The expansion of strip venues in London goes on at a considerable pace , near the new Spearmint { due to open itself early in the new year} in Vauxhall a large club and live music venue, the Clapham Grand in St John´s Hill , Wandsworth has started putting on strip shows on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. If this is a success I would expect the number of nights to rapidly expand, by all accounts it´s a substantial place with considerable potential.
A new luxury river cruiser called Ocean Nights { see www.oceannights.comthough not much there when I looked !}has started doing regular lap dancing cruises on the Thames featuring top models as well as some of the better pub/club girls. News has also reached me that Peter Stringfellow has acquired the old Rialto Cinema in Coventry St , Soho with the intention of converting it into a 2nd London table dancing club by the summer. Out in the suburbs a small chain of strip pubs called ” The Honeypot ” has developed over the last 12 months unnoticed until now by me with branches in Slough, Maidenhead, and Reading offering a mix of strip shows and topless barmaids. Reports coming to me though suggest that a customer would be better off at some of the long established pub venues like the Woolpack or Flags in that area.
After all this expansion and the downturn in the city it is inevitable that not all clubs will survive. The Platinium Bar closed in the middle of January due to license problems, the current story is that it will re-open in 4 weeks {possibly as a member´s only club} though whether this actually happens remains to be seen. Even more short lived was the La Stanza club in Stratford which ventured into lap dancing in December and has not survived the Christmas period !
Outside London a similar expansion is occurring though in Halifax an attempt to open that town´s first club La Salsa was turned down by the council. The owner who goes by the fine old Yorkshire name of Fernando Etesarni already has a club of the same name in Huddersfield and is appealing the decision and has got the local Conservative councillor to actually testify on his behalf.
Peter Stringfellow has applied to have the license of his flagship London club { which only got a full nude license last year} altered to allow some limited physical contact between dancer and customer. This could represent a sensible and significant liberalising of UK practise regarding lap dancing and remove the excuse for some of the ludicrous and pointlessly expensive council/Police undercover operations we have seen. Westminster council operating at the warp speed for which they are famous have promised him an answer in 6 months!
Ex String fellow´s dancer Lucy Carr {see www.lucycarr.com } released her first during on the 13th of the month called ” Missing You “. The record is being promoted by Peter Stringfellow´s new record company and has already achieved considerable airplay. The have been a few dancers who have had some success in the pop industry { the amazing Roxanne played keyboards on ” The only way is up ” by Yazz which reached number 1 in the 80s and Camille had some chart success in US with the band Peaches in the 90s }, lets hope Lucy does even better.
Cable TV channel Bravo has started a series of programmes about the activities of Spearmint Rhino in England. Spearmint are also having a “table dancer of the year “contest with a £10,000 first prize. Heats are at Tottenham Court Rd on the 12th of Feb and SR Extreme in Birmingham on the 19th of Feb. The final is at SR Extreme on the 5th of March.
The annual ” Miss Shoreditch ” competition where on line fans from the London strip message board { see [email protected] } vote for their favourite East End dancer ran for the 4th time during the month. At the time of writing this column a Brazilian girl called Carla from the now defunct Platinium Bar is in the lead.
The Promises agency {see www.promises-agency.co.uk} has started a new internet strip site called “Strip Idols ” featuring videos of regular girls Max, Hope Taylor, Morgan Tyler, Charlie, and Crystal . Talking about Morgan Tyler she is also appearing on a C4 programme about the band “Ash” on the 14th of Feb.
Agency Lap Dance Ireland are recruiting for yet another new Spearmint Rhino {see strip magazine´s message board} to be opened shortly in Dublin. With 9 clubs already operating and Peter Stringfellow reportedly also looking to open in “fair city ” { see last month´s gossip} it must now have the greatest density of lap dancing establishments for it´s size of anywhere in the world.
Tyke
Author: Saxon
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