Slap bang in the middle of Soho and at one of the coolest clubs in the capital, Popstarz – the UK’s biggest queer alternative - has a new venue, new DJs and an entirely new room!

With three floors of indie tunes, crazy dance and pop rave, this friendly and ever-popular mixed night is bigger than ever. We caught up with Tommy Moss, director of Popbarz Ltd and one of the main men behind the famous club night, to find out more!

So tell us about Popstarz.
Popstarz is the biggest night that my company, Popbarz Ltd, promotes along with The Ghetto and Trash Palace. It’s every Friday night at Sin in London’s West End. It has three rooms of indie, pop and dance, as well as a chill bar and a smoking garden.

What makes Popstarz stand out from other gay club nights?
Lots of things. For a start, the music policy is very different. The main room, which is called The Indie Ballroom, plays indie - everything from Bowie to Bloc Party. Even our pop room plays a different kind of pop than you would find in most gay clubs. We don’t play the hi-NRG Euro mixes, but we play some pretty long forgotten pop and crazy stuff like Pat Benatar.

The main difference is the people - the crowd are really friendly and unpretentious. It doesn’t matter what you wear and there’s a good mix of gay men, gay women and their straight friends.

Tell us about the new venue, Sin.
It’s amazing. I couldn't believe there was a central London venue that I had never been to - it's very central, next to Centre Point and opposite the Astoria. It’s great that so many people had never been before Popstarz because it feels like it’s a well kept secret.

It’s got five great rooms and we mostly use the three biggest, but we will be holding special nights to use them all. There’s the Indie Ballroom with chandeliers and indie framed pictures, the psychedelic Rave Room and the glitzy Pop Lounge, plus a chill bar and an outside space. People must like it, too, because we’re rammed every Friday.

A word to the wise if you want to avoid the queue - head to our bar Trash Palace Sunday to Friday and grab a cheap entry queue jump ticket. It’s reduced entry - just £6 - and you walk straight into the club and avoid the infamous queues.

Tell us a bit about the resident DJs and their music.
We have so many DJs in all our rooms that it’s hard to talk about, so apologies to those DJs I don’t mention! In the Indie Room, our regulars - Laurence, James and Talia - are often joined by Dan and Tony aka the Rebel 7 DJs from Rebel Rebel. Between them they play everything from the Kinks to the Klaxons.

The Pop Room sees wigout regulars DJ P and Wayne Artex joined by the likes of Lucio from Capital FM and Anthony Crank off the telly. They spin a mad blend of stuff like Blondie and Britney.

In the Rave Room, there’s the art terrorist Scottee of Foreign spinning a mad selection of dance tunes alongside DJ Rokk of The Cock and Boombox, as well as other special guests. It’s this mish mash of rooms and DJs that makes popstarz so successful.

We understand that Popstarz first opened in 1995; how did it all begin?
Popstarz began because my former boyfriend and business partner Simon Hobart was disillusioned by the gay scene and wanted to do something completely different. He didn’t really think it would be the success it would become, but people were desperate for something new. I joined six months into it’s life and now it’s turning 13 this year!

How has Popstarz grown or evolved over the years?
Popstarz has had to change and evolve to keep current. We recently - and sadly - said goodbye to some of our old DJs and brought in some new blood, but we kept a few long time DJs.

We dropped the r'n'b room because it wasn’t edgy enough anymore and people complained that it attracted a younger and not very popstarzy crowd. When we started an RnB room, no-one was doing it and it was very alternative but, years later, it is the biggest selling music in the world and had become less about inventive artists like Missy Elliot and N.E.R.D and more mainstream and straight off the music industry assembly line. That said, we still play some RnB and disco in the Pop Room and will occasionally open one of the unused rooms to host a disco/Motown/RnB room.

Moving to SIN was part of the evolution; people had grown tired of The Scala. The move has been brilliant and lots of old Popstarz fans are back and loving the new venue. The crowd has become more mixed age-wise again. It's not so young; there’s everyone from 18-40 and no-one feels out of place.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
There’s always something crazy going on at Popstarz, The Ghetto and Trash Palace; we never stop trying out new things and putting on interesting events - it’s what we live for. Some people complain that they only hear about things after the event, such as recently when The Gossip played live at Popstarz at the last minute. If you want to stay in the loop, join our email list at www.popstarz.org. You’ll hear all about events first and get some special invites to parties and events that no-one else hears about.

Find out more at www.popstarz.org and www.myspace.com/popstarzlondon.

Popstarz takes place every Friday from 10pm to 4am at Sin, 144 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0LB.

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