Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/236916
12 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 5 JANUARY 2014 From Strait Street to Jason Micallef may have raised eyebrows with his description of Strait Street as "a new Paceville". But could we learn something from a comparison between Malta's past and present entertainment hubs? RAPHAEL VASSALLO treks down the memory lanes of two generations to find out V18 approaches, and with it comes another round of talks about how to revitalise our capital city's ailing nightlife culture. On cue, Jason Micallef – chairman of the V18 board - this week informed a journalist that his own aspiration for Strait Street was built around the concept of "a new Paceville"… and the words had scarcely left his lips when howls of derision reverberated across the social networks. But amid all the face-palming and the collective cries of 'OMG!', there were also sudden nostalgic remembrances of times past in both places. An older generation took umbrage at hearing its old favourite haunt dismissed as a 'pissing trough for British sailors'. And younger nocturnal prowlers were equally incensed to hear their own little Mecca, Paceville, talked of as a den of iniquity. Clearly our preconceived notions of both places need to be revisited. Strait Street may well have gone down in history – and also in literature, thanks to Thomas Pynchon's V –as a cheap and rather squalid red-light district, rife with drunkenness and crime. Likewise Paceville is often frowned upon as the permanent source of all its neighbours' traffic, parking and vandalism woes. But these views, on their own, are clearly insufficient to account for the full historic realities of both places. Separately, one might question the wisdom of revitalising Strait Street without conducting anything resembling a feasibility study. Will people flock to establishments simply because they exist? Or does there have to be a confluence of certain factors already in place – not least, passing trade – for an area to successfully take off as an entertainment hub? The Gut, deflated A cursory glance at Strait Street today will suggest that more than just good intentions are required to sustain an entertainment district, let alone to create one from scratch. Sporadic attempts were made over the years to revive what was once a thriving cabaret and dance hall underworld; but none has ever succeeded. And unlike previous years, we can no longer blame the eternal stench of urine emanating from the public toilets behind the law courts, either. These have been cleaned up and even given a vaguely Art Deco feel… if that is possible for a latrine. But with the notable exception of Tico Tico on the corner with Old Theatre Street – recently refurbished, but still sporting its 1960s photographs and cabaret posters – the once raucous bars that lined the Gut have long since closed, and both their staff and clientele have moved elsewhere. This points towards an inescapable truism about the entertainment industry that seems to have nonetheless escaped the notice of the V18 committee. Such places cannot spring to life unless there is an infrastructure to underpin and sustain them. In The Gut's case, this was for almost two centuries provided by British and (briefly) American naval presence in the nearby harbours: which guaranteed a steady flow of exclusively male clients with a taste for cheap beer and arguably cheaper women… thus up to a point also dictating the type of entertainment on offer. Likewise one could argue (the area's long-suffering residents certainly do) that what originally turned Paceville into its present status as entertainment capital of Malta was the siting of large hotels in the vicinity from the 1970s onwards. As tourism trends evolved, demand grew for cheap watering holes to service an evergrowing population of mostly underage foreign language students… triggering an explosion, not just of bars and clubs, but also (briefly) of a wineshop culture whereby largely teenage crowds would consume their alcohol cheaply on the streets, before moving on to the more expensive nightclubs. Such demands changed as time wore on. Recently an affluent and mostly ex-pat online gaming and financial services community has appeared on the island. It could be a coincidence, but at much the same time many of the existing rock or dance-music bars found themselves transformed into 'gentlemen's clubs', offering lap and pole dances by an overwhelmingly Eastern European retinue of go-go girls. There are, however, differences. Paceville in many respects simply sprung into existence as an entertainment district over the past four decades alone – prior to which, the area was a mostly tranquil residential neighbourhood. The same cannot be said for the Gut, which (as historians have often noted) was home to a thriving "knight-life" environment up to at least 400 years ago. This in turn suggests that any attempt to revive Strait Street today would have to be incorporated into a wider effort to reawaken the sleeping capital city as a whole. Opening bars and clubs without any guarantee that large numbers of clients will materialise on demand is a risky enterprise that has been known to fail on too many occasions. Nostalgia and notoriety It is perhaps testament to the nostalgia (and notoriety) still associated with Strait Street that its memory was never quite erased. Not only are many of the original bar names still discernable in faded lettering on walls and doors… but two recent publications have emerged to bring the place back to life in almost palpable detail. The first was Strait Street: The Gut which once lit up Valletta (2004), by George Cini. The second, 'Strait Street: Malta's Red Light District Revealed' (2013), by John Schofield and Emily Morrissey. Both conjure remarkably vivid images of what the place must have looked, felt (and smelt) like up until around 40 years ago, when the gradual pull-out of the British naval presence slowly squeezed the Gut's life out. [Note: The following quotes are all lifted from Schofield and Morrissey, though Cini provided much of their original source-material.] It was by all accounts a busy place. "There were hotels later converted into music and dance halls or large bars. And there were smaller, ad hoc and more intimate spaces with a room immediately through the front door and adjacent to the street frontage. Sailors recall many of these smaller establishments as being adjacent to each other for much of The Gut..." Many of the descriptions lend weight to the street's rather dingy reputation: "Film and photographs typically show a long wooden or formica-topped table with chairs and benches along each side. For the A historical Strait Street haunt, Tico Tico bar has been updated into a trendy 21st century bar "To transfer Paceville onto Strait Street now would only serve to butcher history and Malta's only bohemian oasis" amount of alcohol consumed, there was a marked lack of loos – a bucket behind a makeshift curtain in most cases…" Perhaps the most intriguing glimpses come from reports of patrols by the British military, which also attest to the Gut's status as a sometimes volatile red light district. This is from the 1972 Christmas Eve report, signed by Les Webb: "Getting dark, street lighting comes on… Sheila, a 'lady of the night', takes up her pitch, a doorway with a light above it… Sheila is a great source of information about the goings-on on the street, and as the patrol passes, she calls me over… 'It's Christmas – you can come up at a time for your present...'" Later that same evening: "As we return past Sheila's pitch, I notice she is distressed, sobbing, and shaking. Her pimp (husband) has given her a beating for talking to us when she should have been working. We sympathise but can do nothing. We have no authority and the Maltese police in the area, all hand-picked thugs, have no interest." Later still: "We are met by yet another bar-keeper who now has the group [of sailors] in his bar and, he says, are causing him problems… the Regulator pushes me aside and orders the group from the bar. The place explodes. Tables are overturned, glasses are broken, and punches are thrown…" Gut feelings But prostitution and violence were not the Gut's only offspring. Equally vibrant was the street's musical scene, with such memorable dance parlours as The Egyptian Queen, Larry's Bar,