Heaven (nightclub)

Template:Infobox music venue Heaven is a nightclub 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.

History and background

Early history

Heaven opened in Dec 1979. It was opened by Jeremy Norman. 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.

In 1993 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 since 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.

Performers

Famous performances include Divine, Sylvester, Eurythmics, Billie Ray Martin, Baby D, Grace Jones and most notably Cher who launched her single Believe there in 1999 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.

DJs

Heaven's original resident DJ Ian Levine has often been credited with creating 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 unknown (and low-cost) 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, Ian D, Jon Dennis & finally Wayne G.

One of Heaven's most famous DJs Marc Andrews left his main Saturday night residency to join rival club The Fridge based in Brixton. Their Saturday night presentation "Love Muscle" gave Heaven competition and caused a significant change in the balance of the major London gay club's control of the pink pound market.

After the 1998 refurbishment

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 the very popular. The dotcom revolution and the economic upturn of 1999-2000 meant that customers had a lot of disposable income.

Since then, Heaven has adopted a more mainstream tribal house and disco based sound. Heaven has employed DJs originally resident at other major gay London nightclubs such as Gonzalo (a DJ originally resident at Trade, Salvation and Action).

The Heaven Sound

The original Heaven sound of the 1970s and 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", Pet Shop Boys - "It's A Sin" or "Always On My Mind", and Divine's - "Native Love".

Post 9/11

The attacks on New York on 9/11 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 included Pure Group [13] owner Jeremy Millins and original stage director David Inches.

Competition

Inevitably Heaven now faces increased competition from many other local clubs; there are several others in the immediate vicinity, most notably G-A-Y which is half a mile away, and 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.

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.

Heaven brand worldwide

The Heaven name has been franchised around the world in: Gran Canaria and Ibiza

Heaven Today

Heaven remains one of the best known gay nightclubs in London and one of the largest in terms of floor space in Central London. It hosts several large events, corporate events and has been used as a setting for music videos. Heaven's artistic efforts are directed by David Inches (who has held the position since 1979) and Managing Director Jeremy Millins from the Pure Group. On Mondays, the venue hosts a club called "Popcorn!" which plays pop and funky house music. Wednesdays is "Fruit Machine" offering a mix of RNB, House Music and Pop attracting predominantly gay and Afro-Caribbean customers. Alternate Friday nights are usually "Bang" with a mixture of old and new music. Guest nights on Fridays include Hospitality,, and the hard house Tidy/Extreme Euphoria. On "Heaven Saturday", a variety of music is played, aimed at a wide cross-section of the gay community. These nights occasionally feature a stage performance of (often) muscular men dancing on podiums. The main floor features house music with resident DJs Pagano, Craig Daniels, The Oli, Small Sam, Mis White and special guests. the Star Bar is called "The Playroom with Pop and House" with pop music re-mixes with DJs Big Al and Manny and the Dakota Bar is RnB music with DJs Terry T-Rex and Simon QB. The club occasionally features drag queens, club kids and gender-benders.

Heaven in popular culture

The club is referenced in the song "Heaven" on the 1979 Fear of Music by the Talking Heads. David Byrne describes his song as being about "a gay disco in London owned by Richard Branson." It is also referred to directly in the Battles episode of the first series of the UK sitcom Spaced.

External links

• Official website