Duckie (group)

Duckie began as a club night in November 1995 in the south London pub Royal Vauxhall Tavern (RVT), created by producer Simon Casson (aka Simon Strange), host Amy Lamé, DJs the London Readers Wifes, and Jay Cloth and Father Cloth on the doors. In a 2007 article for Time Out, Paul Burston wrote that at the start of Duckie's tenure the RVT was somewhat in decline: "Lack of investment meant the venue remained dark during the week, only coming to life at the weekend with Duckie and ... the Dame Edna Experience." Burston also records that the opening of the gay nightclub Crash promoted Vauxhall's potential for hosting such ventures, leading to an influx of mainstream clubs into the historic gay area. Despite this, and the potential in new audiences attracted by the larger clubs, Duckie's growth was again challenged in 1998 when Lambeth London Borough Council and property developer CLS Holdings attempted to flatten the RVT to make way for a supermarket complex. Duckie was instrumental in defeating this threat: as Burston notes "The performance club Duckie, which had breathed new life into Saturday nights, mounted a vigorous press campaign, protesting outside Lambeth Town Hall and saving it from the bulldozers." Duckie then moved to daytime Saturday events at The Eagle (also in Vauxhall), where it ran until 2024. In May, 2025, Duckie announced that the 2025 Gay Shame ('The Dirty Thirty') would be the Readers Wifes last Duckie gig. == Performance events ==

In December 2002, Duckie's ''C'est Vauxhall'' Christmas show at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern created the format of sitting guests at tables and offering them the chance to order short acts, using "Duckie dollars", from a menu. It won four awards including an Olivier Award for best entertainment show and returned to the Barbican in 2004. In 2006, Duckie created The Class Club at The Pit, a piece of event theatre that asked the audience to pre-select a social class for themselves, dress appropriately for the evening and then enjoy a meal and entertainment for their chosen grouping. In 2011, Duckie became an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. While continuing to produce the club nights it also began multiple projects engaging specific groups and communities such as The Slaughterhouse Club, a drop-in arts project for people living with homelessness and addiction. In 2012, Duckie launched an afternoon tea-dance for older people named The Posh Club, which runs regularly across the UK. Cabaret performer Ursula Martinez has worked as part of Duckie, and it has also attracted performers such as Dusty Limits, Janice Connolly, Scott Capurro, Kiki and Herb and George Chakravarthi. In 2025, Duckie ran 'Rat Park' as part of LGBTQ+ History Month, an event focused on discussing taboo issues around queer sex in Kennington. =='Gay Shame'==

Duckie ran a night called 'Gay Shame and Lesbian Weakness' on the same night as Gay Pride, from 1996-2019, and then again in 2022. Billed as an 'annual festival of homosexual misery', it was the counter-staging to Gay Pride. Gay Shame was born out of frustration and dissatisfaction with mainstream Gay Pride events. The apex of Duckie's assessment of the commercialisation of mainstream gay culture and gay pride was most clearly evidenced in the years between 2005-2012, when Gay Shame shifted from the Royal Vauxhall Tavern to the Coronet Theatre and Islington Town Hall. This period saw large staging of Gay Shame events, with themes such as Homosexual Misery (2005), Gay Shame Goes Macho (2008), and Gross Indecency (2012). ==References==