The Queer Alternative

On 23rd July 2015 the trustees of The Queer Alternative held a meeting.  The minutes can be viewed here.

Want to meet up with likeminded Goths and other Alt types and are heading to Infest this year?

We'll be in the Sports Bar for an informal meet up between the second and third bands on Saturday, come and say 'hi'.

If you don't know what I'm talking about then Infest is the UK's biggest Industrial music festival, held at Bradford student uni over the August bank holiday www.infestuk.com

You will need to be attending the event to attend this meet up

There is a nominal start time of 4pm but may change this once the schedule for the bands is confirmed.

Please note that this is not part of any event organised by the Infest crew.

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1626116867629668/

It’s back! The snarling, grinding, thundering machine of metal and rock madness is descending once again on the Star of Kings for another evening of heavy music for you to enjoy. Featuring the talents of DJs TGA (The Gay Ass Rock Show) The Scot (PsychoCandy) Fenbane (Schattenspiel) and AndyRavenSable (Rivet) Providing music from across the spectrum, including:

Pantera, Iron Maiden, Prong, Slipknot, Children of Bodom, Morbid Angel, Dio, Talanas, Rob Zombie, Motorhead, Nile, Slayer, Drowning Pool, System of A Down, My Ruin, Saliva, Machine Head, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Korn, Rob Zombie, Nightwish, Megadeth, Sepultura, Killswitch Engage, Otep, Fear Factory, Dimmu Borgir, Rammstein and many more... 14th August 2015 8pm-1am

£3 on the door (£2 with concession - ID required) Plus a raffle to win a bar tab at 11pm! At the Star of Kings, 126 York Way, London N1 0AX - just 10 mins walk north of Kings Cross station. See you in the moshpit!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/926282380768259/

Fetlife: https://fetlife.com/events/362483

London Gothic: http://www.meetup.com/London-Gothic/events/223832277/

This summer, The Queer Alternative will be hitting two more cities to raise awareness and understanding between mainstream LGBT+ communities and alternative subcultures.

BRIGHTON:

Parade on 1st August

Meet at 9am at Farrow and Ball on the corner of Brunswick Place and Western Road  Parade position secured and post-parade drinks at the Catherine of Brunswick.  

LEEDS:

Pre-meet at Infernal, The Library, Leeds on 1st August

Parade on 2nd August

We will congregate at Browns at the corner of The Headrow and Park Row at 10:30 to prep, chat, and enjoy a breakfast. We'll be heading to Millenium Square at 12:00 to attend the pre-march show and our meetup point there will be in front of Leeds City Museum. The march sets 14:00.

The Queer Alternative are proud to announce our first year at Brighton Pride. The pre-event drinks are being held this Thurs the 2nd of July - so come join us at the Prince Albert at 7.30pm to ask questions, talk music choices and bring your ideas for the parade. Add your attendance to the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1115502078466127/

The parade itself is on Saturday 1st of August, meeting near Hove Lawns for 10AM. To confirm your attendance and keep up to date on the latest details, the pride presence Facebook event is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1115502078466127/

The Queer Alternative presents a night of music, comedy and cabaret with:

Who

An award-winning lineup including commere Rosie Lugosi, Kiki Lovechild, Avery Edison, Dusty Limits, Em Brulée, Bones and Rope, Andromada Mystic, Jonathan Collins, Snake Fervor, and Joe Black!

DJs Wanderlust and Scott the Scot, sound manager Andy Ravensable

What

Music, dance, burlesque and comedy with a queer sensibility that steps outside comfortable clichés.

A raffle will also be held with prizes including Double R tickets and London Gothic membership

Where

The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JB (Nearest tube: Angel or Kings Cross)

When

Sunday 21st June 2015 19:00 to 23:00

Admission

Previous events have attracted a varied but friendly cross-section of goths, punks, metalheads, rivetheads and other counterculturists. While many regulars fall into the LGBTQ+ spectrum, the events also attract straight and label defying allies.

