With the lack of current activity in the nightlife scene and plenty of forum members locked-out of Thailand, perhaps this would be a good time to put together a history of the late Soi Twilight. There are occasional posts about Soi Twilight on this and other fora, but I have yet to come across a proper chronological history of it on any of them. Given the role that it played in the development of the gay scene in Bangkok, long before Pattaya took-off, a proper history of that Soi is surely in order. It would be fab if those of you who have direct knowledge and experience of the earlier history of Soi Twilight would actually contribute to this thread. A proper history of Soi Twilight really should reside somewhere on the net and this is as good a place as any.
The closest thing to a chronological history of Soi Twilight is from the stub history and monthly updates of Bangkok's nightlife scene on Bangkokeyes, which has been chronicling Bangkok's nightlife scene since the 90s. However, Bangkokeyes is mostly focused on the straight nightlife and while they hope to add a history of Soi Twilight to their site (alongside the existing histories of all the other straight nightlife areas of Bangkok), their information on the history of the Soi is still somewhat patchy. In any event, one would think that the best place for a comprehensive history of Soi Twilight would be this forum.
The skeleton of a chronology, as I understand it, would be:
1966 - The original Twilight bar opens on New Street
Beginning of the 70s - Twilight moves to Soi Pratuchai
Somewhere in the 90s Banana Bar opens
2005 - Soi Twilight begins to see a rapid influx of new bars
2010 - 2014 - Soi Twilight reaches its peak, with an average of 19 establishments in operation
2019 - The curtain falls on Soi Twilight
I will also post an excerpt from a recent email chat between John Morley of Bangkokeye and myself here, in which he elaborates on the history of Soi Twilight.
Our first adventure into Soi Twilight was at the invitation of author Jerry Hopkins, now deceased, who, like yourself, played in both houses. At that time he recommended we include Soi Twilight in our monthly updates on BKK Eyes. He recommended we call the soi, "Soi Hard-On", but as the gays and taxi drivers (and a surprising number of bar girls) already knew it as Soi Twilight, we ran with 'Soi Twilight'. However at that time, there were too few Nitespots on the soi (it had not reached "Critical Mass"), so we adopted a "wait-and-see" position. We revisited some 6+ months later to find it had in fact reached the 'tipping-point' - the magical 'critical mass'.
As a result, our history (genesis) of Soi Twilight is very sketchy. Our only meaningful interview with anyone on the Soi (who had been there for any considerable time) was with the owner of Banana (became New Banana, later relocated to Soi Katoey, Silom Soi 4 on the closure of Soi Twilight). Banana was just across Soi Twilight from the then-Hot Male. He recalled that the original Twilight bar had been there at least 20 to 30 years, and perhaps since as early as 1966, but couldn't give an exact date. We also asked Bobby of Bobby's Arms, now deceased, if he knew how long Twilight bar had been there. (Bobby had a more-than-passing knowledge of the gay community). He recalled that it had relocated there from New Road many years ago, some time in the early 1970's, but likewise could not recall an exact time (-note: this is unsubstantiated as of this date, so we have not included this in any 'historical' writings on Soi Twilight ). The only thing clear is there is no clarity.
For a long time, Soi Pratuchai remained without any Nitespots other than the Twilight , which was at the Surawong entrance. We, regrettably, have had no access to any accounts of the build-up prior to our visit there towards the end of 2005. Also, there is unsubstantiated chatter that a number of gay venues transferred to Soi Twilight from Surawong Soi Than Tawan during the 2005-2010 timeframe. The original Twilight bar became the New Twilight at some point in time not known to us, and eventually went out of business, being picked up by Hot Male at that juncture ( Hot Male remaining at that location until they relocated to Patpong 2 on closure of Soi Twilight).
Soi Twilight (Pratuchai) was a privately owned soi, which allowed it to become a 'Walking Street' at night - keeping out vehicular traffic. At its 4-year peak, (December 2010 - November 2014) Soi Twilight maintained on average 19 Nitespot venues.
Regrettably at this point in time, our only chance of improving / expanding on the history of Soi Twilight would be from readers' submissions of old photos and/ or accounts.
Some of the obvious questions in trying to put together a proper history of the Soi would be whether the early clubs that operated on Soi Twilight / Soi Pratuchai were new clubs or whether they had been operating elsewhere before that?
Also, what and where were the bars located prior to the move to Soil Twilight? There were and are, of course, the bars on Soi Tantawan; but, at least over the last 15 years or so, they are of a very different sort than the Soi Twilight bars.
Finally, what happened to the original Twilight Bar? Did it simply shut-down, with Hot Male simply taking-over the premises or did Hot Male also take-over some of the talent / management from Twilight, so that it can claim to be an affinity with the original Twilight?
If anyone has any direct information to add, it would be fantastic if you could, Note though, I am hoping that we get real information on this thread, not just reams of opinion... =)
Cheers,
Jay
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