The club shut part of its venue for the first time in nearly three decades
A key part of Liverpool’s Pride Quarter nightlife scene is returning after undergoing a “big facelift”. Eberle Street staple Gbar transformed its underground basement space for the first time since the club launched back in 1997.
Known in the queer space for its after-hours parties and drag queens who take over the Church Room, the basement offers clubbers an Ibiza-like experience with resident DJs playing techno, house and classic trance music.
As the club gears up to celebrate its 27th anniversary on Saturday, September 28 with a legends reunion party, the ECHO takes a look back at how the venue became so loved by the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.
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GBar first opened opposite Garlands in 1997, in a building which previously housed a Spanish restaurant and a tanning salon. Only 15 people went to its first Thursday night, according to Lavinia, a drag queen from Wrexham, who worked in the grandaddy of gay clubs for over two decades.
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The 64-year-old previously told the ECHO how word spread quickly and it wasn’t long before the crowd grew. She said: “It just filled up. Thursday night, originally they used to open at 9 until 2, and if you weren’t there by 9 o’clock, you wouldn’t get in. It was absolutely rammed. We used to have queues around the street. It was amazing, honest to God.”
Walk into the multi-room club and you’ve got the Church Room on the right, once full of sofas and stools, now the home of gay pop classics. To the left is the Boosh Room with R&B and alternative music, and downstairs in the Bassment is house heaven.
The club has hosted one-half of producer duo Camelphat and Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK season 1 winner, The Vivienne over the years. Former manager Andrew Pankhurst, originally from Crosby, worked in the club since he was a teenager. His first time at the club was when he walked in and they were playing Donna Summer’s ‘Hot Stuff’ – “instantly” causing him to fall in love.
He said: “When I went to a gay bar for the first time, it’s like, you finally realise you’re not the only one, but it kind of comes down on you like a tonne of bricks, because it’s like, suddenly there’s all these gay people like you and you’re like, ‘Wow’.”
During a two-month stint at university in Newcastle, Andrew would drive back to Liverpool every weekend just to go to GBar. He added: “It had this kind of charm about the place. I think a lot of people like the familiarity of it. So it’s kind of like a familiar home from home for some people.
“I know that sounds really bizarre. But there are actually people who go there every week, year in, year out without fail. There are people who still go there from when I started working there.
“Obviously, customer bases come and go, don’t they? Obviously, 17 years is quite a long time, so I have seen people come and go, a lot. But I’ve also seen a lot of people stay, and that’s quite nice. And we also do reunion nights. And that is literally when we bring people back, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, you’re still alive’. And people are like, ‘Oh my god, you’re still here’.”
The club was one of the first in the city to reopen after Covid-related restrictions were lifted. At the time, the club revealed how they planned to deal with welcoming back the community, insisting that “dancing is essential”, and operating as normal as soon as the clock struck one minute past midnight on July 19 2021.
Having successfully survived the hospitality consequences of the pandemic, Gbar is set to celebrate another anniversary.
Its 27th birthday celebrations, happening on Saturday, September 28, will see a host of DJs performing and taking guests through until the early hours. This includes entertainment from John Cotton, Dave Bennet and Laura Vane. Tickets for the event can be bought here.
Guests will be able to see the basement’s transformation for the first time. In a brief video shared on social media, it was clear construction work was being done on the venue’s walls. The speakers were also moved from their prior homes around the venue’s perimeter.
Resident DJ Dave Bennett said: “We’ve got a big announcement. This DJ box has stood here for the last 27 years and I’ve been a resident DJ for the last couple of decades. We’ve seen clubbers, staff and DJs come and go. Some clubbers have been coming since before I DJed here and they’re still coming to this very day. That’s what makes this place so special.”
