If a street could be a hot mess, St James Street is that street. For the best part of the 2000s our DJing manor, St James Street was where we cut our deck teeth, endured plenty of disco dramas and learnt the true value of our lesbian community in Brighton. Emerging from those early days DJing at The Zanzibar our Candy Bar era was one of lessons learnt and lifelong friendships made, a chapter in our DJ life we’ll forever be proud of, if a chapter that is a rather vague, fluffy round the edges and brought to you by Solpadine and Pepto Bismol. 

Back in the 2001 working at Diva Magazine as a reviewer and music columnist saw me turn up at the opening of almost any lesbian envelope almost any evening of the week but it was one particular evening back in 2001 that changed my DJing life forever. Accompanying my then queercompany.com editor Jane Czyzselska, Queenie and I mooched around the freshly painted premises of 33 St James Street, the corner Candy Bar would soon be filling with locals and lovelies, keen to appreciate what those London incomers were promising to bring to Brighton. And thanks to Candy Bar co-founders Kim Lucas and Rachael Venia Woodgate it did exactly what it said on the tin. Stylish, sassy lesbian nightlife, seven nights a week.