Everything that's wonderful is sure to come your way

How these weekends run away with us - a day with Mother and a fabulous fashion exhibition, a day of relaxation, and it's back to work again.

Ho hum.

Never mind, on this Tacky Music Monday we have something unforgivingly chirpy to get us going, courtesy of last Saturday's birthday girl Donna Loren (here with Darlene Love and The Blossoms, the Wellingtons and The Shindig dancers). It's exhausting:

Donna Loren - Sunshine, Lollipops & Rainbows

Sunshine? Lollipops? Rainbows? We wish we had any of those today instead of greyness.

Have a good week, dear reader.

Get me a bromide - and put some gin in it

It's International Women's Day today, dear reader.

What better way to celebrate than with the faboo Steve Hayes aka "Tired Old Queen at the Movies", and his review of an all-time (camp) classic movie, that features an all-female cast..?

Steve Hayes: Tired Old Queen at the Movies - The Women

Now there's a film that is an eternal source of quotable quotes:

• "You simply must see my hairdresser, I DETEST whoever does yours."
• "She’s got those eyes that run up and down a man like a searchlight."
• "Get me a bromide - and put some gin in it."
• "He almost stood me up for his wife!"
• "Isn’t that (nail polish) divine? Jungle red!" "Looks like you’ve been tearing at somebody's throat!"
• "Oh, poor creatures. They’ve lost their equilibrium because they’ve lost their faith in love. Oh l’amour, l’amour."
• "Where I spit no grass grows ever!"
• "Oh, she can’t help it. It’s just her tough luck that she wasn’t born deaf and dumb."
• "When anything I wear doesn’t please Stephen, I take it off."
• "There is a name for you, ladies, but it isn’t used in high society... outside of a kennel!"

Love it!

From Bermondsey to Capri

Cosprop storeroom - a dressing-up box writ large

Having not long got in after a lovely day with Mother - we all went along to see the superb Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum, on its last day [more on that later, no doubt] - then after seeing her safely off on the train back to Portsmouth, drinkies and nibbles (chips) in the Wetherspoons at Waterloo, there's still time to enjoy a little wallow in the goings-on of beautiful people in exotic locations, courtesy of the simply faboo Soft Tempo Lounge:

Soft Tempo Lounge - The Boy from Capri

Oh, that's better...

[Music: Orchester Franco Taormina - Tabatuajara; Original film: Il suo nome è Donna Rosa (1969)]

Emotion overload

Sigh. Yet again, the warm, sunny weather saved itself for midweek, and now we're heading to the weekend... it's raining!

It matters not - we still have two days away from this drudgery, and a party to plan! To get us in the mood, here's a fab 80s dance classic from tomorrow's birthday girl [from back in the day, 38 years ago, when she still had her own face!].

Leg-warmers and day-glo at the ready, girls - Thank Disco It's Friday!

Taylor Dayne - Tell It to My Heart

I feel the night explode
When we're together
Emotion overload
In the heat of pleasure

Take me I'm yours
Into your arms
Never let me go
Tonight i really need to know

Tell it to my heart
Tell me I'm the only one
Is this really love or just a game?
Tell it to my heart
I can feel my body rock
Every time you call my name

The passion's so complete
It's never ending
As long as i receive
The message you're sending

Body to body
Soul to soul
Always feel you near
So say the words i long to hear

Tell it to my heart
Tell me I'm the only one
Is this really love or just a game?
Tell it to my heart
I can feel my body rock
Every time you call my name

Love love on the run
Breakin' us down
Though we keep holdin' on
I don't want to lose
No i can't let you go

Tell it to my heart
Tell me I'm the only one
Is this really love or just a game?
Tell it to my heart
I can feel my body rock
Every time you call my name

Tell it to my heart
Tell me from the start
Tell it to my heart
Tell it to my heart
Tell me from the start
Tell it to my heart
Never make it stop
Oh take it to the heart

Tell it to my heart
Tell me I'm the only one
Is this really love or just a game?
Tell it to my heart
I can feel my body rock
Every time you call my name
Tell it to my heart
Tell me I'm the only one
Is this really love or just a game?
Tell it to my heart

Have a great weekend, peeps!

¡Nuevas melodías!

Madonna, GaGa and Christina Aguilera approve.

Frustratingly, it was a delightful Spring day today while I was stuck in the benighted office...

How about a little selection of the "newer" music that has caught my ear of late, to cheer things up a bit?

To open proceedings, here's a queen who's definitely overdosed on old Todrick Hall videos:

Boy Blu - Platinum Pleasure

Next - quite a surprise, as the artist formerly known as "Sporty Spice" makes a very welcome return, more than twenty years since her last solo Top Ten hit. Why no video? It's a mystery. Great song, though!

Melanie C - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Side-stepping a little bit from the mainstream, it's always good to know that the icon that is Iggy Pop can still be dragged out into the light to make new music. When it's the eccentric Anna Calvi doing the asking, I guess it's hard to resist...

Anna Calvi feat. Iggy Pop - God’s Lonely Man

Our absolute favourite Spanish goths-turned-dance-act Fangoria never fail to please - and I adore their new one! "A little bit of everything", apparently:

Fangoria - Un poco todo

Miss Jessie Ware is rapidly becoming a firm favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers, and for the video for her latest faboo (Ennio Morricone western-inspired) choon, she's only gone and roped-in [geddit?] the lovely James Norton as "The Cowboy". Lucky bitch!

