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Beforegay venues in London came in two categories. And there were the small dives with postage stamp-sized dancefloors where young queens would boogie their tits off to the latest 7-inch soul, funk and proto-disco imports provided by DJs such as TalullahAKA Martin Allum, at Shanes in West Hampstead where the DJ frequently doubled up as cloakroom attendant and Chris Lucas at The Catacombs in Earls Court.

DJ Tricky Dicky was one of the first promoters to grasp the idea of the one-nighter — hiring out a pub or bar for the night, just to put on a gay night. With his pop and soul music reviews and disco chart in Gay NewsTricky Dicky received coverage from a gay press more interested in politics, cinema, theatre and opera than the commercial gay scene.

The venue also boasted its own lighting engineer, opening up the possibility of a string of dramatic lighting effects. That was also the year of the first commercially available inch single, perfect timing for a night such as Bang, offering improved audio quality and extended track length for a bigger and better dancing environment.

Bang was a major event on the scene. When I came back from New York the disco scene was peaking and it was easy to get more work. Plenty of venues retained their edginess, providing a more underground sound. Make-up artist and webzine publisher Kenny Campbell remembers dancing at the Sombrero. We were buzzing so much we walked all the way home to Tottenham!

The first time I went to the Sombrero I took a blue [amphetamine] and me and my friend danced the hustle so ferociously, that the whole dancefloor just stood round us and cheered. The Rainbow Disco, housed underneath the Rainbow Rooms in Manor House, was advertised in Gay News as playing all the best in American soul and funk, but also boasted disco music on the playlist.

Nightclubbing: Gay Clubbing in ’70s London

A more dressed-up, chic crowd could be found at Monkberrys, a cabaret and disco club in Mayfair where Grace Jones made her London debut appearance. Adams in Leicester Square was another West End gay club playing all the latest disco sounds. As well as playing the best in contemporary disco, Glades had a very sexually charged atmosphere — one American visitor at the time who had hitherto found the London scene unfriendly and somewhat dated was delighted to note that men at Glades danced with their tops off.

The Gay was at the forefront of the emerging London clone scene. But it took the arrival in of the Embassy Club in Bond Street to really bring an element of glamour to the gay disco scene. The Embassy was black for an upmarket, mostly gay clientele who wanted something less provincial and claustrophobic. The space was meant for dancing, offering less seating and more floor, and the soundsystem and lights were state of the art.

Norman was also behind the next major innovation — Heaven. It was somewhere visiting Americans and Europeans would flock to, club returning home singing the praises of the London scene. It would also last much longer than the New York and LA discos it was trying so marteens to emulate. The key figure on the decks was Ian Levinewho as resident DJ at the Blackpool Mecca had been at the heart of the Northern Soul scene, broadening its remit to embrace disco after witnessing New York gay clubs on trips Stateside hunting rare soul.

Levine was among the first on the gay scene to truly embrace mixing, keeping the tempo steady and putting paid to the Motown medleys commonplace at Bang, Copas or Scandals. Leather and uniform were in, flamboyance — unless you counted the drag shows held out in the bar — was definitely out.

The men got faster, mixing became essential and electronics replaced live instruments. With its strict overs, men-only policy, it also had a backroom for spunked-up clone-fests. By the s, the commercial gay scene was taking off and disco fell out of favour as electronic, hi-energy sound took hold.