The entrance to Heaven |
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| Location | Charing Cross, London |
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| Type | Night club |
| Opened | 1979 |
| Owner | MAMA Group |
| Capacity | 1,850 |
| Website | www.Heaven-London.com |
Heaven is a Superclub in London, England which appeals predominantly (but not exclusively) to the gay market. It is located underneath Charing Cross railway station in Central London, just off Trafalgar Square.
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Heaven opened in Dec 1979. It was opened by Jeremy Norman (cf Burkes Peerage). The interior was designed by his partner Derek Frost. Norman had started an earlier club, The Embassy, in Bond Street in 1978. The Embassy had taken London by storm and is generally seen as the London equivalent of New York's Studio 54. Norman, an entrepreneur, took his knowledge and used it to create an entirely new form of gay club on a larger scale in the arches beneath Charing Cross railway station, once part of Adelphi Arches, a large wine-cellar for the hotel above. Heaven quickly established itself as the centre of the (then understated) gay London nightlife. Until Heaven, most gay clubs were small hidden cellar-bars or pub discos. Heaven brought gay clubbing into the mainstream and finally got a club to rival New Yorks gay super club at the time The Saint.
In 1982, Heaven was acquired from Norman by Richard Branson's Virgin Group. Branson was one of the first to identify the burgeoning 'pink pound' and saw the club as an investment opportunity. However, as one of the first gay clubs in London, and one of the first openly-so in the world, it courted controversy, frequently appearing in the tabloid press, especially in the famous News of the World headlines about alleged ecstasy use in the nightclub in 1989.
Heaven became home to the Megatripolis club in October 1993 until October 1996 hosting visits from Allen Ginsberg, Terence McKenna and Ram Dass and DJs including Derrick May and Mr C.
The club was refurbished in 1998 and re-opened as a mainstream nightclub to challenge other larger nightclubs in Central London which had since appeared with the growing popularity of house music. Clubs like Trade and The Fridge had constantly challenged Heaven's long standing reputation as the only major gay nightclub in London.
Famous performances include Kylie Minogue, Robyn, Vanessa Amorosi, Macy Gray, Divine, Jessie J, Sylvester, Eurythmics, Billie Ray Martin, Baby D, Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt, Loleatta Holloway, Martha Wash, Black Lace (where the audience threw bottles to show their disdain), Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Aqua, a-ha, Pet Shop Boys, The Saturdays, Miley Cyrus, Adam Lambert, Lady Gaga and most notably Cher who launched her single Believe there in 1998 to a packed crowd. Cher was introduced onto stage by close friend Ben Kingsley. The singer was so scared by the amassed crowds, that once on stage she mimed to only two songs instead of the intended five.
Famous hosts include Miss Kimberley and Big Dee.
Heaven's original resident DJ Ian Levine has often been credited with being one of the first DJ's in the UK of the now customary style of audio mixing (when previously two records had normally only been segued together by fading one in and the other out regardless of tempo).
Through the direction of Heaven's original stage manager David Inches, Heaven has always tried to find and employ DJs who played and most often produced new sounds and mixing styles. These DJs then usually went to find greater acclaim in the mainstream or gay music industry. Original Heaven DJs have included: Ian Levine, Marc Andrews, Marc Monroe, Ian D, Jon Dennis, & Wayne G.
The club was host to the seminal Troll nite at the Sound Shaft in Heaven between 1988 and 1990 which started the career of DJ's such as Daz Saund.
One of Heaven's most famous DJ's Marc Andrews left his main Saturday night residency to join rival club The Fridge based in Brixton, followed also by Marc Monroe. Their Saturday night presentation "Love Muscle" created significant competition and created a change in the balance of the pink pound market.
In 1998 as part of the relaunch of the venue, it was decided to try broadening the appeal of the venue by including an indie night as part of its new Monday night, Popcorn, called Room Two. At this time Popstarz was riding high and a number of other gay indie nights had followed in its wake, proving that it could be financially viable. However, only Popstarz had done it on such a scale and it was on a Friday - it was unproven whether it could work on a weeknight. Although it took over six months the whole night, as well as the indie floor, became immensely successful. Although the indie floor is no longer the night is still running and helped launch the careers of a number of DJ including Gordon John and Mikey Four.
At the beginning of the 2000s, Heaven adopted a more mainstream tribal house and disco based sound employing DJs originally resident at other major gay London nightclubs such as Gonzalo (a DJ originally resident at Trade, Salvation and Action).
Towards the middle 2000's the music policy of Heaven's main dance-floor became more credible and underground. During that time and until October 2008 Heaven's Saturday night exclusive resident DJs Pagano and Nick Tcherniak played a variety of styles including Progressive House, Techouse, Deep House and Electro, thus ending Heaven's original Saturday night sound.
