You may remember that we previewed the 2008 World Gay Football Championships, which took place over the last week in Regent's Park. We're happy to report that our very own Leftfooters FC organised the tournament, which seemed to embody the best of British - fun, sporting achievement, fair play, and a sense of community. Forty teams of men and women competed in three Leagues for six days, watched over by 56 referees. Today the......

Salvation is a legendary clubbing brand. To those in the know, it reflects Decadence (so we're talking a plushly-fitted club, everyone treated as a VIP, a real sense of occasion), and Carnival (great costumes, astonishing performance on stage, fab atmosphere). We sat Promoter/Director Steve Elliott and owner John Addy in our hotseat to grill them on exactly why people should seek Salvation: Your club night has been around in different forms since it kicked......

James Bond would be neither shaken nor stirred by the news today that MI5 is to launch a recruitment drive for gays and lesbians to join the government's security service. The story was leaked to the Sun of all places (which we reckon isn't particularly well-targetted at gays and lesbians in particular). This is, however, a real turn-around. Until the early 1990s, a gay person couldn't join the London-based national security service as they......

This Sunday afternoon will see the streets of the West End crammed. Soho Pride, the smaller, younger (prettier?) cousin of London Pride will see street parties and all sorts around the central gay district of town off Old Compton Street and Rupert Street, including the infamous Candy Girls areas. Our favoured bit to head to will be the natural focal point for the whole thing at Soho Square. In its fifth year, the theme......

So - what to do after the Olympic Games? How will we cope when the sport finishes - and before the Paralympic Games get going a few weeks later? One option is to enjoy six days of international gay football. For the first time, London is about to proudly host the World Gay & Lesbian Football Championships from 24-30 August. "Over 50 teams from six continents" (damn that Antarctica!) will battle it out to......

Some stories are true slow burners. We've been pondering the fate of one of London's grubbiest, tattiest yet best loved live music and club night venues since mid 2006. However, the Astoria has soldiered on, pepped up by 35,000 supporters signing a "Save the Astoria" petition. Whilst its time on death row has been lengthy, the execution will be going ahead. Not even Ken Livingstone, friend of live music venues, can stay it. It's......

It's officially Spring and by Pisces it's lovely out there in the sunshine. Crocuses have been spotted in Highbury Fields so our biggest recommendation for expenditure light trips this week is get to the parks and into the gardens and witness the miracles of the changing seasons. If you're in need of more artificial stimulation, however, and are squirrelling all your spare cash into your ISA before the end of the tax year then......

There are moments where London can be proud of its diversity. This is just one of them. The London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival - the annual feast of the best gay cinema - is shortly upon us. This year's gathering in the capital will be the 22nd time it has been held in London, and each year it seems to attract more films and popularity. Our sizable gay community and London's film and......

A couple of weeks ago our attention was drawn to the London FrontRunners, a running club that somewhat surprisingly had decided to stage their unique version of A Christmas Carol at the Drill Hall. Running and acting not being the most obvious of bedfellows, Londonist decided to find out who or what the FrontRunners really are. We met Graham Kennedy, one of the two Presidents, and Leila Brosnan, a long-standing member, just before they......

'Tis the end of panto-season. No more Ross Kemp in Wimbledon, no more Suzanne Shaw at the Barbican - even Ian McKellan has vacated the Old Vic. Soon the time will come when we pine for hairy men in frocks and Technicolor landscapes. However, to ease us gently out of the season, London FrontRunners is putting on two charity performances of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Drill Hall this Sunday 13th January.......

There have been big changes at Londonist this year - we've had new staff, a new commenting system and a brand new tagging system installed so we had a lot to celebrate at the Christmas party. And as we're not keen on making trouble for ourselves, only for other people, we thought we would go to a party already arranged for us; last night a hearty party of Londonistas headed off to the Barbican......

Last full week before Christmas, we expect your bank account's feeling the strain. All that Christmas shopping and partying taking its toll? If you want to make the most of being out and about before Christmas cabin fever and complete exhaustion set in then we're here to help. Monday: Keep the braincells going through silly season. Go to the free lecture at Gresham College about why our society rewards celebrities, fads and fashions and......

Media regulators Ofcom have finally come to a conclusion about one of George Galloway's inappropriate outbursts on radio station TalkSport. As a sitting MP and representative of Bethnal Green and Bow, it was not acceptable for him to have hijacked the morning show for promoting himself as a better candidate for Poplar and Limehouse. Called to stand-in for regular hosts on the morning of 10 August, Galloway proceeded to outline his plan to pitch......

Today, they came from the stars, i saw them are recording an XFM session and on 9 November, will be transmitting a BBC 6music Marc Riley session. We suggest you tune in. Some press people tried to describe them here and, mashed together in a tag cloud, they probably do quite a good composite job. We leave it for you to decide if they are visionary pop genii from another inspired planet or truly......

Local trader Mike Weedon has proposed new toilets to be built in the trendy bar and club-filled area of Islington. The proposal has been taken seriously by Islington Council as imore public conveniences should be available ... but not if they're named after Joe Orton. This infamous homosexual playwright of the 1960s rocked London with controversial plays such as 'Loot', What the Butler Saw' and 'Entertaining Mr Sloane' (a corpse in a cupboard and......

