Will Warren is the co-host of Track by Track, a podcast that reviews, track by track (see what they did there?), brilliant pop albums from the past. And, we’re talking unashamedly pop – think Girls Aloud, Pet Shop Boys and Kylie Minogue.
But long before he was reviewing albums online he was drinking a ridiculous amount of alcohol at Flamingos, a bar in Bristol, England that billed itself as THE South West Gay superclub.
We caught up to talk alcopops, pre-drinks, and all you can drink alcohol for £20….
Find out more about Will by following him on twitter
AND, also check out Track by Track to keep up to date with the podcast and the albums they’re reviewing!
TranscriptWill Warren 00:00
Even though I’m quite happy to go to bed at 10 o’clock, with a cup of tea, and a book or a film, I still from time to time think oh, that’d be quite fun just to you know once in a while do that have a big blowout and just enjoy enjoying the excesses and the fun of it. But in reality maybe if I actually did do that, it would probably get to midnight and I would be kind of
K Anderson 00:23
god it’s really loud in here what I
Will Warren 00:27
thought of it is very exotic, very attractive, but actually doing it less so.
K Anderson 00:35
Hello, I am K Anderson and you are listening to lost spaces. The podcast that mourns the death of queer nightlife. Every episode I talk to a different person about a venue from their past, the memories they created there and the people that they used to know. Will Warren is the co host of track by track, a podcast that reviews track by track finally enough brilliant Pop Albums from the past. And we’re talking unashamedly pop think girls allowed Pet Shop Boys and Kylie Minogue. But long before he was reviewing albums online, he was drinking a ridiculous amount of alcohol at flamingos a bar in Bristol, England, that build itself as the Southwest gay super club. We could up to talk alcopops pre drinks at your friend’s house. And all you can drink alcohol for 20 pounds.
Will Warren 01:58
You would turn if I was in my flat, you could turn grinder on a new bring up everyone that was going there in the club. Just over the road around the corner a little bit.
K Anderson 02:08
And so did you use that as a way of like, shall I go out tonight?
Will Warren 02:13
Normally my friends would get it out. And then we would just just go through and think and look for anyone that we recognised. And not have a good laugh, but just have a good conversation about the people that we would see on there. Maybe there was some past experience or story to tell that was always good fun.
K Anderson 02:34
Just like bingo or something.
Will Warren 02:36
I think also the flats that I lived in, they were very renowned for having a lot of gay men living in it, I think probably because it was city centre, just around the corner from the Old Market, gay village. So if you turned it on, there was normally a lot of people very close to you.
K Anderson 02:56
Either living there or visiting. And so did you ever use that as a pickup line? I live around the corner.
Will Warren 03:06
Probably Yeah. I can’t remember how
K Anderson 03:10
I can’t remember. Convenient, right?
Will Warren 03:15
It’s like questioning an MP not to the best of my recollection.
K Anderson 03:22
Oh, but that’s weird. So like living in a building? with a bunch of other homosexuals. And was there like hooking up thing going on? And then shame when you saw them in the lift?
Will Warren 03:36
I there wasn’t something I ever did. Because you don’t you would never do on your doorstep. I mean, because you don’t I would. And I just have in mind this like fast where people are running from in one door and out the other. Some carry on film. But no, that was never stopped
K Anderson 04:00
right there. Like you know if you ever like wanted a late night hook up, but you’re like, Oh, it’s raining. I don’t want to go out. And then if they’re like in the same building, you don’t even have to like put shoes on.
Will Warren 04:11
I was I was never I i’ve always if if if we were having a few drinks I’d always in I’d always be out for a kiss and whatnot. I would I never used to really put myself about hugely.
K Anderson 04:28
Is that a known phrase that I’ve just never heard put myself about? Oh, yeah.
Will Warren 04:35
Yeah, if you see so already, you know, she puts herself out. She puts herself about a bit. It’s like yeah, you know where you know what she’s up to?
