This is prelude to tomorrow's post that comes with pictures and less verbiage.
There is a song I vaguely remember with lyrics something like 'Gay bar, gay bar. I wanna go to a gay bar'. We no longer have any great desire to go to a gay bar, two lonely old men with no friends. Note to self. In next life have younger friends not older friends.
Aside from in (insert place name drop) New York and Sydney, we haven't been to a gay bar for over twenty years, I think.
What gay bars are there in Melbourne now, a city of 5 million people? Well, very few. DT's, Sircuit, Laird O'Cock Pen and The Peel. There were many more. I modern times gays integrate with straights and go to the same venues.
In the 80's gay entrepreneur Ken Payne owned and ran the mega successful Mandate bar in St Kilda. At some point it changed its name to something I can't remember. Eventually the late night bar closed for reasons unknown to me. But people nagged Ken about missing Mandate and he went on to open Precinct 3182, the number being St Kilda's post code. There was a stand alone pub, a movie theatre, another bar, a cruise area including a train carriage and a sauna. All those people who nagged Ken made a single appearance and never returned, because they were older and past such things. Precinct 3182 did not attract enough people and slowly closed down, although the pub lingered on for longer. Ken must have lost a fortune.
So, I've put that on the record. Since then many Melbourne gay bars have closed. People hook up via the internet now, not by meeting in a pub with flirtatious glances.
One venue that opened in the 1990s has survived and has made a soft reopening after you know what. It was our Hairdresser Friend's birthday and she expressed an interest in seeing a drag show. We haven't seen her since last year as she has been at at mother's in northern Victoria as her mother had a toe amputated. Hairdresser is back in her beloved St Kilda now, but her mother now needs another toe cut off, so she will probably have to return.
We worked on where to take our friend for her birthday and booked to see a drag show at DTs. I don't do late nights now, and 5pm to 9pm suited me fine. The show did not begin until 6pm as I thought. 6pm was lock out time. There were a whole 22 of us there to see the show, such as COVID restrictions allow.
Our friend works at a salon in Chapel Street so we would meet her on a tram at the corner of Chapel Street and Toorak road to go to the Church Street venue. It was a stressful nightmare for me to get this right, but I did. She texted, I've got seats for you. Then she texted, some old codger has sat in one of your seats. I replied, Kick the old **** out of the seat.
We caught trams home too and it all worked so well. I can't see us going out to a gay bar again soon, but I am pleased we made the effort and well done DTs and its terrific staff.
I know drag is not to everyone's taste and some women find it offensive, but I just see it as fun and I don't connect drag queens to real women, and I'm sure I've heard drag queens say, 'Some of my best friends are straight women'.