But what kind of holiday is this?*

The weekend's almost upon us, the sun is blazing (it's 29C/85F, and likely to get even hotter next week!)...

...and it would have been our Patron Saint of Terrifying Head-Flicks Signorina Raffaella Carrà's birthday today!

Sufficent excuse (if any were needed) to revisit this - as La Carrà and her impossibly-tight-trousered safety gays show us how to party. Thank Disco Raffaella It's Friday!

Raffaella Carrà - Santo Santo (Ma che vacanza é)

Have a great weekend, dear reader...

[Ma che vacanza é = "But what kind of holiday is this?" in Italian]

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FOOTNOTE:

I'm taking bets on how long today's post will take to arrive in the Blogger Reading List... Wednesday's and yesterday's both arrived together on the dot at 9am - that's more than 36 hours for the former, and 19 hours for the latter! Someone needs a good kick up the arse at Google HQ.

Feel the room swayin', for the band's playin'

Sad news. The last surviving member of that fabled and eternally camp trio The Beverley Sisters, Teddie Beverley has shimmied her way up the dazzling stairway to Fabulon, at the ripe old age of 99.

True "national treasures", The Bevs (as they were known) gave a much-needed boost to post-War Britain with their close-harmony singing and their cheery personas, which made them an ideal Light Entertainment staple. They always dressed in identical outfits, had a string of hits in the 1950s, performed endlessly on the cabaret circuit, and were the highest paid female entertainers in the UK for more than 20 years, becoming "gay icons" in the process.

I actually saw them on stage, headlining the Gay Pride festival at Jubilee Gardens [where the London Eye is located today], at the first Pride I ever attended way back in 1985!

Another long-distant chapter of my life closes. Sigh.

Beverley Sisters - Hello Dolly/Mame

More Beverley Sisters over at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp, including this footnote, that I simply have to repeat here:

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FOOTNOTE

Such was the "camp icon" status of the girls, even Rod Stewart, Elton John and Freddie Mercury desired their "look":

[In 1978 the trio discussed] "...the possibility of the three of us forming a supergroup; the name we had in mind was Nose, Teeth & Hair, a tribute to each of our most remarked-upon physical attributes. The general idea was that we could appear dressed like the Beverley Sisters. Somehow this project never came to anything, which is contemporary music’s deep and abiding loss."

Of pie-flinging, Dame Judi, pottery, Istanbul not Constantinople, gay spliffs and Who?

Only in Britain: The World Custard Pie Championship was held this week at Coxheath in Kent, where it was founded way back in 1967.

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• National treasure news: In a ground-breaking announcement - no theatre has previously been named after a living actress - the West End's Shaftesbury Theatre is to be renamed in honour of the sublime Dame Judi Dench in 2027. All hail!
• Potty news: RIP, Denby Pottery, one of the mainstays of the ceramics industry in Britain since 1809. Bizarrely, cheap-and-nasty household store chain Home Bargains appears to have placed a bid to save the brand (but not the actual factory, I bet!).

• Nobody's Business But the Turks news: The latest announcement from our beloved Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) is the first UK exhibition to tell the story of one of the world's most influential cities, Istanbul. Spanning 330 AD to 1922, Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires will bring together remarkable works of art, design and architecture to reveal the enduring creative legacy of an imperial capital that shaped the Mediterranean world and far beyond. Another one for the list! It's on from 7th November 2026 to 9th May 2027.
• Who's for sale? news: It's all change for one of the BBC's most iconic series, as Doctor Who is being put out to tender for a new production company to take over, Russell T Davies [who was behind the successful revival of the show back in 2005] has announced that he is departing, and the previously announced Xmas special has been cancelled. A regeneration is afoot, it seems...
• And finally - god-bothering bigot news: One of the US's many crazy self-proclaimed "Christian" pastors has said that marijuana makes you gay! Idiot. However, a word of wisdom comes to mind: "When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself." - Bob Marley.

And the weather? Still far too breezy, but there's been a noticeable rise in temperature - and more sunshine ahead...

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STOP PRESS:

Here we go again. I published this yesterday evening [Wednesday], and here we are, half a day later [on Thursday] - and it still hasn't arrived in the Blogger Reading List! Bastard Google Gnomes...

Typing in 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' gave me an embolism

None of the advances in technology of the last half-century have made it any easier to enter text via a remote control.

A technological black hole means anyone attempting to search for a film or TV show has to enter it letter-by-letter as if they were putting their initials by a Space Invaders high score in 1980.

Jim Bates of Congleton said: “I tell speakers to play music and they do so. I type a destination into my car and it shows me how to get there. But on my TV?

