You have to remember that you couldn’t have HIV and live with it for years like you can now. At first, you didn’t think it would affect you, and then one person you knew would get it and then someone else, and then it steamrolled and you’d suddenly realise this wasn’t a passing phase – there was no cure, and it was here to stay.
The whole scene went from fan dancing to mourning. People were having the time of their lives, and all of a sudden this new word – AIDS – came along and it shook everyone to the core. Guys wore condoms so they didn’t knock a girl up, they didn’t wear them with guys. The club scene was so hedonistic, there were so many clubs that were men only and that were essentially sex clubs, and there was no such thing as safe sex back then. People liked to think that they were keeping it to themselves, but we lived in such a crazy little bubble that everyone knew everyone else’s business. It was awful because it was such a terrible thing to be happening, but still it was fodder for us all.
