Bad Reputation, London club night
Sick of shiny, crass Candy Bar, straight-packed GAY-Late and vapid scene queens who think they’re the dog’s bollocks with bells on? Hey Londoner, you got yourself a jammy new queer hang out to play in! Pull yourself up to Bethnal Green in East London to the next Bad Reputation evening.
So 285 Poyser Street may seem like a dark alleyway you don’t want to walk down at any time of day, let alone 11pm on a Saturday night, after slurping down a horrendous yet vibrant combination of Dr Pepper and gin… But, I’ll tell you now, it’s totally worth the initial pee-your-pants moment where you feel lost and confused and want to go home.
When you finally locate the place, head through the obscure side-door, under the murky railway bridge, pay three quid to the bouncy door-girl, and enter into riot grrrl paradise.
If listening to Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, L7, Babes in Toyland, Hole, The Raincoats and more rocks your rainbow coloured boat, this truly is heaven.
Perhaps I don’t get out enough, and do actually spend far too much time in Soho, but this was the only place I’ve ever heard the clit-rocking music I spent my teens listening to blare out into a room full of like-minded homos and hipster types and the occasional Rollergirl.
I proudly admit that when Veruca Salt’s 90s archetypal chick rock tune ‘Seether’ came on, that’s was the point my friend and I actually peed our pants. Glorious.
I was sold on what Bad Reputation professed online: “We are a diy dance party for queers, grrrrls, punx and geeks. We are a disco for bedroom dancers. Let’s be awesome and awkward in public together! We party hard each month at Resistance Gallery, Bethnal Green with djs playing indie punk pop riot grrrl queerxcore hip hop r’n'b rock emo party hits.”
What is depressing is that there is simply not enough of this stuff in London, but when it does appear once in a blue moon, it is worth grabbing with both hands.
When the night closed with Joan Jett’s ‘Bad Reputation’, I squealed. I care not for the geekiness of this. That opening riff, played to the beat of dozens of nerdy gay girls dancing awkwardly and gloriously in 2012, was outstanding.
