Club Noir

I am becoming suspicious. My inbox seems to be filling up with reminders of how hard it is to find love. If it isn't sugar daddies with their sneaky press release pretending to be a news item (luckily, The Herald covered that a few Sundays back), or Mr Socks with his doom and gloom for singeletons, it's the Tron's double whammy with Judith Williams (love songs for Valentine's Day, and broken love songs for the day after).

And now Club Noir has announced a singles club. It's called Solos and it has a Facebook group. Founder Tina Warren is worried that  "life gives us too few opportunities for glamour and opulence - we all must grab these moments when we can." 

Club Noir is one of the big names in the neo-burlesque and cabaret revival: their influence can be seen in the various clubs that sprung up across Scotland - along with the independent work of Dr Gypsy Charms, choreographer, teacher and activist, it helped to establish Caledonia as one of cabaret's capital countries. 

Although Solos is not strictly a dating agency - it is more about allowing people who fancy coming by themselves to be part of a social group - it makes sense for a scheme like this to exist for a cabaret event. There is nothing worse than going to a cabaret event alone - part of the show is the audience, and wandering about like a sex pest is no fun for anyone. And one of cabaret's strongest suites is its sense of community. 

And the context of cabaret can make it hard to attend alone: when there is an act called The Marquis de Sade on stage, it's better to be part of some group.

Saturday 16th February at O2 Academy Glasgow