Friday, 29 September 2023

It takes two to make it out of sight

Yay! A weekend beckons, and it has every chance of being a lovely warm one. TFFT. This week's been a drag [and not in a feather-boa-mascara-and-heels sort of way]! Speaking of which...

Ever wondered where Michelle Visage - RuPaul's "right-hand woman", unofficial "sixth member of Steps" and BBC Radio 2 DJ - started?

Here! [She's the blonde one.]

Thank Disco Madonna-wannabees It's Friday!

Fuck. How much more Eighties could that possibly be?

Have a great weekend, dear reader!

Thursday, 28 September 2023

Today's headlines

[click to embiggen]

Wednesday, 27 September 2023

Chain, chain, chain

And so, we discover from her comment on Monday's post that Ms Scarlet eschews all things Northern Soul and is in fact a "rock chick"! Who would have guessed it? [So nothing like Ms First Nations portrays her at all.]

Maybe she'll like this one?!

More brilliant work by Bill McClintock!

Tuesday, 26 September 2023

The Fantastic Mr Foxx


Cheekbones. Whatever happened to them?

Another day, another shudder goes down my spine as I realise how old everyone is getting (including me).

For today it is the 75th birthday of Mr Dennis Leigh - better known of course as synthesizer aficionado, original vocalist and founder-member of Ultravox, John Foxx!

It seems like only yesterday that I almost fell off my chair - electronic music freak that I was (am) - when I first heard this, his magnificent debut solo hit [and almost immediately had to go to Roxcene Records in Newport to buy the 7" single! I still have it.]:

On investigating his career [prompted by the fact he had been cited several times by none other than my idol Gary Numan as being as great an influence on him as Kraftwerk], I came across - and immediately fell in love with - this [the best song Ultravox ever created, in my opinion]:

Somehow we drifted off too far
Communicate like distant stars
Splintered voices down the 'phone

The sunlit dust, the smell of roses drifts, oh no
Someone waits behind the door
Hiroshima mon amour

Riding inter-city trains
Dressed in European grey
Riding out to echo beach

A million memories in the trees and sands, oh no
How can I ever let them go?
Hiroshima mon amour

Meet beneath the autumn lake
Where only echoes penetrate
Walk through Polaroids of the past

Future's fused like shattered glass, the sun's so low
Turns our silhouettes to gold
Hiroshima mon amour

Nostalgia. It ain't what it used to be... Sigh.

Many happy returns, John Foxx (born 26th September 1948)!

Monday, 25 September 2023

Not so much "Cuando", but "Por qué?"


Monday again...

You know you're getting old when...

...you discover that former heartthrob Ian Ogilvy (aka "The Saint" in the 1980s revamp series), the effervescent Miss Toni Basil, and the "great Spanish seducer" Julio Iglesias are all 80 years old! Gulp.

It is (inevitably) to the latter to whom we turn for today's "wake-up call" this Tacky Music Monday - and this number from his 1970s telly show certainly is a complete mindfuck! Enjoy...

Whatever the hell was going on there, I am pretty certain some very heavy psychedelic drugs were involved.

Have a good week, dear reader...

Sunday, 24 September 2023

Talcum Time! *

The champagne amphetamine's been flowing throughout 2023 in celebration of the legendary Wigan Casino Club, which launched its very first "Northern Soul all-nighter" fifty years ago - at 2am on Sunday 23rd September 1973, to be precise.

Auntie Beeb's certainly been heavily featuring this remarkable genre - the meld of obscure non-chart uptempo American black music and an underground scene that saw punters travel across huge swathes of the North of England in the middle of the night (after conventional pubs and clubs had closed) to dance their tits off until dawn! Indeed, it is a recent BBC article that has prompted me to locate and play for you the tracks on their "Wigan Casino classics" list...:

  • NB Mr Wilson's record became the most sought-after, and the most expensive 7" single ever - see here for more.

And "three before eight" - three closing songs played before 08:00:

"And what do we say, Malcolm?"
"We say 'Keep the Faith', Paul!"
**

Notes:

  • * "Talcum Time" refers to the alleged practice of scattering talc on the damcefloor to help with some of the punters' sliding dance moves. It could well be an "urban myth" to cover up a nickname for another widely-used white powder found in the clubs.
  • ** Much like the term "Northern Soul" itself, it was soul music aficionado and journalist Dave Godin whose regular use of the term "Keep the Faith" led to it - and the famous clenched fist logo first used by the US Black Panthers - becoming the slogan for the whole scene. Paul O'Grady (and his producer Malcolm Prince) used to have this exchange on his Radio 2 show after his weekly Northern Soul slot.

Saturday, 23 September 2023

Helps you forget all the things you regret

Our little gang is gathering once more - in another of our fave haunts The Perseverance near Great Ormond Street today, by way of a (late) celebration of The History Boy's 50th birthday.

Much jolly japes, and maybe even a film or two, to look forward to, methinks!

Here's a most appropriate party number, knowing our friends...

Sláinte mo cara!