Tickets

: £10 in advance from

www.wegottickets.com/thequeeralternative

ABOUT THE QUEER ALTERNATIVE The Queer Alternative is an established community group with hundreds of members across the UK. The group puts on a range of events, from cabarets, to club nights, to RPG evenings. and is in the process of turning the group into a charity. To that end, it has the following formal Charitable Objects:

The promotion of equality and diversity for the public benefit and in particular

(1) a culture of acceptance, visibility and equality for people of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other minority sexual orientations and gender identities (LGBT+) within alternative subcultures and

(2) the visibility and acceptance of members of alternative subcultures within the wider LGBT+ community particularly (but not exclusively) by:

a. raising awareness of the presence of LGBT+ people within alternative subcultures and their specific needs

b. running and supporting events which cater to LGBT+ members of alternative subcultures

c. encouraging and aiding communication between LGBT+ people in alternative subcultures

For the purpose of this clause, an “alternative subculture” is a type of culture that exists beyond mainstream or popular culture. This could include, but is not limited to, heavy metal, goth, punk, industrial, steampunk, cyber, vintage, hippy and cosplay subcultures.

The Queer Alternative can be found

on the web, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on G+

6th June (9pm-4am) - Reptile, Archway Tavern Popular inclusive goth/alternative night   http://bit.ly/ReptileClub

7th June (11am-5pm) - The Alternative Bring & Buy Sale, The Dome Funding London Gothic Meetup & The Queer Alternative http://www.alternativebringandbuy.co.uk/

21st June (7pm-midnight) - Liberte! Egalite! Cabaret! , The Lexington Joe Black, Rosie Lugosi, Dusty Limits, Snake Fervor, Bones&Rope www.wegottickets.com/queeralternative

27th June - PRIDE!!! Meet 12pm at Paddington Street Gardens.  March then pub

For further updates visit:

www.queeralternative.co.uk

@TheQueerAlt on Twitter and Fetlife

“The Queer Alternative” Facebook and G+

In aid of The Queer Alternative, MetalChrome is a new metal night, celebrating all forms of metal music, and all people who enjoy them. Featuring DJ sets from Wozza (Metal Warriors), Mumin (Synthetic Culture), Landmine (Shenanigans) and AndyRavenSable (Rivet), playing a range of styles, including bands such as: Slayer, Drowning Pool, Metallica, Dio, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Prong, Slipknot, Fear Factory, Dimmu Borgir, Talanas, Paradise Lost, Megadeth, Rammstein, Children of Bodom, Morbid Angel, Sepultura, Killswitch Engage, Saliva, Motley Crue, Rob Zombie, Motorhead, Machine Head, Black Sabbath, Korn, and many more. Entry fee will be £3, or £2 for concessions (on production of ID), as well as a raffle being held at 11pm to win a bar tab! See you in the moshpit!

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/518345801639042/?fref=ts

G+ event: https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/c4t3a3lcac05e8e5h2ag71al48k

Fetlife event: https://fetlife.com/events/327702

This year, we are planning several community events for our members, including walking groups at Brighton and Leeds Prides and a float entry for Pride in London.

As a community group, The Queer Alternative relies on donations from our supporters to survive.  There are several ways you can help to raise funds for the group:

donate via paypal to [email protected]  It doesn't matter if it's £10 or 10p, every donation is desperately appreciated and helps to fund flyers, float materials, and Pride registrations.

do a sponsored activity to raise money.  Go without chocolate or coffee for a week?  Run a certain distance in a set amount of time?

hold a bake sale

eBay your unwanted items

hold a picnic

Order something from our Amazon Wishlist

We also accept donations of materials for Pride. Could you donate some balloons or cable wires for our float? Can you make a parade banner or marching sign? Please get in touch at [email protected] if so.

Short of cash?  There are also many useful things you can do for the group:

- research institutions and groups we could partner with

- share our online updates

- ask for a batch of flyers to distribute locally

- talk to as many people as possible about TQA

2014 brought a lot of bad news for the UK alternative scene with club nights and bars closing across the country.  However there is still a lot going on - below are a few user-submitted listings for the forthcoming month.  Please comment with any further suggestions (LGBTQ+ friendly preferred of course) and we will add them here.

