A howling success

You can’t guarantee a full-moon on the first Friday of every month, but these days there’s always likely to be a few Howls in the air.

Since its inception at the start of the year, Howl at Morrisons has been merrily energising Belfast city centre nightlife with its mixture of nifty tunes and DIY “straight-friendly” aesthetics. It’s been much needed. For one reason or another, some of the city’s most affectionately held club nights have decided to shut up shop over the past six months, leaving the field open for sterile, high concept booze pits to make a killing. The queues waiting to get in to Howl have, therefore, been a particularly welcome sight.

It’s a club that, according to its four founders – Ruth Howl, Helen Howl, Ambers Howl and Carole Howl – came about after noticing that “there was nowhere a gay person in Belfast, into half-decent music, could go and get laid” but that was also inspired by a disaffection at the complacent nature of Belfast clubs (gay and straight) in general.

“When you come out for the first time the gay scene can be very exciting because you think you’re meeting people just like you for the first time,” says Ruth. “Then it takes you a while to realise that they aren’t necessarily like you at all, and that sharing a sexual preference is actually quite a tenuous link. Gay culture has always prided itself on being cutting edge and imaginative, but recently it just seems incredibly commercialised. I think it’s important to say that Howl’s a queer club. Queer as in gay, but also queer as in it’s putting a twist on the culture.”

Which, according to Ruth, has meant establishing a strong identity for the club, with great emphasis put on the need for a different visual theme each night, and – very much in the best Riot Grrl tradition – the production of a club fanzine.

“I’ve been doing fanzines for a few years and just thought that if we’re going to do this club, let’s do it a wee bit different. I know it’s been done in London and where-have-you, but I’ve never seen it done in Belfast, and we thought it would be a great way to communicate the attitude of the club, and show the character of it. Same with the visuals. It’s about making the effort – not just coming in and throwing on a few records. You go into some of the bigger clubs and really you could be anywhere. That’s not what we want.”

The choice of venue is significant. While the main gay clubs in Belfast are found tucked away in quiet streets off the Cathedral Quarter, Morrisons is slap in the middle of the town’s busiest social thoroughfare. Two hundred yards up the road you’ll find what used to be the Orange Order’s Headquarters in Ireland.

Ruth: “Traditionally lots of gay clubs in Belfast were situated in dodgy, seedy parts of town – just because they had to go there. Things have lightened a bit but it’s not changed completely. Attitudes in Northern Ireland haven’t softened nearly enough. So I can understand the need to go somewhere where you feel safe. The sad thing is, it’s got to the stage in a lot of gay clubs where people feel they have to adopt a certain pose in order to fit in. I’ve always wanted them to be places where you could go to be yourself, but I don’t see many people doing that here. I’ve met people from different places through the zine scene and they were all talking about adventurous, alternative queer scenes, and I was wondering why isn’t this happening in Belfast? Why are all my friends as frustrated as I am? We need a focus. I’m not saying Howl will provide that, but it’s a start.”

And so far have you had any problems from rednecks?

“Surprisingly no,” says Carole. “The only problems we tend to get are from people moaning at us to start playing Britney fucking Spears.”

So aggro-free and promising “popped cherries every night” is it any wonder that Howl is proving such a success?

Helen: “Most people who come back to Howl don’t do so because it’s a gay club, they do it because it just has a really warm, relaxed atmosphere. People keep saying to us, ‘So it’s a gay friendly night?’ We turn it round and say it’s actually a straight friendly place. Everybody is welcome at this club. We get such a terrific mix of people at Howl. It’s somewhere you can go to be yourself and have a boogie. You’re not going: this is a public space. You’re going: you’re all my friends.”