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DJ Profile: Peter Castle

This month, Queenie catches up with DJ Peter Castle to chat about the amazing fact that he’s been Legends’ Saturday resident DJ for 10 years. Have those years been as good for him as they’ve sounded to us?

Peter Castle
Peter Castle

What have the last 10 years been like? It’s gone quite quickly and I can still remember 2007 and the tracks I was playing. Of course, music trends and tastes have changed as they always will, but during the last 10 years technology has brought even more choice and availability to people, which makes it more challenging. Being a DJ is not all about me me me, it’s about fun and getting a good crowd going. Legends has a great crowd and a hardworking team of friendly staff, management and DJs Claire and David on other nights.

What’s the secret to a long residency? Finding the formula that both the club and the audience want and tweaking it over the years as trends change.

When did you start DJing? I started doing mobile discos when I was 13 and then moved into clubs. I am now in my 40th year of clubs!

What’s changed during this time? Clubs have had to make many changes, but as a DJ I have too. I started DJing using these black round things called records (today they are back in fashion but called vinyl). Then I had to replace my whole record collection with CDs, then again with MP3. I don’t go home smelling of a stale ashtray now, I start later and finish later. Music choice though is now harder. I used to get promo copies on vinyl two months or more before the release which was great as I was playing stuff that other people didn’t have and there was a huge buzz. Music was worth something – if you heard a track in a club and you wanted it, you were in the record shop on its release date. Today, everyone has access to a track and music is more disposable with more music being produced. On the other hand we are no longer controlled by record companies that dictate what we can buy and listen to.

When will you retire? Probably at my funeral when I will have my favourite all time track Finally by CeCe Peniston played… ‘Finally it’s happened to me!’ A choice mix of course. 

DJ Peter Castle’s current top five:

TCTS featuring Sage The Gemini & Kelis Do It Like Me (Icy Feet) MOS

Jax Jones You Don’t Know Me (extended club mix) Polydor

Fatboy Slim Where U Iz (12 mix) Southern Fried

Ed Sheeran Shape Of You (Jack Wins remix) Asylum

Ryan Blyth & After 6 Show Me (Freejak remix) New State Music

TwistedXXX Media stars to take centre stage in LGBT Foundation information videos

Actors from leading gay porn studio, TwistedXXX Media, will be taking centre stage to create a series of informative sexual health videos for Greater Manchester’s LGBT Foundation.

The videos, featuring some of the group’s well-known models, will tackle a range of issues affecting men who have sex with men, including body image, exploring fetish, and safer sex advice.

Paul Martin OBE, Chief Executive of LGBT Foundation, said: “We are delighted to have TwistedXXX Media’s support. We’ve worked with the studios for several years, providing sexual health screening for its actors and their partners along with well-being support to reduce risk and increase pleasure. It’s great to have some of their well-known stars agree to talk openly and honestly about their personal experiences and how these important issues can affect anyone who identifies as a man who has sex with other men.

“Actors in the porn industry are no less immune to the problems and insecurities affecting the wider LGBT community. We are really happy that Twisted XXX Media’s actors have agreed to share their personal stories and help point to the practical advice and support that organisations such as the LGBT Foundation can offer.”

LGBT Foundation offers a comprehensive range of sexual health and well-being services, including full sexual health screening, group workshops, and helpline advice.

For further information about the Foundation, click here: 

MENTAL HEALTH FEATURE: Depression

A first-hand account by Dr Duncan Stewart and Mike Wall.

Do not confuse ‘being depressed’ with the medical syndrome of the same name, this would be like misunderstanding the difference between sleep and a coma. No one who has suffered from depression harbours any doubt that they were seriously ill as this account of his illness by my friend Mike Wall will demonstrate.

“When it eventually happened it felt like a sudden explosion going off in my head. I had known something wasn’t quite right for some weeks, perhaps about a month. Looking back now I think that there were probably signs of my mental deterioration for longer but it was gradual process until the last few days. 

“While writing this I’m still experiencing some slowness in my thought processes, which isn’t surprising as this was the symptom that eventually forced me to accept that I wasn’t feeling right. 

“For me the first signs were probably about 12 months before the ‘big bang’. It was around that time that a friend commented to Roger, my husband, that he felt I seemed unhappy. When Roger said this to me I was a little shocked because I thought that I was hiding it very well. I admitted to Roger that I did feel sad but that I couldn’t explain why. 

“At the time I put it down to anxiety, which I had been experiencing regularly since homophobic activity at work led to my having to take time off with symptoms of severe stress a couple of years previously. At that time I was also starting to become aware of a reawakening of demons that I’d been struggling with since living through some traumatic events in my childhood. I had successfully suppressed these memories and emotions for so long, that I felt that I’d be fine this time too and just get on with things.

“Six months passed by and I was still feeling unexplained sadness on occasion. My sleep pattern was also a mess. I found it difficult to fall asleep and when I did I would wake in the early hours and find it almost impossible to go back to sleep. This too had been going on for some time. 

“When I think it through I can, with the benefit of hindsight, see that at around that time there were other signs. I lacked any motivation to do things that I previously got a lot of pleasure from and I was feeling tired all the time. For example, I used to love spending time at my allotment but now I lacked the desire to go there at all. I thought that this was mainly down to tiredness. 

“Then, about three months before my breakdown, I was finding it very difficult to focus on things. At work I would find myself reading sentences over and over again, I needed to spend a lot more time preparing for meetings as I was losing confidence in my ability to offer input and I began to doubt my own judgement about the simplest things. 

