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Yes, it’s true that Angles is having its own funeral this weekend.  The club that was voted best club in Oklahoma for 10 years straight in the Oklahoma Gazette (gay and straight) – and probably any publication (remember the “gaysian invasian”) for a few years of those. You know I joke a lot!  But seriously it was the top dance club in Oklahoma for years then when other clubs were built in Brickto  wn it went back to being just the best gay dance club. 

Saying goodbye to Angles is too sad to attend the event.  I refuse to go to the last event because I feel like we are going backwards in time.  I feel some of our gay causes have went in a good direction but some have went far backwards.  Let’s hope something positive can come out of this.  Let’s hope the party is not crashed like their Studio 54 party by the fire marshal and police harassing queers who are just out dancing and socializing.

Madonna talks about her “Secret” in her hit song and mine has always been going to Angles and the Wreck Room as a place to get away from the crazy world, a place to feel myself feel the music and let go.  When I first started going to Angles and the Wreck Room I did not even need Alcohol to dance or drugs or anything but the awesome music… My “Secret” place in the atmosphere dancing at Angles helped me through so many things in life including college, work problems, frustration that needed danced out.  Dancing at Angles to “It’s a Beautiful Life” or “Mamma Mia” were you would have chill bumps down your back just really made my night and my weeks and was a comfort I always needed.

Angles would always have theme parties like no other club.  It is rare clubs do theme parties anymore because the circuit event promoters want to own those.  Otherwise, I cannot imagine why clubs are not like Scott Wilson’s Angles with themes and creativity.  It has all gone away.  I did enjoy the Spring Sweat, White Party, Pride T-Dance, Studio 54 Party (for the 2 hours it was open that night).

Angles’ was ahead of its time considering it was located in the Bible Belt of Oklahoma and not far from the extremists in Kansas.  It already looks like a club should look like today on the inside.  It even looked cool before it remodeled a few times.  Some clubs are cheesy but Angles always had a cosmopolitan and trendy look inside that kept it ahead of its game along with lighting and sound that would take you away.  The light system did consist of lasers and track lights that moved up and down with the enormous mirror ball (we used to call that Kelly’s left tit).

Hard News Online did an awesome piece on Angles’ Nightclub closing down and here are some quotes from Scott Wilson himself about what they went thorough.  If you check out their site make sure that you read Floyd’s writing to give you even more history.

“At that time my business partner, and then life partner, Don Hill and I did a lot of traveling and we loved to go to New York City and have a good time at studio 54 and other clubs, said Wilson. “Of course there just wasn’t anything like that here in Oklahoma City so we decided to open the club.”

Wilson and Hill chose the former site of the Oklahoma City ice plant on 39th Street. The club was designed to look like a warehouse complete with a garage door.

“I think few people, who weren’t there understand what this place meant to the gay community before the inclusion and larger acceptance. Still fewer understand what it meant during the AIDS crisis,” Wilson said. “Angles was built the way it is for a reason. Before we put the big web address on the side of the building a few years. All during the day people drove by thinking it was a warehouse. We did that because we didn’t want it to be bombed or the focal point of anyone’s attention.”

The did attract attention and in the early days both the city and the community were less than supportive.

“In 1983 the FBI came to us and said that there had been death threats. At one point there were FBI agents up on the roof of the building because there had been some bomb threats and other stuff. It was handled with the federal authorities and that was the only time we had anything like that,” he said.

FINAL EVENTS:     

• Angles 25th Anniversary will be celebrated on Saturday, August 25 with DJ DeLorenzo from Albuquerque
• Sunday 26th join Angles for the Farewell T-Dance at 6pm

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 10:30 am and is filed under Clubs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.