Call Me A Cab

It's been an institution since it opened in 1958.

The Taxi Club in Flinders Street, Darlinghurst is a 24 hour club that originally catered for taxi drivers coming off their shifts, at 3pm and 3 am.

It soon became one of the most popular venues in Sydney and the place to end up after a night out to continue the celebrations. By 4am the joint was jumping and it stayed that way until around 10.30 am when it shut it's doors for one hour so the cleaners could give it the once over.

The great fun about the Taxi Club was the sheer variety of clientele : taxi drivers, off duty coppers, high court judges, bank robbers, drag queens, con men and a huge swathe of the gay and lesbian community long before Oxford Street became the gay haven it is now. In fact eventually the club changed it's constitution to state that it's prime objective was to serve the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex community.

And you could be sure that any visiting celebrity would end up partying at the Taxi- Tom & Nicole watched a drag show as did Morgan Freeman. 
Bruce Springsteen played the pokies for 2 hours, Liberace called in for a drink as did Sammy Davis Jr and Shirley Bassey while Winifred Atwell often gave a impromptu performance at 2am.
The Shuttle once spotted Hollywood Legend Van Johnson nursing a drink at the bar.

lethal stairs

Around 5am a burly truck driver may discover that a transgender status was no barrier to a night of romance and there were many tales about the noted magistrate who was fond of stilettos and skimpy frocks who often lured heterosexual men to the car park next door in the early hours and never once had anything other than a 'happy ending'.

And if anyone got out of control which was frequent before the club clamped down on drug use, the tales of who was ejected via the narrow staircase to the street below were legendary. Most woke up in hospital with no memory of where they had been the night before.

Sadly with the proliferation of nightclubs around Sydney that are mainly a variation on the last one, the Taxi Club has suffered for the past few years and is no longer financially viable. On April 6th it's doors close forever.

Richard Wilkins & Jeff Goldblum's 'Death'

One guest at last Friday's Volvo Alpine ice skating party was Richard Wilkins who arrived with his pal top chef Luke Mangan.

Luke Mangan & Richard Wilkins

 Wilkins has had a long and varied career. Born in New Zealand he was a budding classical violinist until he decided that rock was more his thing. After graduating from teachers’ college, majoring in English and Music, he started a band – Wilde and Reckless which he fronted under the name Richard Wilde.

He enjoyed some success, touring Australia with the band in 1980 and supporting Grace Jones, while managing several other bands from a small Sydney office. Eventually he became the face of MTV when it was first launched and for many years now he's been a fixture on the Nine TV network jetting back and forth between the USA and Australia and interviewing celebs like Billy Connolly, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, Robbie Williams, Olivia Newton-John, Britney Spears and Barbara Streisand.

On the 25th of this month he launches his first book : Black Ties, Red Carpets, Green Rooms published by Doubleday. Richard says it isn't an autobiography but more a series of anecdotes about the people he's met, interviews with some of the world's top stars along with back room show biz gossip.
Maybe he'll reveal how he happened upon one of his top exclusives that swept the world- the announcement that actor Jeff Goldblum had 'died' while falling from a cliff in New Zealand. Fortunately for Goldblum it turned out to be a hoax !.