Excerpt from 'Strange Trees' - a an art book based on the goings on at Club Brenda.

I can't remember who did the photographs. Divine David, Savage Wolf and others performed on this night.

Rod Connelly writes:

"Queen Bitch indeed...

Grace Jones was playing at the Apollo around this time so we thought we'd share our love for her by the honour of a bollox poster. the gays love a good bitch.

The poster says there was a human action for the Lesbian and Gay Foundation - I have no recollection about this whatsoever?!

We held a Bollox vs Club Brenda night on the same evening she played the Apollo and sold it out in about an hour... it seemed that everyone had marched down Brunswick Street after the show and headed to us. Although packed, the night was too busy and had that uncomfortable stop-bumping-into-me-and-spilling-drinks-down- top-please edge to it."

DJ/promoter Rod 'Bollox' Connelly with happy punter.

This is the very first flyer designed by Louise Cowley (who also DJ'ed the events as Pirate Monkey) for my first clubnight - Eager Beaver (Formerly Save A Tree....Eat The Beaver). An idea by Vicky Jones, General Manager at Manto which was to offer something different instead of the usual pop and dance being played throughout Canal Street. Launched in April 2009, on an unsuspecting dance crowd at Manto, Eager Beaver, I'm proud to say was the first and only weekly indie/alternative/electropop and rock night for women based on Canal Street and ran for a year upstairs in Manto's Lounge, despite the venue being known for dance music.
Vicky even walked up and down Canal Street in a beaver suit handing out flyers to the Village regulars sat outside and to those walking down the street! Later Eager Beaver became a mixed gay night called INDIElicious but still playing alternative music for those wanting something different from regular Canal Street venues.

Eager Beaver also featured the Bands:

Shoshin
Sideshow Lost
Geek Girl
And comedian compare Jordy

A poster for Brenda vs Bollox - a night of mayhem organised by the two leading lights of alt-gay clubbing in Manchester. Blink was below Affleck's Palace and is now Black Dog Ballroom - owned by Ross McKenzie.

Rod Connelly writes:

"Coming out of the mouth of one of our favourite icons... Divine.

It's funny looking back at this, I think i was trying to be more descriptive with the music policy by listing some of the artists you'd hear - quite a nice mix on this one - interesting to see Pop Levi on there, must have been when he had the iPod track out."

Terrorist was a night that took place at variety of venues and was promoted by Kev Beard. This night was the first birthday party and was held at the Number 1 Club, now known as One Central.

Special Guests-
English Electric (live)
Tim Hamblin
Wes Baggaley
Chris Brown

Resident Terrorists-
Kev Beard
Afi Khan
James Sizen Bell

Photo by Rachel Adams (c) 2010.

Joyce Edwards (born 1925) opened the Gaslight Club, a women-only disco in Ashton in 1973. The club was very popular and provided a safe space for women from a variety of backgrounds, most of whom were not out in their day to day lives.

The club employed female DJs who played chart hits from the day. The most requested tune around this time was 'When Will I see You Again?' by The Three Degrees.

Manchester-based Gerry Potter-Poet used to be known as transvestite-poet Chloe Poems. He retired the Chloe character and decided to experiment with his own voice. Here is a fantastic poem about that voice...

A video in which Flesh promoter Paul Cons explains why he's bringing the legendary club back for Manchester Pride 2010.

A portrait of DJ and promoter Claud Cunningham by Rachel Adams for The Modern Lesbian project.

The text below is by Andy Brydon and is taken from the Curated Place/TML website:

"Claud Cunningham is one of the few people on the gay scene in Manchester to actively seek to provide a space that embraced racial diversity rather than relying on stereotyped images and aesthetics that guarantee profits but whitewash the scene.

Beginning at Vanilla in 2000, long before it became acceptable to play contemporary black music in a gay venue, Black Angel introduced R&B, Soul and even Bhangra to the Village. While the relationship with Vanilla was short-lived the night went from strength to strength gaining a reputation for being friendly, safe and truly diverse, eventually gathering up a string of imitators along the way."

