Ghostrider Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Well for a start, the reason I started to go to dempseys is because my partner at the time was bisexual. Over the years, I have gotten to know the staff and a fair few of the customers quite well (and yes, I do mean the gay ones) In fact thats how I found out that one of my friends was gay ! I dont think a "gay only" bar/club is a bad thing, but its bad when people who are gay feel the need to have a venue such as this just so they dont think they are going to get punched etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carborundum Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Dempseys is a great pub and club and the sign of a truly great gay pub or club is one that allows straights in - has no problem with it - and they all get along togther no hassle or trouble etc ... what a really silly post by Chox who I suspect would not be happy unkess they were partying in an exclusive gay club in some sad gay ghetto street in middle of nowhere .. How are you Spider dear - did enjoy it last night and managed not to get too tipsy this time I think !!! Although I couldne get into the cage cos it was full of dancing straight girls oh well maybe for the better - its a bit unbecoming for a 65 year old to be in it with their walking stick I suppose !!! Ended up going to Xes with a friend where I met the utterly fabulous Tyranna there ! It was greta musthave been Las Femmes night I think .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chox Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Dempseys is a great pub and club and the sign of a truly great gay pub or club is one that allows straights in - has no problem with it - and they all get along togther no hassle or trouble etc ... . Well if that's what you seriously believe, it says a lot about some people's mentailty and Dempsey's attitude. You'd be hard-pressed to find anybody who actually has a good word for Dempseys aside from yourself and presumably a few others who will doubtless appear on here to praise its virtues. Unfortunately (and you must know this to be true) if you talk to any gay people in Sheffield, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who wouldn't say "I wouldn't be seen dead in that dump" or "well it's a dive but it's somewhere to go"... I hear it time and time again and regardless of what you say, you must know that this is the standard reaction you get from almost everybody. If you really don't believe me, try asking a few people who aren't within your circle. Dempseys is a rather small and unexciting pub with a dancefloor upstairs, occupied mostly by straight people during the day, and busy on Saturday (maybe Friday) nights upstairs. It's dead for most of the time (and I mean completely empty upstairs) and although the staff are nice, the customers are a mix of people, comprising of older guys, predatory blokes looking for sex, a handful of younger lads, some lesbians, and a whole hoarde of straight people who presumably can't think of anywhere better to go. Ask youself why there are thousands of gay people in this city and there's probably no more than fifty in Dempseys on a Saturday night. You telling me that's a definition of a "great gay pub" ? Come on get real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carborundum Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Chox s last statement about Dempeys is so silly and inaccurate it doesnt even deserve a reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chox Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 ...which presumably means you have't actually got a valid argument. 'Nuff said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesogt Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 But from a business point of view it outlasted the onslaught of the 'fuel' brigade when it was deserted by its regulars for 6 months and everyone was saying how great fuel was, (see a previous post i made about people wishing it was still there when it might have had to close due to people rushing to fuel each weekend) Fuel unfortunately was almost a 'Tesco' effect on the Sheffield scene, but at least the smalller venues hung on and rode out the storm and found fuel to be what it really was, draining the gay scene purely for its own benefit. It came in claiming to be for the community etc etc and then went on to put opposing nights to climax etc by being free once a month coincidentally on the nights climax was on! How is that helping sheffield gay scene? But it is still there and it is still busy, so someone is doing something right no matter how much people say they dislike it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chox Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Indeed, Fuel were like many other venue organisers who have come and gone over the years. Of course the biggest culprits were Alan and Angel who continually bleated about how they were striving to give the gay community what they wanted, when they were only interested in trying to steer people away from any other venue. This has always been another one of Sheffield's problems; while other towns have managed to accept that working together encourages business to flourish, in Sheffield it always has to be a war to compete with each other. I think the reason Dempseys survives is quite simple; it's cheap and cheerful and even though few people havea good word for it, the place is inevitably better than nothing, and when the only other option was going to Fuel, it was often preferable. The thought of having to endure the attitude of their nasty bouncers (who I almost took to court at one time), the snotty drag queens with their entourage of hissing chickens, the hoardes of straight girls saying "you gay? - what a waste (*eugh*)", the appaling drinks availability and prices, the straight blokes who patently didn't even want to be there (and how we wished they weren't), and that ghastly curtain draped down the middle (how naff was that?)... it was too much to contemplate! With Dempseys, depite it's hopelessly inconsistent music, the afore-mentioned annoying people and the all-too regular risk of finding the place virtually empty, it was (and still is) often as good as it gets in this sad city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bensonhedges Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 If you believe the city to be so sad and hopeless, we are happy to show you to the M1 and wave you gaily off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carborundum Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 If you believe the city to be so sad and hopeless, we are happy to show you to the M1 and wave you gaily off. Hear hear Benson & Hedges - if he doesnt like the unique foibles of our very friendly laid back no attitude "big village" mixed gay scene where everyone knows everyone which I find quite refreshing from any other city such as manchester or london then he is quite free to get on his moaning bicyle and cycle over to the gay ghettos in Manchester Canal St (where a straight guy was stabbed to death in the neck a month ago by older gay men) or go to ghetto Leeds (where guys are regularly assaulted in saunas) .... Give me Dempseys any day or night :-) where the most I have to worry about is getting in the dancing cage with all the happy no attitude straight and gay people :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chox Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Ahh there we go - the sweet sound of reasoned argument. Well, at least you've both demonstrated the basis on which you make your judgements for the rest of us to see. Enjoy yourselves, but please don't rope the rest of us in with your blinkered, rose-coloured fantasy world. It's this kind of rubbish which has got Sheffield into the deplorable state it's now in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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