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. 

Diva Magazine review of Candy Bar Brighton, 2000

Forever keen to share our love of proper house music – and to find a place to set up our Technics, Queenie and I had soon blagged our way into the building as DJs and within weeks were playing on our decks on a wobbly table by the front door to anyone who would listen. We played Friday nights, we called it Love Lounge and Queenie especially got to indulge in her love of that particular type of early 2000s poolside house – all ‘Music And Wine’ like. Dulcie Danger and Riki Rocket joined us and alongside London DJ legends such as Philly, Slamma and Princess Julia (who would DJ whilst reading gossip mags), we were soon repping the Candy Bar. 

Queenie DJing Out On The Streets Brighton Pride Candy Bar 2004

Images of the Candy Bar from Gscene magazine, November 2001 

Staffed by a legion of glorious lesbians forever impressing with their love of a decent night out, a lesbian drama and a cropped t-shirt, (Bec, Rachel, Rebecca, Nanna, Lucy, Cat, Karen, Claudia, Theresa, Compton,  Vicki, Fiona, Paris, Hannah, Eliza, Mich, Annie, Jules, Anne, Sarah, Lukasz, Zoe, Chicken we see you!), the Candy Bar soon became THE destination dyke bar, filled most nights with enough noughties hair product to prop up the West Pier.  Yes, there was a basement and it would occasionally fill to bursting with dykes dildo bobbing for Halloween or attempting to juggle a date with both Maud and Lorde, but as the Candy Bar’s reputation grew as the party destination for dykes so did the need to expand and find a Friday night dancefloor for extra play time. Called Wet Pussy it was not shy in coming forward with it’s late night intentions and we soon found ourselves in the raised DJ booth at the Pool above Charles Street on 8 Marine Parade alongside resident and guest DJs Slamma, Princess Julia, Riki Rocket, Dulcie Danger, Kinky D, DJ Philly, Lil Jo, DJ Lush, DJ Minx, Helene Stokes, Sara Furey, MC Crystal, MC Brandy,  with Joy Joseph and Mushy Pea (Michele Allardyce) on percussion.  With drinks as cheap as the toilet cubical thrills that may or may not have been available (we couldn’t possibly comment) we knocked out a soundtrack of house music’s latest bangers courtesy of Urban Records endless supply of dodgy 12” bootlegs (cheers Mick Fuller). On Friday night at Wet Pussy it was ensured that we can’t get no sleep. One for the faithful, Wet Pussy delivered something lesbian clubbing had not delivered in Brighton so far. Grit, go-go girls and get some. Just how everyone liked it. The sweat was had. Especially when Becca, Sophie, Crystal, and Michelle were go-go dancing and Queenie forgot to turn the disco lights on and we spent all night fumbling about in the dark.  

Crystal and Freddie, and their friend, 2000 

February 2004 and the Candy Bar had outgrown no 33, moving to the previous home of The Zanzibar and Club FUK, claiming No.129 St James Street for the lesbians. Refurb by the lesbians, managed by the lesbians, flyers designed by lesbians (shout out to the much missed Jo Gell, Rachael Venia Woodgate and Shibby Shabbler’s Sarah Ferrari) and filled by the lesbians. It soon became the weekend hang out complete with the now obligatory Candy Bar pole dancing, and not even the red lights of the sound limiter above the dancefloor could stop play. There was our house infused Saturday Sugar, Riki Rocket’s R’n’B Booty Call, indie kids Shibby Shabblers, 80s night Club Tropicana, Cat, Shaz, Naj and Rocket’s karaoke, open deck nights Bring It On and Deck-A-Dyke, plus the ever refined Dining Dykes. DJs including Michelle Manetti aka DJ Annik, Dulcie Danger, King K, Riki Rocket, DJ Hollie, Darren Skene aka Pookie, Sarah Ferrari aka Crackwhore, Linzi LoHands, DJ Beast, Size Zero Albino, Fifilicious, Heidi Heelz (Sirens), and the legendary Richard Smith a.k.a. DJ Wanker and DJ Adam from Fuck The Pain Away annoyed the neighbours and roadblocked the dancefloor.  The mess got very hot. 