Manchester Lesbian and gay Chorus lift the roof off the Victoria Baths.

Carole Truman, one of the founder members of the choir talks about its inception and acheivements.

Taken from The Drum website:

Manchester design agency True North has created a new identity for the Queer Up North arts and culture festival.

The event is now in its 18th year and the brief was to increase awareness among an audience looking for challenging and innovative performance regardless of sexuality.

True North said it wanted to demonstrate "that ‘Queer’ is not just about sexuality but that the festival itself is ‘queer’, i.e. different, unusual, provocative, something out of the ordinary".

Senior designer Matt Maurer said: "The expression ‘Q’ has been adopted as a shorthand for queer, so we felt confident that the gay audience would embrace it and we could also communicate the diversity and quality of the festival to a new audience and avoid any stereotypes based on sexuality.

"To capture the breadth of events and range of experiences, we have developed our own ‘alphabet’ of Qs which will allow us to get loads of personality into the festival’s comms and promotion.”

David Hoyle relaxing pre-Club Brenda performance at the Deaf Institute.

Photo by Lee Baxter.

The blurb for this Brenda meets Queer Up North event reads:

Coming together on Saturday 22nd May are the indisputable talents of the performance art provocateur Ursula Martinez; gloriously brash femme punk band hooker and Australian circus icon Jess Love, with local legend , David Hoyle hosting the proceedings for a night of fantastic music and subversive art thrills.

I wrote the blurb for this event:

"On the glorious occasion of Pride 2010, Brenda will be dragging her tail feathers across the dancefloor of Kraak, the new gallery/cub space on Stevenson Square.

And who better to preside over this ramshackle bacchanal than Mr David Hoyle, who will be presenting the next instalment of ‘KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY’ - a series of six shows in which David and a special guest commentator explore 'notions of Truth, Honesty, Justice and The Authentique!' through a unique format of ribald and surreal debate.

As his guest, David has chosen his old sparring partner, the unforgettable Gerry Potter Poet, once Chloe Poems, always a true legend.

DO NOT MISS THIS DEBUT SHOW BY TWO CLUB BRENDA ORIGINALS!

Enlivened, as always, by musical mayhem from DJs Jayne Compton, Debbie Jump, and Elvis."

Homo Electric promoter, occasional DJ and full-time legend Owain Richards with his bezzie, Gaynor Campbell. Owain is a huge fan of Roisin Murphy, who did a DJ/vocal set on this night.

Photo by Elisabeth Kurtis.

Homo Electric resident Mr. Jamie Bull.

Jamie is a DJ and Producer, with a residency at Homo Electric in. He spends his time between working in London and Manchester. He consumes Disco for emotional well-being. In addition, he has a background in radio, working at dance radio network Galaxy FM for over a decade. He eventually became the producer and resident spinner for their Galaxy Anthems show helping ravers in semi-retirement to relive those hands in the air moments once again. He'll be playing at a decent discotheque near you soon.

Photo by Elisabeth Kurtis.

Roisin Murphy rocks a packed main room at Homo Electric.

Photo by Elisabeth Kurtis.

Ste McCabe writes:

This was an anti homophobia Queer Punx Unite gig that was put on by Trash-O-Rama in October 2010 at Retro Bar.

The purpose of the gig was to show that queer artists flourished in all genres of music - even punk - and shouldn`t be pigeon holed!

It brought together local queer pop punk pioneer Ste McCabe and Londons anarcho punk and homophobia fighters The Restarts. Support also came from local queer performance art musical maestros Will n Rick!

Uniting punks and queers from all walks of life a great night was had by all - the venue was rammed all night and I don`t think 1 drink was spilt - Andy from Retro Bar might disagree though. All parties concerned got on swimmingly - which was a beautiful experience for us as promoters and enabled The Restarts to gain further gigs at anti Homophobia events - this was what we believe to be the first of its kind in Manchester.