LAP DANCE WAR

SCRIPT

Part 4

Girl with Round 2 glove

Girl boxers enter ring

THE FINAL CONFLICT IN THE WAR TO CONTROL LAP DANCING IN LONDON WAS ABOUT TO BEGIN.

Stringfellow pics

LAP DANCE WAR

IN THE ONE CORNER WAS FORMER DISCO KING PETER STRINGFELLOW. IN FIVE YEARS, HE’D GONE FROM THE BRINK OF BANKRUPTCY TO MILLIONAIRE, BY INTRODUCING LAP DANCING TO BRITAIN.

Referee blows fire

Gray still

LAP DANCE WAR

IN THE OTHER CORNER WAS JOHN GRAY, FAST-TALKING HEAD OF THE GIANT AMERICAN CONGLOMERATE SPEARMINT RHINO. HE’D SPRUNG FROM CALIFORNIA’S PORN INDUSTRY WITH A PLOT TO TAKE-OVER BRITAIN WITH 100 FULLY NUDE TABLE DANCE CLUBS.

Girls battle in ring

U/c footage

NOW STRINGFELLOW WAS CERTAIN HE HAD HARD EVIDENCE HIS OPPONENT HAD BROKEN THE LAW – A TAPE SHOWING SEX ACTS INSIDE SPEARMINT RHINO.

Newspaper NEWS of World headline "Orgy in London Club"

TO SEAL HIS VICTORY, STRINGFELLOW LEAKED THE TAPE TO THE PRESS. HEADLINES SCREAMED OF NAKED ORGIES INSIDE SPEARMINT RHINO.

Mark Young

If we had written it ourselves we couldn't have written a more damning piece,

BUT STRINGFELLOW’S MASTERPLAN WAS ABOUT TO UNRAVEL ONE LAST TIME.

MARK YOUNG

What we succeed in doing was giving Spearmint Rhino, the biggest advert they possibly could have had. because the queues went around the block three times to get into Spearmint Rhino after that Sunday.

Newspaper News of World

LAP DANCE WAR

Fast Forward/pause/of stage performer

THE NEWSPAPER STORY SAID THAT NOT ONLY NUDITY, BUT FULL-ON SEX COULD BE HAD AT SPEARMINT RHINO. BUT THE TACTIC HAD BACKFIRED, FAILING TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT JUST HOW MUCH ATTITUDES HAD CHANGED SINCE THE ARRIVAL OF LAP DANCING

FAR FROM BEING PUT OFF AT THE IDEA OF PAYING MONEY FOR SEX, THE LADS RUSHED TO RHINO WANTING MORE THAN JUST THE FULL MONTY.

Protest footage

THIS IS WHAT MANY IN BRITAIN HAD FEARED. RESIDENTS TOOK TO THE STREETS AS MORE CLUBS OPENED, PROTESTING THAT LAP DANCING WAS SEXUAL EXPLOITATION.

LAP DANCE WAR

NEWCASTLE ANTI-STRIP CLUB PROTEST

2002

Protester lady 1

"We don’t want to be like London"

Protester lady 2

"we object to this club on moral grounds"

Stringfellow appears from protest banner

PETER STRINGFELLOW HAD UNWITTINGLY GIVEN HIS RIVAL A BOOST, WHEN HE EXPOSED WILD GOINGS-ON IN THEIR FLAGSHIP CLUB.

BUT THE EVIDENCE HE’D GATHERED SET OFF A CHAIN OF EVENTS THAT HAD CAMDEN COUNCIL VOTE TO SHUT DOWN SPEARMINT RHINO

IN THE WAKE OF THE SEX ORGY SCANDAL, THE TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD CLUB HAD IT’S LICENCE REVOKED. BUT JOHN GRAY, WASN’T TO BE BEATEN THAT EASILY. HE RESPONDED BY CHALLENGING THE BAN IN THE APPEAL COURT. WHEN HE CONVINCED THE COURT HE’D CLEANED UP HIS ACT, JOHN GRAY GOT BACK HIS LICENCE. PETER STRINGFELLOW WAS ROBBED OF HIS FINAL VICTORY.

Stringfellow

Spearmint Rhino was very lucky to keep their licence, very lucky. I have met the John Gray since. He seems a nice enough guy to me. We were at war once. I have no animosity. I don’t want to destroy anybody. I don’t want to close anybody’s clubs down. But don’t destroy my business.

Stringfellow rings up phone

"bye bye"

Dancers swirls

Music up

LAP DANCE WAR


Camden exteriors

SPEARMINT RHINO’S COURT VICTORY OVER CAMDEN COUNCIL OPENED THE FLOOD GATES TO LAP DANCING IN BRITAIN THE POWER BALANCE HAD SHIFTED FROM LOCAL AUTHORITES, TO THE MEN WHO HAD CASHED IN ON NUDITY. LAP DANCING CORPORATIONS COULD AFFORD TO PAY EXPENSIVE LAWYERS, AND QUASH LOCAL OBJECTIONS TO THE SEX INDUSTRY.

