (www.naar.org.uk/lagcar)

Outrage! 020 8240 0222 (www.OutRage.org.uk)

School’s Out! 020 7635 0476 (www.schools-out.org.uk)

Stonewall 020 7593 1850 (www.stonewall.org.uk)

Stonewall - free info line 08000 50 20 20

PROFFESIONAL GROUPS Circa UK 0906 716 0098 (www.circa-club.com)

Gay Business Association - GBA 0844 562 4005 (www.gba.org.uk) Gay Police Association - GPA 07092 700 000 (www.gay.police.uk)

GLADD Doctors and Dentists (www.gladd.org.uk)

Jake 020 7268 3476

(www.JakeTM.org)

LAGLA Lesbian & Gay Lawyers Association 020 7940 4000 (www.lagla.org.uk)

Suit & Tie Society 020 8883 0394

(www.suitandtie.org.uk) village drinks

(www.villagedrinks.co.uk)

RELIGION & HUMANITY Absolute Freedom Group of SGI-UK Buddhists 07950 900 516

(www.sgi-uk.org)

Brightwaves Metropolitan Community Church 01273 681 101 (www.BrightwavesMCCBrighton.co.uk)

RELIGION & HUMANITY

SPORTS GROUPS

G&L Humanist Association - GALHA

Goslings Sports Club 020 8802 9639

LGBT Catholics’ Mass 020 8986 0807

Grace’s Cricket Club 020 7278 3294

L&G Christian Movement LGCM 020 7739 1249 (www.lgcm.org.uk) LGCM - Roman Catholic Caucus

Duns ‘n’ Roses Hockey Club

(www.galha.org)

(www.sohomasses.com)

020 7226 0847

Metropolitian Community Church of Brixton 020 8678 0200 (www.mccsouthlondon.co.uk) Quaker Quest 020 7251 0376

(www.GoslingsSportsClub.com) (www.gaycricket.org)

Iain - 07931 984 930 (www.pinkhockey.com)

International G & L Skiers & Snowboarders Association IGLSA

SPORTS GROUPS Remnants Hockey Club 020 8850 9518

(www.remnantshockey.org.uk)

Stonewall Football Club 020 7565 4254 (www.stonewallfc.org) Village Manchester Football Club 07976 939 205 (www.vmfc.co.uk)

TRADE UNIONS

(www.gayskiers.org)

Fire Brigade Union L&G Support 020 8541 1765 (www.fbulgbt.org.uk) GMB LGBT 020 8947 3131

(www.quakerquest.org)

(www.kbfitness.co.uk)

(www. members.lycos.co.uk/gmblgbt)

QUEST

KB Kickboxing 07881 957 977

- G&L Catholics 0808 808 0234

(www.questgaycatholic.org.uk)

SOCIAL GROUPS Bromley Gay and Bisexual Men’s Group 01689 866 698 London Friend - LGB Art & Social Group 020 7837 3337

Irons Golf Society (www.ironsgolf.co.uk) KB Fitness 020 7681 0114

(www.kbkickboxing.co.uk)

Kings Cross Steelers Rugby Football Club 07761 045 654 (www.kxsrfc.com)

London Amateur Wrestlers 020 7388 5463 London Frontrunners 07092 346 340

OUTeverywhere 08450 060 050

(www.londonfrontrunners.org)

(www.outeverywhere.com)

London Raiders Softball Club 07931 721 377 (www.rainbowraiders.com) London Spikers Volleyball Club 020 8281 6295

4Play Squash Club

(www.londonspikers.org)

(www.4PlaySquash.org)

Manchester Stingers WFC

GALA Badminton Club

(www.manchesterstingers.net)

020 8952 8293

Moseley Shoals GOC Swimmming Group Birmingham 0121 622 6589

Gay Cycling Touring Group 020 8747 4640

(www.unison.org.uk/out) Unison - North West 0161 211 1000

(www.law-wrestling.org)

(www.londonfriend.org.uk)

SPORTS GROUPS

Spectrum - TSSA LGBT Group 020 7249 7996 (www.tssa.org.uk) TUC 020 7636 4030 (www.tuc.org.uk) Unison National LGBT Committee 08453 550 845

(www.moseleyshoals.org.uk)

(www.gaycycling.wfour.co.uk)

Out to Swim 07843 616 100

Gay Outdoor Club GOC 01673 861 962 (www.goc.org.uk) Gay Sailing Group - Brighton 01273 721 933

(www.outtoswim.org)

Pride Games

- Manchester

(www.pridegames.org)

vol 2 issue 5 | beige | 77

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Robin Anderson at work in his London home

At home with

beigeinterview

N

ovelist and interior designer Robin Anderson was born in Scotland but educated in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and South Africa. He has been an inveterate traveller ever since.

