Bangkok Gay Dance Clubs

[PeterRS]

One or two members here post about too much attention being gven to the "old days". We live in 2026 and should just enjoy what is on offer for gay men today. To a certain extent I agree and disagree. Enjoy the moment should be everyone's motto. But we should never forget that the "old days" for those of us who were around then were quite amazing and surely worth the occasional reminiscence. For had we not had the "old days", perhaps there would be little to enjoy today.  

[Patanawet]

Recently, I was talking with a friend and referred to D.J.Station as a 'disco'. His response --"my god, How old ARE you?"

P.S. I'm actually SO old that I think of a club as something one has to be a member of.

Edited Monday at 06:31 AM by Patanawet
P.S.

[mauRICE]

1 hour ago, Patanawet said:

P.S. I'm actually SO old that I think of a club as something one has to be a member of.

AA? 🤔

[vinapu]

15 hours ago, Enchanted_Elixir said:

Ah those days, and Soi Twilight 🕯️

me and Olddaddy remember parties Nero and Caligula were throwing in soi 2 when, what was then called  Siam,  was part of the Roman Empire. You youngsters don't know what you had missed !

[mauRICE]

46 minutes ago, vinapu said:

me and Olddaddy remember parties Nero and Caligula were throwing in soi 2 when, what was then called  Siam,  was part of the Roman Empire. You youngsters don't know what you had missed !

I read somewhere there was a Rome Club in that soi many years ago but it had burned down or something.

[thaiophilus]

2 hours ago, mauRICE said:

I read somewhere there was a Rome Club in that soi many years ago but it had burned down or something.

According to The Men of Thailand circa 1997, it was in Silom soi 4, but "in late 1993 the owner of Rome Club began refusing entrance to patrons thought to be gay" and the action moved to soi 2.

[mauRICE]

16 minutes ago, thaiophilus said:

According to The Men of Thailand circa 1997, it was in Silom soi 4, but "in late 1993 the owner of Rome Club began refusing entrance to "patrons thought to be gay" and the action moved to soi 2.

Patrons thought to be gay? How very dare they! Why that's like 90% of our forum members who can be spotted sashaying from a mile off!

Thank god I'm in the remaining 10%. 😉😎

 

 

[daydreamer]

17 hours ago, Patanawet said:

Recently, I was talking with a friend and referred to D.J.Station as a 'disco'. His response --"my god, How old ARE you?"

There are a few clubs in Bangkok and Pattaya that currently use the word Disco or Discotheque in their name.  The second photo below shows the Lucifer Disko sign on Walking Street in Pattaya.

Just tell your friend that you remember the New Screw Boys A Go Go Bar & Discotheque.

[PeterRS]

10 hours ago, mauRICE said:

I read somewhere there was a Rome Club in that soi many years ago but it had burned down or something.

Even before Telephone Bar, Balcony Bar and Sphinx, Soi 4 had one of the great dance clubs - Rome Club. Originally named the Siamese Doll Bar, by 1975 it was the 'in' place in Soi 4. I don't think it had discotheque in its title but it certainly was a disco and played great music. And how gay men of all ages thronged to it - and some girls as well! It was packed many nights of the week. It ran very successfully for many years until the owner decided for some reason to change the name around the end of the 1990s. I think it's name changed to Roxy and for a time around 2003 it hosted the group of professional dance students which had originated in Soi Twlight's X-Treme Bar. But the Club very quickly went down hill and then closed.

There was indeed a somewhat mysterious fire in the building in 1996 but the building certainly did not burn down. I think @mauRICE may be thinking about the ghastly disco fire in the Santika disco in Ekkamai in 2009 when 67 were killed and a further 222 injured. 

Discos were hugely popular in the mid-1980s and 1990s, and then with few exceptions the fad seemed to die off. Who now remembers the massive Ministry of Sound, a disco that lasted little more than a year, or the much more fashionable upmarket Bed Supper Club which closed in 2013?

[Keithambrose]

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

Even before Telephone Bar, Balcony Bar and Sphinx, Soi 4 had one of the great dance clubs - Rome Club. Originally named the Siamese Doll Bar, by 1975 it was the 'in' place in Soi 4. I don't think it had discotheque in its title but it certainly was a disco and played great music. And how gay men of all ages thronged to it - and some girls as well! It was packed many nights of the week. It ran very successfully for many years until the owner decided for some reason to change the name around the end of the 1990s. I think it's name changed to Roxy and for a time around 2003 it hosted the group of professional dance students which had originated in Soi Twlight's X-Treme Bar. But the Club very quickly went down hill and then closed.

There was indeed a somewhat mysterious fire in the building in 1996 but the building certainly did not burn down. I think @mauRICE may be thinking about the ghastly disco fire in the Santika disco in Ekkamai in 2009 when 67 were killed and a further 222 injured. 

