Gotham: new Edinburgh club reviewedReview: Event

Edinburgh isn't exactly short of fetish clubs now, but when a new one starts up, running monthly on Sunday nights, set in an underground medieval complex, and promises to be 'A music centred fetish event brought to you as a joint project by the alternative scene, body modifiers, goth clubs, fetish play-clubs and furniture suppliers', it just has to be experienced!

Gotham takes place in part of Nicol Edwards, in Edinburgh's Old Town. The venue is superbly atmospheric, the club making use of three staggered levels to offer a bar, dance-floor, stalls, fetish cinema, and play area. First impressions are great, with door-staff handing everyone little cards encouraging them to play safely and read the rules and advice posted around the club. The crowd seem to be exactly what Gotham wanted to attract - friendly, young, alternative, fetish/goth crowd.

But does the club live up to the promise it offers? I'm afraid not.

Holding a club regularly on Sunday nights does seem a bit strange. I'd originally thought the club was aiming for the Sundays of bank holiday weekends, but it seems to be monthly, and most of us have to be somewhere on Monday mornings. As a one-off night, Sunday works well, but can it continue to do so? I have my doubts.

The bar service was terrible - only one member of staff on the bar meant slow service, and huge queues. The alternative was to slip out to the main bar, outside the club, and brave the normal Nicol Edwards customers while dressed in fetish-wear. Quite a few of us did that, rather than deal with the queues.

The dance floor was small, and for much of the night the music was, to my ears, pretty poor. But musical taste is very subjective, so I prefer to judge a DJ's success by the number of people dancing. I looked in now and again, and for much of the night, the DJ's were failing to reach more than a handful of the crowd. Muttered complaints in the stone corridors abounded, and it was only towards the end of the night that things picked up, and the crowd seemed to get into the music. Or maybe they just didn't feel safe dancing on flagstones wet with spilled drinks.

The fetish cinema seemed reasonably good, but I was in a more sociable mood, and didn't really feel like sitting and watching. I did stop by for the first performance by Elaine Davidson (officially the world's most pierced woman) - which was, frankly, terrible. It appeared to be unrehearsed, with those assisting Elaine never knowing what was happening next. Elaine had to interrupt her own performance to tell others what to do, twice, and the show just couldn't hold the audience's interest. It was nice to see the space used for something other than cinema, though - good performances and demonstrations are something lacking from the Edinburgh fetish scene.

The play area worried me. All around the club are notices, giving very sensible advice on playing safely - and yet, the play area at Gotham was perhaps the most unsuitable I've ever seen at a club. It was never clear who was in charge of that space - only by asking was it possible to find out what the tag being worn around someone's neck was. There seemed to be only one Dungeon Master, and when he frequently left the room, he arbitrarily gave this tag to someone else. Some of those 'left in charge' told me themselves that they didn't consider themselves able to ensure safe play; they just don't have the experience. When the Dungeon Master was present, he was rarely watching the play area. The space also seemed to be used as a general chill-out area by many, with people sitting on the equipment, or resting drinks on it. On more than one occasion, drinks were spilled on the equipment, and once, a glass was broken. The equipment was reasonable, but was too close together, and too close to the benches around the room. It would have been very difficult to use without endangering others.

Several people also told me that the play area was on CCTV, which was visible on a TV screen while standing at the bar upstairs - the bar in the main Nicol Edwards area, outside the club, and full of people not attending. There were signs in the play area which said something like 'only your silhouette is visible under UV light', but I was told by several people they could clearly see the play area on that monitor. When I looked myself, I could only see the bar area, but I was still uncomfortable about patrons in a bar outside the club being able to watch inside the club on TV.

For all the above reasons, I can only say that I would not consider this a safe venue for play.

The promised changing area turned out to be the toilets. Admittedly these were spacious, and had plenty of room to change in, but they were outside the club area, and in use by patrons of the rest of the complex as well. Coming out of the toilets, you were also visible right down to Nicol Edwards entrance door, and onto the street beyond. Those who didn't want to wander among vanilla-folk dressed in fetish wear were out of luck.

The best things about Gotham were the crowd, and the venue. It has the potential to be a fantastic goth/fetish crossover club, but on the first night there were a number of problems. It now remains to be seen whether the organisers will address these problems, and turn that potential into a great club for the future.

 
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Re: Gotham: new Edinburgh club reviewed#1

*nods*

I'd pretty much go with that - have sent an email to the organisers, who are encouraging those with comments to send them to the associated Yahoo! Group where they will answer them.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Scot-SMFetish/

Lisa

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ScotSM-Fetish#3

None of my messages appear to go through to ScotSMFetish, and I haven't seen any comments (or responses) appear there. Quite a few people tell me they sent comments, so there may be a technical issue..

I do look forward to seeing the organisers give feedback on comments they've got - I think Gotham has a lot of potential, and I'd love to see it be everything it could be.

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Re: ScotSM-Fetish#4

The ScotSM-Fetish group, although listed as unmoderated is in fact moderated. All new members are set on moderation by default, and never taken off. This may explain why comments about Gotham don't appear in it, the group and Gotham are run by the same person. Alternatively he may be away and all the comments may appear when he returns.

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Re: ScotSM-Fetish#5

I got an email from the list-owner today. He hadn't seen my original mail, and when I sent it again, it did get posted. I think some changes are planned for the next Gotham, and the organisers will be posting details on ScotSM-Fetish in due course.

