The risqué burlesque style New York cabaret “The Box” which has been a big hit with trendies over the pond for the last couple of years is opening a London branch at the old Raymond’s Reviewbar site in Soho which has had a variety of uses since it closed as a strip venue in 2003.

Talking of burlesque a club called the “Baby Bathhouse” is opening in Stoke Newington featuring burlesque style strip shows despite the Hackney council’s vendetta on naked women, not sure how this fits in with the “nil” policy.The idiotic new sex encounter laws also don’t seem to cover massage parlours, gay saunas, or indeed swingers clubs like “Libertease” which has just opened in Clifton, Bristol see
The stupidity of the new law and Hackney’s inept handling of it received comment in the “Rotten Boroughs” {Hackney features regularly} section of Private Eye.
More information on the total stupidity of Hackney’s crackdown emerged when FOI statistics showed that in the are the biggest number of police call outs in 2010 in that area were to Club Aquarium {156} closely followed by the Hoxton Pony {114} and 333 Club {88} whereas Browns {11} and the White Horse {9} were at the bottom of the list.

Leicester council’s licensing committee has recommended a maximum of 3 licenses be granted in the city, this will create an interesting position are there are currently 5 operating

. I forecast more pointless spending on lawyers. It also highlights the fact that most clubs are making truly pathetic efforts in response to this law, Leicester got just 80 responses and majority of which apparently wanted no clubs meaning that the 5 clubs managed to get rather less than 40 positive responses between them, this something of a contrast to the 4 strip pubs in Hackney which received 1,700 supportive responses in their public consultation.

As far as I am aware only the Hackney public consultation has received much over 100 responses in total so if any club gets all it’s staff, dancers, a few customers, and related businesses to respond positively it will almost certainly out vote the antis.

It looks like the “Piano Lounge” in Twickenham is finished as a strip venue as that council has decided on a “nil” policy for the borough.

The boss of Spearmint Rhino in the UK American John Specht has stated that business recently has recovered as the banks have started paying bonuses again. Apparently the chain made a £1.6m loss in 2009 but has since recovered.

The charges for the new licenses are also being set, these seem to consist of a 1 off charge to set up the new license {normally about twice the annual fee}then an annual fee, here are a few of the annual fees which have been set so far,
£
Cambridge 725
Liverpool 1,500
Newcastle 2,000
Leicester 3,000
Weymouth 3,500
Stoke 6,000
Birmingham 10,000
Hammersmith 17,000
Nice to see such consistency across the country !

Newquay looks like having a lap dance club after all this summer with a new club called “Angels” opening in the Tall Trees complex which has hosted strip clubs before but had been shut for a considerable period.

The new “Mist” club in Hounslow which only opened just before Christmas is up for sale

. The “Vogue” club in Watford has closed and will re-open as a live music venue in the spring. An attempt to open a 1st club in Romford called “Bentley’s” has been turned down by the council on the usual ridiculous “crime, noise, sexual assaults” grounds.

Reza Shasavar who owns the “La Salsa” clubs in Huddersfield and Halifax plus other late night bars has been charged for immigration offenses and money laundering. The Huddersfield club has been closed for several months after an under aged Romanian girl was found to be working there but Halifax one remains open as I write this.

Dita Von Tease {right} appears in the current Renault TV advert. Foxies of Swindon celebrates it’s 10th anniversary on the 15th of March.
The former “Goodfellas” lap dancing club in Sheffield was converted into a conventional club called “Fontannas” and this has been closed down by the Police for continued violence.

Tyke

Wheelchair burlesque aims to strip down stigma, sex up disability

Burlesque performer Suzie Malone

The 7th annual 2013 London Burlesque Festival has been scheduled to run from May

Author: Saxon

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