LAP DANCE WAR

House Mother with underpants

WITH SPEARMINT RHINO TRIUMPHANT, STRINGFELLOW REALISED THAT IF HE COULDN’T BEAT THEM, HE HAD TO JOIN THEM.

Mark Young

And Peter had to make decision which I knew didn't sit well with him, because it was something that he had always said that he wouldn’t do,

Peter Stringfellow

BEATEN BY THE AMERICAN INVADER, STRINGFELLOW CHALLENGED HIS LOCAL COUNCIL TO ALLOW FULLY NUDE TABLE DANCE.

LAP DANCE WAR

Peter Stringfellow

American Spearmint Rhino started and went straight in at nude without any permission whatsoever I had to go and see them and say "Look chaps, the whole games changed, it’s now grown up a lot. It’s now nude".

HE WON HIS CASE – AND IN DOING SO SWEPT AWAY THE OLD ANTI-SLEAZE LAWS, FORCING WESTMINSTER TO ALLOW UPCLOSE NUDITY. HIS CASE WAS JUST THE BEGINNING: WITH THE KNICKERS-ON LAW OVERTURNED, 22 OTHER WESTMINSTER CLUBS LINED UP TO HAVE THEIR STRIPPERS GO NAKED.

Anjella Finlay

It was the end of era when Stringfellow’s went fully nude. It changed from classy and a little bit mysterious to more hard core.

ADRIAN Gatton

Sex in the 90s was changed by these lap dancing clubs

WHAT STARTED IN ONE LONDON CLUB, SPREAD FROM SOUTHEND TO BLACKPOOL, BIRMINGHAM AND NOTTINGHAM, RIGHT UP TO EDINBURGH AND ABERDEEN.

Adrian Gatton

They turned from really a cottage industry into a fierce globalised corporate money machine.

Table dancers in Stringfellow's

THE TEASE OF TABLE DANCE HAD CREATED A GENERATIONAL SHIFT. SELLING THE FANTASY OF SEX, HAD LURED MEN INTO BUYING THE REAL THING.

Door closes on phone box sex cards

THE DECADE ENDED WITH AN ASTOUNDING STATISTIC - THE PROPORTION OF BRITISH MEN WHO SAID THEY WENT TO PROSTITUTES HAD DOUBLED SINCE 1990.

LAP DANCE WAR

Police siren pan to club exterior

LONDON SAW THE BIGGEST JUMP IN THE SEX TRADE. VICE SQUAD POLICE POINTED THE FINGER AT THE ARRIVAL OF TABLE DANCE.

Man puts note in cleavage

Hand give high five

TIPPING FOR PERSONAL STRIPPING HAD WEANED BRITISH MEN OFF AN OLD TABOO. PAYING FOR SEX AS ENTERTAINMENT HAD BEEN RE-BRANDED FROM THE MARK OF A LOSER, TO A SIGN OF SUCCESS.

Curtain closes on cabaret girls

LAP DANCE WAR

PETER STRINGFELLOW

Has this industry changed the British attitude to sex? Yes, it has. But on the other hand it’s always been there. We’ve always been a sexy nation. We’ve just had it deep, and held down.

Yacht, Michael J Peter on yacht, and music

On the Solid Gold Yacht with Mr MJP

Lap dance businessman

Man looks from stage

Men with heated up glasses

Strip tease sign

Girls dance

Girl dance freeze

LAP DANCE WAR

THE MEN BEHIND LAP DANCING HAD FOUGHT OVER ONE MAN’S FORMAT TO TURN NIGHTCLUBS INTO FACTORIES OF SEXUAL DESIRE. THEY PUSHED FANTASY SEX TO IT’S LIMITS, AND TAPPED AN INSATIABLE DEMAND. IN JUST FIVE YEARS, LAP DANCING GREW INTO A QUARTER-OF-A-BILLION POUND INDUSTRY, PACKAGING NAKED FLESH AS ENTERTAINMENT IN 150 VENUES IN BRITAIN.

LAP DANCE WAR

Michael J Peter & Associates
Peter Stringfellow
ITN Archive
Minotaur International Ltd
BBC Moving Images
Camera Press
www.celebritypictures.com

Production Manager
Alison Cooke

Sound
Jeff Willis

Camera
Andrew Dishman
Leon Willis

Additional camera
Michael Burke

Associate Producer
Tessa Mayes

Consultant
Adrian Gatton

Additional Research
Tara Davison

Music
Moonshine Music

Beautiful Ladies (Solid Gold Yacht)
Courtesy Craig S Korka &
MJP Associates

Editor
John Gibbs

Producer
Pete Sawyer

Written and directed by
David Monaghan

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