Leeds: The Future is Androgynous

Gay Times/Novemer 1995

...But if Viva Erotica can be described as trendy then the word 'bizarre' is perhaps more appropriate for a night currently going down a storm in Leeds. Freak Show is held at The Faversham Hotel, actually out of the city centre and tucked away behind the university, and started as a plot for world domination hatched by those sub-urban guerillas, Guy Quillian(m?), Ben Firth and David Hoyle. The latter is better known as The Divine David and it is He who is happy to mouth off about the Freak Show manifesto in his considered and funeral-slow tones; "Here is were clothes mean nothing but the definition we give them," says David. "This is an art movement where the future is androgynous and there is no such thing as gender. The world is ours. We have 21st century fever."
He may have a point. Or he may have a drink problem. But, certainly, when you look around at Freak Show you see an original, new-age family concept being put into practice. Gender is being eradicated through dress and manner. Who or what is kissing who is anybody's guess but, under the spell of Divine David's teachings, nobody cares.
Freak Show is usually held on the third Thursday of the month and runs from 9pm until 2am. The Faversham is a traditional pub venue, already well-known as a student hang-out where the decor is somewhat eclectic. Typical pub seating is mixed-and-matched with 60's-style furniture which could have been chosen by Andy Warhol. As you wander through to the conservatory and a more relaxed environment illuminated with fairy lights, you are confronted with a huge portrait of Hitler, smiling and leaning in a cery gay pose against a tree by the yellow brick road. The picture's caption reads: 'Mein Camp'!
For the Freak Show night, the Faversham is also decorated out to a theme, with images of Divine David which stare out at you from TV screens in every room. Even the car park features an imposing portrait of this new 'Big Brother/Sister/Sibling/David', projected up onto a giant screen.
Three pounds gets you into Freak Show and for this you get a theatre of living art, plus assorted biscuits.

Please note that Freak Show no longer EXISTS!

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