K Anderson 04:42
Yesterday, like sliding it up. Yeah. All right. I’m gonna start using that stuff. slipping it in. Oops. Right. flamingos. Tell me about the time of your life when you
Will Warren 04:56
first started going there. It was. It was a really fun time. It was Is it was kind of it was 2008. And the kind of few years that followed that I’d graduated from uni, moved to London, got a job in TV paying absolutely nothing, but had such a great time just soaking up city life after growing up in a village in Devon, I loved it. But I got to a point where I don’t think it was very good for me. And I was very, I very unhealthy lifestyle, I wasn’t enjoying the work I was doing. And I knew friends and family in Bristol. So it was a great place to go to, to do for a new chapter. And that was then sort of late 2008, early 2009, when I moved when I left London and moved to Bristol, and, you know, quickly kind of got dived into kind of what Bristol had to offer as a city made loads new friends. And so people I already knew, and there’s quite and at the time, there was quite a good gay scene there with quite a bit of choice and variety. And I know that’s not the case. So much now, as with uh, you know, that’s why we’re here. We were talking about things that are no longer with us. But I think it’s changed a lot. But back then, there were you know, there were a couple of big areas in Bristol, that had a kind of gay village feel to them. And, you know, in a city, which isn’t huge by any standard, but it was definitely, it was a great move at the time. And yeah, like I said, I had a good time, I made lots of friends. I got fitter and healthier as well, I started doing something that I enjoyed more. And ultimately, I met my partner who I’m now with nearly 10 years. So it kind of just all clicked there.
K Anderson 06:54
10 years. Wow.
Will Warren 06:57
Almost April, April, there’ll be 10 years.
K Anderson 07:01
And so what was that, like? So you’re about like, 2829 when you moved?
Will Warren 07:07
So I would have been? Yeah. 28? Yeah, yeah. 28 when I moved, so what’s that like,
K Anderson 07:12
starting again?
Will Warren 07:15
It didn’t, I think it didn’t really didn’t necessarily feel like I was starting again. It just felt like the next stage the next chapter. And I think because I already had kind of established friendships and connections in the city, and I visited it quite a bit as well. It just felt very comfortable. It’s like when you do something and it feels it just feels like the right thing.
K Anderson 07:38
Yeah, yeah,
Will Warren 07:39
that’s definitely. It’s always a big gamble when you kind of uproot and relocate to a different city. But I definitely and I was apprehensive. But I definitely felt once I’ve moved, I’ve done the right thing.
K Anderson 07:51
And so settling in, like making new connections, reconnecting with people that you’ve already knew, you started going out on the scene, where they’re friends to go out with, or were you going out on your own.
Will Warren 08:05
It was always a big, it was always a big group, it always felt like an event, there was never, you I was never short for somebody to go out with. And I very quickly had a really good group of sort of three, four or five people. And depending on the week and what was happening in the night, other people would join as well. And I think that’s what, really I think that’s what we are why really look back on it fondly, is because it was a really great group of people. And did there wasn’t often too much drama. We’d often take the joy and drama happening around us not necessarily to us as is, as is the way probably still to some to some design respect. But yeah, so there was you and you go out more you get to know other people as well. And so you would always see lots of familiar faces out. And Bristol isn’t a big city either. So you do get to know people who are friends or friends and you notice people and recognise Oh, that’s so and so. And like you give them nicknames, don’t you as well. And there was always
K Anderson 09:16
his Lv Tell me who did you give nicknames to?
Will Warren 09:20
Well, there was always there was always a guy that wandered round with a backpack on his back and we always used to joke that he had he had a head in the backpack. He just didn’t want to let go of it. It was really weird. You know, just to sort of jokes that only friends would find funny within friends. And you know, I love all of that. And for me that’s when friendships are at their you know, their most where the chemistry is at its best is when you have your in jokes. It’s easy. It’s fun. You just get there. Yeah, you just get
K Anderson 09:56
so but like that’s that’s the example. There’s nothing more offensive than guy with their head in his bag.
Will Warren 10:03
Nothing through nothing that I would share. Oh,
K Anderson 10:09
I have to wait till later than when you’ve warmed up. So group of people like I’m, you know, as you as you may be able to tell a very socially awkward person, two groups of people terrify me. What am what is this ceremony of going out is it going around to someone’s place and then going out?