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Re: Re: ScotSM-Fetish#6

I've many times had messages not appear on ScotSM-Fetish group, although I've been a member for years. Basically the guy who runs it only allows through viewpoints he personally agrees with, and particularly not anything that mentions in any positive way the dozens of people he has taken against personally due to his somewhat 'difficult' personality. This is IMHO a ridiculous way to run a discussion group, which is why I never take part in it nowadays.

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Re: Re: Re: ScotSM-Fetish#7

The moderator claims to promote the fetish scene in Scotland but goes out of his way to slag off anyone who disagrees with him. I can't remember being able to post a single thing that he didn't either comment on or not allow through.

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Re: Gotham: new Edinburgh club reviewed#2

I asked if the cameras were being used and was told that they were switched off....and the person was going to check and make sure...if the cameras were left on then i am not a happy bunny...and will not be back
linda

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Re: Gotham: new Edinburgh club reviewed and camera#8

It is interesting to note that on the Gotham Flyer it specifically says 'NO CAMERAS' It would appear there is one rule for the people who pay to keep the club going and another for the organisers.

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Re: Gotham: new Edinburgh club reviewed#9

I do hope the Gotham club is going from strenghth to strenghth and offering accesss to mature as well as younger fetishists, I remember in my teens feeling happy to see the occassional mature person in the crowd. Is the Gotham club now operating in Nicol Edwards on Sundays, or has it moved to The City Cafe. Does it welcome fetish male cross dressers into looking like a mistress or master mature, over 40 years of age? Love to come along if it does.
Please reply folks:
Harvee9@aol

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GOTHAM IX Re: Gotham: new Edinburgh club reviewed#10


Dear clubbers,

First of all, everybody who dresses up and follows the dress code and our rules is quite welcome! We have a fantastic new venue and the choice of using the main entrance or coming in through our exclusive private entry at the rear of the building.

Secondly, we are now operating as a private members club, if you are not a member and want to come please buy a ticket in advance and dress up (see listings.)

Thirdly, you can read a genuine listing about us at this link http://www.nightnews.net/Clubs/list04iie.jpg

.. we are sorry to say that much of what has appeared on Gotham at ukfetishinfo is merely the private opinion of anonymous posters and has been quite damaging to the reputation of what is in essence a new club. (Try starting one up and you will see how difficult it is, in the meantime if you have a problem try talking to the organiser instead of bitching about it on the internet :)

(We have had to ask the webmaster here to remove anonymous posts that have been ad hominem and derogatory to the organiser and will do again if we have to.)

However after 8 months, we just had our best ever night yet at GOTHAM VIII with John Dietrich and his models attending our new location in person and below is our listing for our next event: GOTHAM IX

You can read the latest about Gotham at this link:
http://www.nightnews.net/fetish/news.txt

---

GOTHAM IX
- Dark City Festival Welcoming Club
- CITY 2 at THE CITY CAFE,
19 Blair Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1QR

Thursday 08 April, 11am - 1am, free before 8pm
Club 8pm - 1am
£4.00 - Club is an Advance ticketed event,
numbers on the door will be restricted.

Music Policy from 8pm: Goth, Darkwave, Electro,
Industrial, EBM
Leading Goth club DJ's:
- DJX (Ascension)
- Sublevel3 (Passion Cage,
Vain, Amatis, Finsternis)
- TEKHED (Sykik Vandals)
- Ian H (ex The Mission S24)

Dark City Gothic Meeting Point
- from 11am - 1am
- free till 8.00pm then access is by admission charge to Gotham
- Bar, Restaurant open 11am - 11pm, serving Breakfast, Lunch & Main Meals
- Public car-park in Niddrie Street nearbye.
- Guest DJ's 12 noon until 8pm then Club DJ's
- location type EH1 1QR into http://www.streetmap.co.uk/

Specially Featuring
- Guest appearances & shows by the Ministry of Burlesque Dancers
- Staff by the Western Bar + Burke & Hare Dancers
- More Acts / Film / Special Guests / Stalls / tba nearer the time

Advance Tickets from:
# Underground Nation, 46 Candlemaker Row Edinburgh Scotland UK
CD and Clubbing Clothes Store
James or Julia
Tel: 44 [0] 131 220 0006
Mobile: 079462 87736 or +4479462 87736
http://www.undergroundnation.co.uk

More info: http://www.nightnews.net events page

# About Gotham

GOTHAM: is a full-on nasty alternative club with a music policy, a dungeon, live performers, a cinema, stalls and lots of folk who are pretty and dressed up. Gotham is teaming up with like minded associates to bring night club entertainment and cabaret back to clubbing in an adult setting.

Billed as the '...fetish club for the insane,' a goth, electro, darkwave, industrial, ebm club with a fetish theme brought to you as a joint project by Edinburghs alternative scene,body modifiers, goth clubs, fetish play-clubs, furniture suppliers, erotic and burlesque dancers. Not one to miss. Mixed and fully pansexual.

'GOTHAM - Where desire is never true ...and loves only companion is madness.'

More info: http://www.nightnews.net events page
Contact: gotham@nightnews.net
Flyer: http://www.nightnews.net/Clubs/gotham2.jpg
The List Review: http://www.nightnews.net/Clubs/list04iie.jpg
Recent Press Release Published On-line
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NightNews-Media/message/350
M: on request

DRESS CODE: FROM 8pm
GOTH, ALTERNATIVE, FETISH DRESS or BODY ART ONLY,
EVENING DRESS / BLACK TIE IS ACCEPTABLE,
ALL STRICTLY ENFORCED
Management reserves the right to refuse admission
STRICTLY NO CAMERAS from 8pm - 1am
CCTV WILL BE DISABLED FROM 8pm

(Pansexual - Suitable for alternative sexualities.)

---

thanks
Nightnews

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