By Calum on Wed 6 Aug 2003 at 22:36
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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