Will Warren 10:32
Oh, it’s this was like this is time when like pre drinks was like this thing. And it’s like still a thing that happens a lot now but it really felt like then that was like as much a part of the ceremony of the night out in the evening as as actually going to the going to the pubs and bars and clubs were and I had a really great flat that was right in the centre in the city centre of Bristol. And it was literally just a two minute walk from one of the main gay village areas. And so it would be the tradition that everyone would come around to my flat. And one of the facts I had we had a re it was on the top floor. And it was amazing view looking at over the city with these huge windows down one side. And it just felt like it was so great to have people over and to host and I honestly don’t know how we survived those evenings when with the amount of alcohol that was consumed just before going out, let alone when you actually got in into the into the club and flamingos was notorious for binge drinking, which we’ll we’ll come on to our
K Anderson 11:44
so is it one of those situations where you drink as much as you can at home? So you don’t have to pay expensive drink prices when you go out?
Will Warren 11:52
Well, no, this is the thing once you got to flamingos they would be they would do first of all, it was the first thing they did. When I first got there or even this I when I visited they do we’re doing this thing before I moved. And it was good. It was during the bar dry and it was like 20 pounds for as much as you could drink unlimited. And it seems crazy now because that’s like, really not not, not on anymore. And then. So you would drink as much as you could at home in the pre drinks. And then you would go to the club and drink as much as you could to try and get you to try and get your money’s worth. And honestly, it was Carnage, again, part of the fun of the night. Because I think there was like, laws change. And it was a big focus on like binge drinking culture. So they did it’s different thing. And it was 10 drinks or 20 pounds. And I guess they probably thought they were being more responsible. But then it became like a competition. Who could drink their 10 drinks the first you could have the 10 marks on their wristband first
K Anderson 12:59
and how often really fast.
Will Warren 13:01
I was never fair. But funnily enough, the people that were first were often the people that were just literally on the pavement outside well before 1am. But it was like they were still when is there? Well, yeah, the record state. So when I think about it now and what we enjoy doing like in, in our flat in London is having people over, you know, we do some food, you’re making some cocktails and some drinks and then you know, time disappears. And before you know it’s like two 3am and I think it was that feeling of that that kind of pre drinks that was sometimes that was like the funnest part. Because it was just you and your gang making all these weird drinks and do playing drinking games and playing the music you
K Anderson 13:49
controlling the music? Yeah, I was gonna say.
Will Warren 13:54
And there’s nothing more commanding than a gay in charge of the music at the pre drinks.
K Anderson 14:00
But But like, so with your friends. Were they interested in what you had to play? Or were they or just like Yeah, what else?
Will Warren 14:09
Oh, absolutely. And, you know, I’ve you know, I’ve got very particular tastes in music, which we talk a lot about on track by track. And but that was the time when like girls and loud were huge. And there was this there was a real kind of dance pop thing going on through the charts. Sugar babes are at their peak as well. And everybody loves that music and that was very much Saturday night sort of party music as well.
K Anderson 14:38
And do you ever Are you ever like Oh guys, I’ve heard this new song and I want like a you need to hear it and then play it and then when no one’s interested yourself?
Will Warren 14:47
Yes. I remember one time there was a long forgotten about act called mini Viva. And they were like they were Judo and they were had the same producers As girls realise is no mania. And I was like, you gotta listen to this song. This is gonna be like a siren song of the summer. It’s gonna be everywhere. And everyone’s like, Oh, yes. All right. But anyways, just like it don’t think even going to the top one hundreds of one touch. Oh, okay. Like the fall of the third single day, there was a bit of a last last chance saloon I think for them and they would they would dropped quite soon after. But that was the one I was like, this is it. This is gonna be the big one. And it was just a lukewarm reception on the on the night. But why exactly.
K Anderson 15:45
Okay, so first time i flamingos
Will Warren 15:50
I can remember I remember really well actually. Because it was I was I was visiting from London. My friends. And we, they were like, raving about kind of this place and how it was like, craziness, but really fun. And it’s like, you got to come here. And you can drink as much as you want. And I was like, What can I do? That’s not, that’s not true. And so we we went, and it was really fun, but I just remember how, like one of my friends can stand up, someone else disappeared? And I’m like, do I really want to come and live in here? These people
K Anderson 16:33
had such a good business model. How do they make money?
