Queer nightlife connoisseur Rachael Williams has had more nights out than you’ve had hot dinners! She doesn’t own a single handbag that hasn’t been vomited in by a drag queen at some point, and she’s drank every single drink on every single menu in every single gay bar from Hackney Wick to Hoxton.
There’s no-one she doesn’t know on the scene! She knows ALL the famous faces. Legend has it that Larry Tee didn’t actually move to Berlin, he’s just been kipping on Rachael’s sofa, sipping a gin & tonic and knitting metallic baseball caps, and occasionally saying “BITCHES BITCHES BITCHES!”
Now, Rachael’s launching a brand spanking new gay night at LGBT nightlife mecca, Dalston Superstore. The concept is one close to her heart. Outside focuses on looking out of our little bubble, and drawing the many and varied talents from gay scenes elsewhere in the UK and further afield.
QX editor Dylan Jones had a bottle of red wine with her in The Glory, and had a chat about it all.
Hey Rachael! So, tell me about Outside
Well, as QX readers will know, it started off as a QX column! I noticed that in so many venues around London, it was always the same DJs playing. So I started this column as an antidote to that. I interviewed DJs and promotors from different cities around the UK and Europe. Because these are the people who move to London, who make our scene exciting. I also started writing it at a point when rents were horrendous, and there was a mass exodus of the city, where everyone was like “I can’t deal with it anymore, I’m moving to Margate. I can’t deal with it anymore, I’m moving to Berlin.” And it made me realize, there ARE gay scenes in other places.
So each month are you gonna focus on a different place?
Each party will look at a different city, and I’ll be working with different people each time. The first one is Bristol. Having just moved back from Bristol myself, I’ve got a lot of connections there, and it was easy for me to put that together, because I know all the fun and exciting people on the scene there. But I’ve got plans to look at Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff…like, lots of people call Glasgow “Glasgay”. But I doubt many people from London are booking a train to have a big gay night out in Glasgow.
Well it’ll be interesting to see the different tone of each night depending on what the city is. So this weekend’s one is Bristol…what’s the tone of that gonna be?
I’ve brought in lots of different party brands from Bristol, so it’s gonna be really diverse over both floors. There’s a party called Don’t Tell Your Mother, who are a really beautiful queer social…their music is indie and pop. It’s not super serious, it’s just really lovely. And everyone goes to see all the people they haven’t seen in ages. It’s really community-lead and really beloved. And then in the basement we’ve got Bitch Please, who are a new brand. They’ve been going for about a year. And they book people like Honey Dijon, and Black Madonna. So they’re very house music. “And then there’s Rhythm Sister, who are a female DJ collective, who are actually moving to Bristol and will be happening across both cities now. I’m catching Jess Farley, the founder, on her last weekend before leaving London. And they promote women, trans women, and non-binary DJs. And they do DJ masterclasses too, which is really cool. They help non-males get into DJing.”
What you’re doing is great, because it’s great for people on the scene to help each other.
Yeah! And it’s not nepotism, it’s more like community.
Something nice about it, is that because these people are in London it’ll feel like a huge event.
Yeah! And everyone will bring their A-game. So far, everyone that I’ve spoken to has just been so hyped to be working with a brand like Superstore. It’s such an internationally well-known, established, recognized LGBT brand. So people are just so excited to be booked there, and to be working with them.
Do you think London and the London gay scene are too inward-looking?
I don’t think London is inward-looking, but I do think the gay scene can be. I think the gay scene’s very welcoming to those who want to come here. But I think it doesn’t really like to explore beyond. That’s the whole point of the name, it’s Outside. It’s other. Go outside, look at what’s beyond your sphere, your happy queer bubble. Which is nice to be in! But there’s stuff going on outside which is happy and queer as well. And we need to be going and looking for it, rather than waiting for it to come to us.
Outside is this Bank Holiday Sunday at Dalston Superstore, 117 Kingsland Highstreet, E8 2PB. 9pm – 4am. Hit attending here.
