More details have emerged about the sale and break up of FYEO as reported in last month´s column. The buyer of the 3 operating clubs, Bournemouth, Park Royal, and Newcastle plus Croydon is the Ladhar group a very diverse private group based in Wallsend encompassing pubs, nursing homes, restaurants etc. It is owned by brothers Baldev and Amarjit Ladhar who have no previous experience in table dancing but it is reported that FYEO Operations Director Glen Nicie and other key staff are staying on
They have announced ambitious expansion plans starting with the opening of a 2nd club in central Newcastle in the former Quay Club. Currently the application has been turned down by the city council but expect it to go through eventually after the usual wasteful appeals procedure! The long awaited Croydon club which has had a license for a couple of years but was delayed due to SFI´s problems should also open in the next few weeks.
The Southampton club has now been sold to a local businessman after several months of negotiation and will now presumably have to change it´s name at some point. The sale of the Mayfair club has not been completed yet but with people like DeJaVu and Crazy Horse known to be looking for Central London venues this plush and well located premises should be reasonably easy to sell at this time.As well as the 2nd FYEO an application for another central Newcastle table dancing club has been made by a club called Privilege in Westmoreland St.
The Platinum Bar Paul Street E1 has re-opened as reported last month but is now operating from the ground floor and basement rather than the upper floors as previously. The new management team seem committed to further expansion and seems to have the required licenses so this incarnation should be rather longer lived than it´s predecessor.
Another new London venue the Mermaid club in Woolwich also opened in October { Tuesday to Friday evenings} though this one has created some objections from people living in the same block. A further new London venue is the Earl Russell pub in Hounslow which has started having Rainbow girls on Fridays only to date. The Ealing club LA Confidential is having a pole dancing contest in November.
The Police raid on long established Hackney Rd club Images reported in last month´s column resulted in a £6,000 fine and £10,000 in costs against the club. Apparently some of the girls had offered undercover Policemen sexual services. Interestingly unlike in nearby Hackney Tower Hamlets does not have a sex encounter license system, what will happen when Images standard license comes up for renewal is anybodies guess.
News that the Arts council has given a £75,000 grant to a London based pole dancing training programme which incorporates amongst others lessons from Jo King´s { photo} London School of Striptease. Nice to see them not wasting public money for a change !
The Promises agency seems to be expanding it´s operations northwards out of London with 2 further new venues announced in August. Firstly there is Smiles { see www.smileuk.co.uk } Milton Keynes first club { now it has both a league football team and a lap dancing club perhaps they can finally get rid of those plastic cows !} which will have girls on Tuesday to Saturday from November 21st .
They have also opened Oxford´s 2nd venue the Abingdon Town Football club which now has girls on from Wednesday to Saturday. More distractions for the students ! On a more negative note M´n´A´s club in Aylesbury has now shut down completely though Promises still supplies girls to another club called Hampden´s in that town.
The agency Stilleto girls now has a web site www.stilletogirls.co.uk .
The person who likes to be known as Catman who originally started up London´s Sophisticat´s club has a new venture called the London School of Passion teaching seduction techniques at the Embassy club in central London.
A license application for Club Wicked next door to London Bridge station
{ see www.clubwicked.org } which is a private members club which wants to have everything up to and including full sex on stage was heard by Lambeth council this month. The actual application to be heard was for a more conventional non membership table dancing club called Champagne to be opened in the 12,000 sq ft basement complete with high class restaurant .The application hearing was adjourned but is expected to be approved in December despite objections from nearby Southwark Cathedral. The further application for the members only swingers/fetish club may take rather longer to be approved though such clubs are commonplace in much of the rest of Europe.
Blackburn´s first club the Velvet Lounge got council permission in July and actually opened during the month, a club by the same name has also opened in Yeoman Street Leicester. I don´t know if they are connected as yet. In Wakefield 2 clubs 20/20 in Market Street and Lounge Bar in Upper Kirkgate have just applied to start striptease but currently face a hostile council. Doubtless they will win the usual court appeals should they decide to take things that far.
Meanwhile in staid Weston Super Mare the town´s first lap dancing club the Sahara Lounge { opened by a local lottery winner as reported last year in this column} seems set to close as the large pub { Senorita´s} it is housed in has just been sold. Local fans of nude women should not despair however as a 2nd club called Vamps in the former Rock Follies club 40 to 42 the Boulevard has opened and after the usual appeal got a full nude license in the summer. To celebrate Vamps held a ” Dancer of the Year ” contest in September and October.
Tyke
Author: Saxon
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