Will Warren 16:39
Well, you know, ultimately, they’re not around anymore. might tell you all you need to know, it was packed every weekend. And they used to do a student night as well, on a Wednesday, and it was Same, same provides provides a but it was 10 pounds rather than 20. But again, they just used to pack it in. And there wasn’t a night at the weekend, Friday or Saturday when there wasn’t a queue down the road
K Anderson 17:08
to go in. So So you went the first time your friends got very very drunk. You questioned whether or not you actually wanted to move to Bristol. But then you did.
Will Warren 17:20
But then I did because Bristol is a really cool city as well. And I think it was definitely what I needed at the time. And you know, I’ve made some lifelong friendships there as a result of it and and and and a long term relationship as well. But I think it was but I think it was there was a fun there in that night and I saw enough of kind of what else was out there on the scene in Bristol to think this would be really fun place to live as well as being kind of what I need for my life at that point. And you know so much so that you know we’re we’re moving back to Bristol me and my partner Tom and that’s something that’s going to be happening quite seen this year as well and we’ll be we’ll be picking back up with quite a few people that you know I we made friends with through the Flamingo days and beyond Domini never were never together during the Flamingo times but we would have definitely been in there at the same time but just not known it our past in cross
K Anderson 18:26
when it closed you sobered up and
Will Warren 18:31
we’re like see that was the other thing as well the the drinks that they serve there I think maybe another way how they made money was there was definitely not you had the premium bottles or spirits but I don’t didn’t always feel like you were getting a premium drink and there was a lot of sugar in like alcohol or something so he didn’t necessarily have a hangover in the morning you have the shakes because of the the amount of sugar that you’ve consumed number of IV Ks and things you drunk the night before as well
K Anderson 19:05
but what so it wasn’t just like blanket any alcohol or is it just the kind of alcohol you were drinking?
Will Warren 19:13
It was blank you could have whatever obviously they would put the really good stuff away on for those not on those but pretty much you know you can have your you can have your your logo or your spirits with a mixer or a bottle of alko pops or whatever. But the alcopops will never like what was the premium one at the time like Smirnoff Ice, it was always like a blue or a purple coloured bottle or do you remember the orange reef that was like it was basically like drinking really, really sweet orange and pineapple juice concentrate? tasting alkine if you had more than two you’d feel sick,
K Anderson 19:56
or alcopops still a thing. I
Will Warren 20:01
I don’t think they’re anywhere near as huge as they they were like back in the late 90s. In the early noughties, when it was Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi breezer. What else was there? archers, archers, Aqua, Mad Dog all sorts of things.
K Anderson 20:20
What was that nonalcoholic one, J two?
Will Warren 20:24
j two. Oh, that’s still that’s still. That’s still a big one, J two O. Which is basically just like fruit juice, isn’t it? Yeah.
K Anderson 20:31
So gross. Longtime.
Will Warren 20:36
That just overly sweet, aren’t they?
K Anderson 20:39
Yeah, like if you’re not drinking alcohol. It’s like, you can have water or you can have diabetes. Like that’s it? There’s no middle ground? No, no, not at all. So what kind of size was the place?
Will Warren 20:55
So it was, it was so it was we used to be billed as the only Southwest gay super club.
K Anderson 21:06
There was a tagline.
Will Warren 21:07
Yeah. But it really wasn’t like the size. Like the story I used to be or like heaven is now if you’re talking like gay super cops. It was big in terms of, you know, because my experience of like gay bars in the southwest are basically like little underground shoe boxes. That you kind of, if you walk more than two steps too far, you’ve missed the entrance to it because it’s so anonymous and so tiny. So this was big by those standards. And it had one main room, which is like the pop, it’s kind of trashy, pop room. Poppy dancy room. And then there was a downstairs, there was another room, which was kind of out the back and down some stairs. And that was more of like, the harder dance room. But even then, it wasn’t really that hard. It was more just remixes or pop songs. And then you’d have like, there was a quieter sort of chill out bar area in the middle. And kind of the inevitable horrendous toilets with just like no doors and overflowing toilets, and all all sorts going on in there as well. And
K Anderson 22:15
write that down for later also.
