We all loved to hate it. No, we all hated it most of the time. It was always kind of grubby, the drinks were cheap and nasty, the music was always the same (Kylie’s Better the Devil You Know was played for the last 15 years at 12.30am each night), it was always predictable and was the lowest common denominator when we couldn’t agree on where else to go. The familiar cry was “oh ok we’ll go to G-A-Y if there’s nothing else to do!?” and with a slightly faux reluctance we would grab a flyer from a cute young thing on Old Compton Street and head up to the Astoria (the name of the old theatre where it took place). It was the devil we knew….

As of Saturday G-A-Y will be no more. Its days as the de facto center of gay London nightlife, alongside the slightly edgier Heaven, are well and truly over.

Despite all I have said it will be an extremely sad day. The reason it is closing is because of a new cross-London rail line that will include a station right where G-A-Y is located. But even when it does reopen somewhere it will never be quite the same. It is probably the end of an era to some extent and a sign of how gay social life is changing.

As an article in yesterday’s edition of The Times put it better than I ever could:

With its simple delight in fluffy disco and boozy, cruisey merriment, G-A-Y seems a dinosaur in the modern landscape of gay indie clubs, mixed clubs and the pansexual, drag-tastic dives of Shoreditch, where the beestung-lipped boy in eyeshadow probably has a girlfriend who’s cool with it all.

In London’s diverse, mixed and fragmented gay “scene” the days of the super club where everyone would flock may never return in quite the same way.

I don’t think this is a watershed but it may be a sign of things to come. There will still be a place for cheesy music and unpretentious fun but for many reasons it does represent a trend that we have witnessed in many big cities.

• There is plenty of competition from smaller niche clubs catering to the different tastes of different gay and lesbian people, and their friends.
• There are many “gay nights” at mainstream clubs which offer variety and appeal to our sometimes fickle desire for the latest place to be seen.
• Many gay people are far more comfortable not just being at traditionally “straight” venues but being open about their sexuality when they do so.
• Young people are increasingly “out” from an earlier age and do not feel the need or obligation to abandon their straight friends for a gay-only bar or club when they go out. It is may not seen as a sign of liberation to go to the gay club or strip but more of a sign of isolation from their existing mixed group of friends.

I don’t want to exaggerate. As I’ve said before on this blog the days of the unashamedly GAY club are not over or even numbered but times they are a changin’ and this is a yet another sign of that shift.

What are the lessons for communicators? The gay and lesbian community, even the younger section that is socializing every weekend, is amorphous and increasingly defines itself by its musical tastes and style rather than just sexuality. There is also a phenomenon among people to move away more generally from being defined by sexuality. They will read magazines that reflect their interests and not just their sexuality. They will go to a straight club with a mixed crowd rather than thinking they need to go to a “gay” venue to meet a partner. Some may play in “gay” sports teams but they are just as likely to be competing with and against gay and straight friends.

This has always been the case but it is also cultural shift as people “come out” younger and many societies embrace different sexualities. Some call it post-gay. I have never quite understood that term and think it can be a cover for pretentious snobbery within the gay population (it can be a way of saying I’m cooler than the rest of them), but there is a change that marketing experts and communicators alike need to understand.

On a personal note as much as I had a love-hate relationship with G-A-Y it will always have a special place in my heart and that of so many of my friends. It was where I went with my “gay best friend” when I was “straight”; it was where I finally told him that I enjoyed it there more than I let on; it was where I once bumped into my girlfriend in those early days; it was where I met one of my best friends Jarrod when we were both “straight” and went there “for the fun music”; it was where we took our shirts off and danced until the lights came on; it was where we saw Kylie, Westlife and Madonna perform on stage; it was where we had an amazing amount of fun… In short it was an important part of my life and that of so many of my friends. A chapter has come to an end but it was probably about time.