Gay London clubs bars sex: map, calendar/diary, reviews, news from DISCODAMAGED

Brit not charged with trying to torch Gran Can Yumbo Centre during Mardi Gras

The Briton arrested in connection with the fire that gutted seven Yumbo Centre venues during Gran Canaria's Mardi Gras has not been charged. There had been reports he's had a row with a doorman and drunkenly set the fire.

A spokeswoman for GLAY, the Gay and Lesbian Association of the Yumbo, who organise Maspalomas Gay Pride, said on Monday that the fire that occurred on the second floor of the Yumbo commercial center in Playa del Ingles was simply due to  ”bad luck” adding that in her opinion it had been caused by nothing more than “a spark. The local press also say the drunk guy was just a drunk and the piles of highly combustible materials left there were against local rules and even says some of the venue owners were trying to sell up - pretty blunt local press there. Nobody was hurt, it was at 8am. 

For those that don't know this Gran Canaria place it's somewhere nobody admits to going to but go to because it's warm when it's cold in Europe. Think Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre in terracota, menus with pictures, Blackpool and you're headed in the right direction.

Holiday season. Where to go

It's that time of year when we want to get away from our sh*t weather and see sunshine... through cheap curtains in holiday lets whilst trying to sleep after spending nights in basement clubs. Well, here's a map on European penis size averages to help you decide where to go - whether you like 'em big or small. There's an "interactive" guide (more exciting than it sounds) here... 

Marriage for all: A civil war in France?

You may have heard about almost daily demonstrations, almost riots, in Paris and all over France. France is that European country above Italy and was the home of "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité."

Fan of Discodamaged, Loran Concourdel sent in this article explaining what the French are up to, getting so excited about gay marriage.... It is a hilarious excellent summary of the situation and the hateful antics of the pathetic catholic church and associated fascists. Loran, we salute you!

Loran writes:

I'm French, gay and living between Paris and Berlin. The actual French debate and church hysteria surrounding opening civil marriage to all citizens became a recurrent questions from my Berliner friends these past few weeks.

Since 1999, same sex couples have been able to have their union recognized by French law. Well, almost… This contract is called the PACS and must be signed in front of a judge (like you are criminals), couples are not allowed to celebrate their union in the town hall and it does not give any rights concerning inheritance, mutual taxes, adoption or the legal relationship between parent and child. It was once again a treacherous way to categorize Gay and Lesbians into second class citizenship.

Then the struggle began to the extension of civil marriage to all.

Foot soldiers: Click the headline to read more

Paris Spring News

Hello again from Paris. Here's a couple of previews of some great parties around the corner, both here in Paris and in Brussels, thanks to our friends at La Demence! Click the headline for full details.

Amsterdam reverses tourist drug ban. It would lead to more crime.

Amsterdam's mayor says he won't ban foreign tourists from using the city's cannabis cafes. It was billed as a move to clean up Amsterdam and ditch it's grubby druggie image. However, he says banning drugs only causes more crime as folks buy them illegally giving rise to organised crime and street problems.

Who'd have thought that...

Paris Party News

Our French reporter Jules writes about what's past and what's coming up in Paris the fourth, fifth or sixth city in Europe. Click the headline for reviews of Hustlaball @ Scream last Saturday, Wake Up at Theatre Rouge and previews of Labs 1st Anniversary at Scream tonight, La Demence Basket and 23 Years Party Weekend.

La Demence cruise parts 1-5

We've been receiving intermittent reports and a flood of pictures from the good ship La Demence and are amazed that our reporter has time to write in between shags. We've been busy too so, with a slight delay, here is what we have. Click headline for more. The ship is in transit from Sicily to Ibiza, so we don't expect much more today.

Olympic effort required
Day 1- crap weather at sea
We got to Marseille all right, toured a bit the city and met up with friends of mine. We didn't taste some French cock because we wanted to spare ourselves for the Olympic effort of the cruise.

Paris News

Our man Jules has sent us a preview and review of gay parties and events in Paris in June and July including Paris Gay Pride at the end of June. Click the headline for news on that and Scream Parties, After Rouge, Sex & Sound, Le Depot, La Demence, We Are Revolution Paris and Solidays 2012.

West is Best

ILGA Europe "Equality for lesbian, gay etc people in Europe" have completed their 2011 review of LGBT rights in 49 European countries from Portugal to Russia. They look at rights in each country from equality to gender recognition and have a 180 page report with a summary of each country.

There's also a handy map (green=good, yellow/white=piss poor, red=totally vile) of the countries' scores. UK comes top with 21 points, Germany and Spain second equal with 20. France is equal 22nd with Albania, Bulgaria and Romania; Italy is even worse at position 30. Unsurprisingly Moldova and Russia are bottom. Click the headline for the full list and references.

What's the betting that the Eurovision song contest results will be in the opposite order?

Paris Woes

Discodamaged's Paris correspondent Jules tells us about the tribulations in Paris' getting less gay Marais district. Freedj has punishment closure, Woo club postponed, but rays of sunshine are the Circuit Party, gay rights, Scram and La Demence. Click the headline for Jules' report.