The Candy Bar proudly played it’s part in the roots of Brighton Pride – bringing the Girls Dance Tent to Preston Park (Queenie and I made our debut in 2001) and creating the forerunner of the Pride Village Street Party, Out On The Streets in 2003. Seemingly forever taking on the powers that be, be it stewards in Preston Park requesting the bass be turned down in the Girl’s Dance Tent so the Women’s Performance Tent could hear their poetry recital or council licensing offers insisting speakers the size of Brighton Pavilion find their way off the pavement of St James’ and into the actual premises of no.33 deafening one regal DJ as she played, Kim Lucas’ drive to keep Pride delivering for the L in the LGBTQI+ was admirable. Because of her tenacity we got to DJ in a shop window, something this haberdasher’s offspring will always cherish. That was for you Granny Branch. I’ll never forget the Pride Party the Candy Bar co-hosted with Wild Fruit at the newly refurbished Brighton Dome on Church Street. The steam from the hot topless gay clubbers so overwhelming for both the seemingly prudish licensing officer and the Brighton Dome’s electrics that all play was halted. All, it must be said, to the amusement of Princess Julia who screamed out in her particular cockney drawl ‘aaaaah has that Kim Lucas not put enough money in the meter again??!” as a thousand wankered topless dancing gay boys headed for the exit to admire the, erm, shiny helmets of Brighton and Hove’s very handsome if blushing fire brigade.  

Candy Girls, Brighton Pride, 2003 

St James Pride Recovery Street Party

Kate Wildblood DJing Candy Bar Girl's Dance Tent Brighton Pride 2002

The tales Queenie and I have of the Candy Bar are far from the whole story – either of those remarkable venues or the people who made it happen. The memories often as blurry as the lines we indulged in. Those eight years of Candy left their mark, mostly good some not so, as undiagnosed autism, ADHD and addiction continued its work on us but without those years of Candy we would never have made the connections we needed to create the DJ life we have together or be the couple we are today. The Candy Bar connected us to Dulcie Danger once more who in turn pointed us in to the direction of promoter Paul Kemp and his nights Sunday Sundae, Wild Fruit, Monkey, Cash Queen and Rebel and of course Brighton Pride. Our adventures at Charles Street and The Pool lead us to their  illustrious neighbours The Escape Club / Audio / Patterns and my 2003 debut at Sunday Sundae and the start of a twenty-two year residency at 10 Marine Parade. It helped win us a couple of those GScene Magazine Golden Handbags (no disco dramas there then!) and even got us on the radio for the second time as Purple Radio welcomed a nervous studio debut from yours truly. The Candy Bar, Kim Lucas and Rachael Venia Woodgate aka Rach Red ensured we had the space to put the needle on the record, over and over, creating the truly fabulous hot mess we needed to be right then. It gave us and so many of us in Brighton a space to learn, make mistakes and become. Bar girls becoming managers then business women creating spaces for acclaimed lesbian club nights, DJs becoming Pride-zillas changing Brighton’s LGBTQI+ history forever, acclaimed photographers, Vogue published V&A contributors, or iconic scene mama’s in turn breaking down barriers for her queer community, for music producers riding the charts, social media titans setting national trends, and DJ legends becoming, erm, more legendary. That’s you Princess Julia. 

Kate, Rach Red, Queenie and Cat at Purple Radio London, November 2001

Rocket, Kate and Queenie, New Years Eve, 2005

The Candy Bar was the lesbian playground we all learnt to grow up in, a small part in my life on the decks that I will forever treasure, a community I will always cherish and a chapter I will always hold dear  – apart from the bit with the lesbian mud wrestling. That’s coming nowhere near me. All mess, not hot.   

Kate Wildblood

December 2025