Will Warren 22:20
So in terms of superclub, not quite, but in terms of like, yeah, if you’re thinking like Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, as like the Southwest, yeah, that would have been the biggest thing. I remember, they always used to call the different dance floor areas, arenas. Like sounds kind of all kind of grand thing. When you look at the building from the outside, it really didn’t look very big at all, but it kind of went on out the back. I’m not sure what it is. Now, I think it is still some kind of entertainment venue, but more of a kind of kind of event space, as that you know, does the art T’s in the afternoon. And then maybe it’s like a performance space in the evening. So it’s very different. But the other areas changed quite a lot. But it was very, they had a big refurbishment. I remember kind of a couple of years into my time being there. And it was just never as good because it was just too. It gotten too shiny. And they tried to make it too glossy and sparkly. But at the same time, hadn’t probably invested enough money to make it amazing, as good as it could be.
K Anderson 23:35
Was that because there is new owners or
Will Warren 23:38
I think it was probably more it’d been a huge success. And they were just trying to invest in for the future. I’m not sure. I tried to do a bit research before we recorded today. But very little info. As with a lot of the places that you talk about on here, there’s very little information still existing for it. So I don’t know about kind of the ownership and when and why they decided to do it. But it just always felt like it was a bit better and a bit more fun. When it was kind of the old. The old. Yeah, like a lot of places, isn’t it? I think maybe and it’s also your first memories of a place when it has a makeover. You’re less attached to it because it doesn’t look and feel as much like it was when you first discovered it. So you feel less ownership on it, I think
K Anderson 24:24
did they fix the toilets?
Will Warren 24:25
The toilets were better. And you know, to be honest, I can’t even remember if there was much funny business going on in the toilets because I can never remember being in flamingos and not being very dropped waist in terms of if you wanted to go to a club and have a good time in that sense. There were probably there were other places you could go to. in Bristol
K Anderson 24:53
Wait, wait, you mean have fun in the toilets?
Will Warren 24:57
Exactly. Oh, maybe Not even in the toilet.
K Anderson 25:02
Okay, like getting this link somewhere I get you. Do you like so I know you were keen to play down the term super club when you talked about the venue, but do you think we’ll ever see those types of super clubs again? Or is it just their days done?
Will Warren 25:22
I don’t I don’t think we will. I just think regardless of what’s happened over the last year, or COVID, I just think we’ve moved on to people, very people using their own space and enjoying their own spaces, like I was saying about, you know, being able to host and it just doesn’t feel like going to a super club is quite an anonymous overpriced experience. In my experience, I don’t know whether that’s what people really want anymore. And certainly, you know, with, you know, with LGBTQ plus spaces, I definitely don’t think that’s something that’s, I think we I think people want more local independent spaces, but not that kind of huge chasm where 1000s of people go, I don’t know what I don’t, I don’t know what there is to enjoy as much from that now. People are all about personalization. Now, aren’t they and doing unique experience bespoke experiences? Not an experience that 1000s of other people are having the same one of at the same time? Yeah, yeah. But I kind of like what do you like about it?
K Anderson 26:43
I don’t know if I’m just being a contrarian, but I kind of like that like that. An anonymity. I mean, you know, it’s probably why I live in London, that like just being in a place and like, not necessarily running into people that you know, and just like, you know, all night you can go without, with just seeing new people all the time. So more people to potentially snug
Will Warren 27:08
obviously, you bump into again, if you don’t want to see them again. Yeah, exactly.
K Anderson 27:14
This isn’t fancy. Yeah,
Will Warren 27:16
maybe I just want that cheers experience where you walk in and everybody shows name as you walk in. And you get around the studio audience gives you a round of applause. And someone immediately gets you a drink in as well. Maybe I just want to be spoilt
K Anderson 27:30
Yeah, we’ll see. I’m the kind of person that when I go to a house party, I’m always the last to leave because I feel too bad about like leaving I feel really guilty. So I like that kind of club where I don’t feel that kind of social pressure of like, people expecting me to be a certain way
Will Warren 27:49
that whole kind of with I leave there’s only going to be one other person and that’s not fair on that person on the person who’s staying Yeah, there is that as well. Isn’t it that kind of social conscience of wanting people to be happy and looked after and supportive?
