Following on from the success of Stringfellow´s in getting a full nude licence and then more recently Sophisticats getting a licence which allows girls to also strip fully while not actually on the stage, now FYEO Mayfair has obtained a full nude licence as of 7th October. Up to date since the time of the old Berkley it has been topless only and Westminster council has always previously opposed applications for full nudity. It appears that the council has at last given up on this particular point of arbitrary censorship, this may have been due to earlier defeats in court rather than any move towards sexual liberalism
As well as operating as a club FYEO Mayfair also runs regular courses on stripping and pole dancing both for prospective professional dancers and for other women who want to learn either as an exercise or to spice up their sex lives. Pole dancing has become increasingly popular amongst younger female celebs and in October Danni Minogue attended one of the classes.
Talking of FYEO apparently the quoted parent company {which is in big financial trouble} SFI Plc has withdrawn the chain from sale as it remains profitable and cash generative and they can´t get a good offer for it.
Raymond´s Review bar has also started operating as a table dancing club called Amazons after the 2 stage shows a night have finished. Again this falls under Westminster council who now seem to be bowing to the inevitable.
The dreaded 3ft rule also no longer applies to the Secret´s Hammersmith branch so maybe sanity is spreading through the London boroughs !
News came to me last month of a dancer being mugged between the Windmill and her car in the early hours of the morning. Her assailants were 3 black men who seem to have followed her from the club knowing she would have cash on her. This type of street crime in London tends to go in runs of copycat occurrences until someone is caught, lets hope this does not happen in this case.
The story on the sale of FYEO by SFI Plc that is emerging suggests that the Prudential as the largest single shareholder in the group has applied pressure on the Plc management there to get out of table dancing as a condition of supporting other expansion moves. There is a current story that the FYEO Park Royal club has been subject to a form of local management buy-out and that the other 4 branches may eventually follow a similar route.
It was reported in the press that Spearmint have been running a promotion based on text messages providing free invites to their clubs but this has had to be shut down as the company providing the service has gone bust. Also in another profile raising effort Spearmint have announced that they are sponsoring the High Wycombe hockey team { to be renamed the Rhino´s} which is local to the UK head office. It is also endorsing a new computer game based on pole dancing { see www.privatedancergame.com } to be launched in November and is reportedly setting up a centre for dancers in Sheffield where it is opening another new branch in the next few weeks.
While clubs in central London seem to have a had a relatively quiet summer { lack of US tourists after 9/11 and the downturn in the city of London have been regarded as the main reasons} the suburbs of London has seen a steady stream of club openings and reopening. In the last couple of weeks a club called Bar Provoke has announced that it is opening in Ilford and LAPD has opened up in Cheapside, Luton, a club called the Zen lounge wishes to open in posh Richmond, plus Rudolph´s of Tottenham which gave up on girls a few months ago is having another attempt on Friday evenings to introduce nude entertainment to that part of North London.
The growth of lap dancing clubs in the provinces is also continuing at a rapid pace, Sheffield´s Dancing Dollar has applied to open a sister club in my home town of Doncaster. There are known plans for 2 competitors { Spearmint and the Goodfella´s} to open in Sheffield itself and Leeds has also got a number of prospective club openings. In the South West and Wales there are plans for a new chain called The Gentleman´s club with first branches in Cardiff, Swansea, and Bristol due to open by early in the new year. There are also strong rumours that following on from the success of Spearmint other US chains are examining the UK market though their first moves are almost certain to be in London itself.
Tyke
Author: Saxon
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