And talking of Joe Andrews…..

…..Joe’s Basement was underneath the Las Vegas amusement arcade on Wardour Street. The Las Vegas was a very seamy place, typical of 1980s Soho. Filled with pinball machines and early video games, it was where forlorn young rent boys met their seedy middle-aged clients. “Keep out of there, cat!” Joe warned me in typically forthright fashion, “Full of fucking nonces!” Yet unbelievably, the Las Vegas is still there, exactly as it was. Soho may have been extensively cleaned up and gentrified, but this anachronistic place remains. It occupies a prime site, so it seems miraculous that it isn’t now a fashionable bar, expensive clothes shop or fusion restaurant. The strange survival of the Las Vegas amusement arcade fascinates me and I’m often tempted to look in. Though when I used to go to Joe’s Basement, I might have been mistaken for rent boy, I’d now be mistaken for a client.