Jeez! I’ve never edited a whole magazine before. Why then, you ask, have I been chosen for this special guest editor slot for your weekly dose of gay London? Well, I know the London club scene like I know my MAC lipstick hues (if you blindfolded me I could still tell you which colour was which by the way they smell).
I’ve got just about a decade of clubbing under my belt in this city, racked-up a fair few notches on my bedpost, suffered my fair share of hangovers, and shaken my wig with the best of them on pretty much every dance floor in town (and yes, I’ve been to Hard On). I’ve risen to the challenge and put this baby together through the eyes of someone who lives and breaths London’s gay scene – I work on it and play on it, and know it inside out. Hell, that’s my job!
Thanks to my knack of applying a liquid eyeliner and sticking a good record on, I’ve been lucky enough to visit the gayest destinations in the world – New York, Vegas, Barcelona, Madrid, Sydney and Tel Aviv, to name but a few. And let me tell you, ain’t none of them touching London when it comes to diversity and choice.
We’re spoilt living here – you could go to countless bars, clubs, shops and cafes tailored to suit your tastes and persuasions here, and the weekend can start on Monday and end of Sunday if you so wish. It’s a Brit’s prerogative to moan about what they know – but I’ve always defended London as being the centre of the homo universe.
A full 10 years after walking into G-A-Y to see Steps (the first time around, when Claire was thin) and diverting to Old Compton Street after school to pick up this very fag rag, here I am editing the comprehensive publication with an educated head and a hungry, positive outlook. I’m not jaded, and that’s got to be a rarity! Oh, and I have a degree in journalism, which I really should make better use of. Listen to me justifying my every sentence!
I’ve had a lot of fun this week at QX Towers with barking orders, calling the shots and making the editorial team fetch me Starbucks while I set up lunches with she’lebrity friends, pop out to nightclubs and bars I wouldn’t usually hang out at and finger the small ads in the back pages.
I blagged Mika’s first interview for a long time to discuss Lovebox, meeting the Queen and his new album, got Spice Girl Melanie C to spill the beans on her secret past clubbing life, answered your problems in the Dragony Aunt section (I totally made that name up by the way – it was all me!) and penetrated London’s gay scene even deeper than usual. I feel like Carrie Bradshaw with more hairspray, less metaphors.
Whether you’re a Ku Bar disco dolly, a Trannyshack tart, a Trade baby, a Vauxhall party monster, a cabaret queen, a Shoreditch twat, a Room Service scenester, an after-work drinker or a leather clad slave boy, this city has more to offer you as a man of homosexual persuasion than any other on the planet, and QX is here to tell you about it and report on the previous seven days worth of gay action.
And that is awesome. If there’s one thing this week taught me, it’s that there’s an even wider world out there in London on offer for the city dweller and visitor. And just like a prayer, QX will take you there.
Peace, love, play safe, and buy my new EP on iTunes.
Jodie Harsh
Xoxox
