From rags to riches: Tony Chapman

That isn't bad for a lad who grew up in a council house in Bevendean and was expected to follow in the footsteps of his greengrocer dad.

Tony Chapman was a member of the first generation of Brighton's gay entrepreneurs who rode the pink pound boom to the top.

Now, after 15 years at the peak of the city's nightclub industry, Tony is selling up.

Revenge, the club he transformed into Britain's favourite gay nightspot, and his home in Tongdean Avenue, are being sold for a combined £3 million. He will continue to run the profitable New Europe Hotel.

It certainly seems like a good time to break out the champagne.

I walk up the sweeping drive leading to the large detached home.

As Tony, smiling broadly, opens the front door, the generous interiors cannot fail to impress. The hallway is airy but made homely with expensive deep-pile carpets and the stairs stretch up to a labyrinth of bedrooms and bathrooms.

The open-plan kitchen has the latest granite tops and it is a fair walk from here to his massive living room. I sink into a comfortable sofa and, sitting opposite me, Tony surveys all that he owns.

He said: "I came from a working-class background in Brighton. I knew what it was like to go without things when I was a youngster and that makes me appreciate this all the more.

"I used to work with my father and run his shops for him. That's when I learned to run a business and to deal with people.

"But you don't get butchers and greengrocers making money.

"I got out 20 years ago. It was really getting bad then and I could see it was going to get worse. People don't shop like that any more. I don't myself.

"I had no idea what I was going to do. Certainly I had no intention then of owning one of the biggest gay clubs on the South Coast."

Tony quietly accepted his sexuality as a teenager at a time when it didn't pay to be too loud and proud about being gay.

He said: "I was just the same as anyone of my age group. I didn't shout about being gay from the rooftops but no one cares any more."

He describes himself as a businessman first and foremost but has quietly pumped at least £250,000 into various charities helping the city's gay community, donating profits from regular benefit nights.

After quitting his father's fruit and veg rounds, Tony began to speculate in the gay market, opening the Beacon Royal bar and hotel in Oriental Place.

He said: "I went into business with this hotel and bar and that's all I ever expected - but we just seemed to get it right."

The bar went from strength to strength but the strain of running the business contributed to a split between Tony and his partner. He is still guarded when referring to the episode.

Suffice to say, when he sold up his shares in the Beacon and ploughed £300,000 into Brighton's first full-time gay club he did not have to think too long about the name.

He completely renovated the club in Old Steine, previously a student dive, and christened it Revenge.

He said: "It was quite a risk putting that much money in and how I ever got a licence there I will never know.

"I took a risk. Everyone was saying I was mad and they gave me just three months.

"We went from a situation where the main gay club in Brighton could hold 230 people to something twice that size.

"But it just took off. From the first night in July 1991 we were turning people away. Six hundred people came through that night and the following Saturday it was manic."

He added: "I listened to what people wanted. Lollipop night is the most popular and we are probably the best club of its size on a Friday."

The impact of the club's success spread through the wider community, with other businesses attracted to the Kemp Town area, which Tony refers to simply as 'the village'.

From four gay bars in 1991, there are now about 20 while St James's Street and its environs have become a national hub for the gay community.

Now in his 60s, Tony Chapman has decided to step back from the scene and sell up his stake in the clubbing market.

He explained: "It's so much hard work running a club.

"I decided about three months ago to sell the club and at the time I had three people after it after just a week. I wanted to sell when it was right at the top and not when it was going to slip - which could happen.

"Brighton has reached saturation point now. If we are not careful it could be diluted."

He added: "We've had some great times here - the best for me was when the legendary Eartha Kitt performed."

Other celebs to have crossed the club's threshold in the years since include Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, actress Martine McCutcheon, starlet Denise Van Outen, entertainer Michael Barrymore and Julian Clary.

Barbara Windsor, the Pet Shop Boys and Boyzone have also visited.

Its profile is such that it regularly attracts clubbers from all over the world, being a particular favourite with the Aussie crowd.

Millions of pounds have been poured in since and the club has unique cold-air jets in the walls which cool the most manic of dancers.

A memorable victory came in 2001 when the council finally agreed to allow a prominent sign above the club door.

Clubs across Britain have seen business drop by up to 15 per cent over the last year. Takings at Revenge remained up three per cent but the number of gay clubs in the city is expected to have a knock-on effect.

Tony said: "A lot of people think they are gay first and a businessman second but I was a businessman first and being gay was secondary."

He added: "You get a lot of jealousy if you are successful. The expression that it's tough at the top is true, as people always want to knock you down."

The multi-millionaire has lost touch with his childhood friends and the men he used to work with in the greengrocery trade.

He said: "It's the fact that I am gay more than anything but it would have been nice if they had kept in touch."

He is single at the moment after coming out of a seven-year relationship, something he claims to be very happy with.

He said: "The ideal relationship is someone that comes down for the weekend, so you are pleased to see them when they arrive and just as pleased when they leave."

Now he counts Graham Norton and the hundreds of regulars at the Revenge nightclub as his friends.

And the hard work of running a club has its rewards.

Tony said: "I get pleasure out of people enjoying themselves, that's the job satisfaction. They came to your club and they are having a great time.

"It's like holding your own party."

Over the 12 years of being in business at Revenge he has donated £250,000 to charity, including St John Ambulance and The Argus Appeal.

But most of the money has been given to gay help groups and those for people with HIV, such as Brighton Cares.

Tony said: "When you have made your living from the community you want to make sure you give something back."

The club's new owners have bought into one of Brighton's most sparkling success stories.

But if they ever feel the need for advice, Tony said: "Revenge is my baby and I want it to be successful.

"I've told the new owners I will always be there to help, they can ring me.

"But they will have to make sure to put me on the VIP list!"