Ten out of Ten

TEN Gentlemen’s Club

Giles Brown reports on the launch of TEN, the lavish new Gentlemen’s Club in Marbella...

TEN go-gos

With my intimate knowledge of the ins and outs of Puerto Banus nightlife, this was always going to be my assignment. TEN Gentlemen’s Club, located in what was The Exchange in Puerta de Banus opposite Dreamer’s, launched recently promising “Erotic, exuberant, sensational, adult entertainment at its best” Your correspondent inwardly groaned. Adult entertainment invariably means lap dancers, and I hold the advent of the lap-dancing club, along with the wide screen sports bar, single handedly responsible for the transformation of Puerto Banus from the jet set hideaway marina of the late 70s to the full throttle Chav paradise that it is today. I also speak from experience, having worked briefly as the PR for a lap dancing club, which wasn’t as much fun as it sounds. Unattractive, bitchy girls, rowdy clients and a venue that was about as comfortable as an aircraft hanger in Iceland.

TEN's owner Chris Edwards

Luckily, TEN’s owner, the urbane American Chris Edwards, has brought his experience working in the industry in the States to the Coast and pledged to bring Marbella “Something it has never had before; a sophisticated choice in live adult entertainment.”

Working The Floor
Always game to give anything new a go (as Oscar Wilde once said, a man should try anything once apart from incest and folk dancing) I took my long-suffering girlfriend along to the launch. As always with a Marbella first night, the place was packed, although this time there were a higher percentage of the permatanned, 40-50 something brigade than normal. TEN is organised over three floors. The ground floor has kept The Exchange’s stylish bar, and added (naturally) a good-sized stage with a pole. There is also a DJ booth above the bar and two smaller podium stages for go-gos.

Restaurant The Cellar@TEN

Downstairs is the restaurant, The Cellar@TEN, whose chef Abdul Sallak was previously Head Chef at Hotel Las Dunas. This is the only area of TEN where you won’t see dancing, although the changing rooms are located nearby, so it probably wouldn’t be the best bet as the venue for a first date …

The top floor at TEN is the VIP section, and it’s here that the club expects to attract the high rollers. As a piece of interior design, I’d say that it has Hugh Hefner chic. There is a main stage, a Perspex box for the girls to dance in, a bar, and beyond that a discreet VIP area for private lap dances.

TEN Blings

Pole Position
The girls themselves all seem to have stepped from a Baywatch casting, and there were some impressive breast sizes on display, as well as some of the most outrageous platforms since The Rocky Horror Show. The most impressive of all, however, was the performance by three times US pole dancing champion Athena, who was flown over especially from the US for the evening. She had the body of an athlete and put on a show on the pole that had half the audience cheering – including my girlfriend - and the other half wondering how she did it. And with a live saxophonist and DJ Brandon Vega – who has worked for Prince – the party moved up several gears. It’s always a good sign in Marbella when guests stay after the free drink runs out, and at TEN the party continued until 5am. Perhaps, finally, someone has got the formula right for adult entertainment.

Find TEN at Centro de Negocios Puerta de Banus, Marbella. Tel: 0034 952 908 842.