Getting a handle on the scene

Sssssh. It’s the beginning of something exciting. Don’t tell anyone but I think Handle Bar on Saturday nights at Gilligans could be the Sydney queer scene’s much-needed new mid-weekend melting pot.

The opening night saw a mix of leather daddies, 30-somethings and fashionable young things click on the dancefloor to a range of sounds from disco to art-house electro. It’s back again this Saturday (and every week) with this weekend’s line-up including Faker’s celebrity homo Nathan Hudson, DJs Vinyl Richie, Mark Murphy, Lovertits and a-cYbele, a live performance by Blush Foundation, and bear-magnet Seymour Butz, who is finally rocking the home crowds after a lengthy stint in Europe.

Of course, Club Kooky is on at Hermann’s Bar next Saturday night so there will be plenty of chances to see more Butz soon.

Mr Mary’s in Redfern will play host to Alibi on Saturday night and then Deep as Funk is on at Mary’s on Sunday night, two parties that will stretch the musical possibilities way beyond the limited horizons of the Oxford St scene. You will get disco, house, techno and soul at Alibi from DJs Stephen Allkins, Jimmi James, Dean Dixon, Jamie Lloyd, Dave Fernandes and Long John Saliva; while at Deep as Funk they’ll be pumping out the techno, minimal, deep house, Detroit, disco and dubstep sounds with XXXXX from Germany, plus Phonique!, Darkchild and Galaktik, Diatribe-Deep Impressions, Mark Murphy, Rob Nasty, RifRaf and many more.

Sydney Sunday afternoon affair Fag Tag is testing its international potential this weekend with its UK launch party in London at The Social, after doing Auckland last Sunday. Tim D says the buzz for the party is huge -“ watch for a full report right here next week.

Closer to home, the King St Wharf’s current advertising campaign is an example of a bad idea run free. The campaign features lone couples in empty bars and single souls eyeing off unattended bars with the ill thought-out and unconnected slogan Be Part Of The Scene. Excuse me, but what scene? There’s no one there! Has the irony been completely missed by the bunch who created this ad campaign?

At the other end of the scale, everything about pan-Pacific recording artist Sam Sparro is right. The flawless looks, the sexy Aussie accent, the colourful new-rave get-ups, it’s hard to find anything wrong with Sam Sparro -“ yet.

But the example of Jake Shears from the Scissor Sisters shows that the gay community doesn’t necessarily hold onto its obsessions for too long, and I’m as guilty as anyone of falling head-over-heels for new products for all of a minute. This minute belongs to Sam Sparro, the dude brave or stupid enough to call Madonna vulgar after she beat Black and Gold to the top of the UK charts with 4 Minutes. Sam is back in his birth town Sydney for a show at the Oxford Art Factory on Wednesday night, but it sold out weeks ago -“ ditto Melbourne, so good luck getting tickets to that one. And Sam, good luck with Madonna.

Lastly, Melbourne’s Lucrezia and De Sade and the strip’s Sax Fetish are joining forces for a photographic competition, with $2,500 in prizes to be won. All forms of sexual expression are encouraged, but must feature a leather/fetish/kink theme and incorporate at least one item of leather or kink clothing, apparatus, toys or accoutrements. The competition closes on 31 August and entries must be no smaller than 210mm x 270mm and no larger than 1000mm x 1000mm. Full details at Sax Fetish, 110a Oxford Street, Darlinghurst.