As a designer, he has worked for actors Coral Browne and Vincent Pride, Christopher Plummer and socialite Ivana Trump – the latter makes a guest appearance in his most recent novel, La Di Da Di Bloody Da! – and his designs include the ball hosted by Margaret, Duchess of Argyll at the Dorchester Hotel in London for the eightieth birthday of billionaire Paul Getty and a spectacular bash thrown in the desert outside Marrakech in Morocco.

His novels include Red Snapper (‘an absolute feast of unsavoury delights’, according to one reviewer), Sebastian and Seline (‘not for the squeamish or easily shockable’) and Versus (‘for those who need help with their masturbatory fantasies’).

This year he has published The Gallery, a macabre thriller set in London’s art world and which is best described as a cornucopia of bizarre sexual experiences, and La Di Da Di Bloody Da!, a comic Ruritanian romance set in the fictional principality of Bejesustan and with a cast led by two scheming and statuesque transvestites and a ruler who likes his sexual partners to possess the physical attributes of both men (a penis) and women (breasts, the bigger the better).

Anderson lives in an elegant studio flat, the soft-toned walls are covered by the framed cover artwork for his novels, a sly homage to Margaret, Duchess of Argyll (notoriously cock-eyed) made up from a photographic portrait surrounded by illustrations by Tom of Finland and a collection of dinner plates enlivened by homoerotic drawings by Jean Cocteau.

However, perhaps the most startling feature of Anderson’s home is a red lacquered coffin which serves as a coffee table.

Let’s hear about the coffin…

I was being a good boy scout, being prepared! One day I was talking and made a slip of the tongue and said ‘coffin table’ instead of ‘coffee table’ and I thought ‘Well, why not?’ So I rang the local undertake and asked about the cost. “You can have this wonderful coffin for £2,000,” he told me. “No,” I replied. “I want the cheapest coffin you’ve got. I don’t want brass handles, I want plastic.” And he said, “But if you’re being cremated…” And I said, “I’m not. I just want a coffin. I think I paid something like £60 for it. I had it done in

Perhaps the most startling feature of Anderson’s home is a red lacquered coffin which serves as a coffee table

red lacquer but had a bit of a problem because it was a bit long, so I had the feet cut off! So, I may need to have them amputated after my death so I can squeeze into it!”

Where do you live?

In Redcliffe Square. People say it’s in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, but to me it’s really Earl’s Court – though what I pay by way of service charges and council tax, it certainly is Kensington and Chelsea! I’ve been here for six years and I love it.

And before that?

I had a lovely house in the country. A Georgian saltbox type of house set within seventeen acres. I had doves, which I dyed. There were pink doves and blue doves and green doves and they all had white heads. Someone said to me that they looked like members of the WI. People used to ask me how I’d kept the heads white and I told them I’d covered them with condoms, which was true. I had a Japanese dining room and I had a very, very camp swimming pool.

I had a lovely penthouse overlooking Hyde Park and a flat in Paris and a little chalet in the Alpes Maritimes – but then you reduce everything and now I’m very comfortable in this studio flat.

Is there anywhere else where you’d like to live?

I love New York. I may end up one day living there permanently. But, of course, when I’m in New York I miss a lot of things about London, about England because even though some people say England’s finished, it’s still quite fabulous.

Keep up to date with Robin at www.robin-anderson.com

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120 Wigmore Street, London, W1U 3LS 509 Uxbridge Road, Hatch End, Pinner, Middlesex HA5 4JS Telephone: 020 7486 3080 http://www.halcyon-interiors.co.uk email: info.@halcyon-interiors.co.uk

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