Proving beyond all doubt that Vavoom may be small but it knows how to party... and proving that Alan doesn't necessarily pick his staff for their... cough... experience behind the bar... tonight's Pride bar boy auction raised a staggering £700!

The first part of this money-raising scheme was to find a sponsor willing to donate some prizes... and up stepped Strada, offering not one, or two or three... but SEVEN meals for two at the restaurant as prizes. And we're talking three courses here. That's 14 meals in case you can't do the maths! Fabulous offering, and meant that with every barman that was sold, a meal for you both was included.

Top totty is obviously worth top dollar, with boys going for outrageous sums... reaching £175 for one particuarly hottie, all guided by 3Sixty's Carl on the mic who did a sterling job of trying to keep people bidding.

Next there was the raffle and another great set of prizes... Picking the first ticket out of the bag was one of Strada's managers who managed to pick his own ticket out and won himself a meal for two at the New Steine Bistro! To his credit he did offer to put the ticket back, and then went on to offer another meal at Strada for a second auction - raising yet more money for Pride (which, incidentally, bar owner Alan won!).

Pride, surely, is all about events like this... one of the smallest bars in town managing to raise big money to help keep Brighton Pride free and ensure that local charities and community groups have the money to do their important work in these lean times!

Congratulations to Vavoom for a fabulous night - and I'm sure they'd want us to thank Strada and the New Steine for their generosity and all the bar boys for being such tarts all night long... for a good cause of course!