13 responses

1. Hi, I came across your site by chance. Does anyone know the year that the One For One club in Marsh street, Hanley, closed down? I started going there with two close friends in 1976 and can’t recall going there after 1979. I’ve been all up and down Marsh Street on Google Street View and there’s no sign of it now. I guess it must have been demolished by now. Although it’s half a century ago, I remember it as being a very friendly place with a good disco playing hit singles of he time, such as Donna Summer’s “Love To Love You Baby” and “I Feel Love”.

   Many Thanks from David.

   Reply

2. I lived in N Staffs 1990-2, and the ‘Three Tuns’ was in business then. Can’t now remember the names of the friendly couple who ran it – possibly Ken (think he was the licensee) and can’t remember his partner’s name.

   Also went (once) to a place a bit further out on Bucknall New Road, more of a bar than a pub – Katz – that I had been told was gay friendly, although the time I went in, there weren’t any other customers, so it was a bit hard to tell…

   And remember the club – would it have been called ‘the club’ then? I can’t remember us referring to it as anything else.

   Reply

3. Interesting. I came to England in 1970, but had no contact with the ‘gay’ scene until I contacted you. So no help on history.
   When did lesbians get released from laws applying to men?
   When did law change to allow public displays of sexual orientation?
   Never a gay brothel?
   Only three ;gay friendly’ places to meet?
   Who is Mike Hawkins, besides a DJ?
   Best wishes to all…

   Reply

   1. Hi Philip, Thanks for your comments and questions. Lesbians were never subject to the same laws on gross indecency that applied to men though in 1921 parliament did consider introducing a law on gross indecency between women. This was rejected but lesbians certainly suffered prejudice and discrimination and the struggle for LGBT+ rights is one that historically united all LGBT+ people in the fight for “gay liberation”. The decriminalisation of sex between men in 1967 did not prevent the police from taking action against public displays of homosexual affection. It would be hard to put a date on that change as it was part of a slow shift in attitudes within policing. I would say that here in Stoke and Staffordshire that shift in policing took place over a decade that started in the late 1990s. The number of gay friendly places very much depends on the year you look at. We don’t have all the gay venues from the last twenty five years on our timeline yet as so many have come and gone, our article on the early origins of the gay scene covers six venues that existed in the early 1970s and some of these have a history that goes back to before changes in the law. There were certainly gay brothels and other places that men met for sex in the bigger cities, I have not so far found any early examples of this in Stoke. Mike Hawkes has contributed some information via these comments based on his personal recollections. All the best, Andrew

      Reply

   2. Hi Philip, as a lesbian I can advise you of your question regarding lesbians.
      I believe that Queen Victoria brought the ruling i about gay men and making it unlawful, but she stated that it shouldn’t apply to women as she thought that it would never happen between 2 women. So it never applied to us, but we have always supported gay men during their struggles with Section 28.
      Mike was a brilliant DJ who frequently played at the various gay bars and clubs in Hanley. He lives in Wales with his long term partner Dame Berta ( stage name ).

      Reply

4. And another couple I’d forgotten about. Chico’s had a gay night for a few months; and then there was Flares, opposite the Potteries Shopping Centre (near NatWest), where you went downstairs to the bar.

   Reply

5. Correction – when The Club opened, I used my own kit. Mates was earlier on (I actually used my own decks there, too, but that was me wanting to use my own kit ‘cos I knew it). I DJ’d on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights but wouldn’t leave my kit at The Club during the week because of the dust caused by renovations, so they got a temporary rig for Alan and co. to use during the week from Cookie’s Disco Centre, while waiting for the newly ordered sound system to arrive.

   P.S. Trivia – The Club was named at Dame Berta’s flat in Penkhull. When Ruby said he was going to go for it, we were chatting about potential names. Berta said “everyone calls it The Club, so why not use that …”

   Reply

6. You’re missing loads:

   I was the DJ at Excalibur, Mates, Twenties, The Club, Liberty’s (with Lily Savage opening it), The Queen and Crumpet, Godiva’s, and Shagtag (gay nights at The Stage). However, there’s also the Hollybush (Dame Berta and I DJ’d there), The Stage Door (going back to the 2nd World War), The Antelope, The Star, Fierce (Dame Berta DJ’d there), Monique’s, and The Factory. I also did the party nights every Wednesday upstairs at Mates, with all the staff having many birthdays a year as an excuse for frocking up!)

   In my opinion, greed pretty much killed the Hanley scene. The owners of The Club went out of their way to kill all competition, aggressively targeting other pubs and clubs. When we launched ShagTag at The Stage, The Club’s response was to run its own ShagTag at The Club, with free entry and all you can drink for £10 – it killed us before we could establish the venue. They employed similar tactics against all the other pubs and clubs until you only had their 3 venues remaining: The Club, The Tunns, and Q&C. All had exactly the same formula, and too much of the same thing ended up imploding.

   As a side note, The Continental was a fun pub and sort of set the template used by Pink today – neither truly gay clubs/pubs, and didn’t market themselves as such, but are gay friendly.

   Finally, you’ve missed that The Three Tunns was a gay pub way back before Ruby got his hands on it. John and Mark ran it for years (Lilly Trumpet and Jacky Dogz were fabulous DJs there) – and I think it was gay before them.

   Shameless plug: if you want to hear the music I played back then, I’ve been doing weekly live mixes through the back catalogue at mixcloud.com/mikehawkes – it’ll give you a real slice of the club music from back in the heyday of Stoke’s gay scene .I have many photo’s of the time – too many, perhaps.

   Hope that helps.
   Mike

   Reply

   1. Thanks Mike, that’s a lot to fill in, are you able to put any dates on the venues missing from our timeline? If you have any photos that we can share we would love to receive them, you can email us at olgbt2009@gmail.com All the best, Andrew

      Reply

      1. I’ll have a dig – the digital photo’s start at the new year’s eve 2000 party in Godiva’s, and go from there. I have thousands of them – literally. We also have a load of printed photo’s going back much further.

         Out of interest, some of the links mention early rave stuff – that came about because I ran the M6 corridor raves, and had all my own kit. I was also presenting on Signal Radio at the time, so I had access to white labels and pre-release tracks. As a result, all the clubs where I DJ’d were ahead of the main dance charts.

         When Mates opened, the inside had been gutted and I brought my own kit in to help Ruby out. We opened to 28 people, and grew to 800+ in the first month. Not so much a mobile disco, more a full-on rave rig (3KW amps, if I remember). The lighting rig came over from Twenties, but it was too big for Mates, so it only had the inner-most part of the original!

         Also, I put the money into equipping the Queen and Crumpet and sorting the initial stock for Lily Trumpet. Never saw a penny back, but we had some good times there!

         Reply

   2. Oh they were wonderful times then Mike. You were fabulous.

      Reply

7. Very good I worked on the gay scene for 10 year s plus

   Reply

   1. Hi Chris, thanks for the feedback. There is till so much more to add, if you have any recollections of venues or anything else to share please do let us know. thank you, Andrew

      Reply