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Memories by Chrissy Darling

Gay clubs open seven nights a week

“A friend, Andrew, and me moved down; we were flabbergasted that we were in a city where gay club and bars were open seven nights a week, I was a teenager but underage, over age meant nothing then. I was going out from the age of fifteen.”...

Fantastic Grosvenor House

“When I moved to Birmingham (1980) a whole group of us would go out, there was a club on the Hagley Road, a hotel - The Grosvenor House Hotel. Noelle Gordon from Crossroads used to be slung up in the bar and it had a swimming pool. It was absolutely ...

Small minded scene in the 80s

“You had to fit into this mould of ‘don’t be a punk, don’t be new wave. They did not like it, as long as you were a middle of the road gay boy and liked ‘gay’ music you were OK. They liked Hazel Dean Searching Looking for Love (Hi Energy Music)”....

Superstar DJ

“The DJ at the time was Funky Duncan, who was great. He was a great character, in fact he was one of the superstar DJs of the time”....

Patty Bell

“The Rum Runner was on Broad Street and it was the headquarters for Duran Duran. It was a really ultra trendy club with people travelling from London to go to it. You would have Patty Bell, a clothes designer, who makes fantastic clothes and who was ...

Wednesday nights at the Powerhouse

“There was a club called the Power House on a Wednesday night in about 1981/82. The Power House took over from the Rum Runner but was more general, you had the Punks, gay people, New Wave people, everybody was there, Ska Boys doing two tone dancing. ...

Race and gender did not matter

Chrissy states that at the Powerhouse ethnicity and gender did not matter; there were black and Asian punks, everybody just mixing together. “It did not matter if you were straight or gay. Everybody mingled in; it was like a golden era that I don’t t...

Black Pat, you had to love him

Chrissy talks about Black Pat (Patrick Edwards) who was involved at the time. “Black Pat passed away a few years ago (October 2006). He was the funniest person God ever put on this earth and the toughest, he was the kind of person although sometimes ...

Getting into Thorp Street

“A group of us used to go the Nightingale, it was open seven nights a week. You would turn up, there was a shutter on the door, they would open the shutter and look at you ‘hiya’, if they knew you they would let you in, if they didn’t they would not ...

Patty Bell led the way

“The shop on Hurst Street, its been pulled down to make way for the Arcadian Centre, (its owner - Patty Bell) was the high priestess. She was as good as Vivienne Westwood if not better. Twiggy used to work at the shop; Gay John was influenced b...

Abuse in the street

Chrissy talks about homophobia he has experienced whilst dressed up on the door of clubs – “If I had a pound for every time I’ve been shouted at by people walking past, ‘You’re going to hell’, and other abuse, and these are people who are drunk with ...