08/10/2011: It was time to play ‘hit the gym and starve yourself silly for a couple weeks’ again as the preparations for Hotwired approached and I needed to slip myself back into the only suitable outfit I own for just such occasions, i.e. a tiny pair of micro rubber shorts that I’ve affectionately named my ‘batty riders’. (The irony that I wore the same pair of rubber shorts just seven days before to a high camp London charity event called Wig Party – minus wig and heels, of course – was not lost on me!)
But I digress this isn’t about me, but about Hotwired… One year ago its inaugural outing proved a huge hit with leather and rubber enthusiasts who travelled far and wide for the event.
Taking over the cavernous arches that are Ewer Street Car Park by day and rave home by night is a challenge that only mega fetish brands Hard On and RUT could handle!
And with the feedback from punters after the 2010 event to add to their own burgeoning ideas, this year they tweaked its nipples and tugged its dog collar to present an even slicker, sexier and more scandalous second event!
The main club room saw a merging of musical styles as Hard On and Rut combined their DJs into one room, with a second set of decks set up in the cruise spaces. Over in the two massive darkened arches, Hotwired featured the return of not one but TWO beaten up cars!
The surprise hit of last year, the cars were back, with one eager clubber writhing around its back seat with a few new friends exclaiming, “Oh my God, we’re dogging!” Complete with red lighting, the horny bastards were working their way all over ‘em!
What makes this event even more special is its appeal to ‘fetish tourists’ like lil’ moi. Not being your usual punter at your regular leather/rubber/skin/etc club nights, I’m more often found with my top off wrapped around a Latino in London clubland or throwing it down with the club kidz of Shoreditch, than in your local dark room.
Yet somehow, Hotwired manages to appeal to a whole host of newcomers to the harder scene as well as it’s eager established fan base… Oh yes, for a second year in a row, Hotwired is a horny hit. Bring on 2012!
• Ewer Street Car Park, 29 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1.
• Words by Cliff Joannou
• Photos by Mark Storey
