In an emotional week for London's gay scene, one of the city's most iconic nightclub venues has closed, and its biggest gay retailer has gone into receivership. Spice Girl: Geri Halliwell at G.A.Y. in 2000 The Astoria venue, home to the G-A-Y nights featuring legendary live entertainers for the past 15 years, closed with a big 'demolition party' on Wednesday night. The huge former theatre will be bulldozed to make way for a new central London transport centre. The G-A-Y night had hosted live performances by many combinations of boy bands and girl bands, along with much-loved solo acts like Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Gabrielle, Hillary Duff and Christina Aguilera. The G-A-Y brand's owner has bought Heaven nightclub and plans to continue running weekly gay nights featuring well-known live acts from the UK pop charts. Meanwhile, CloneZone, London's LGBT-friendly Soho area's largest gay retailer - specializing in books, magazines, sex toys, fashion and accessories - has officially gone into receivership, reports PinkNews.co.uk. The managers of the CloneZone chain of stores would not comment on the details, but it is believed the business has been in financial difficulties for several months. No date for the closure of the stores have been set as yet, but the outlets and CloneZone website have begun a sale with large discounts to clear stock.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Friday, 16th January 2009 - 11:25pm