When they first met, Eddie and Grant were both in Brighton, club-hopping and accidentally chasing the same girl. Yvonne went by the name ‘The Onne’ and was a free-spirited goth. That ‘Elvis’ Eddie, Grant/Tor and The Onne ended up in the same loud club at 3 in the morning was just one of those things that happen in life.
Despite Eddie’s love of all things American, the sheer energy of the trance/dance scene had captured his spirit, while the ‘anything goes’ dress style meant his black & silver boots and matching shirt were treated as a bit of fancy dress. The almost continuous bass throb and the swirling electronics were at opposite ends of the spectrum to his 50’s Americana, but that was just how his brain worked.
Tor was cruising, needing a break from his London-based research. He’d heard enough mentions of the scene in Brighton and was perfectly happy it was one of the gay destinations in Britain. Having lived in Sydney and San Francisco, he liked the cosmopolitan and more liberal atmosphere in those cities. And, with few exceptions, the best gay clubs were the best clubs. Full stop. The best music, best DJs, best breaking acts and best dance moves were easy to find at whichever gay clubs were the movers and shakers in any city in any year.
The Onne, like Grant/Tor, thought gay clubs were the best, and would agree with his reasons. The extra bonus for a girl in the clubs was the competition. Many girls went because they felt more at ease, knowing they wouldn’t be pestered every 5 minutes by some drunk monkey with a flame in his pants he was hoping some girl would put out. For The Onne, the attraction was trying to out-dance the best guy dancers. Off the dance floor, she loved the bar milling, going one-on-one with the biggest-vamps, shrieking and then upping the stakes with sharp banter.
An excerpt from Brian’s Red Diamond, part of the Women out of Time trilogy.
