Hamilton's Next Door Bar management are hopeful their beloved LGBT nightclub will reopen within weeks, following progress in negotiations with Hamilton City Council. The Council told owner Clive Brooker last October the bar and sex-on-site venue was not safe to be open for business. Brooker now claims his carried out the many necessary structural, electrical and plumbing repairs required. "The Council sent us a letter last week which for the first time didn't introduce any new work that needed doing," explains Next Door Bar DJ Mark Richardson. "We've responded to that with our standard ‘OK, we've done all that, can we open now?' and await their reply. With any luck, they will respond in the positive and we'll be open in a few weeks." The sex-on-site venue '10 High' won't be returning when the building is reopened, says Richardson. Instead, space at the Next Door Bar's nightclub area will be increased. The Next Door Bar served the Waikato LGBT community for 15 years, but since it's closure last October, the Hamilton gay scene has progressed. New nightclub ‘Venom' is proving popular, with locals saying the venue is ‘packed' each Saturday night. Dinner and cabaret venue ‘Glamz!' is open for social drinks most evenings, and ‘Guyz Sauna and Spa' on Victoria Street is well established for men to meet for sex. “We seem to have vanished altogether from the social map,” admits Richardson. “The odd email here and there is the extent of it now. "If I were the cynical type, I might think the Gay Goldfish Memory Syndrome has struck again! Still, if the locals have forgotten us, it means that when we open they'll think we're a brand new venue, not the old one returning." Ref: GayNZ.com (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 12th April 2007 - 12:00pm