La Demence gay cruise 22-29 July

Bookings are well advanced for the La Demence gay cruise 22 July to 29 July. All the expensive cabins are gone so the prices are from 1332€ to 1666€ + a special F*** class and that includes everything except alcohol and excursions. Click the headline for more details. They will have a totally renovated ship, parties every night and excursions to Naples, Pompeii, Capri, Sorrento and Amalfi coast, Taormina (Sicily), Etna and Ibiza, so there is a risk of getting some culture. We can't go this year :-( but you can read how much we liked it last year: Click here. Bookings here.

PARIS AND DEMENCE

Our Paris correspondent Jules has been busy with reports on the Woo club saga, Easter parties in Paris and Brussels and afloat with La Demence and Paris gay pride / circuit party at the end of June. Click the headline for the full lowdown.

Paris News and Woo club
The gay pride / Circuit Party Lineup for this year has just been announced.  Plus I learned that another new gay venue called Woo club, which has been in the pipeline for 2 - 3 years but which has been blocked, delayed by the Paris police and the town hall of the 4th arrondissement but which was supposed to have been give the green light last year, has suffered another delay.  Yes the story of the Woo club should be quite an eye opener.

PARIS NEWS

Monsieur Jules, our pink spy in Paris, has sent us an update on the Circuit party, Spyce, Sly Bar, Scream, After Tomate, Code 69 and After Matinale. Click the headline to read all. And if you want even more like this click on BRITS ABROARD in the right side bar, and if you want to find out what's up in Berlin, go to DISCODAMAGED BERLIN at  www.discodamaged.net.

FRENCH BACKROOMS

More news from Scream in Paris and the New Can Can in Marseilles on closing backrooms. Click the headline for the latest updates from Jules.

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT... GAY PARIS

If you feared clubbing in Paris was as happening and welcoming as well your stereotypical Parisian, you'd be right.  Over to our man in Paris who writes:

On Saturday 21 January the French police raided Paris' brand new gay venue and it would appear that they have forced the club to close its backroom.  Well anyway for the Pagano night on the 21st January and also for the Beyond visit last Saturday the backroom was most definitely closed.

I hope of course that they can get it opened again but it just goes to show that Paris, whilst only 2 hours away from London, is in terms of its policing of the gay community, in the stone age.

"Continue reading" for more...

GAY SEX IN EUROPE

Here's some useful pre-holiday reading if you want to know where they are most promiscuous and where sex venues get the best results (France, Netherlands) or where they have least anal sex (Baltic countries), most check-ups (UK) or safest sex (Alpine countries). Click the headline for our pick of the European MSM Internet Survey comparing sexual habits of over 170,000 gay men in 38 European countries.

LA DEMENCE CRUISE 2011 AND 2012 REVIEW

The La Demence cruise 2011 is over and the 2012 cruise is taking bookings. Prices are pretty much the same this year, except they say there will be no last minute discounts. Click the headline for the 2011 review by team damaged and watch the video for an idea of what the ship, the rooms, the parties, the restaurant and the shows were like.

JACK DOES BODY PAINT

Huge thanks to everybody that's made exhaustive use of our site in Berlin for all the events there recently. We've just added everything (in English) you'll need for Folsom, the gay fetish fest, in early September. 

It's great that in the world's gay capital we have two assistant reporters Carlos (just joined) and Jack who has been with us for some time. If any of you want to contribute in London above and beyond leaving comments, send an email to me george@discodamaged.com. It doesn't have to be filth.  And our truly filthy Jack's diary of his latest tattooed night out has just gone up here. Prissy asexual Doris Day gays best avoid it tho...

BLACK AND BLUE PARTY

London's queen of sleaze and Hard On, Suzie Krueger, is organising the Black & Blue Party a fetish weekend in Gran Canaria Thursday 10th – Sunday 13th November. "All of Gran Canaria’s hottest fetish bars and clubs will take part. It’s a weekend of Sun, Sea and Sleaze." The official website is almost complete. Read more there: http://blackandblueparty.com/

TEAM DAMAGED ON TOUR: LA DEMENCE CRUISE

A quick reminder, whilst we've a shaky internet connection in Mykonos, that we are still away - a full Damaged service will resume Saturday when we return and if we can string a sentence together.

What's the cruise like?  Imagine a full on club with almost no security and being free to do what you like, when you like to who you like.  It's brilliant. There was no warm-up, the party started immediately and so much so departure was delayed due to our one and only g casualty. He survived, nobody noticed we hadn't actually left the harbour?!  The staff didn't know what hit them and the first three days were quite frankly mental:)  The partying didn't stop until our arrival in Malta where we arrived early as we needed an ambulance for a guy who'd injected his cock with something and had a hard on for 16 hours and it was turning blue - as soon we docked, it went down and the ambulance was sent away! 

For a boat of 1200 partying gays there's been very little drama other than those two incidents - superb.  We'll have a full on report on the madness of the La Demence with comedy details when we return.