www.list.co.uk/LGBT Events are listed by date, then city. Submit listings at least 14 days before publication to gay@list.co.uk. Listings are compiled by Laura Ennor. ✽✽ Indicates Hitlist entry
Thursday 16
Glasgow FREE Laid Back The Polo Lounge, 84 Wilson Street, 0845 659 5905. 9pm–3am. DJ Suave Gav presents a party that’s anything but laid-back. Edinburgh FREE LGBT Age Christmas Gathering LGBT Centre for Health & Wellbeing, 9 Howe Street, 523 1100. 6–9pm. Christmas social for members of the LGBT community who are aged 50+, with mince pies and festive tunes. FREE Pop du Jour CC Blooms, 23–24 Greenside Place, 556 9331. 8pm–3am. Cheesy dancefloor glue from DJ Paton. FREE Packed with JT GHQ, 4 Picardy Place, 0845 166 6024. 11pm–3am. Start the weekend early with DJ JT.
Traffic light party with DJ Dale Lush. Wednesday 22
Edinburgh FREE Icebreakers The Regent Bar, 2 Montrose Terrace, 661 8198. 7.30–9pm. Social group for people who want to make new friends in LGBT company.
Thursday 23 Glasgow FREE Pour Homme, Pour Femme, Pour Queens FHQ, 10 John Street, 0845 166 6037. 9pm–4am. DJ Shawn Roberts, free entry and a whole lotta tunes.
Edinburgh FREE Packed with JT GHQ, 4 Picardy Place, 0845 166 6024. 11pm–3am. See Thu 16. Friday 24
Glasgow POP Junkie The Polo Lounge, 84 Wilson Street, 0845 659 5905. 11pm–3am. Free before 11pm; £5 (£3 students) after. See Fri 17.
Friday 17 Saturday 25
Glasgow POP Junkie The Polo Lounge, 84 Wilson Street, 0845 659 5905. 11pm–3am. Free before 11pm; £5 (students £3) after. DJs Steven and Suave Gav inject your ears with pop sounds. Edinburgh Bears Night Studio 24, 24–26 Calton Road, 558 3758. 11pm–3am. £5 (£4). A gay only night for bears, cubs and their admirers.
Saturday 18
Glasgow Death Disco The Arches, 30 Midland Street, 565 1000. 11pm–3am. £14 (£7 with a voucher from the Death Disco online mailing list). December’s Christmas edition guest stars Burns, Unicorn Kid and a very special headliner in the shape of Zombie Nation. See preview, right. Edinburgh FREE T-Time LGBT Centre for Health & Wellbeing, 9 Howe Street, 523 1100. 1–5pm. Monthly informal event for transgender people and their partners, family and friends.
Sunday 19 Glasgow Weekends With a Bang! The Polo Lounge, 84 Wilson Street, 0845 659 5905. 9pm–3am. Free before 11pm; £5 (£3 students) after. An explosive end to the week.
Monday 20
Edinburgh FREE LGBT Centre Drop-in LGBT Centre for Health & Wellbeing, 9 Howe Street, 523 1100. 5.30–8pm. Weekly, informal drop-in service. FREE The Listening Group LGBT Centre for Health & Wellbeing, 9 Howe Street, 523 1100. 6.30–7.30pm. A space for reflection and the opportunity to talk about what’s going on in your life with a UKCP registered counsellor.
Tuesday 21 Glasgow FREE Ipop The Polo Lounge, 84 Wilson Street, 0845 659 5905. 5pm–3am. Start the weekend very early with DJ Devine.
Edinburgh Taste: Escape Xmas Party The Liquid Room, 9c Victoria Street, 225 2564. 10.30pm–5am. £10. The annual Taste Christmas escape route is back where it belongs at the Liquid Room once again providing the ideal festive get out clause to escape dull relatives and TV re-runs. Fisher and Price plus guests provide the tunes to dance off that turkey at this hedonistic dancefloor rammy.