Discos were hugely popular in the mid-1980s and 1990s, and then with few exceptions the fad seemed to die off. Who now remembers the massive Ministry of Sound, a disco that lasted little more than a year, or the much more fashionable upmarket Bed Supper Club which closed in 2013?

I assumed that was a reference to Nero fiddling (sic), while Rome burned.

[t0oL1]

Mostly DJ Station from what I can recognize. 

 

[mauRICE]

22 hours ago, Keithambrose said:

I assumed that was a reference to Nero fiddling (sic), while Rome burned.

Any reference to fiddling only applies to Sunee Plaza.😏

[Patanawet]

On 3/9/2026 at 2:36 PM, mauRICE said:

AA? 🤔

no, I  don't drive😁

[mauRICE]

1 hour ago, Patanawet said:

no, I  don't drive😁

That's good; never drink and drive. 👍👌👏

[vinapu]

5 hours ago, mauRICE said:

That's good; never drink and drive. 👍👌👏

yes , have a drink before  driving, otherwise it may spill in the car

[Patanawet]

On 3/9/2026 at 11:30 PM, mauRICE said:

I read somewhere there was a Rome Club in that soi many years ago but it had burned down or something.

I used to frequent Rome Club in the days.
My boyfriend at the time was a waiter there and one night, overnight, all the gay staff were given he sack. The two gay owners decided they wanted it to become a straight disco probably due to it's amazing mixed success and fame  all over S.E. Asia.
Sadly (for them) it immediately flopped ----  they tried it for about a year but it never recovered. So, they turned it gay again. Only to be boycotted by the gay staff and customers who remembered the way they were treated earlier.
The two owners retired to an island somewhere and were both murdered.
Later, under new ownership it was being renovated and the structure was so bad, the front and side walls collapsed taking down some of Balcony's left hand wall and stairs.
Well, that's what I recall over the eons some of which may have been coloured by last night's Leo, cheese and walnut nightcap and vivid dreams.

Edited 21 hours ago by Patanawet
bar

[PeterRS]

My memory is slightly different. After it dispensed with the gay label, it soon changed the name from Rome Club. But it never reverted back to it. I believe it had two other names, Roxy being one. I cannot recall the other. I do not recall the joint wall with Balcony being damaged nor of Balcony closing. But the new Rome Club venue was never the same after it changed to a straight disco. Why the owners wanted it to become a straight disco has always mystified me, if only because it as already attacting quite a mixed crowd. 

[mauRICE]

3 hours ago, Patanawet said:

I used to frequent Rome Club in the days.
My boyfriend at the time was a waiter there and one night, overnight, all the gay staff were given he sack. The two gay owners decided they wanted it to become a straight disco probably due to it's amazing mixed success and fame  all over S.E. Asia.
Sadly (for them) it immediately flopped ----  they tried it for about a year but it never recovered. So, they turned it gay again. Only to be boycotted by the gay staff and customers who remembered the way they were treated earlier.
The two owners retired to an island somewhere and were both murdered.
Later, under new ownership it was being renovated and the structure was so bad, the front and side walls collapsed taking down some of Balcony's left hand wall and stairs.
Well, that's what I recall over the eons some of which may have been coloured by last night's Leo, cheese and walnut nightcap and vivid dreams.

Interesting bit of gay Bangkok trivia @Patanawet. The owners were gay and wanted to change a successful gay-themed disco into a straight one. 🙄 Hmmm, I don't suppose they actually banned gay customers - how would they screen them? - but used themes and advertising that would appeal to straights. Still didn't make sense as according to you the disco was already drawing in straight customers. Or was this during the time when the AIDs epidemic was coming to the surface and seen as the gay man's disease? 

[Patanawet]

43 minutes ago, mauRICE said:

Interesting bit of gay Bangkok trivia @Patanawet. The owners were gay and wanted to change a successful gay-themed disco into a straight one. 🙄 Hmmm, I don't suppose they actually banned gay customers - how would they screen them? - but used themes and advertising that would appeal to straights. Still didn't make sense as according to you the disco was already drawing in straight customers. Or was this during the time when the AIDs epidemic was coming to the surface and seen as the gay man's disease? 

Yes Maurice, It was a mystery about changing to straight especially as they were a bit weird. It was certainly popular with a mixed crowd from Hong Kong, Vietnam etc and advertised on radio as "the most popular and famous disco in S.E. Asia "(no orientation mentioned).
And yes Peter, it certainly went through a few names though I'm almost sure it was still called Rome after it's metamorphosis to 'straight'. Maybe it was nameless at he time of it's collapse into Balcony. I was referring to the property.
I'm sure that Stuart at Balcony would remember clearly all the history of soi 4 from his Telephone and Balcony 30+ years.
Now, if only I could remember where I left my copies of Men of Thailand ...................................

