Spearmint Rhino Tottenham Court Rd has now introduced fully nude stage dances into its product offer at this the companies UK flagship club. There has also been stories of management sackings at both the Colnbrook and Sheffield clubs in the last few weeks which seem to be part of a consolidation strategy as the previous rash of new club openings seems to have ended.
The rumoured take-over of the Windmill by US chain DeJaVu is apparently floundering; if it finally falls through its thought they will look elsewhere in London to open a 2nd European Hustler club. In addition it has been reported in the national press that Crazy Horse of Paris { who already have a show in Las Vegas} want to open one in London and are actively looking for venues.
The Clapham Grand´s move into striptease {as reported in January´s column} has ended as they have decided not to appeal against the council´s refusal of a license. The “Russian Bar´s “foray into striptease {reported in July} was even shorter lived and ended in August apparently after a visit from the local Police.
Out to the west of London the White Horse in High Wycombe seems to be continuing to expand its offer of striptease. The venue operated by Alistair Watts started as only 2 days a week but in August added Thursday lunchtimes and so is now open on Monday and then Wednesday to Saturday { surely it can´t be long now before Tuesday has striptease on as well !}Afternoons. It does both conventional striptease and table dancing and a lot of London´s top girls like Amazon, Lucy Gresty, and Vicki Holloway {see photo} regularly work there.
Meanwhile in Romford the club Trax { opposite the main railway station} has run the odd striptease nights over the last few months and now wants to convert the upstairs of the club to a permanent table dancing operation. The local council {as usual} are set against this move and doubtless this will have to go appeal before being eventually passed making for a further complete waste of ratepayer´s and Trax´s money.
While out in deepest Essex it seems that Rainbow has another new venue called ” The Village ” on the Barking Road, it is thought to be Sunday evenings only at present.
The agency Entertease ran a very successful lap dancing marquee at the annual and super popular ” Bulldog Bash ” bikers gathering at Long Marston drag strip early in the month.
Sam Kirli {photo} has started a new venture based in North London teaching pole dancing as both an exercise and form of theatre. The web site iswww.shakenswing.co.uk .
There seems to have been a rash of retirements from the London strip scene over the past few months and several more took place in August. As well as Varona´s return to Argentina long time Brown´s girls Gia and Russian Sam left the scene though the very sexy Alex { photo}is now planning to continue working until early in 2004. This comes on top of the retirement of a number of well known stag circuit and model girls like Lynda Leigh, Sophie Fairchild, and Alison Brown {photo} as reported in this column over the last few months.
The 2nd La Stanza club in Halifax opened on the 1st of August to some local controversy caused by the décor outside which features the silhouettes of naked girls on the windows. There is a web site www.clublasalsa.co.ukcovering both this and the original Huddersfield club. In the already well served by clubs West Midlands conurbation Dudley town centre now has a first table dancing venue called Millers.
Lap dancing for lesbians is becoming more popular and now the Candy Club {see www.thecandyclub.co.uk for full list of events} is organising regular sessions both in London and Brighton.
Striptease is still a very live issue in Edinburgh at the moment, firstly the club near Princess street reported last month is now to open soon as the Fantasy Palace, and secondly a new strip pub has emerged called Big Daddy O´s Showbar in Lothian road which it has emerged does not need a special license from the council to operate. The Lothian Road/Tollgate area apparently now has no less than 5 strip bars {Bottoms Up, Hooters, Western Bar, Burke and Hare being the others} and 1 club so must now be overtaking even Shoreditch in terms of density. Various councillors have been spluttering in impotent rage in the press but all they have managed to do so far is to make the long established Hooters bar { photo} take down a neon sign it had no planning permission for !
A new TV serial called “Divas “about a lap dancing club and staring Samantha Janus is apparently being filmed in Liverpool at the moment. No news yet on when it will be screened. Let´s hope the lovely Samantha {photo} is playing a dancer in this one with lots of naked on stage scenes!
Tyke
Author: Saxon
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