Yorkshire

Third Thursday - Leeds Kinky Drinks

7th February - Carpe Noctum (and every first Saturday thereafter)

3rd-5th April - Resistanz, Sheffield

23rd-26th April - Whitby Goth Weekend (inc. The Bazaar)

London

16th January -  Inferno

17th January - Reptile (and every second Saturday thereafter)

31st January -  Electric Dreams

31st January - Club Glitterati

6th February - Dead and Buried

14th February - Rumours  (lesbian night)

14th February - The Negative Creep 

28th February - Shenanigans

Last Saturday - Heavy Load Club

Oxford

Monthly - Sanctum (Metal)

Monthly - Bedrock

Third Saturday - Quiltbag Cabaret

Southampton

7th February - What the Fluff (Fur Dance)

28th February - Fusion  (Goth/EBM/Industrial)

First Sunday of the month from 4pm at The Hobbit - Southampton munch

Other

The Queer Alternative is back with their second cabaret event to raise funds for Pride in London and beyond. Acts include: *PROFESSOR ELEMENTAL -- Steampunk icon, Gentleman Rhymer and Chap-Hop artist extraordinaire *THE DYKENESS -- Intergalactic feminist cock rock *LAURENCE OWEN -- Musical comic with a dry and perverse wit *ANGEL LaVEY -- Comedic chanteuse and burlesque artist *JACQUES BRUXELLES -- Stand-up comic and boylesque performer *WHISKEY ROXX -- Gorelesque with a shot of the macabre *NIGEL OSNER -- Vampire cabaret *MISTER MEREDITH -- Lewd dandy charmer *ERNESTO SAREZALE -- Velvet tongue

WITH SPECIAL GUEST Rosie Lugosi of The March Violets DJs: Frankie D (Slimelight, Flag Promotions),  Andy RavenSable (Monster Truck)  Scott (Alternative Bring and Buy) RAFFLE PRIZES include:

REPTILE tickets 

Subversion Clothing vouchers

Goodies from Diamantequeen Designs

Tickets to see The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing + The Cesarians + Nu Pogodi THE GARAGE

Tickets to also see Toyah thanks to FLAG PROMOTIONS > Gigs, Clubs, Tours

A copy of Sarah Channing Wright's new book "The Angels of Islington"

MOAR CAKE from The Gothic Valley WI

TICKETS ARE £10 adv from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/286221

Dexter Koala and I took a big bundle of TQA/Subversion Clothing flyers to Infest as people know. Well that was the start of our great adventure!

Most of the flyers we gave out, at least 200, were given to people who we had conversations with about TQA and acceptance within the scene and outside of it. Lots of lovely people who are already part of TQA like Wanderlust and Faithais took some flyers for distribution back home but really the buzz was there. There may be some haziness about my memories but I know for sure that people who run nights in Plymouth and Bristol have bundles of flyers, as do the lovely SOPHIE crew who we chatted to about Leeds Pride. (https://www.facebook.com/LordWozza1) who is a rock/metal DJ and, although perhaps more than a little merry, was up for working with TQA if approached when sober! He also took a bundle of flyers.

At our house parties, of which the earliest to finish was 6am, we had TQA posters and carried on our mission to make sure that everyone at Infest knew who we were and what we stood for. People were commenting at the venue that they had already noticed our house because of the poster in the window!

In general, and in our house parties specifically, you couldn't have got a more accepting and inclusive bunch. A generally lovely atmosphere for the whole three days. What Infest is all about really!

One blot on the landscape though was a member of a band (who shall remain unnamed) who proved himself to be unwelcome. Iit is reported he said "This is a great after party except for all the gays."

Some checking out was done, no one could quite believe that he wasn't joking, and then after it became clear that he was indeed serious he was asked to leave.

It is noted that he didn't come up to the venue on the Sunday, but I do not know his reasons for not doing so.

The message regarding his conduct was passed straight back to the organisers who were swift in their condemnation of such an attitude, it seems that the gentleman had been making homophobic and transphobic remarks earlier in the evening up at the venue and generally acting inappropriately. It is my understanding that it is unlikely that this band will be asked back to Infest.

So yes, a fantastic Infest (as always) with the added benefit of having another reason to talk to lots of lovely people! 

The night before Pride, I attended Infernal where [TQA DJ and designer] Andy DJed, and Andromada [Liberte Egalite Cabaret star] and I danced like crazy.  We were therefore relatively shitfaced when we started Sunday. 