[khaolakguy]

10 hours ago, Patanawet said:

The two owners retired to an island somewhere and were both murdered.

That sounds like more details would be interesting. Especially as it was always rumoured that the "sleeping partners" invested several hundred per cent of the club's value.

[thaiophilus]

Way back in 2010 Andrew Drummond (journalist who used to cover the sleazy side of LoS, for those who don't know) had a story about a different establishment where one of the partners died in mysterious circumstances shortly after investing a lot of capital.  I wonder if that's a mutation of the same story? I won't reference it here but it shouldn't be too hard to find.

[daydreamer]

Here's a link to an article from May 2002.  It is a page from the Bangkok Eyes website, and it has a lot of info on the history of Silom Soi 4, including the Rome Club.

http://www.bangkokeyes.com/mapkato.html

 

[khaolakguy]

5 hours ago, thaiophilus said:

Way back in 2010 Andrew Drummond (journalist who used to cover the sleazy side of LoS, for those who don't know) had a story about a different establishment where one of the partners died in mysterious circumstances shortly after investing a lot of capital.  I wonder if that's a mutation of the same story? I won't reference it here but it shouldn't be too hard to find.

That's a very different and much later event in Pattaya and unconnected with the Rome club issues. 

[PeterRS]

42 minutes ago, daydreamer said:

Here's a link to an article from May 2002.  It is a page from the Bangkok Eyes website, and it has a lot of info on the history of Silom Soi 4, including the Rome Club.

http://www.bangkokeyes.com/mapkato.html

Interesting article, and it does reinforce the suggestion that the 1996 fire resulted in only "minimal" damage. That surely could not have meant a wall collapsing. This all took place well after the dreadful days of the main AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990s as medication was then avaivable to sufferers. It also reinforces the fact that the Club had by that time become popular with non-gays. So why the then owners changed to an all straight disco remains a complete mystery - unless any other member has some more facts. Like @khaolakguy I'd love to know more about their departure from Bangkok and their deaths.

I also am sure the name "Rome Club" continued for some years after that fire. I seem to remember quite clearly that it was in operation around 2000. However, the information I had hoped to find - the actual date of Rome Club's closing - is not mentioned. It also fails to mention that the premises were taken over by others and that Roxy was at least one if its reincarnations. I know that for a fact as I was dating one of the young professional dancers in 2003 when they moved over to Roxy. That group had started out in Soi Twilight's X-Treme Bar. When that closed in 2002, the group was taken on by the bars across the soi that the German owned. I think they were there for about six months before then moving on to Roxy. But it also lasted little more than six months.

5 hours ago, thaiophilus said:

Way back in 2010 Andrew Drummond (journalist who used to cover the sleazy side of LoS, for those who don't know) had a story about a different establishment where one of the partners died in mysterious circumstances shortly after investing a lot of capital.  I wonder if that's a mutation of the same story? I won't reference it here but it shouldn't be too hard to find.

I suspect that story referred to the Lanna Lavender Hotel in Chiang Mai. Around 2009 a businessman named Jay Gregson took over the very large old Tokyo Hotel at the northwest of the moat and renamed it. He announced that it was to become the gayest haven in the country, a "gay man's utopia" according to the PR, a place where gay men could stay, enjoy indoor and outdoor restaurants, have a lap pool, a massage spa with willing attendants, and in the basement a glitzy show named Powerboys. His basic problem, though, was that the hotel was massively too large. The hotel had 11 floors, 110 rooms and he announced five different quality of rooms from Deluxe Plus down to Budget. But he ran very short of funds. He was only able to renovate the upper floors and there were quite a number of reports on various sites about guests having to be relocated to those upper floors as the quality of the cheaper ones was very poor.

A friend and I had dinner in the lovely open space above about Floor 3. But we had to send the bill back twice after they had miscalculated the cost of our meal and drinks. Thereafter we went to the basement to see the show at Powerboys which we found extremely good even though there was no nudity. We actually thought it was better than any show in the many Bangkok bars we had been to. Most of the cast were students from the nearby university. But again that show venue was massively too large. At least 100 fixed seats with a bar to the side. He was running two shows a night when we were there. I doubt if we saw more than 12 other customers.

The hotel did not last long. The owner, allegedly as a result of money issues, killed himself in his home not much more than six months after it opened. The hotel closed soon thereafter. If only he had chosen a hotel one quarter of the size, he could perhaps have made a go of it. But it was very sad both for him and the gay movement in Chiang Mai.

The announcemnt of the opening of the hotel can be found on this link - 

https://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/citylife-articles/special-scoop-lavender-lanna-hotel/

[daydreamer]

14 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

I suspect that story referred to the Lanna Lavender Hotel in Chiang Mai.

I think the Andrew Drummond reference that @thaiophilus mentioned suggests it was about a certain famous bar in Pattaya.