K Anderson 28:06
Yeah, would you just don’t have to do and I said bricklayer usually like fuck this. I’m off.
Will Warren 28:13
Again, maybe it’s age. I don’t want to I don’t want to walk half a mile from the dance floor to the toilets.
K Anderson 28:24
Just think how you could meet on the way
Will Warren 28:28
I think we did spend a New Year’s in flamingos once. And I just I think my overriding memory of it was it was New Year’s can never live up to the excitement in your head of what it could be like. And I think it was just so crowded and overly busy. That it tipped from being enjoyable to not being as pleasant.
K Anderson 28:52
And that’s the thing like everyone is so hell bent on it being the best night ever that they just become kind of obnoxious and overbearing, don’t they?
Will Warren 29:01
And I would I would I’ve been that person in the past I’ve wanted New Years to be so good that I you get really militant with right, we’re going here now. This is the night for this. The best the best nights of flamingos are the ones where you probably weren’t even intending on going out and you just finished work and you text a few people. And then like a seven o’clock the plan comes together. A spontaneous, there’s no build up. There’s no excitement. You just it just kind of happens. And then you’re like, wow, that was a great night.
K Anderson 29:30
And whoever is about who is whoever is about, but were there any like, you know, being like that, that you were kind of socialising in a group and going out with like a range of people. Were there any amazing nights that you missed out on?
Will Warren 29:47
I like to think that those didn’t happen with no I wasn’t there but I think there was there was definitely a thing that before I moved and there was a There was another really good night in Bristol called wonky, which used to be on a I can’t remember but it was on a, I think it was like once a month on a Friday or a Saturday. And it was more of like an indie alternative night. But not in a really alternative night it was more like bristols, eight alphabay beats, sometimes to pop stars, which is great. It kind of hit that intersection of like pop music, electronic music and indie music that I I still love now. And they were I remember before I moved to Bristol, but I knew I was going to do it. My friends that were down there would often go down because it was only once a month, it was hard to get to be there for it. And I would often feel like because it was only a monthly thing, that it was like a special thing that I would that I was missing out on. And then I moved there and we went every every bloody month for the next few years. novelty wore off after that, but
K Anderson 31:01
but that is the thing like so just as with New Year’s Eve, you’re like hell bent on it being the best night of your life. When there’s a monthly night or a quarterly night or something, you would just like kind of squeezed the joy out of it sometimes, don’t you.
Will Warren 31:17
And that’s the danger sometimes of building out to be something bigger than it will be. And then it falling a bit flat because it could never live up to your expectations of what it was going to be like they were they were some really fun nights at one king as well. I think it’s the music was a lot different to your flamingos dance pop. And a similar sort of thing that you get in the Queen Schilling. But that was a bit more kind of Camp classics to it. I think that’s where you would hear, you know, a bit of alpha B or ladytron. Or the Gossip and it was, that felt exciting because you just didn’t hear that music out. Right. And I still love that feeling of when you’re in a pub or in a club, and a song you love comes on that you just never hear a side of your headphones or in your own in your own flat. And it feels like there’s such a such a lovely personal connection. Then when you think oh, someone’s playing that just for me. Because no one else is is is mouthing along to the words or bobbing their head because they don’t know that song. And it’s a song you
K Anderson 32:28
love. And never many vivre
Will Warren 32:31
never many Viva, we still hear I left my heart in Tokyo from time. One, the one that got in the top 10 which is the first the first one they release. And that was a bit of a very catchy but you wouldn’t hear any of the other ones for
K Anderson 32:45
mo but how awful is it when the DJ or like you know, the jukebox? I don’t know I said two bucks. And when the DJ plays a song that you love, and you’re like, so hyped about it, and then you’re like, stormed the dance floor. And then everyone else leaves the dance floor because they don’t know this song. And they’re just like, Oh, yeah, I don’t want to dance to this. And then you’re kind of just awkwardly they’re like, yeah, trying to get your life but halfway through this you have to kind of accept defeat.
