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Events tagged with "Jester"

Gay Village

Birmingham's Gay Village stretches the length of Hurst Street and everything to the right towards Bristol Street. The top end of Hurst Street has been a focus of gay life since the 1970s with the Jester, Windmill and Thorp Street Nightingale all serv...

Memories tagged with "Jester"

80s alternative scene

Mark F talks about the gay scene when he came out in the early 80s "I realised I was gay and this was when I also decided to visit what Birmingham had to offer a young gay man, who liked alternate music and had a penchant for make-up and a slightly (...

80s and early 90s publications

"There were no other commercial or non commercial publications in Birmingham in the mid 1980s although the The Pink Paper started shortly after. Birmingham Friend and CHE had each produced newsletters as had the Metropolitan Community Church but thes...

Amazing Jester 1990s

“The Jester amazed me, I’d never been in a bar like that, it reminded me of the bar you get in railway station. It was ideal for cruising as you could see everybody in the bar from anywhere.”...

Beautiful Barmen

“The Jester had some beautiful barmen; it was a happy hunting ground for me.” jinks said that in those days “We weren’t restricted by the fear of AIDS - nowadays it is so slow…the lube…the shower.”...

Closure of Lesbian and Gay Centre, Aston, '86

“It was really sad when the Lesbian and Gay Community Centre closed down. It existed for about three to four years with major funding from the then West Midlands County Council and then we lost the funding. No one had much commercial acumen also no o...

Contrasting attitudes of Friend counsellors 1992

“I had spoken to a Friend counselor in a face-to face situation and he was very supportive. He just said 'Be careful because of your age.' I was nineteen, twenty at the time. 'Good Luck. I think you'll be alright.' He wasn't looking to sexually ex...

Different bars for different sorts of lesbians

During the eighties Mary visited various pubs and clubs in Birmingham including The Matador, where the old Bull Ring market was, which was quite a good gay venue, with a women's disco every Friday which attracted a broad spectrum of women. She, an...

Five Days of Fun, 1983

Editorial from the Gay Midlander, September 1983 reviewing the first Five Days of Fun."Last Friday, 26th September, saw the launch of a unique event in the annals of Gay entertainment. Gay commercial venues in Birmingham collaborate in the production...

Gay scene in the 90s

There was the Jester, Village, Route 66, Partners (then Enigma, which they later bought to become Glamourous Showbar). There were half a dozen bars, 2 -3 clubs, (before the days of Missing and DV8). “On my first trip to Nightingale, someone grabbed m...

Hundreds Join AIDS Vigil

This editorial from 'In The Pink', December 1989, reports the first World Aids Day Candlelight Vigil in Birmingham and also highlights the way some right wing politicians used the human tragedy of the AIDS crisis to further their ideology.HUNDREDS JO...

Impressions of the Scene 1986

Mike discussed his impressions of the differences between Manchester and Birmingham in terms of the things he would value. "Well both of the cities have changed an awful lot in the time since 1990, that's for sure but I think that Birmingham's change...

Massive change in Village since 1990

Mike described the change in the social side in Birmingham since 1990. He felt that there had been a "massive change", referring again to the "two gay basement bars (The Jester and one gay club (Nightingale)" around when he first arrived in 1987, alt...

Men only at the Gale was old-fashioned for '87

Mike also said: "One of the things that I did notice when I came here (late 80s) was that there was a real demarcation between where men socialised and where women socialised. Women tended to go to Partners whereas The Jester was almost exclusively m...

Only two bars to choose from

“When I first came out there were only two bars and the Nightingale, the bars were the Windmill and the Jester. I’d heard of the Jug too but never ventured down there.At that time, all the bars were downstairs, there were no windows, it was pretty gr...

People saw your feet first at the Jester

“At that time (1985) there was a pub and a club but not much else. The first time I went to The Jester as part of my tentative coming-out - I must only just have turned 19, it was an incredibly busy, circular basement bar. The first time you walk dow...

Pubs/Clubs at the time - 1992

"At that time a lot of pubs were still knock on the door. You could walk into Partners. The Jester was up Holloway Head, and is one of the oldest gay pubs in Birmingham; I think it's renamed now. There's a police station above it and it's opposite...

Teachers didn't need Clause 28 to be silenced!

During this period in the late eighties Mary, a teacher, was still paranoid about being found out by pupils, and said “You didn’t need Clause 28 to be silenced!” However she was spotted coming out of the Jester by some kids and it all blew up. T...

The Inge Street Taxi Rank

A typical night out for James would have involved a drink in The Jester, then onto The Windmill (now Partners) and finally onto The Gale. There was nowhere else to go afterwards so they would run the gauntlet getting a taxi to escort them safely out ...

The Jester, a First Trip to Birmingham

Mike described his impressions of Birmingham on his first visit in 1986 and focused on his first visit to a gay bar in Birmingham early one evening before getting the train back to Manchester. "It was The Jester which is on Horsefair, just by Bristol...

The scene in the seventies

Bridget said there wasn’t really a gay area 9around the mid to late 1970s), but places dotted over the city, the Grosvenor Hotel up Hagley Road, the Greyhound (Holloway Head) at Five Ways, the Matador in town, the Jester, mainly men, the Silver Web...

Tuesday was stripper night

“In my early twenties, (late 80s) the whole premise was going to The Jester and then round to The Nightingale . You got your cash from the Barclay cash machine outside The Jester. People would say ‘Are you going round the corner?’ (to The Gale). The...