“There’s no slick user interface. To find a movie on Netflix I have to mash down flimsy rubber buttons while it brightly suggests movies that are not what I want or close to it. All the others are the same.

“Even on the PlayStation, a controller with at least 30 different inputs demands I do it one letter at a time. Why does all pretence of being user-friendly stop at the telly? Why has it remained in the Ceefax era?

“Every site online’s always checking I’m not a sophisticated bot buying tickets or logging into my bank account. They should get these fucking bots working on the telly. Then maybe I could watch 'Insidious 5' without first having to look up how to spell it.”

Technology expert Jack Brown said: “Now most of our technological agency is given over to machines it’s important to have such instances of human independence, even though typing in 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' gave me an embolism.”

The Daily Mash

Of course.

He doesn't sound it, though, when you hear him

Fuck. Too soon, too soon - another week begins. We need a pick-me-up!

Among another "mixed bag" of names such as Neil Patrick Harris, Edvard Grieg, James Robertson Justice, Noddy Holder (who is 80 years old), Richard Baker, Johnny Hallyday, Simon Callow, Courteney Cox, Harry Nilsson, Lord John Redwood, Erroll Garner, David Rose, Waylon Jennings, Chris Morris, Yuri Andropov, Helen Hunt, Julie Hagerty and - erm - Xi Jinping...

...it would also have been the 80th birthday of the unlikeliest of sex symbols, Demis Roussos!

On this Tacky Music Monday, out of his lesser-known back-catalogue, I have discovered this! Lemon-and-brown flared outfits deserve a comeback.

Demis Roussos – Midnight Is The Time I Need You

However, we can never disassociate the man from the legendary summer of '76, fifty years ago, with its stand-pipes in the streets and months of sunshine.

Reflecting that magnificent heatwave, the great Greek mountain emerged from obscurity to hit Number 1 with one of the eternal summer anthems:

Demis Roussos – Forever and Ever

It always brings back thoughts of Abigail's Party to me...

"Laurence, Angela likes Demis Roussos, Tony likes Demis Roussos, I like Demis Roussos and Sue would like to hear Demis Roussos.

So do you think we could have Demis Roussos on?"

"It's a pity he's so fat."

Yeah, but he doesn't sound it, though, when you hear him."

Demis Roussos (born Artemios Ventouris-Roussos, 15th June 1946 – 25th January 2015)

Time, oh give me time

"...I’ve always been positive. I wouldn’t still be here if I wasn’t. I think you’re always who you are, but life distracts you, particularly because of fame – everybody treats you different, therefore you end up with a distorted idea of who you are. Don’t you think that life’s about growing into yourself in a funny kind of way? You’re looking for answers and I think as you get older, you realise there aren’t really answers. You just have to kind of get on with it. Life is kind of like clinging to a rock, isn’t it? We’re all clinging to a rock, and some people have got a better grip than others. Some people look bedraggled, and other people look like Jerry Hall dressed as mermaid on that Roxy Music album cover.”

Oh, lordy! You know you're getting old when...

...you realise that Boy George is 65 years old today!

Time flies...

Culture Club - Time

Hot Since 82 & Jamie Jones feat. Boy George - Body Control

Many happy returns, Boy George (born George Alan O'Dowd, 14th June 1961)

Arise...

l-r: Dame Helen Mirren CH, Cerys Matthews OBE, Dame Julia Donaldson, Anneka Rice MBE

...Sir Kevin Sinfield [rugby league star who fundraised millions for Motor Neurone Disease awareness in honour of his fellow player Rob Burrows who eventually died of the condition], Sir Peter Lord and Sir David Sproxton [founders of Aardman Animations studio, that gave the world Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run], Dame Malorie Blackman [former Children's Laureate] and Dame Julia Donaldson [children's author who created The Gruffalo]. The divine Dame Helen Mirren and photojournalist Sir Don McCullin are made Companions of Honour, of which there are only 65 at any one time.

Among thousands of other names from the worlds of sport, entertainment, fundraising, politics and public service, also honoured are:

• Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE): beauty products entrepreneur Charlotte Tilbury;
• Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE): Catatonia singer Cerys Matthews, film director and actor Dexter Fletcher, film score composer Patrick Doyle;
• Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE): broadcaster and TV personality Anneka Rice, DJ Judge Jules, soprano Louise Alder, founder-member of Black Sabbath Tony Iommi, multiple Chelsea Flower Show gold medal-winning garden designer Sarah Eberle, fashion designer of Princess Diana's wedding dress David Emanuel, sport radio presenter Garry Richardson, Emmerdale actress and TV personality Lisa Riley, Judge Dread comic character co-creator John Wagner.

Congratulations, one and all!

HM The King's Birthday Honours 2026