Public Address | Cafe | Speaker: Queen City: A Secret History of Auckland

Thomas Davey

Sun, 30 Aug 2020 16:41:44 +1200

I left Auckland in 1978 for Sydney and returned to live in Auckland in 1998. I opened The Kitchen at Cleo's Bar out at the Manukau Tavern in Onehunga for a couple of years. Back then Legends Bar in K Road was the place to be. Queues outside every Friday…

Thomas Davey

Sun, 30 Aug 2020 16:34:18 +1200

Hello and thank you so much for this walk down memory lane for me. My coming out years started in 1974 at the sweet age of 14. Auckland had such an active, vibrant but underground gay scene in those days. The Aquarius Club in Federal Street which is now the…

Daveypo

Sat, 05 May 2018 12:30:21 +1200

Not a Wellingtonian Kumara, but saw Carmen many times during her final years when she lived in Surry Hills NSW. She'd sit outside her flat in Riley Street and chat to people passing by. She was well known and loved there.

Daveypo

Sat, 05 May 2018 12:22:25 +1200

Just found this great article, wonderful to see history being kept alive. I remember going to the Empire Hotel, then managed by Kevin and Lorraine Cholmondeley Smith, in the late 70s, beginning of the 80s, perhaps Auckland's first pub run as a gay bar? The back and side bars were…

TracyMac

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:37:33 +1300

Dude, her lifetime. She was a transwoman, not just a drag queen.

Christopher Dempsey

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:31:53 +1300

Actually, I'm not surprised that you danced to good music during this time David.

In my research on public plazas in the CBD, I discovered that the National Mutual plaza, built in 1972 or thereabouts, on Shortland Street, was a direct copy (albeit smaller in size) of one in London.…

Lilith __

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:50:24 +1300

Thanks for this David, a fascinating article.

BTW I think the photographer is Neil Trubuhovich :-)

Geoff Lealand

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:31:10 +1300

Yup, Went to Carmen's Coffee bar a couple of times out of curiosity but left even more puzzled,

Jackie Clark

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:15:57 +1300

Mum and I are off, in March, to see the NZSO performing works dedicated to her. It should be fabulous.

Kumara Republic

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:07:17 +1300

Anyone Wellingtonians here who got to see Carmen during his lifetime?

Jackie Clark

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:15:41 +1300

Possibly the very thing that made the war bearable for him – good job too. Likee.

Tony Siu

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:06:32 +1300

This is probably the only place on the Internet where I can mention this; I was at a muffins and tea event after the Anzac dawn service and out of nowhere, a veteran started telling me, out loud, how many US servicemen he, um, bang using this new thing called…

David Herkt

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:12:22 +1300

Thanks, TracyMac. I’ve bound your extra info into the bigger copy. Much appreciated.

TracyMac

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:23:25 +1300

I just missed the KG club, which met its demise just before I became part of the queer community.

But thanks for the reflection on where we were and how much things have really changed (while a few things remain the same).

I would like to mention the fact that…

Craig Young

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 10:44:14 +1300

Which isn't to say that I didn't rather enjoy David's stroll down memory lane. Excellent work.

Jackie Clark

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 07:28:37 +1300

This made for such beautiful reading, thankyou, David. I remember the 80's, particularly, very well. It was a grim time in many ways, but I do remember the joy that the first Hero Parade brought to me. And later on, I was a marshall at a few of the parades…

David Herkt

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 22:19:58 +1300

Thanks, Simon. I recall it very fondly as well, from the burning clothing on the clothes-line to the party that Chris Knox invited the whole Windsor Castle to...and, let's face it, you and I had the two best rooms in the house...

I think of Backstage quite a bit when…

Craig Young

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 11:57:12 +1300

And being (cough cough hack) somewhere on the grey end of the rainbow is a similar such corrective. I'm becoming olde and crinkly enough to remember these alleged 'good old days' myself and they weren't. I tended to pal around with dykes rather than spend much time with the narrow…

Craig Ranapia

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 09:36:35 +1300

We will, however, have the communities we want to have, not the refuges we've been forced to inhabit on the outskirts in the past. So it's up to us to decide what it is we want.

THIS! I'm not going to pretend 2012 New Zealand is Homo-topia, but having a…

Simon Grigg

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 15:29:38 +1300

Backstage covered two stories and worked on a system where an entry fee of $7 covered the night’s drinking. It was the height of the disco era and the dance floor hustled with over 200 people a night. It was also an illegal venue and its opening hours, until 5am…

dykiegirl

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 13:47:21 +1300

Thank you, David. Classy and informative.

VAGABOND

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:20:24 +1300

A neat reminder of [almost] another era. My introduction to gay Auckland was...The Gladiator. Located in upper Queen Street, it was a labrynth of filthy floors and rooms that centred on an equally filthy hot tub. Aaaaaaargh...heaven on a stick! Whatever happened to all those old LP covers that were…

nzlemming

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:16:34 +1300

Lovely work, David, as always.

On the question of community, it's easier to come together when you have a common enemy and harder to create something positive when there's nothing to push against. It can be done, as the many communities of interest in society prove, and a big part…

Russell Brown

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:18:51 +1300

And who remembers the KG Club – the Karangahape Road Girl’s Club or the Kamp Girls Club?

I do. And Alfies and the Out bookshop, where we used to buy amyl.

There were not so many people in the city back then, and I think the gay community, obliged to…

Paul Brislen

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:46:23 +1300

Lovely piece that helps frame up how far we've come (and how far we've left yet to go). Thanks for that.

Christopher Dempsey

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:00:49 +1300

Thanks David for writing this up – it is important to have our history recorded.

I came out in 86, just after Gay Law Reform, and in the first full flush of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Interesting times then, and interesting times since.

Living in Auckland since 96 I've been privileged…

wendyf

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:01:06 +1300

Thanks from me too, David. I helped support a man with AIDS during the 80's and he used to talk of 'the old days' when he sometimes performed in drag. I was living in Auckland at the same time, though I didn't know him. But I was aware of the…

Gareth Ward

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:30:54 +1300

An excellent read, thankyou. And some pretty powerful questions posed at the end...

Brent Jackson

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:19:00 +1300

The Charlotte Museum in Western Springs was also created to preserve and remember New Zealand’s lesbian history.

For those interested, the Charlotte Museum website is at www.charlottemuseum.lesbian.net.nz.

Greg Wood

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:14:35 +1300

Nice work. Thank you so much — it's great to add another warp to the fabric of my understanding of our fine, fringe-of-the-known-world city, and to celebrate some of the people who sacrificed a hell of a lot to help others. The chronology also brings back many a fond memory…

Public Address

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:14:35 +1300

Discussion from blog post.