We go back to the hedonistic 1990s of Nottingham and the North of England with former photographer, Stuart Linden Rhodes, who comes to Nottingham on February 6 to launch his new book Linden Archives.
Nottingham’s nightlife was arguably at its peak in the nineties. Clubbers had their pick of the best spots from Deluxe on James Street to Ritzy’s on Huntingdon Street, Kool Kat on St. Mary’s Gate or The Hippo on Bridlesmith Gate to name a few.
Queer nightlife was thriving too with The Foresters, Admiral Duncan, MGM, Jaceys and Lord Roberts. With the new nightlife came scene photographers, brave souls who spent their nights documenting the dancefloor until the early hours before sending those images off to editors the next morning.
By the nineties, it was impossible not to ignore the Midlands thanks to pioneering clubs such as Part Two on Canal Street in the early 1980s and the big monthly night, Revolution at MGM. London-based magazines wanted, and needed, a northern contact. This is how Stuart Stuart Linden Rhodes became a scene photographer for both Gay Times and All Points North (APN) magazines.
“Terry George started his own venture called APN and he knew I had a camera. He asked if I wanted to be a scene reviewer so we negotiated what was in it for me - a few drinks. As for Gay Times, I kept bumping into Bill Short who was their full-time reviewer who came up north from Brighton. Eventually, he said, ‘This is crazy, why don’t you do the North?’” Linden recalled.
The North also included Nottingham, Birmingham and Derby. One of his first stops in the city was at Ritzy’s nightclub, which, depending on your vintage, is also known as Przym, Oceania, and more recently back to its original title, The Palais. George was invited to photograph a new boyband in 1991 named Take That.
Robbie has come out to say something about the gay scene of the 90s and how it made them. They are finally acknowledging the impact of the gay scene on their lives. As you can imagine, these five pretty boys dancing with next to nothing on? The gay scene was out in force!
“It was Gary Barlow’s 21st birthday so I asked him tongue in cheek what it felt like to be legal. His response was, ‘I’ll let you know later’,” Linden laughed.
“They were great and it was such a good time for them. They were young, cheeky and a lot of fun. They were working so hard just grafting away by doing school assemblies at lunchtime and then the gay clubs at night. It was non-stop trying to break through.”
Linden’s photographs show the young crowd in their spandex, leather and glitter complete with a sixteen-year-old Robbie Williams and badly bleached Gary Barlow backstage. When you see the lads on stage, it’s incredible how queer-coded the early years were and how far they were from their later stadium tours.
However, it’s taken until 2025 for the band to admit how much they owe local gay scenes like this for their start.
“Robbie has come out to say something about the gay scene of the 90s and how it made them. They are finally acknowledging the impact of the gay scene on their lives. As you can imagine, these five pretty boys dancing with next to nothing on? The gay scene was out in force!”
During the ‘Covid years,’ Linden revisited his photography realising that he had an archive on his hands. The result has been two books that document the queer scenes as well as an upcoming documentary/drama by Dominic LaClerc.
“I worked with an independent publisher in the North called Pariah Press. They approached me and the book was everything I wanted it to be. The first book was titled, Out and About with Linden: a Queer Archive of the North. I wanted to have the North in the title because too much was being written about London, not enough about the North and I looked at the Midlands as being my patch,” he said.
“The second book, which is simply titled: Linden Archives, is a big coffee table photo book. It’s glitzy and glam. It's focused on the other side of queer life, the daytime photography such as Pride events or picnics. It wasn’t just about queer clubs and darkrooms.”
Linden’s Nottingham photos capture the joy of queer nightlife. There are photos of laughing young gay men competing to be Mr Gay UK, drag queens sipping drinks perched on bar stools, bar staff smiling while pulling pints and the truly horrible pub carpets of the 1990s. There is a beautiful energy that pulses through the photos that makes you want to hit the dance floor.
Despite this, the reality outside the clubs was a continuation of the decade before. The AIDS crisis still raged on, there was rampant homophobia and stigma. Thatcher may have gone but her draconian law, Section 28, remained. It prohibited the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality by local authorities in the UK, effectively banning any talk of homosexuality as a valid relationship in schools. As a cautious teacher, Stuart adopted the pseudonym, Linden.
“The students didn’t know and it was never discussed. No one ever asked so it wasn’t a problem. The camera would come out and I would become this alter ego. It was an interesting time because you were these two people,” Linden said.
“It was awful at work because Section 28 was horrendous,” he said. “I was working with teenagers at the time in further education. You had students who had no adult role models in their lives so no one to talk to. You had students come to you, in tears saying, I might be gay and don’t know where to go. I would be breaking the law if I directed them to any sort of help.”
Section 28 was horrendous. You had students come to you, in tears saying, I might be gay and don’t know where to go. I would be breaking the law if I directed them to any sort of help
“I would be sat socialising with drinks then someone would come in and say, ‘Hiya Linden, how are you? Not photographing tonight?’ People would ask why I was being called Linden. It happened a few times so I had to explain myself.”
Nightlife changed dramatically in the late 90s and early 00s. Nottingham experienced a change in the late noughties as the scene slowed. But why? The answer is complex. Music changes, recession, gentrification, smoking bans, internet, licensing law changes, increasing violence and Grindr all played a part.
“I fizzled out in the late 90s when the scenes changed. When I started, it was disco or High NRG with people having fun. By the time it got to 1996, there was more drug taking and it was more about drinking. There were more people with white powder and bottles of water than anything else and the music was harder,” he said.
Even now the debate rages on about what is causing the closure of so many queer venues. What does Linden think of the scene today?
“One of the reasons for the bar and club closures is the changing demographic of the country. Forty years ago, the average age of the population was around 27 and now it is in the late 40s,” he explained.
“The nightlife isn’t reflecting that. There are a lot of independent little bars opening that are no bigger than your living room, where two mates run the bar and it’s only open at night or over so many hours. They have their little crowd that comes in and the bigger bars or clubs with overheads are closing. There is also the financial side of what is going on in the country which is a factor but there is a shift in what people want which is partly driven by the age difference.”
Linden will bring his archive to Nottingham to launch his new book at Central Library on February 6 as part of LGBT+ History Month. Join Linden as he is in conversation with CJ DeBarra of the Notts Queer History Archive to share his wonderful photographs and the stories behind them.
Tickets are available here and you can buy the book LINDEN ARCHIVES here.
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