By Ben Walters, 29 April 2022, 18:19
Duckie will be ending their Saturday night residency at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern (RVT) on 2 July 2022, bringing the UK’s longest-running regular LGBTQ+ club night to a close after 27 years.
The news was broken through a photo of a notice, handwritten in felt-tip, posted on the queer performance collective’s social media feeds.
‘It is the end of an era,’ says Duckie producer and promoter Simon Casson, ‘but it’s not the end of Duckie.’
The south-London-based purveyors of progressive working-class entertainment and homosexual honkytonk began their run at the Tavern in 1995. Duckie’s sarky combo of short-form performance art and boozy indie pop partying stood in marked contrast to the mainstream gay scene of the time and was an instant success.
From their beginnings at the Tavern, Duckie went on to produce acclaimed events at the Barbican and Southbank Centre; tour an Olivier Award-winning variety show to New York, Tokyo and Sydney; and deliver community projects serving young performers, older people, homeless people and others. It has been an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation since 2002.
Duckie’s founding group – host Amy Lamé, producer and promoter Simon Casson (aka Simon Strange), DJs Chelsea Kelsey and Kim Phaggs aka the London Readers Wifes and ‘door whores’ Jay Cloth and Father Cloth – remained in place until lockdown forced the RVT to close its doors. Last year, Lamé and the Cloths stepped back from Saturday nights and Azara began hosting.
Duckie’s Saturday night performers over the years comprise a who’s who of several generations of alternative nightlife performance culture.
So why is the residency ending?
‘There are differences between Duckie and the RVT management that we haven’t been able to resolve and that’s why we’re leaving,’ Casson says.
‘I think we’re very culturally different. Our business practices and our cultural values are different. We want different things. I can’t say they want money and we want art because everyone wants money. We want money as well. But we also want art.
‘If a new operator takes over the RVT in the future then we’d ask to go back. There’s no guarantee they’d be interested but we’d like to go back one day in the future.’
The RVT is one of the UK’s most established sites of LGBTQ+ community and culture, with links to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (1661-1859) and a unique lineage of drag, cabaret, activism and mutual support. In 2015, it became the first building to be listed by Historic England in recognition of its LGBTQ+ heritage.
When Duckie’s residency began, the RVT’s freehold was owned by Lambeth council. In 2005, the freehold was bought at auction by James Lindsay and Paul Oxley. In 2014, they sold it to international property developers Immovate. Lindsay currently operates the venue under a longterm leasehold agreement with Immovate.
Asked for comment, James Lindsay says: ‘Since lockdown, people in terms of how they socialise has changed. Duckie numbers have dropped off considerably on a Saturday night and that’s had a knock-on effect in terms of revenue at the bar.
‘I’m sorry Duckie have made the decision to do this and I’ve reached out to Simon today to say I think we should have further discussion but he’s gone ahead and posted it today. Until I’ve had further discussion with Simon I’d rather not say more.
‘But RVT has got the most diverse programming in the UK so I don’t see that culturally we’re very different.’
Lindsay declined to comment on potential alternative plans for Saturday nights at the RVT until he and Casson had spoken further.
Duckie’s attachment to the venue is well known. The collective has delivered several performance projects exploring the history of the venue and its surroundings and has been at the forefront of campaigns to defend it from perceived risks of redevelopment.
For now, there will be nine more regular Saturday nights and then Duckie’s annual ‘Gay Shame’ event, held in and around the RVT on the night of Pride in London, which this year will be Saturday 2 July.
‘Let’s have a right laugh for these last weeks,’ Casson says. ‘Expect ragged performance art, stroppy live acts, a right mosh pit and no drag brunches.
‘People are under a lot of stress at the moment and we just try to spread a bit of collective joy. You can get that in clubs so that’s what we try to do.
‘Then we’ll end on the 26th Gay Shame, which this year will be called Straight Pride. It’ll be a spectacular show, a celebration of heterosexuality and wealth with strictly no cross-dressing allowed. Think of those exaggerated versions of men and women you see on the King’s Road. That’ll be our last hurrah at the RVT. And a little birdie tells me the Cloths will be on the door for that.’
Casson stresses that Duckie’s many activities beyond the RVT will be continuing.
‘We’ve got loads of projects,’ he says. ‘We’re at the Southbank Centre in June for a two-part “Royal Command Performance”.
‘We’re doing a winter tour of working men’s clubs in the north and a massive Christmas show in Crawley for all the family called Collective Joy Riders.
‘We’re doing a big show with David Hoyle touring swimming pools around the country with synchronised swimmers, boats and floating things. It’s the sequel to The Divine David on Ice, which we did in 2000, so we’ve been a bit tardy getting round to it.’
And would Duckie consider another regular residency?
‘Of course we’re gonna do something else in the future but it’s more Shirley Bassey to say it’s over, isn’t it?
‘Will there be a revival like Shirley Bassey? Watch this space. In south London. In the late summer.
‘Will we open another club? Of course we fucking will.’
Full disclosure: I have produced and hosted several events for Duckie; carried out my doctoral research in collaboration with Duckie; and wrote the application to Historic England to list the RVT.
