Shades celebrates 20 years of adult entertainment

Correction & Clarification

The above picture #2 indicated that the women in the photo were dancers at Shades Nightclub. They are, in fact, Boom Energy Drink girls. We regret the error.

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Carl Gilchrist, Gleaner Writer

In the life of a business, 20 years can be a long time. In the business of nightclubs in Jamaica, 20 years, some say, is almost unheard of, especially at the top.

Shades Nightclub in Content Gardens, Ocho Rios, has defied the odds and is this year celebrating two decades of providing top-class adult entertainment to the public.

"It was tough sometimes but if you dedicate yourself to it and work hard then I suppose it will be a little bit easier," proprietor Lloyd Cameron told Entertainment Avenue.

"Of course, the staff was instrumental in the process. It's important, naturally, to have good staff who are trustworthy and who are well adjusted to their work and are well rewarded for their effort."

But Shades came about not necessarily by design but more because of public demand.

Cameron previously operated a nightclub in Highgate, St Mary.

"It was very slow and the opportunity came up to relocate to Ocho Rios and we found this location which was previously operated as an exotic dancing club.

"The twist, however, is that we opened as a seafood centre and guest house, with a hostess bar. We operated as that for about three months but people kept coming and asking 'where are the dancers?"

"One evening after we saw the initial effort basically levelling off at an unsatisfactory level, I remember sitting on the roof looking over the gate and saw three dancers walking up. They asked if we were still using dancers, I said no but as they were walking through the gate I had second thoughts.

"I thought, well, all these people keep coming and asking for dancers and this place had been operated previously for about 11 years as a dancing club, so I called the girls back and I said 'all right.'

"So, basically, we have been responding to public demand, I suppose that's been our modus operandi throughout the time. We try to respond to what the public needs and also naturally to innovate in the adult entertainment business to some extent."

GROWN OVER THE YEARS

Shades has grown over the years, its 1994 physical structure being about a third of its current outlay. The club has also taken its offerings outdoors with the annual Shades Pon Di Beach party. And there is more to come but not necessarily physical.

"We're doing a lot with our website online. We are establishing an escort service and we want to market some of our products online and to get to a point where we're doing live streaming so that people all around the world can spend an hour or two at Shades on a given night."

Shades celebrates its 20th anniversary with a week of activities which it will launch on February 22.

Activities kick off with a pool party on Sunday, February 23 and culminate with an exotic boat ride on Sunday, March 2.