Gscene Magazine - Features

News \| Arts \| Travel \| Features \| Food & Drink \| Health \| Back Issues \| About Gscene \| Jobs \| Services \|

Andy Feest celebrates 20 years at the helm of the flagship on George St

By James Ledward, Feb 2, 2012 - 11:48:22 PM

Features Feed

Printer friendly page

Andy Feest

Andy Feest took over the helm at the Queens Arms in December 1992. In this, his 20th year in George Street, Gscene got up close and personal with the four times winner of the Golden Handbag Manager Of The Year award.

On leaving school at the age of 16, Andy worked for five years as a trainee salesman for Perrings, a company in Worthing. He began DJing at the local nightclub Bubbles when he was 21 and made such an impact that the owners made him manager of the club.

The club was sold in 1985 and Andy was not only out of a job but also lost his passion and the ability to nightly entertain a crowd as a DJ. Jobs as a carpet and bed salesman followed before Andy was tempted at the age of 28 by the bright lights of Brighton where he took a part-time job as a doorman at Revenge.

His talent for engaging with the customers was recognised by the owner Tony Chapman and Andy was encouraged to host the drag shows, introduce the strippers, host Mr Gay UK heats and he became the fledgling club’s first personality DJ.

Andy said:
“My fondest memories at Revenge were interviewing, hosting and meeting the fabulous Eartha Kitt and the legendary Marti Caine. Tony Chapman the present owner of Legends was the owner of Revenge then. He was a massive inspiration to me and in 1992 I decided to put every penny I had to purchase the lease to get the Queens Arms.

“During the last 20 years the commercial gay scene has got much bigger. When I first took over the Queens Arms there was only a handful of gay venues and as time has gone on, there has been growth of venues in Kemptown and the gay village.

"Brighton has become a premier gay city not only within the UK but also the world. In the present economic crisis the scene has seen many changes. More straight people have been gracing us with their presence in the venues which reflects the society we now live in and gave me the idea for our slogan: the Queens Arms is ‘For him, for her for everyone’.”

Highlights of Andy's 20 years at the QA include.....
• Dave Lynn performing his Game Shows every Sunday, 48 weeks a year!! The QA was always packed out to full capacity and the atmosphere was electric.

• The fundraising event after the Asian Tsunami when £5,000 was raised by the QA in one day. Andy is very proud of the money raised for charities over the years by the QA. He puts this down to the support of his customers, cabaret artists, local traders and hard working staff. In particular he singles out Cherry for special mention who he says goes above and beyond her job description in selling raffle tickets for every fundraising event.

• Andy misses performers of years gone by who bring back wonderful memories of times he has experienced in the pub, especially the late Phil Starr and Dockyard Doris.

Dockyard Doris & Phil Starr

• On a more personal level, he will never forget the night his idol, Joe Longthorne, turned up at the Queens Arms after appearing at the Theatre Royal. He joined in with Betty's karaoke and they sat and chatted until the early hours of the morning.

Starting in February, the QA will be revisiting the glory days of the pub by reintroducing Super Duper cabaret every Sunday at 6pm and 9pm.

When asked what single thing he would do to improve the present
commercial gay scene in Brighton, Andy said:
“I think that the one thing that could improve the current gay scene is to revert to 'old practices' again and try to develop that community spirit we had, where we all, especially the businesses, worked together to make Brighton & Hove the centre of the gay universe and the only place to be.”

HERE TO CHALLENGE! A GUIDE TO WHATS HAPPENING IN LGBT BRIGHTON & HOVE