Oom-pah-pah

We went to a fab sing-a-long at The Golden Eagle in Marylebone Lane tonight! Possibly one of the smallest pubs in the West End, nevertheless the Eagle plays host to a wonderfully eccentric old bloke playing requests at his (slightly out-of-tune) piano three times a week, and it is so much fun!

All together now...

Oom Pah-Pah from Oliver!

Oom-pah-pah
There's a little ditty they're singin' in the city
Especially when they've been on the gin or the beer
If you've got the patience your own imaginations will tell you just exactly what you want to hear
Oom pah pah, oom pah pah, that's how it goes
Oom pah pah, oom pah pah, everyone knows
And they all suppose what they want to suppose when they hear oom pah pah

Mr. Percy Snodgrass would often have the odd glass
But never when he thought anybody could see
Secretly he'd buy it, and drink it on the quiet
And dream he was an Earl with a girl on his knee
Oom pah pah, oom pah pah, that's how it goes
Oom pah pah, oom pah pah, everyone knows
What is the cuase of his red shiny nose?
Could it be oom pah pah?

Pretty little Sally goes walking down the alley
Displays her pretty ankles to all of the men
They could see her garters, but not for free and gratis
An inch or two and then she knows when to say when
Oom pah pah, oom pah pah, that's how it goes
Oom pah pah, oom pah pah, everyone knows
Whether its hidden or whether it shows
It's the same oom pah pah

She was from the country, but now she's up a gumtree
She let a fellow beat her, and lead her along
What's the use of cryin', she made her bed to lie in
She's glad to bring a coin in, and join in this song
Oom pah pah, oom pah pah, that's how it goes
Oom pah pah, oom pah pah, everyone knows
She is no longer the same blushing rose
Ever since oom pah pah

Oom pah pah, oom pah pah, that's how it goes
Oom pah pah, oom pah pah, everyone knows
And they all suppose what they want to suppose
When they hear oom pah pah

Eric Storm - Have Some Madeira, M'Dear (Flanders & Swann)

Have some Madeira, M'Dear
She was young, she was pure, she was new, she was nice
She was fair, she was sweet seventeen
He was old, he was vile, and no stranger to vice
He was base, he was bad, he was mean
He had slyly inveigled her up to his flat
To view his collection of stamps
And he said as he hastened to put out the cat
The wine, his cigar and the lamps

Have some Madeira, m'dear
You really have nothing to fear
I'm not trying to tempt you, that wouldn't be right
You shouldn't drink spirits at this time of night
Have some Madeira, m'dear
It's really much nicer than beer
I don't care for sherry, one cannot drink stout
And port is a wine I can well do without
It's simply a case of chacun a son gout
Have some Madeira, m'dear

Unaware of the wiles of the snake-in-the-grass
And the fate of the maiden who topes
She lowered her standards by raising her glass
Her courage, her eyes and his hopes
She sipped it, she drank it, she drained it, she did
He promptly refilled it again
And he said as he secretly carved one more notch
On the butt of his gold-headed cane

Have some Madeira, m'dear, I've got a small cask of it here
And once it's been opened, you know it won't keep
Do finish it up, it will help you to sleep
Have some Madeira, m'dear, it's really an excellent year
Now if it were gin, you'd be wrong to say yes
The evil gin does would be hard to assess
Besides it's inclined to affect me prowess
Have some Madeira, m'dear

Then there flashed through her mind what her mother had said
With her antepenultimate breath
"Oh my child, should you look on the wine that is red
Be prepared for a fate worse than death"
She let go her glass with a shrill little cry
Crash! tinkle! it fell to the floor
When he asked, "What in Heaven?" she made no reply
Up her mind, and a dash for the door

Have some Madeira, m'dear, rang out down the hall loud and clear
A tremulous cry that was filled with despair
As she paused to take breath in the cool midnight air
Have some Madeira, m'dear, the words seemed to ring in her ear
Until the next morning, she woke up in bed
With a smile on her lips and an ache in her head
And a beard in her ear 'ole that tickled and said
Have some Madeira, m'dear

Wow-wow-wow-wow unbelievable

Happy 50th birthday today to the lovely Kate Bush!

Kate Bush at 50 in pictures

Born in Bexleyheath in Kent, Kate escaped suburban bliss when Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd heard her demo tape in the mid 70s and helped promote her weird and unique sound to the record companies. Still in school, Kate combined recording her early tracks with attending dance classes with David Bowie's choreographer Lindsay Kemp, and eventually she was launched on an unsuspecting public with one of the best albums of her career A Kick Inside.

To this day, everyone still remembers the impact she made, and you'll still find people doing flowery dance movements whenever Wuthering Heights is played. Such is the love of the British for eccentricity that she was a huge critical and commercial success for more than twenty years, selling millions of records worldwide. Even if the gaps between albums became longer and longer - as is the wont of such an artiste - she remains at the top of the league, and her "comeback" album Ariel in 2005 still sold millions of copies.

For me, my favourite album of hers is Hounds of Love, and, from this the classic single Running Up that Hill, which is definitely in my top three songs ever recorded. And so to celebrate this milestone for the weird and wonderful Kate Bush, a few excerpts from her brilliant career...

Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

Kate Bush - Hammer Horror

Kate Bush - Wow

Imagine owning Lana Turner’s petticoat!

Wow! Every queen's dream, as loads of Hollywood memorabilia comes up for auction in the US this Friday... And you can even bid for items on eBay!

The Profiles in History sale includes: a sequinned costume worn on stage by Liberace; various dinosaurs from Jurassic Park; costumes and props from Forbidden Planet, Star Trek (original and Next Generation), Star Wars, Batman, The Incredible Hulk, Superman, X Men and Spiderman; a pair of Vulcan ears; an original script from Rebel Without A Cause signed by Sal Mineo; an autographed postcard of Josephine Baker; Lana Turner's petticoat; a pair of tablets from The Ten Commandments; James Bond (and many other) film posters; the Holy Grail from Indiana Jones; an Alien; Austin Powers' shagadelic outfit; and a signed photo of Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz!



Whew! Now where's my chequebook?

More about the auction

Super Troupers

We had a great time at Halfway to Heaven yesterday afternoon, thanks to the lovely CK - aka Crystal D'Canter and Kelly Mild, glamorous cabaret artistes extraordinaire.

Madam Arcati has always had a concern that the age of the classic drag queen performer - the type of act that sings and has some patter, rather than those who just dress in funny costumes and mime - was over, now that some of the old troupers (Phil Starr, Dockyard Doris et al) are dead. But these two - each was a recent winner of the "Drag Idol" competition - prove that the spirit of Music Hall, and its successor the drag show, is alive and well and in Central London every Sunday!

The girls are great singers and entertainers, and you ain't seen nothing till you've seen their audience participation version of The Court Of King Caractacus! Here they are at the recent Clapham Street Party:

Crystal D'Canter and Kelly Mild at Clapham Street Party

And here's a sing-a-long for Monday (unfortunately without all the actions!)

Court of King Caractacus

Eek! Caption competition anyone?

I bet "Our Glorious Leader" wishes she'd put some slap on for her visit to the Kabollocks centre with her family...



More on A Socialite Life

But at least Madge isn't the only celeb in the rough-looking stakes:

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend?

"A kiss on the hand maybe quite continental, but diamonds are a girl's best friend..."

Apparently eBay recently won its legal battle with Tiffany over the sale of fake diamonds on its site. But observers have commented how much this reveals about the buyer - it seems that many people are quite happy to wear "fake" bling.

An what, I ask, is wrong with that? None of us are in the same league as the Beckhams, Liz Taylors or Beyoncés of this world, and it is no surprise that shops such as Claire's Accessories and, slightly more up-market, Swarovski proliferate - I love them! And Butler & Wilson, OMyGod and the costume jewellery wholesalers of Berwick Street...

Why worry about the insurance you'd need to wear the Koh-i-Noor to a ball (unless you are the real Queen of course!) when you can arrive sparkling, wearing diamanté that is a millionth of the cost?


Princess Diana wearing Swarovski

Them's my sentiments anyway - off to the sparkly shops we go...

Read the article on the BBC website

Ooh Matron!

On the BBC website today they ask the question "Do Carry On films have a deeper meaning?".

Read the article

Well on this evidence I would say probably not!

Carry On Henry trailer

Carry On Matron - Doctor Goode

A tiger is a tiger not a lamb

Apparently on TV tonight was a programme where John Barrowman agreed to subject himself to all sorts of humiliating "investigations" in an attempt to find out if there is a reason why he is gay. I refused to watch it.

I do, however, have some thoughts on the matter - what makes me who I am..?

101 Must See Movies for Gay Men

Liza Minnelli - Mein Herr

Alison Jiear - I Just Wanna Fucking Dance

Ethel Merman, Carol Channing, Ann Miller, Della Reese - Love Boat Follies

Donna Summer - I Feel Love

Read about the BBC programme "The Making Of Me"

Picture it... Sicily

They're dropping like flies this week...

First we lost the lovely Jo Stafford (read her obituary in The Telegraph), and today there's the very sad news of the death of Estelle Getty.



Always cast in parts that were much older than she was, Estelle was most famous as the irascible Sophia in The Golden Girls. Despite playing the mother, Miss Getty was in fact a year younger than her "daughter" Bea Arthur!



As the struggling actress daughter of Polish immigrants, her breakthrough came courtesy of Harvey Fierstein, who cast Miss Getty as his mother in the Broadway version of Torch Song Trilogy.

From there she had some small parts in movies such as Tootsie and Mask before being catapulted to stardom by landing the part of Dorothy's mother in what is now one of the most-loved of all American comedies since The Lucy Show.

Her later years were clouded by dementia, and she was unable to make a few Golden Girls reunions due to ill-health. We will all miss her terribly, but her lasting legacy is with us for ever:

Golden Girls - Sophia's Picasso Story

Golden Girls - Sophia and the girls at the hospital

Golden Girls - Sophia: "Picture It!"