We like a funny story on Londonist, and this has had us tittering into our tea mugs all day. One David Gay, of Finsbury Park, is up in the dock accused of using stealth cameras to film up ladies’ skirts. Voyeurs are of course fundamentally pretty sad creatures, and the idea that someone has the power to see into areas which are private or sacred to another individual is, frankly, dead creepy. Clearly this guy......

In the UK, Joe Rogan is probably best known for playing Joe Garrelli in the sitcom NewsRadio, as a presenter on the American reality show Fear Factor, and as a commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. What us Londoners may not be aware of is that Joe is also a prolific stand-up comedian, gigging regularly to huge audiences around America for over fifteen years. He mixes traditional stand-up with political satire, a dissection of......

What a start to the week! After such miserable weather this weekend DeVotchKa have arrived to add some flavour to our weeks at the very purple 93 Feet East in the heart of Brick Lane. The venue was packed out early on and we even spotted Justin Hawkins hiding amongst the crowd with long haired friends. Opening for DeVotchKa was an unusual surprise for the crowd, not the cabaret or burlesque that we're used......

If you're feeling your age, then you'll have fun this weekend. Two events have been noted on the Londonist radar and both concern the silver end of the social spectrum. First up for your diary is Bells of Shoreditch on Saturday, a durational performance installation in St Leonard's Church, along Shoreditch High Street. As part of the Shoreditch Festival , performance and installation artist Anne Bean has gathered a diverse group of women to......

Kate Monro is working on a book about that most intimate subject: how people lose their virginity. She's interviewed Londoners old and young, male and female, gay, straight, Muslim and Roman Catholic, able and non-able bodied. And she's always on the lookout for, ahem, a new angle... Why are you so curious about how people lost their virginity? I’m nosy! No, seriously, it came to me in a light bulb moment. A friend and......

As always, there are a million things to do in London this week. If you fancy a night in though, here are a few things to keep you occupied. On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 16 July Building Britain (BBC1, 19:30-20:00) The first in the series, Peter Ackroyd's back to take us through the changes in London's skyline and how money and power are influencing how our city will look. Olympic Backlash: Tonight (ITV1, 20:00-20:30)......

LAist was comped front row seats by the Dodgers due to Malingering being struck by a foul ball last week, and she came back with some great photos, and earlier made fun of 4th of July on Venice Beach. But the biggest stories of the week was that the Mayor's Hot Tamale was revealed, and that a Kwik-E-Mart was erected in Burbank. Phillyist was busy doing the Fourth of July up right, exercising their......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

With gay pride hitting London this weekend for its annual raunchfest of protesting, parading and partying, we thought it the right time to approach Megan Jones, promoter of Vauxhall house music mega-club FiRE, to find out what they will be getting up to. What are your plans for Pride? We've got loads on for Pride this year. Firstly we'll be participating in the parade on Oxford Street, and afterwards we'll be hosting the sound......

Europe's biggest gay and lesbian festival, Pride London, is back this Saturday. Expect a hefty downpour, if the current forecast is accurate. There's heaps on this year, though, if you make it out to support your brothers and sisters. It all kicks off when the ever-eclectic Parade heads through the centre of town from 1pm, along a route taking in the West End's Oxford and Regent Streets before heading over to Tafalgar Square and......

There's been whispers round Hoxton parts recently of a new night that's not like the rest. Forgot the usual posters and socialites Ghost School has taken over the Macbeth once an month declaring "We love arty rockers with electric guitars, twee freaks with knitted agendas, gay geeks with scuffed shoes, and party poppers who love their liquor. " Sound good? We caught up with the DJs behind the club ahead of this Thursday's party!......

From the tallest skyscraper in the City of Brotherly Love to Canadian tourism copywriting brilliance, here's what you should know from our -ist cities: This week, Phillyist took a gleeful listen to the White Stripes' exciting new release, watched in awe as their new tallest skyscraper was finally completed, found a cheaper way to get to Gothamist, invented a tasty new dessert, and brought back their Craigslist Round-Up feature with a bang. Bostonist watches......

London's live comedy scene is the best in the world. That's a fact! Admittedly, it's not a fact that I can back up with evidence, because I've only ever been to one other country. And to be honest, it's not so much a fact, as something I often hear other people saying, and that I have copied. But doesn't it feel like it should be true? After all, last Monday alone there was over......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 11th June 1988: The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute (a.k.a. Mandela Day Concert) takes place at Wembley Stadium. On a scale approaching the Live Aid concert that took place some three years earlier, more than 600 million people worldwide tune in to watch the epic day-long concert featuring dozens of high profile bands protesting against the apartheid regime in South Africa and the ongoing incarceration of Nelson......

As the festival season kicks off into full swing, the range of “normal” bands playing the capital starts to dwindle as they recover from their Download and Isle of Wight sized hangovers and prepare for a Wireless one this weekend. First up, on Monday night, The Fratellis play Scala, which is well and truly sold out, however you may be able to get a last minute offer on scarlet mist or equivalent. If you like......