How queer spaces built the club culture we love

UK club culture owes everything to the queer community. Today, we’re honouring that lineage. 

Our latest video traces the queer roots of the UK scene back to where it all began. Before Chicago house had a mainstream audience in the UK, it needed a home, and it found that home in gay nightlife, one of those spaces being Heaven, the legendary London club that opened in 1979. 

Across the country, the influence of foundational parties like Rage and Spectrum ripples through the contemporary dance music scene. Many of the most vital events in UK club culture are founded by, and presented for, the queer community, from Body Movements and PXSSY PALACE in London to High Hoops in Manchester. 

We asked Josephine Cruz, London-based DJ, label founder, cultural strategist, and former journalist, to shine a light on club culture’s queer blueprint.