“Most days I would wake up feeling uneasy about everything but I have never been a morning person so I just put it down to that. However, looking back I realise that I felt the same most evenings too. My mornings and evenings were plagued by sadness and I’d find myself feeling quite tearful for no apparent reason. It was affecting me so much that I could be sitting watching TV for an hour and have little or no idea of what I’d just seen. 

“Now that I understand depression better I realise that there were physical symptoms that could also have been linked. I never would have associated regular headaches, feelings of nausea and tummy ache as being connected to something going on in my brain.

“The final month was the most difficult. Whilst I’d been drinking more and more over the last 12 months, during the last few weeks I was increasingly drinking to get drunk rather than drinking for pleasure. I guess it was an attempt to self-medicate – to turn my brain off so that I didn’t worry so much about my lethargy, lack of motivation and dread of being in social situations. Usually a sociable person I truly didn’t want to be around people, not because I was afraid, but because I just didn’t care to be around other people and couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for conversation. 

“I also feared that I would lose my patience or even worse my temper, as I was starting to find that I was getting more and more irritable and my mood swings were quite unpredictable.

“In the end the crash was quick, over about 48 hours it felt like my brain gave up. I couldn’t think clearly, I started speaking gibberish and I truly felt that I just didn’t want to go on. Luckily for me Roger was there and he took me straight to my doctor. He immediately diagnosed me with depression, prescribed some medication and gave me and Roger some excellent advice. Thankfully, Roger was there as I wasn’t really taking much in. My doctor also referred me to see a counsellor, which was very useful.”

Some people have the misfortune to be genetically predisposed to developing depression but Mike’s illness, coming on after a period of stress or as a reaction to a personal disaster, is more typical. He developed all, or most, of the expected symptoms caused by a gradual depletion in the natural brain chemicals that enable nerves to interact, enabling our thought processes, controlling our body clock and physical activities.

What often makes the diagnosis, or our own realisation, difficult is that not everyone develops these symptoms in the same order or to the same extent. One of our aims in writing this article is to encourage anyone who recognises this pattern of symptoms in themselves, or people close to them, to seek advice.

FEATURE: Princess C*nty

Holly Smith – a biologically female drag queen, by Rebecca House.

A few months ago I’d never heard of the term ‘bio-queen’. It wasn’t until I had a conversation with someone from the drag industry, that I became aware of the expression and its definition. This then led me to do some research around the area. Bio-queens, which can also be referred to as ‘faux-queens’, ‘lady queens’ and ‘hyper-queens’, are biological women who perform as drag queens.

As it’s common for drag queens to consist of predominately biological men, I thought it would be interesting to interview a woman who performs as a drag queen to discover and understand her opinions and experiences within drag.

Holly Smith, a performing arts student, could be viewed as a bio-queen but does not self-identify with this term. She first became interested in drag as a teenager and has been performing in drag since August 2016. She regularly attends drag open mic nights and you can now see her on stage as Princess C*nty every Sunday evening at Priscilla’s in Brighton. 

Holly who comes from a musical theatre background, said: “I’ve always loved performing and musical theatre, as well as other art forms. So for me it [drag] is a way of dressing up in sparkly things or whatever you want to wear and transforming into another character. I like it when other people enjoy what I do. I try to push boundaries and I like being outrageous as well as exploring different areas of the art of drag.” 

On the topic of drag kings, Holly mentions: “At the time [before starting drag] I was thinking about performing as a drag king as that’s all I thought I could do, whereas I’ve now come to realise it’s silly to put those restrictions on yourself. No matter what you do you should do what you want to do because that’s what you want to do. As much as I love the art form [drag kings], it just wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

Later, whilst discussing drag in terms of gender roles, Holly says: “Drag does stretch gender roles as I see it as people just being people, doing what they want to do and wearing what they want to wear, regardless of gender and sexuality.” 

The subject of the bio-queen label arises and Holly suggests: “Technically I’m a bio-queen because I’m a biological woman, but I don’t identify as that. I think of myself as a drag queen but it doesn’t really matter what you call it in my opinion. It’s the same with sexuality. People ask are you gay? Straight? Or bisexual? I don’t feel like I fit into any of those categories. I just like people and it’s the same with drag, ‘I am what I am’.”

Holly further proposes women performing as drag queens are not currently as common as men: “It is becoming more common because the world is ever-changing and there was a time where it wasn’t accepted for men to dress up as women in the way that they do today.”

This led us to Holly’s experiences as a drag queen and how the drag community as a whole are very supportive: “The only time I’ve ever really experienced negative reactions is where people just haven’t really understood. The Brighton scene is incredibly supportive.”

“Quite often someone will say ‘oh, I think I’ve met you before as a guy’… personally, I find it really amusing.”

Holly finishes saying: “I’d like to thank everyone on the scene who’s been so incredibly supportive and not just to me but to all the other drag queens starting out. I just hope Brighton continues to be what it is, to have that real sense of community, and to keep supporting each other.” 

Council Spring clean removes three tonnes of roadside rubbish

Cleaning crews have removed tonnes of rubbish from the side of the A27 and A23 in a series of night time clear ups following growing concerns about the amount of rubbish in the countryside.

Staff from the council’s Cityclean team picked up litter from grass verges and central reservations on the two main routes into the city.

Work was carried out at night because the roads are so busy, to minimise any disruption to traffic and ensure the clean up team can work safely.

In the first five nights, more than three tonnes of rubbish was cleared – everything from litter to bumpers and other car parts.

The council is responsible for clearing the verges from the Falmer turn off on A27 to almost the Southwick Tunnel, and on the A23 from the roundabout to the Brighton pillars.

The motorways are cleared approximately every 3 months, with crews working for 10 hours each night.

The Cityclean team works alongside a contractor which provides mobile lane closures and ensure the safety of the council employees.

 

 

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