Cruising at the Powerhouse
1982
"The Powerhouse was more accepting, opposite was the Copacobana and there was another one on the other corner, that whole cross roads, it was Milllionaires, then Steptoes, then Pagoda Park, and both of those places did gay nights, but they were unsuccessful and they were run by the people who used to run Cruising at the Powerhouse. That's when places started doing one nighters, basically all I've done is clubs for the last twenty years, I'm not so concerned about where they are or who's running them, I just do my stuff, get my money and go home. I've always gone to openings, find out what it's like, give it a couple of weeks, obviously if I'm not working there, I don't go back, but I've always gone to find out what something's like, 'cos everything gets stale after a while, so yes, the Powerhouse was the main one".
A description of the Power House
"The Powerhouse was huge, a massive venue, you walked down a flight of really steep stairs which was always a nightmare getting back up at 50p a pint! Previously I'd been to the Rum Runner, these were small clubs, there was a big room upstairs, and a small room downstairs, so all the clubs I've been to were really small rooms, so this (the Powerhouse) was just an expanse, a huge space, like three regular rooms all knocked through, and there was a huge dance floor with a big circular stage against a wall, and we used to sit right next to the stage so we'd always be seen, there was a balcony across the top and over the dance floor, and a big bar behind that, that was where they first did Sundissetial so it was quite new and fresh and you met people you hadn't seen before and on the back of that was another club called Zig Zag, which was about the same size as venues we'd normally gone to, and that was a bit closer".
Contributed by: Twiggy, 40