Your stomach pulled in, your waist slightly forward; keeping that posture and - reach!

I'm sorry, I thought you said GIN and Tonic...

Spacedust - Gym and Tonic

It's been a long week. Thank Disco It's Friday, peeps!

When nothing is new, and there's nothing doin'

The possibility - a challenge laid down by Jason Donovan - that Kylie, Guy Pearce and Jase should all make a return to the show that spawned their careers, Neighbours, to mark its 35th birthday as Australia's most successful soap is suffice to bring some warmth and cheer to us queens, in this chilly and dark season...

...and, fortuitously, Our Princess has released a most faboo "greatest hits mix" to add to the joy!

Kylie Minogue - Step Back In Time: F9 Minimix

Ah, that's better...

I can't get no satisfaction; all I want is easy action

Such - erm - interesting fashions Mr Bolan wore...

Timeslip moment again...

This time, we've hitched a ride in Jon Pertwee's TARDIS waaaaaay back to ancient history, or what might as well be! It's 1972 - the year of the Watergate scandal, Bloody Sunday and the Troubles, expulsion by Idi Amin of Asians from Uganda, the new Poet Laureate John Betjeman, Under Milk Wood, the Munich Olympics massacre, Black Panthers, Nixon in China, Are You Being Served?, CND's Aldermaston march, Ken Russell's The Boy Friend, miners' strikes, dock-worker strikes, The Godfather, the first official gay pride march in London, Jesus Christ Superstar, Vietnam, Vicky Leandros, A Clockwork Orange, The Chancellor of the Exchequer Anthony Barber, What's Up, Doc?, The Joy of Sex, Willy Brandt, Graham Hill, Dirty Harry, Bobby Fischer, the Baader-Meinhof Gang, Cod Wars, and the discovery of a Japanese soldier who had spent 28 years in the jungles of Guam still believing WW2 was on; the births of Geri Halliwell, Ben Affleck, Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Dita Von Teese, Jonny Lee Miller, Idris Elba, Sakis Rouvas, Claudia Winkleman, Atari, Shaquille O'Neal, Jimmy Carr, Home Secretary Priti Patel, Mark Owen of Take That, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Vanessa Paradis, Liam Gallagher, Gwyneth Paltrow, Eminem, Dana International, DNA molecular science and the fast-food doner kebab; and the year that Margaret Rutherford, Maurice Chevalier, The Duke of Windsor, the Brighton Belle Pullman car train, Louella Parsons, the Ford Zephyr, Mahalia Jackson, Charles Atlas, J. Edgar Hoover, Ezra Pound, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Esma Cannon and Britain's last trolleybus/tram system all died.

In the headlines almost half a century [eek!] hence, in December 1972: the famous "Blue Planet" photograph arrived from Apollo 17, Gough Whitlam was elected as Prime Minister of Australia, the death of former US President Harry S. Truman was announced, and news of the horrendous circumstances of the survival of passengers of the Uruguayan plane crash in the Andes shocked the world. In our cinemas: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, The Pied Piper, Dracula A.D. 1972. On telly: Mastermind with Magnus Magnusson, Emmerdale Farm, Doctor Who: The Three Doctors and Pebble Mill at One.

And in our charts this week forty-seven years ago? Chuck Berry's smutty sing-a-long My Ding-A-Ling ruled the roost (as it would for the next few weeks), holding at bay both The Osmonds and Slade in the process, as well as Rod Stewart, Elton John, Donny Osmond, Michael Jackson and his brothers The Jackson 5. Ironically, among all these Jacksons and Osmonds, it was "Little Jimmy" [groan] who was destined to topple dirty ol' Chuck in time for Xmas. However, there was one more megastar of the moment who gave it a try...

...Mr Marc Bolan (of course)!

T. Rex - Solid Gold Easy Action

I was nine years old that year, sitting in front of Top of the Pops, in awe...

Hey yeah you with the sad face

News of the unexpected death of the lead singer of 80s one-hit-wonders Mental as Anything brought some 32-year-old memories flooding back - as all the articles about him mentioned that hit, which I had long forgotten.

Early 1987 - Edwina Currie, The Herald of Free Enterprise, the SDP, British Airways, AIDS, the Iran–Contra affair, Cynthia Payne and Terry Waite were all in the headlines, as was the latest blockbuster action hero Crocodile Dundee...

...from whose soundtrack it was taken. All together, now!

Mental As Anything - Live It Up

How can you see looking through those tears
Don't you know you're worth your weight in gold
I can't believe that you're alone in here
Let me warm your hands against the cold

A close encounter with a hardhearted man
Who never gave half of what he got
Has made you wish you'd never been born
That's a shame cause you got the lot

Hey yeah you with the sad face
Come up to my place and live it up
You beside the dance floor
What do you cry for let's live it up

If you smiled the walls would fall down
On all the people in this pickup joint
But if you laughed you'd level this town
Hey lonely girl that's just the point

Hey yeah you with the sad face
Come up to my place and live it up
You beside the dance floor
What do you cry for let's live it up

Just answer me the question why
You stand alone by the phone in the corner and cry

How can you see looking through those tears
Don't you know you're worth your weight in gold
I can't believe that you're alone in here
Let me warm your hands against the cold

If you smiled the walls would fall down
On all the people in this pickup joint
But if you laughed you'd level this town
Hey lonely girl that's just the point

Hey yeah you with the sad face
Come up to my place and live it up
You beside the dance floor
What do you cry for let's live it up

Let's live it up
Live it up
Mmm live it up
Hey yeah you
With the sad face
Come up to my place
Come up to my place baby

Hey yeah you with the sad face
Come up to my place and live it up
You beside the dance floor
What do you cry for let's live it up

A classic.

So many safety gays, so little time

Groan.

Freezing, dark, dank - all adjectives that really do not encourage one to leap out of bed and embrace the day. On the whole, I'd rather be in bed...

...or, on this Tacky Music Monday, in Spain - with the late, great Señorita Rocío Dúrcal and her safety gays!

Rocio Durcal - Dónde estarán nuestros tiempos

"Where are our times, the flowers and the champagne?"

Indeed.

Have a good week, dear reader.

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again

The beginning of December is depressing in so many ways - World AIDS Day, the meteorological advent of Winter proper and, inevitably, the time when despondent shoppers and radio listeners start being "treated" to the endless dross that is Xmas music from now until doomsday. It's dark and gloomy, and eminently suitable for an appearance by one of the most sinister of Alfred Hitchcock movies, the adaptation of Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca - and who better to give us a faboo introduction to that film than Steve Hayes, aka Tired Old Queen at the Movies?!

Tired Old Queen at the Movies - Rebecca

Just think - "The Second Mrs DeWinter" might have been a whole lot different had she been played by another actress who auditioned, in a list that included Vivien Leigh, Margaret Sullavan, Loretta Young, Anne Baxter ...or Nova Pilbeam (who?!)

Juicy

In general I prefer my apples made into cider, but, if they insist...

Oh, who would ever have thought the onerous task of going back through the history of this blog*, replacing missing photos and videos, could be such fun?

Especially when I rediscover the "fruity" talents of Mr Mark Bunyan and his paean to the food we all adore...

Mark Bunyan - The Fruit Song

Love it!

[* I've done 20101 and 2011, and am roaring through 2012, from whence this originated.]