in the set. During the early years and again towards the end, the club played host to drag queen Yvette (Ian Hunter-Meek b 1950), a former buyer for Harrods, who gave stage shows containing strippers and live music. During the period when Yvette (also known as Yvette the Conqueror) first hosted Love Muscle, Yvette, along with Laurence Malice (founder of Trade nightclub) were regarded as two of the most influential club hosts in London. After Yvette left the Fridge, Paul Bakalite hosted Love Muscle for a while (1995/96) and is remembered for his affable persona, meeting and greeting patrons in the Fridge foyer and handing out lollipops and novelties to sweaty revellers. Due to falling numbers and the occasional drugs raid, the night was temporarily closed in 1998, but was soon brought back due to public demand. It never fully recovered however, and became increasingly infrequent during the period 2000–2002. The night was finally closed (ostensibly for good) in 2004. Love Muscle returned to the Fridge on 31 December 2008 with the original promoter Andrew Czezowski and the exhilarating pyrotechnics and production effects the night was renowned for. The night's name, Love Muscle, is a euphemism for the penis, reflecting its raunchy gay appeal. Escape From Samsara During the mid '90s, Friday nights were turned over to outside promoters playing trance music, with a different one taking each of the four Fridays of the month:- 1st Friday - Otherworld 2nd Friday - Return to the Source 3rd Friday - Escape from Samsara last Friday - Science Fiction (If a month had five Fridays the "spare" one was allocated to a promoter, sometimes Pendragon who played a similar range of music to Escape from Samsara. Pendragon's parties at the Fridge were usually one-off events since their regular venue was the Theatre Factory warehouse at Tyssen Street in Dalston.) Of the four usual Friday promotions the two most popular and successful nights were Return To The Source and Escape From Samsara, playing mainly hard trance including very fast Goa trance. It is reckoned that these nights were among the first in the UK to feature what then became the trance music phenomenon. Escape from Samsara - the name being a reference to the Hindu concept of Saṃsāra - held its first event at The Fridge on 15 September 1995. Formed from the club Megatripolis, they also held occasional events at the Brixton