I was interested to read the letter from Patrick, John and Fred and the follow-up from Peter and I can’t help wondering if the problem is not 'things ain’t what they used to be' but that 'we’re not as young as we were'. Those of us of a certain age remember Friday and Saturday nights in Revenge, and the Beacon Royal before that. We remember how busy it was and how we measured the distance between 'shags' in hours or days rather than months or years.
 
But we also remember that there was nowhere else to go – 'Villagers' anybody or 'Footlights'? We were squashed into one or two venues and we had no choice about where we could go. In those days we didn’t know any better, we had the world at our feet but it was such a little world.
 
After 45 years of struggle we now have the acceptance we so long craved and if you were to ask a young person today, I doubt that they would reflect the insecurities of your respondents. The reality is that we now have more choice than we ever did; if there is a problem it is for young gay men. If you’re 35+ then there’s Legends, The Camelford, The Bulldog, The Zone, The Star, The Queens’s Arms, The Amsterdam all within a few hundred yards. If you’re 20 then what does the “scene” have to offer? Only Vavoom, now transformed out of recognition. Charles Street and the R Bar are just for tourists.
 
The reality is that the scene has grown up with the generation who were young in the 80s and 90s at the cost of those who are young now. For those of us who remember the Beacon Royal, we’ve never had it so good. For those that are growing up with Katy Perry there is nothing, presuming that they hanker for the same, limited, myopic scene that we grew up with.
 
John Dudmesh