Well darlings,
The new Flamingo has opened here in Blackpool - and what can I say? For someone who makes money from using words, they almost fail me. As a privileged and grateful VIP guest on the opening night I can tell you that it's like stepping into another world - you can hardly believe you are still in Blackpool and you must be forgiven if suddenly Dorothy springs into your mind: "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!"
At the closing of the old Flamingo (on Monday 23rd January) Basil Newby was moved to tears on stage, twice breaking down as he found difficulty in saying his epitaph to the nightclub that meant so much to him and to gay people the world over who had come to visit it throughout its lifetime of more than twenty-five years. This was not just a gay venue that was closing that night; this was the end of something that had become a shrine - a monument to Gay. There can be few places on the planet where a gay person if asked what they knew about Blackpool would not first mention the Flamingo before thinking of the Tower.
On that final night the huge crowd chanted "Basil, Basil, Basil" to support the man, and to honour him, as he worked hard to complete his speech. It was a night that had everything going for it with great sounds, cheap drinks, three strippers, and some fantastic cabaret until, when at 4am, it really was all over. Then Basil was not alone in being overcome with emotion; then there were many there in tears who were reluctant to leave this much-loved venue for the last time, and to thereby confirm that an era had ended.
But, as the opening of the new Flying Handbag last week has already shown us, this was not really the end - it was merely a transitional time. Now born again, the new Flamingo is a truly magnificent beast. For gay people who love Blackpool and who would probably have happily settled for anything that Basil provided for them, this new Flamingo can in no way be called an anything - this is a palace of a nightclub that would be admired and envied were it to be placed in any of the great cities of the world. It is remarkable, and some might question why so much money was spent on it when something far less grand would have been satisfactory - but then such a question could only be posed by someone who didn't know Basil.
New gay market research by Out Now 2005 Diva and Gay Times Readers Surveys has revealed that the Pink Pound is now worth over