IT was one of the most exciting, flamboyant club nights in 1990s Glasgow … and now Love Boutique is being brought back to wild, hedonistic life for this weekend’s Pride Glasgow.
It was back in the early 1990s when Glasgow-born Graeme Thompson (pictured below) hatched the idea for Love Boutique as a new addition to the city’s gay scene which would welcome people from within and outwith that community, joined together by a communal love of music.
“Music had always been a big thing for me,” Thompson told The National this week. “I had always been the type of person who had been going to gay places but also to Sub Club and The Arches. I wanted to create a place which attracted a wide range of people to hear the Party like it's 1990: Love Boutique is back for Glasgow Pridemore progressive sort of music that I was looking for.”
But it wasn’t just music that inspired Thompson. He wanted to throw together unusual combinations of people and activities. And so the opening night featured Paul O’Grady’s drag alter ego Lily Savage (below) and later guests would include Australian performance artist and club promoter Leigh Bowery.
Love Boutique became a legendary night, attracting an unusually diverse crowd encompassing gay and straight people, transvestites, those who loved to dress up in the craziest of outfits and those with more reserved styles. Those lucky enough to experience it never forgot it.
DJs included Glasgow’s own Slam and Optimo as well as others from all over the UK and beyond. London’s Jon Pleased Wimmin called it one of the best clubs in Britain.
Love Boutique’s home was The Arches, the much-missed Glasgow venue which featured theatrical and dramatic productions as well as some of the city’s most banging club nights before it was closed down in 2015 in a misdirected attempted to clampdown on drug use at Glasgow clubs.
The latest incarnation of Love Boutique now has a new home in SWG3.
“The closure of The Arches as an incredible loss to the city,” Thompson says today. “But to me SWG3 is an amazing venue which, in terms of the massive range of events held there, has to some extent taken up what The Arches did.”
The Love Boutique revival tomorrow night will feature Optimo and Edinburgh DJ Trendy Wendy, whose appearances at the capital’s Joy club have entered into legend.
But with Thompson once again in the hot seat the event will feature much more than music. “There will be performances in the crowd by students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland,” says Thompson. “I’ve always liked to have things happening that people aren’t sure are performances or not.”
Saturday’s Love Boutique looks set to capture the unique atmosphere of the club’s heyday … but why revive it now, almost two decades after it stopped?
“It was a combination of things really,” says Thompson. “People have been regularly asking me to organise another one but I didn’t want to do it without being sure it would have the quality we insisted on. Now we have a great venue, we have good people involved and it can coincide with the Glasgow Pride event on Saturday. We’ll be offering reduced price tickets for £10 to those with a Pride wristband on.
“I always wanted to create the type of party I’d want to go to myself and I’m sure that’s what we’ll do on Saturday. I’m particularly keen on making it an inclusive, welcoming event – and one that attracts a wider age range than many similar events.”
And if it is as successful as it looks likely to be, will this revival herald a more regular return of one of Glasgow’s favourite party nights?
Thompson is hedging his bets. “Right now it’s strictly a one-off event,” he says, but adds: “I wouldn’t say ‘watch this space’ as that’s a bit of a cliché … but maybe ‘watch this dancefloor.’”
Graeme Thompson's top three Love Boutique highlights
1. Our opening night featuring Lily Savage “I really wanted Lily Savage to appear. At the time Lily was one of the most famous drag acts in the country, but booking her was incredibly difficult. Eventually I saw that she was appearing in a club in Wolverhampton. I contacted the club and was invited down to meet her. When I got into the dressing room she was sitting reading a book on Marlene Dietrich. She said: ‘Are you that stupid ******* who has driven all the way from Glasgow to ask me to appear at his club?’ And she agreed to perform.”
2. The appearance of Leigh Bowery in 1993 “I’d met Leigh some time before during the Edinburgh Festival, at an after-show party which followed a Michael Clark ballet, and we got talking. He appeared at Love Boutique with his band Minty. They were travelling to Glasgow overnight from London and I was supposed to meet them at Central Station. When I arrived there was no sign of them … until I got a call to meet them at the Grand Central Hotel, where we had tea and biscuits at 7am. It was a pretty strange sight. Leigh was such a lovely guy.
3. My third highlight wasn’t really anything to do with a particular performer ...
It was one night when I was standing behind the sound desk, where you could get a bit of privacy and take the whole thing in. It was then I realised what we had created … a really groundbreaking mixture of people brought together by world-class music, as well as local DJs. It was amazing ...
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