Last night we went to the Torture Garden, perhaps no big deal if you live in London, but they came to visit us up-north and put on a night in Sheffield. For those of you who don't know, Sheffield has been devoid of club events for years, so when an opportunity like this came up we just had to go.....

This was despite some reservations and prejudices of what a TG event might be like. We were suffering from the received wisdom that TG events are only for the posing, the young and the beautiful, that somehow it would feel a little exclusive and specifically it would be us that felt excluded.

We went round to friends house (hi Loops, hi shullie) and got all togged up.. no way were we showing our neighbours our outfits, effie in a little black rubber dress, me in clich? leather Dom outfit #1 and toddled off into town and had a drink in a vanilla pub. Eyelids were not batted, there was obviously quite a few people there headed to TG.

So we headed into the event, it's a venue called the Casbah and normally a rock music club and bar. Upstairs is a large bar area, downstairs another large bar area with dancefloor and stage. The upstairs bar had been cleared to make room for the play equipment with large and very comfy sofas round the edge. Downstairs had some seating, but was largely left clear for the dancefloor and performances by the TG acts. We noseyed round, got the layout and saw a few friendly faces, especially Keith, who was one of the DM's and met Jules, creator/owner of the "dungeon" equipment. The only reason for the inverted commas is because this was modern equipment in steel and plastic, owing more to industrial design than the old black wood and mediaeval look of most dungeon equipment. I found this a refreshing change, the mediaeval thing never really turned me on anyway... Later when we used some of the equipment we found it was incredibly sturdy and effie said she felt very safe and very restrained... I'm not going to list every piece, but there was enough equipment for the smallish play area and it was well set out. Perhaps next time there could be a lie down piece (rack/bed), but then the play area would have to be made larger... It was the first outing for this equipment and I'm happy giving it a plug ( www.masterjules.co.uk ). The grope box was something to behold... think Sellafield, think biohazard, think many rubber gloves.....

One big surprise was how well used was the equipment. We had thought this event would be all pose and no play... totally and utterly wrong! The crowd *was* the young and the beautiful and the very shiny and the very dressed up. It was also the old and the beautiful, the everybody and the beautiful. The great thing about the whole event was the atmosphere of libertarianism and acceptance and there was not even a hint of body fascism. This was really unexpected and I can only say drop your pre-conceptions and get down to a TG event.

The atmospherics were excellent, pervy-artistic slide shows on most walls and a good eclectic mix of intelligent and pervy music, not too loud upstairs. Downstairs was another world. It was the dance area, still with the slide shows, but it was Hard House and it was LOUD. It was good to have the choice of areas, it was like having two clubs in one. Just one complaint was there really should have been more variety of music downstairs. Anyone who wants 4 hours of non-stop hard house is already well catered for in Sheffield. I would have appreciated some dance music with a slightly higher IQ. Downstairs was also the area for the TG cabaret performances. I haven't a clue what these were about.... The stage is about 4 inches high, half the audience were in 6 inch heels, perhaps a few of them at the front could actually see what was going on.....

At this stage we went back upstairs and found one of those big old comfy sofas free.... We stayed some more, chatted, watched the play which by now was getting even more interesting. They even handed out flashing red devil horns, so we all got horny and flashed each other. We had a good night. We want this event to happen again, it restored our faith in fetish nights.

Alastair and effie