Pleasure Boys excited about Banbridge event - amid extra security and 'toned down' performance after Devenish controversy

The English stripper troop is to appear at the Bannville Hotel in Banbridge this Saturday.

The all-male stripper group which caused a frenzy after performing at the Devenish earlier this year are back in Northern Ireland tonight – with extra security, a toned down routine and with council officials in attendance.

Pleasure Boys manager John Woodward said ABC council had asked them to “tone down little parts” of the show – and that council officials would be in attendance. “We’ve has a little contact with them, not too much, where they want reassurance about the show.

“Other than that, there’s nothing really going to change. The show remains the same apart from the extraordinary activities that happened at the end where people jumped on the stage”, he said.

He said the act had extra security for this event, after social media footage of a previous event in Belfast went viral. Naked strippers were filmed performing simulated sex acts with women.

Mr Woodward said the crowd at the Devenish was generally quite good, adding “but I think what happened is a lot of these people weren’t used to going out drinking. They’ve had a lot to drink – clearly had too much. And then they just got excited. There’s naked men, plus alcohol and excited ladies – that’s the result that we got”.

He said that all the attention from their previous event at the Devenish in Finaghy had resulted in so much publicity that they’ve had to take on new men because demand has been so high, with ticket sales going up and people from Northern Ireland flying over to the mainland to see their shows.

On a rally organised by members of the Free Presbyterian Church, he said “I can’t believe that a church group, in this day and age, are getting involved with a strip act. In my world that doesn’t make any sense at all”.

Rev Daniel Henderson from Moneyslane Free Presbyterian Church is organising a protest at Saturday night’s event, which he is promoting on social media. He said: "We feel it's important to protest because what is going on at the Bannville is a flagrant violation of God's law”, adding that “We feel it's a very concerning thing to be happening and that such serious sin must be challenged. And we are going to be there on Saturday, God willing, to tell people that they shouldn't be breaking God's law”.