In October 2008 MAMA Group bought Heaven and moved into the venue its Friday and Saturday night events previously hosted at The Astoria. The club plays mainly Pop music and Commercial Dance under the G-A-Y brand.
Heaven was highly profitable in the early part of the millennium, even though gay culture in itself had become progressively mainstream and less underground. Heaven's reputation ensured it was chosen by national promoters such as Gatecrasher and Bedrock (run by DJ John Digweed) who eventually took up a permanent residence on a Thursday night until 2005.
After the 1998 refurbishment, Heaven enjoyed a real buoyancy in terms of custom, and was very popular. The dotcom revolution and the economic upturn of 1999–2000 meant that customers had a lot of disposable income.
The original Heaven sound of the 1980s could be attributed primarily to the producer Giorgio Moroder and later to original resident DJ Ian Levine. It can be described as having disco origins and influenced by the emergent house music style. Examples of this style of music include Yvonne Elliman's - "Love Pains", Company B's - "Fascinated", Eria Fachin's - "Savin' Myself", Donna Summer's - "I Feel Love", Abba's - "The Visitors", The Pet Shop Boys - "It's A Sin" or "Always On My Mind", and Divine's - "Native Love" - The Flirts "Calling All Boys", "Passion" - Tantra's "Hills of Katmandu" - Rose Laurens "Amercian Love" - Patrick Cowley "Menergy" -Boys Town Gang " Can't Take My Eyes Off You" - Viola Wills "Stormy Weather " - Carol Jiani "Hit N'Run Lover" - Taffy's " I Love My Radio" - Sharon Redd " In the Name of Love" - Gazebo "Masterpiece" - Bobby O "She Has A Way" - Lime "Your Love " , Angel Eyes" - Sylvester " Take Me To Heaven", Do Ya Wanna Funk" .
The September 11 attacks in 2001 sent a shock through the worldwide economy, especially affecting airlines. The Virgin Group, who at the time owned both Virgin Atlantic and Heaven, wanted to consolidate their business portfolio and concentrate on Virgin branded products. Although Heaven was part of Virgin Hotels group, it did not carry the Virgin logo, and had no open association with Virgin. This led to the sale of the club in 2003 to a consortium which comprised Paul Savory, Pure Group [3] owner Jeremy Millins and original club manager, David Inches.
Inevitably Heaven now faces increased competition from many other clubs which enjoy more liberal licensing regulations south of the river, in Vauxhall, for example Fire. On the latter point, however, Heaven now has a 06:00 drinks licence, and in fact is the only venue in Westminster to have one.[1]
Another source of competition has been other places for gay men to meet: saunas/Gay bathhouses, and websites such as Gaydar. Other niche venues specialising in areas of gay sub-culture have also sprung up including fetish, BDSM, sportswear and uniform clubs.
The Heaven name has been franchised in Gran Canaria[2] and Ibiza.[3]
On 22 Sept 2008, Heaven was purchased by the MAMA Group through its jointly-owned subsidiary company G-A-Y Ltd.[4] MAMA Group's partner in G-A-Y, Jeremy Joseph, promised at the time, "The next couple of weeks I will spend getting to re-know Heaven and will be making plans that will include a major refurbishment." He emphasised that G-A-Y only ever rented their previous venue, the Astoria, which they moved out of this summer. That meant they couldn’t change its run-down interior, but Joseph will be in a position to invest in Heaven. He promised clubbers that G-A-Y’s Saturday nights will return at the new venue, as will the Friday night Camp Attack. But he also said he would be trying to retain Heaven regulars.
MAMA group was purchased by HMV on 23 December 2009. Heaven now functions as a concert venue during the early evening before club nights.
Heaven remains one of the best known gay nightclubs in London and one of the largest in terms of floor space in Central London.[5][6][7] It hosts several large events, corporate events and has been used as a setting for music videos.
Monday is perhaps the busiest night in Heaven's week. The club plays host to a party called Popcorn! which plays pop and funky house music.
Although advertised as a gay event, the production style of the events have toned-down the gay ethos. The club occasionally features drag queens, however, nowhere near as many as previous years. This has led to Popcorn attracting criticism from the gay community and accusations of Heaven "selling out" and losing its core values as a gay venue.
Thursday plays host to "Porn Idol" a strip competition for men and women previously held at the Astoria, with £100 offered to the winner each week. The competition comprises several rounds, with £1,000 going to the season winner. It is preceded and followed by three rooms of pop, and also plays host to a night for gay women called "Gaygirlz."
Media coverage of Porn Idol resulted in Jeremy Joseph being banned from 10 Downing Street [8] by David Cameron's staff, having previously been invited to an event for leading figures in the gay community.
Fridays used to be private hire nights where events like Gatecrasher and Euphoria would make guest appearances. Since being taken over by the G-A-Y brand, Heaven hosts "Camp Attack", which was the event held at the former home of G-A-Y, the Astoria theatre. [4]
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