Surprisingly, none of the registered people turned up in advance, including a group who messaged me that very morning(!). Maybe they did at the last minute but sadly we did not know who they were. Therefore, we hired on the spot and along the Parade's march, which is how we assembled the group. Now for the detailed story.

Andromada and I had breakfast at Browns, and then went to Millennium square with the amp and banner. Being just the two of us, we just planted ourselves with the banner deployed in front of the Leeds City Museum. Not seeing anyone arrived, we started flyering and hiring people. We were quite a curiosity. Lots of people stopping, chatting, taking photos. A trans woman asked to have her photo taken while holding the banner. Compared to London, our banner and logo really stood out on the backdrop of the nice and gentle rainbow atmosphere of the Leeds Pride.

We started the parade with maybe twenty people, mainly: a small trans group of all ages with trans flags, a group of 18's who asked us whether they could carry the banner and hand flyers over (couldn't believe our luck!), and Pyromancer (the organiser of Infernal) with friends. The younglings did not believe their ears when we started playing Amanda Palmer; both they and I jumped and danced with a wide grin on our faces meaning: 'oh my god, is this really happening?'. Also, before the start of the parade, Andromada danced with a 3 year old kid from the group behind us, and who naturally went to her. This was awesome.

During the parade, we met the Leeds Goth / SOPHIE group who were watching the parade from the side, and whom Andromada invited in. After that, lots of people joined us on the path of the march. And this is where the magic that we wanted to see happening did happen. Our presence created lots of passion. As Andromada wrote: So many pictures taken, so many cheers, so many people coming up and asking for leaflets and saying where we do meet ups, such an in your face desire for non pop/disco LGBT+ music space. Also, we called to alt people of all churches: goths, metal, emo, punk, vampires, trans*. The awesome comment of the guy of the Yorkshire Bears on our Facebook page says it all. And so nearly 50 of us ended up marching behind the Queer Alternative banner.

The end of the parade was very different from London, because we arrived in the middle of a wide party, rather than the no man's land that is Whitehall. So the tendency was for people to go their own way to meetup with friends. So in the end we only went for drinks with a small part of the group. Again, nobody who registered seemed to be there, so I don't even know whether they came at all. It was therefore very much Pyromancer and friends, the SOPHIE group, a few individuals, Andromada and me. We went away from the buzz to Wharf Chambers, where we all got to know each other and had a small group photo (taken by the SOPHIE people). 

Looking back, the biggest emotions for me were the disappointment at not seeing pre-registered people, and the joy at seeing how much we were able to gather people. What was clear also was that our brand has an incredibly high power of attraction and really stands out. My intuition tells me that the Leeds Pride has very much been taken over by institutional groups, and people want it to be just about people, without politics, and about being proud on that day. In this respect, I think we fulfil a need. I think, also that being 'just' a banner and an amp is the right approach; we are about the untellable that happens between gender, being alternative, and alternative musics. The only way of telling it is to perform it, walk, smile, stand tall, chant, dance, be silly. We are a unique space for that. I think Andromada and I communicated it perfectly (in all modesty, haha) since we are both very silly and very involved. And people communicated it back to us. Wonderful.

Next: talk to people and try to organise a TQA evening here sometime.

Special mentions go to:

- The four younglings who carried the banner and distributed flyers. They were awesome. Super efficient and creative flyerers as well as recruiters on the road of the march. Unfortunately, they couldn't join us at the drink because one of them was just under 18, but next year for sure. They were also an awesome flyering team; they saw us in London to, and would be great flyerers there. Unfortunately, they left before I could take their details. We'll have to find them somehow. A big thank you also to other banner holders who volunteered later on!

- Jack Pyromancer the organiser of Infernal who joined us with friends. Honestly, it is thanks to him that we looked a tiny bit goth! Thank you also to Jordan Reyne, who had performed at the Library the night before, for joining us.

- The Leeds Goth / S.O.P.H.I.E. group, organised by the managers of the Soho's Leeds shop who hadn't registered to the Parade officially and were just watching it on the side, and whom we invited when we passed by. Note that one of their projects is to create a SOPHIE point of presence at their shop for alternative people victim of abuse for their alternative looks or persona.