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

Goodbye Gaydar Radio and Profile Bar

Kiss goodbye to Gaydar Radio and Soho's Profile bar and club.

Gaydar has just announced the closure, with immediate effect, of Profile Bar and Club.  They have thanked their staff and patrons but didn't mention their near £3m of debt. It's a damned expensive business getting a venue these days.  It seems the building's refurb seemed like a good time to bow out and hand the lease back to the landlord. Shame.

It's been a grim couple of weeks for Gaydar. They've also just abandoned their Gaydar Radio project.  They've handed the license to Gaydio, a volunteer run Manchester based station. Links to Gaydar Radio already go to Gaydio.

Why?! Digital radio and owning clubs is a pricey business and they might want to focus on Grindr eating up the cash they could spend on fun stuff.  Sad days.

Bank holiday sorted?

Have you got your gay London Bank holiday sorted? Have you seen Discodamaged's new ticket shop? You can get advance tickets any time by clicking the Ticket Shop image at the top right. Here's what's there for the bank holiday:
Thursday Society at Lo-Profile £4
Friday Playtime at Lo-Profile £8 , Onyx at Area £6
Saturday XXL at Pulse £8, Toybox 3D at Covert £10,
Sunday Beyond Bank Holiday Special at Area £10, Later at Fire £8, We Party London: Hi Japan at Coronet £10, As One - Legends Of London at Fire & Lightbox £10,
Monday Beyond Recharged at Area £10 , Later Xtra at Fire £5
Advance tickets available at http://www.discodamaged.com/shop.html (booking fee apply)
And there's lots more in the great gay London calendar.

NEW! GIGOLO AT LO-PROFILE - THU 19 MAY

A new night's launching on Thursday's guys...

SUPERMARTXÉ WIZARD OF OZ JULY 3RD

SuperMartXe are having a Pride special party at the Coronet with DJs Hugo Sanchez, Pagano, Tony English, Abigail Bailey (Live PA), Jodie Harsh, Kris Di Angelis and Fat Tony in two rooms. The Coronet Theatre is at 28 New Kent Road, Elephant and Castle. Click the headline for details. Tickets from £15 available here.

AS ONE AT FIRE APRIL 5TH

As one is having a party at Fire at 3am on Easter Monday 5th April with 20 DJs in five rooms from Orange/ Logan presents, Lo-Profile, Megawoof, Lovechild and Trannyshack. £15 tickets available now more on the door. Click the headline for details. It's in that gay London calendar.

SUPERMARTXÉ 27TH FEB

SuperMartXé present the Samurai version at the Coronet Theatre on Saturday 27th February. DJs will be Hugo Sanchez, Steve Pitron  and Tony English in room 1 and Karate Kid and Marlon K Jones in room 2. Click the headline for details and the pre-party. The Coronet Theatre is 26-28 New Kent Road and it's in that gay London clubs calendar.

LO-PROFILE DJS IN NOVEMBER

Lo-Profile is the largest gay club in Soho, open every Friday and Saturday until 10pm-4am with two DJs per night: Alessandro, Brent Nicholls, D'Johnny, Gonzalo, Guy Williams, Hugh Stevenson, Jamie Head, Luke Hope, Mikey D , Nick Evans, Paul Heron, Steve Pitron. £6 before midnight, £8 after. Read on to find out when. It's at 86 Wardour St and they're in your gay London calendar.

LO-PROFILE IN OCTOBER

Lo-Profile is the largest gay club in Soho, open every Friday and Saturday until 4am with two DJs per night from Alessandro to Paul Heron and a special Halloween party. Read on to find out the rest. It's at 86 Wardour St.

PROFILE INACTIVE

Bad but also good news...  Profile bar is no more from the end of April. You may recall it opened in 2007 as a joint venture between Gaydar and bar operating group, VMPG and was soon followed by Lo-Profile the club.  Word on the street is that VPMG, like many bar franchise operators, is over leveraged with debt, hit by property hell and the recession across its portfolio of bars. 

Lo-Profile, the club wlll now be taken over by Gaydar and stay open.  We reckon this is great news.  Big corporates running bars and clubs is fine when it's  tacky "Cheers" themed hell or a Planet Hollywood.  Their massive expansion into every corner, fuelled by the property boom pricing every smaller business out, was very damaging.  What comes next for Soho and the rest of the scene we don't know tho.

They say: QSoft Consulting Ltd, owners of the Gaydar brand and Vince Power Music Group (VPMG) have ended the joint venture that previously owned Profile and Lo-Profile. VPMG will continue to operate Profile Bar on Frith Street until April 30^th 2009 after which time it will cease trading as Profile. Lo-Profile, the nightclub at 84-86 Wardour Street, W1 – remains open and is now wholly owned by QSoft Consulting Ltd. Details of a new Gaydar venue will follow in a separate press release.

EMERALD CITY

Emerald City is a new weekly Thursday night event starting 30th Oct at Lo-Profile at 84-86 Wardour Street, Soho, W1F 0TQ. Dj's DJ Philly and Joshyou take you throught hte evening from 9pm-2am. Its in your gay London calendar.

FALLDOWN AT LO-PROFILE

Lo-Profile are welcoming Steve Pitron to their DJ lineup. Lo-Profile’s ‘Regulars’ on rotation include: Guy Williams, Alessandro, Luke Hope, Brent Nichols, Hugh Stevenson, Paul Heron, Ben Jamin, Mikey D and Jamie Head. Its at 84-86 Wardour Street, Soho, W1F 0TQ. Thursdays to Saturdays. Its in the gay London diary.

THE LOWDOWN ON LO-PROFILE

We checked out Lo-Profile in town.  Few points below and "continue reading" for more pics.

We liked...

> Location: Whilst we find Shallow Lounge a nice final pint stop, it makes for a “shirts on” kinda night.  We’re not mad on the Ghetto’s music or teenage theme either. All in all, it could be a good commercial addition if you’re going out in town.
> Layout: it’s an nicely sized dance floor that’s not barn like but with different places to mingle and move – “intimate”.
> Two bars: for an average sized venue there are two ok bars and one’s quite big which is encouraging.
> Some comfy (wipe-clean) seating: are we getting older?  Well, if you fancy sitting there’s a cool seating area.

We didn’t like...

> Lack of toilet cubicles: only two for men.  Fortunately, being in Westminster, the toilets will probably be patrolled regularly so it should keep moving…
> Coat-check: they gave us the wrong stuff and many had to go into the cupboard (it's really small) and physically identify and retrieve their stuff.  Launch night tho, so forgivable but we'll see.