Kate Bush, euphoric tears and supportive mums: Meet the pair behind Misscoteque

Students Georgia and Amaia, otherwise known as the WNB Disco Collective, decided to create Misscoteque after a drunken night out with their fellow football ladies in the depths of Gravity’s sweaty basement.

It’s not clear whether either of them expected the idea to become a reality. “In the morning Georgia sent me a text saying ‘so do you want to start a lesbian club night'”, said Amaia, and so the first shapes of Misscoteque were thrown.

Misscoteque pays homage to history of the lesbian night life scene in Bristol in the seventies and eighties, researched by Georgia in her dissertation.

The queer spaces Georgia uncovered in her research revealed an underground space where lesbian women could disco into the early hours and form intimate relationships with other women without fear of violence and discrimination.

Amaia (left) and Georgia (right) – photo: Yolanda Archives

Bristol’s club scene has changed since then with nights like Crotch rooting queer music and identities in their weekly club nights at the Llandoger.

But Amaia and Georgia both agree the city’s clubs are still struggling to foreground the safety and voices of queer people, especially trans and non-binary people and women of colour: “There are gay clubs, but they aren’t really for lesbians, or gender minorities. They cater for a small proportion of the queer scene – straight, white, gay men”, says Georgia.

“Before Misscoteque there was OMG and Queenshilling but the space was filled with straight people!” They both laugh, quickly adding that they are happy for these groups, but that it is important for queer sub-groups to have their own space.

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Currently, Misscoteque is a club night for women, non-binary and gender non-conforming people. Georgia and Amaia are aware of the tension surrounding this but insist that their events are about celebrating these historical club nights for lesbian woman and “reimagining” it for the 21st century.

The result is the return of an empowering safe space thrust into the overground that pushes the boundaries of what lesbian disco was, to be inclusive of genders and sexualities: “We don’t want the space to be hidden and inaccessible, we want it to be loud and proud and a big ‘fuck you’ to the people who don’t want it to be there”.

With Amaia’s background in music and Georgia’s dissertation, they hosted their first event at Crofters in August last year, and were overwhelmed by the response.

They bury their heads in their hands when I ask them about their first event. “We were all over the place”, says Amaia. “I made a sign with a marker pen and a spliff in my mouth an hour before the event started.”

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“We had people coming up to us saying “This is the best night I’ve ever been to” and “This is the safest I’ve ever felt,” they said.

They recently hosted their second event at Lost Horizon which they can’t rave about enough: “Lost Horizon is our spiritual home” they coo in unison.

Amaia is resident DJ at all of the Misscoteque events, and is keen to emphasise how important the music is to their vision: “We take the music from those discos and reimagine it for a 21st century context with Bristol’s underground music scene.”

Photo: Cleo Leather visuals

They remember a particularly magical moment from their third show at Lost Horizon: “I played quite a bass-y garage-y set, and right in the halfway point of the night, I dropped Wuthering Heights on a seven inch, and people fucking loved it. I played the full four and a half minutes and it was beautiful. My mum was there and it was the best.”

Georgia agreed: “It’s so fucking emotional. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to process it. After I just feel like I’m in a fever dream… The love in the room is ridiculous.”

Photo: Cleo Leather Visuals

Three events down, many euphoric tears, blossoming romances, venue changes, supportive mums and a lot of Kate Bush, the duo behind Misscoteque show no signs of slowing down.

The next Bristol Misscoteque is on August 12, but the pair are most excited about the recent news that they’ve managed to secure a slot at Glastonbury’s infamous Shangri La, where they’ll be curating the Friday night slot with a host of queer collectives.

Main photo: Cleo Leather Visuals

Read more: Finding identity and celebrating queerness through joyful movement

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