Newcastle Gay Scene - a report

zerocrop2000Mon 28/12/09 16:55

Phew. I'm recovering today, from an unexpectedly brilliant night out, in my old hometown of Newcastle. I'm visiting my parents, who now live in Durham, but was so desperate to get out of the house, I popped into the Toon for a few beers.

I normally only ever go to the Eagle, but as there is an OUT weekend in Newcastle coming up next year, I thought I would do a bit of a scout about to see whats what these days.

I started in The Yard, which was packed with 30somethings and a few trannies. A cool looking crowd but the karaoke put me off.

Then wandered up Malborough Cresent to check out @one and Gossips, which were both very loud, busy, smart and cool looking but had scary drinks prices, both full of straight women and 18 year old twinks too.

Then headed to The Dog. What a contrast. Full of lesbians and incredibly rough (but super horny) guys. This pub is really rough. The crowd were very chavvy and yobby and I would have been terrified for my life if it had been a straight pub. I was only there for about 15 mins, but saw two 'incidents', one involving a flying glass, and the other a sort of headbutting (that wasn't as serious as it sounds). The music was earbleedingly loud drum&bass/rave stuff. And the talent? Well if you like those Triga Scally Lad movies, this is the real life version :-))) And they seemed like real ones too, not those faux ones you get in London. It is apparently popular with the gay Newcastle United fans, and the drinks were super-cheap. Not everyones cup of Newcastle Brown but I actually really liked it here, just for the different experience. You just don't get gay pubs like this in London.

Then I wandered into Switch, which was empty, so left straight away. Apparently its a more late night place and doesn't get busy till after 11.

The Bank was absolutely packed with a very mixed party crowd. Honestly, I don't know if they were putting something in the drinks, but everyone was OFF THEIR TITS!! But the atmosphere was infectious and the people were very friendly. This is where I met my first OUTer. Someone I had never met before, called Rick, who spontaneously recognised me from OUT.

Then I headed to the Eagle, finally. Phew. The music was a bit quieter, and the crowd here were as friendly and relaxed as usual. A wide mix of older and younger, leather guys, skinheads, suited guys, twinks, the lot. Although it positions itself as a leather/uniform etc bar, it's actually a place for EVERYONE and is very mixed. The nearest thing Newcastle has to the Welly. It is ULTRA friendly here. I was spoken to within about 3 mins of walking in the door. Within 20 mins, I had met about 4 different people. I thought it was really busy, but they were all complaining it was unusually quiet, so I guess its usually packed. Then I met my second OUTer of the night, Simon from Sunderland, who stopped me at the bar and said "Are you Zerocrop?" It turns out we had met at an OUT party in London about 4 years ago at the Goose. This what I love about OUT, it's like this giant community, you just keep bumping into OUTers everywhere. Then I spotted someone pointing at me from the other end of the bar, and it turned out he was demonstrating Grindr on his iPhone to his mate, and I was his nearest Grindrer. They were Shaun and Neil and turned out to be a great laugh too. And thanks to the guy who offered to give me a lift back to Durham, unfortunately I wanted to stay later than he did, so declined. I love this pub, probably the friendliest gay pub I've ever been to in ANY city, although I do realise theres a fine line between friendliness and cruisyness. This place is both.

I was in the Eagle for so long I didn't even get a chance to try Eclipse, Camp David, Twist or the Baron & Baroness, or anywhere else I may not know about. Theres just too much here for one night.

Finally just to round the night off, there were two very cute guys on my virtually empty night bus, giving eachother blow jobs on the back seat. They're so classy up here, hahahaha

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the OUT Newcastle weekend in september. Should be an absolute blast :-)