User:Ozeboy69/sandbox

PATCHES - 33 Oxford St Surry Hills

When 6pm hotel closing law ended, Sydney’s ambience changed. New clubs, bars and restaurants began opening for evening trade, and it soon became obvious that the gays needed a place to call their own. It was then that two of them, Roger-Claude Teyssedre and Dawn O’Donnell, opened Patches Disco on Oxford Street in 1976. They were both familiar with, in fact integral parts of, the alternative sexuality scene in Sydney, well-connected in the underworld and the entertainment industry, and on golden handshaking terms with police. The Oxford Street phenomonem had begun.

Patches thrived from its opening. DJs filled the disco with wall-shaking music you’d never heard before, and the glitterati followed the gays. On the flashing glass dance floor you could rub shoulders (or other body parts) with stars of music, film, theater, television, radio, fashion and art, beautiful twinks who’d run away from the suburbs, visiting celebrities and politicians with their minders. The sign above the restroom door read ‘Playroom’ and that’s what Patches was for many, a place to play.

Although there had always been drag shows from it's beginning it wasn't until 1978 that the shows really become legendary. There were two shows a night, five nights a week. with Trixie Laumonte as host and MC. It also saw the likes of Teresa Green, Julie Ashton, Leggs Galore, Flange DesireMiss 3D and Cindy Pastel start their illustrious drag career in these shows