'Out' and About

Having lived in Manchester for pretty much seven and a half years, i've been rather spoiled when it comes to the gay scene. As most people in the UK probably now (at least those that have seen 'Queer as Folk'), Manchester has its own gay village in the city centre - where there are approx. 20 bars and clubs (if not more). Well, after twelve weeks of living here in Charleston, I finally managed to make it out to the couple of gay places that they have here - Dudleys (bar) and Pantheon (club). This was mainly because i had managed to sort my experiments so that i didn't have to go in to work at all today (Sunday) and so could afford to be out late and not get out of bed till the afternoon. So, what was it like? Dudleys is a pleasant enough place - the staff are friendly and chatty, and someone perched at the bar (as i was), is talked to by most people coming up to get the drinks. As you'd expect, they were even more talkative once they found out i was English!

Pantheon is very much a dance club. That sort of music is not always my cup of tea but i found it okay. The club itself consists of a long enclosed bar in the middle with tables, chairs and booths on one side and the dance floor on the other. The crowd are very mixed in terms of age, sex and colour (as you'd expect, with it being the only real gay club here). If I had to draw a comparison to the style of the club, I'd say its like the lower two floors of Essential in Manchester (for those of you that have been there). The most annoying thing for me, though, was the fact that they had dancers ON THE BAR! It's bad enough trying to get served without having some guy in hot pants walking up and down in front of you. Whats worse is that some of these dancers seem to think that they are God's gift and that you should be honoured to have them dancing in front of you. I just had to resist the urge to empty a glass of iced water over them!