Sunday 26
Glasgow Orderly Disorder vs Lock Up Your Daughters The Flying Duck, 142 Renfield St, 564 1450. 11pm–3am. £tbc. Two of the Flying Duck’s regulars team up for a Boxing Day bash. Edinburgh Tackno The Voodoo Rooms, 19a West Register Street, 556 7060. 10.30pm–3am. £6 in advance; £8 on the door. A Christmas cracker full of treats for ski bunnies and board boys as Trendy Wendy’s kitsch club hosts a ‘Winter Sports Spectacular’.
Friday 31
Glasgow The Big Bang The Polo Lounge, 84 Wilson Street, 0845 659 5905. 11pm–4am. £tbc. Big ol’ Hogmanay party as part of the Polo Lounge’s ‘12 Gays of Christmas’. Ho ho ho indeed. Edinburgh FREE CC Blooms Hogmanay CC Blooms, 23–24 Greenside Place, 556 9331. 9pm–5am. The party never stops at CCs (in fact they’re open right through Christmas and New Year), with all the usual madness on Hogmanay including a £1000 balloon drop on the bells.
Sunday 2
Glasgow Weekends With a Bang! The Polo Lounge, 84 Wilson Street, 0845 659 5905. 9pm–4am. Free before 11pm; £5 (£3 students) after. Recovered from that Hogmanay hangover yet? Good, because it’s time to get your dancing shoes on again. DJ Leah on the ones and twos and a 4am licence. Wednesday 5
Edinburgh FREE Love Traffic GHQ, 4 Picardy Place, 0845 166 6024. 11pm–3am. Glasgow Gay as F**k Play, 7 Renfield Street, 0845 166 6029. 11pm–3am. Free before
LGBT
PREVIEW CLUB NIGHT DEATH DISCO’S XXXMAS PARTY Arches, Glasgow, Sat 18 Dec
Christmas is a tricky one. Sure, it’s a time for giving, good will and generally being merry, but it can feel strangely moot when one is no longer a wean oneself or has no weans to fawn over, making the season (allegedly) cuter and more socially acceptable. Thankfully, the clubs are providing plenty of alternative places to
roast your chestnuts if you are in the midst of an un-kiddie-lumbered December. Both Taste and Lock Up Your Daughters are putting on mulled wine-fuelled activities, as well as Club Noir’s annual festive bonanza. Yet, the undeniable queen of Alterna-Crimbo (TM) for the last few years has definitely been Death Disco. Niall Walker, design and marketing manager at the Arches and the
brains behind Death Disco’s promotion, agrees that a quirky, alternative take on Christmas has become more popular in recent times.
‘The XXXmas party is a bit of an institution and is really popular with die-hard, long-standing fans of Death Disco,’ Walker says of the club night which turned eight this year. ‘It’s like one massive house party filled with gorgeous, sparkly, glittering creatures – including, this year, the UK’s top same-sex ballroom dancing champions, one of whom is dressed as a human disco ball, performing on the dancefloor.’ Walker believes Death Disco has become an institution for the LGBT
community because of its consistent and open-minded attitude.
‘We encourage individuality, alternative fashion and forward-thinking
music and visuals, which appeals to a sector of the LGBT community who want more than what is offered by generic, mainstream gay nightclubs.’
This left-field take on the conventional club night involves balancing cutting-edge acts with massive electro names: this year’s XXXmas features Zombie Nation, Burns, Unicorn Kid, Hush Puppy, Josh Jones, Mingo-Go and Wavy Graves. That’s more of a mouthful than an overcooked Christmas turducken . . . (Lauren Mayberry) ■ www.deathdisco.info
midnight; £3 after. With DJs Darren and Michael.
Thursday 6 Glasgow FREE Pour Homme, Pour Femme, Pour Queens FHQ, 10 John Street, 0845 166 6037. 9pm–3am. See Thu 23.
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16 Dec 2010 – 6 Jan 2011 THE LIST 79