Will Warren 33:17
Oh, totally. You take it as a personal insult everyone else where you are doesn’t enjoy them the song that you love. And there’s a great Bristol memory this more recent actually, because DOM and I still go back from time to time and we apart from this year just gone, we would have an annual Christmas bash with our group of Bristol friends. And so we’d go out for dinner, a late lunch, and then just basically drink our way through this morning. And we will always go into this one bar on frogmore streets. And they have like a digital jukebox there. And we always put it’s all coming back to me now by Celine Dion and bello it at the top of our heads, and there’s like a group of 10 of us doing that, with the rest of the bar completely, not getting getting it. But there’s that. But when you get to that point, you don’t care because it’s just you and your mates having you having a great time with something that you dislike your joke that you love. Did you Did you see
K Anderson 34:16
that? I only saw the headline. So I’m like just telling you half a story. Did you see the guy who changed his name to Celine Dion when he was drunk?
Will Warren 34:28
I did. I sent it to one of my friends. I actually I sent it to Dan, who I do I do track by track with. Could we have this thing where we just send ridiculous news headlines and say, Oh, look, they printed your they printed your story. And that was when I sent that and I was like, oh, didn’t this happen to you as well once because often on the podcast, we get into these ridiculous conversations around Oh, remember the time when you did this. Insert ridiculous thing that isn’t true. And then we almost have to Then improvising off the back of it just for fun. But yes, I did see that.
K Anderson 35:08
How can you do it? Did you read it? Or did you just read the headline?
Will Warren 35:13
I just I didn’t read the full article. But I just thought from the headline, I should have read the article fine. Now, how do you go from? How do you maintain that level of drunkenness? I’ve no idea and then actually going through with it without having any moment of any sort of sobering moment at all, to change your mind or to think better of it.
K Anderson 35:34
But also, like, I thought it was a bit harder to change your name.
Will Warren 35:39
I think you have to you have to go somewhere, don’t you and you have to pay you have to go and sign something. Yeah. To a turd like the time I don’t know to the time home, or is that to register the birth of a child? But
K Anderson 35:52
yeah, like that’s the thing like they won’t let parents call their kids Satan, but they’ll let this guy change his name to Celine Dion.
Will Warren 36:02
I think it was probably a little bit enhanced. Maybe he changed his Facebook name to Celine Dion.
K Anderson 36:13
Anyway, yeah, sorry. I I’ll yeah. I’m one of those people who read the headlines and then reports it as though it’s fact. And so do you remember hearing about flamingos closing? i?
Will Warren 36:29
i don’t i think it’s I think it was like a conversation with one of my friends. I think it was probably Paul who still lives in that area. And I think one day in like the group chat, or when we were met up with him. He probably just mentioned it in passing. And I don’t think it was that significant at the time. Because it was, you know, we’ve we’ve gone through this period of time with so many kind of Beloved, LGBTQ plus venues closing down, that I probably could have raised an eyebrow and thoughts. Yeah, probably sounds about right at this point now, and didn’t think anything more of it. And I think it’s with over the passage of time, when you reminisce and I’ve been thinking a lot about Bristol recently. That’s when you start to pull back all the memories that you had and realise kind of a significant place it was. I think there’s no it was a it was a it was a bill. It was a very unique building. It was a real moment in time. There’s no way you can replicate that.
K Anderson 37:34
Did you ever go to flamingos? Well, if you did, I would love to hear from you. Tell me your stories and share any photos that you might have from that time. You can find me across all social media channels Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, with the user handle K Anderson music. You can also find out more about well by following him on Twitter, Pat, well, WP W and also give the track by track podcast a follow on Twitter. The handle is at track by track UK and make sure you listen to a few episodes. Last basis is not only a podcast, but a concept record as well. I’ve been writing songs about queer venues and the people who used to live their lives there. And we’ll be releasing songs over the next year. You can hear the first single well groomed boys, which is also playing underneath my talking right now on all streaming platforms. If you like this episode, I would really appreciate if you subscribed, left a review on Apple podcasts or just told someone who you think might be interested in giving it a little listen to I am K Anderson and you have been listening to loss