Jessie Ware - Ride

And finally - saving the best to last, I am eternally grateful to our Blogger chum Mr DeVice for alerting me to this one! A meeting of true minds, where Neath's finest son and the legend that is Ana Matronic are concerned, methinks:

Bright Light Bright Light & Ana Matronic - Cold Sweat, Hot Boys

My kind of evening!

As ever, dear reader, I love to hear your thoughts...

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STOP PRESS:

The UK's entry for Eurovision in May has been announced. I love it!

Look Mum No Computer - Eins, Zwei, Drei [United Kingdom entry, Eurovision Song Contest 2026]

Of micropenis, even faster fast-food, gold water, Chelsea Girl, books, pies and Scopitone

"Starmer's no Churchill? Trump's no Roosevelt, either."

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• "How cute, a second belly-button" news: A competition no man wants to enter, let alone win: a North Carolina man has publicly claimed he has the world’s smallest penis, and he’s challenging anyone on earth to prove him wrong. "Get the fuck outta here!"
• I wonder where they got that idea from? news: Purveyor of greasy pastry-based comestibles Greggs has announced it will introduce vending machines for its products in some locations in the UK. Have they never been to Amsterdam? FEBO, anyone?
• Fool's gold news: The Japanese city of Osaka has received a gift of gold bars worth 560 million yen (around £2,700,000) from an anonymous donor asking for its specific use: to fix its dilapidated water pipes. Copper not good enough?

• Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion news: RIP Bernard Lewis, founder of Chelsea Girl boutiques - that became River Island, still on our high streets today - who has died just after reaching his 100th birthday.
• What's a book, Mummy? news: Tomorrow is World Book Day, the celebration of which generally revolves around teeny children dressing as their "favourite story-book character". Many people are beginning to question whether this actually succeeds in its aim to get more kids reading books at all. Or are they just posing for photos for their parents' Instagram?
• Yum news: We're in the middle of British Pie Week - and my mission tomorrow is to go and buy one for our dinner! Steak & Kidney, Steak & Ale, Chicken & Ham? Choices, choices...
• And finally: Among another oddly-matched assortment of birthdays, including Sir Patrick Moore, Paula Prentiss, Dieter Meier of Yello, Patsy Kensit, Chris Rea, Emilio Estefan, Joan Greenwood, Dame Penny Mordaunt, Alan Sillitoe, Miriam Makeba, Pearl White, Kenny Dalglish, Bernard Haitink, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Bobby Womack, Kay Lenz, Chaz Bono, Mike Moran and - erm - Shakin'-bloody-Stevens, we find "Scopitone Queen" Miss Barbara McNair - and she's just what we need:

Barbara McNair - The Best Is Yet To Come

And the weather? Supposed to have been Spring-like and sunny, but all we got in London was greyness...

At an undignified age?

Pete Tong, once the Pied Piper of the rave generation, is now 65 and still doing it. And DJ isn’t the only job it’s tricky to be old and wizened in, as these celebs have learned:

Tamara Beckwith: it girl
Being quite pretty, reasonably posh and going to parties isn’t the most solid basis for a career, and Tamara’s has gone off the boil somewhat at the age of 55. Could she have a second coming as a glamorous elder advertising Saga holidays, walk-in baths and bedside commodes to the Met Bar set, or will the All Saints steal those jobs?

Pete Tong: DJ
Clubbing is inherently a young person’s activity, due to the lateness and Ministry of Sound not doing ‘pie and a pint’ nights. Pete seems to be coping but you know as he spins the latest Afro house tune that inwardly he’s muttering ‘in my day music had a bloody tune you could whistle, like DJ Misjah & DJ Tim’s Access’.

Harrison Ford: action hero
Action roles are a problem for geriatrics, and Harrison neglected to cultivate a long-running role where he moves around sedately like Patrick Stewart as Professor X. He broke a leg filming The Force Awakens and tore a shoulder muscle in the last Indiana Jones, and in both films the expression on his face made it abundantly clear it was not worth it.

Pamela Anderson: Baywatch babe
Sex symbol is a tough career post-menopause. The media loves to shame female celebs who refused to halt the ageing process almost as much as those who did. Pammie’s brief, fake relationship with Liam Neeson was treated with the same condescension as when eldsters shack up in the nursing home. Not great when you’re only 58.

James Brown: lad guru
Loaded editor James Brown was central to laddism in the 90s. Now he’s forced to constantly relive those years in every single interview, like some hellish Groundhog Day where he has to talk about trainers, football and Jo Guest in an unending loop.

John Lydon: punk
Ideally punks die young like Sid Vicious or Johnny Thunders, because the alternatives are becoming a sellout with a mortgage or continually trying to shock others at an undignified age. John chose the latter, but is supporting Brexit and Trump shocking from an old white man? The only thing stopping him becoming a golf club bore are his fucking stupid clothes.

Zoe Ball: ladette
Zoe was dubbed a ‘ladette’ in the 90s and to this day the media refer to it constantly despite her now being mumsier than your mum. Unfair to expect a 55-year-old to lead a party lifestyle when hangovers do not seem survivable and the entire bill at Glastonbury is less alluring than your own soft bed.

The Daily Mash

Of course.