Some of her best lines:

Blanche: We just rented that movie Aliens, it scared us half to death.
Sophia: I found it scary too. That Sigourney Weaver is a sweet girl but she really shouldn't go without makeup.

Blanche: I treat my body like a temple.
Sophia: Yeah, open to everyone, day or night.

Stan: Hello Sophia, you're looking younger every day.
Sophia: Hi Stan, and that's a beautiful toupee you're wearing. Great, now we're both liars.

Dorothy: Ma, you're making this up!
Sophia: So what? I'm old, I'm supposed to be colourful.

Rose: Sophia, why are you in such a bad mood?
Sophia: Excuse me Rose, but I haven't had sex in fifteen years and its starting to get on my nerves.

Dorothy: Hi, ma. Where are you going?
Sophia: To the boardwalk. I like to watch the old guys rearrange themselves when they come out of the water.

Estelle Getty tribute on the BBC website

Summer is lovely

As the UK heats up with the impending tropical winds, here's another gratuitous picture of the lovely Cristiano Ronaldo, who is never out of the news lately (thank heavens!)...

It’s Monday - I need the doctor!

As is my wont on miserable Mondays, here's something cheesy, courtesy of Carol Douglas...

Carol Douglas - Doctor's Orders

Opera Queens, bathhouses and Vicky Edie

It is impossible to imagine the effect that going to last week's Lavender Library had on my web-searching...

Paul Burston talked last week of his love for a certain Queens by Pickles, a book that is very dear to my heart, and which I constantly dip into for its brilliant and inspirational writing. Today I rediscovered a passage from the chapter Cruising at the Opera in which "The Opera Queen" - who is "wild about applause, always yelling 'Brava' whilst all about him bellow their ignorance of gender" - has a bitchy conversation at the opera house with his friend:

Friend: "Just look at those diamonds! Look at them! She must be rolling in it! She looks a bit like Margaret Dumont, don't you think?
Geoffrey: Some women are so camp, aren't they?
Friend: What! They're hysterical! Talk about camp, dear - just give me Eleanor Steber at the Continental Baths! Have you got that album?
Geoffrey: Oh, I've tried everywhere. Everywhere! Deleted now!
Friend: Oh God, yes! I found mine in New York, actually. Ten dollars. I can't remember when I was so thrilled! Shall we have a little troll upstairs? You never know what you're missing in this place!
Geoffrey: I love walking up this staircase. It's so Joan Crawford, isn't it?

Well, apart from being a brilliant observation of the interplay between queens - it could be Madam Arcati and I and our friends chatting - this set me thinking. Just who is/was Eleanor Steber? And could it be true that an opera singer (if that is indeed who she was) actually performed at the most notorious of the sex-club bathhouses in New York in the 70s? The home of Bette Midler and Barry Manilow (who started out as an act there)? So off I went on a web search to find out more...

Eleanor Steber, who died in 1990, was indeed an American operatic soprano - one of the first major opera stars to have achieved the highest success with training and a career based in the United States. Before her, most of the biggest stars of opera were European. Noted particularly for her performances of Wagner, Mozart, Puccini and Richard Strauss, she rose to prominence in the 1950s with the Metropolitan Opera, and performed at Bayreuth.

A bit of a high-living party-loving girl, her voice suffered towards the end of her career, but not before she paid a tribute to some of her greatest fans - gay men - by performing at the Continental Baths in 1973. And to top the whole search, I have found a copy of the original recording online!

Laydeez and gentlemen! Parterre Box ("the queer operazine") presents "Unnatural Acts of Opera" featuring Eleanor Steber live at the Continental. Your host is La Cieca, cultural doyenne...

Download the whole album as an MP3

Or visit the podcast website

Eleanor Steber live at the Continental - track listing:

• Mozart: Zeffiretti lusinghieri (from Idomeno), Ach, ich fuehl's (from Die Zauberfloete), Come scoglio (from Cosi fan tutte);
• Charpentier: Depuis le jour (from Louise);
• Puccini: Quando m'en vo (from La Boheme);
• Massenet: Scene and Gavotte (from Manon);
• Sieczynski: Wien, du Stadt meiner Traeume;
• Kreisler: Stars in My Eyes;
• Lehar: Medley from The Merry Widow;
• Puccini: Vissi d'Arte (from Tosca).

Edwin Biltcliffe, Piano; Joseph Rabb, Violin.October 4, 1973.

It is strange listening to this very old and very camp recording of a bygone gay era - before AIDS and the hysteria it whipped up closed bathhouses like this forever.

In particular, I found it very interesting how much Ms Steber's speaking voice must have influenced Bette Midler when she created her character Vicky Edie (from whence came my own epithet "Dolores Delargo the Toast of Chicago!").

But those reflections aside, I most enjoyed finding this beautiful vocal performance intact and online. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

More about Eleanor Steber

You know, you come from nothing, you’re going back to nothing. What have you lost? Nothing!

I often wondered what happened to the career of that wonderful Welsh singer/actress Sue Jones-Davies...

I remember Sue vividly as the "interloper" whose gravelly alcohol-fuelled vocals first added to, then ultimately destroyed the fictional band "The Little Ladies" in Rock Follies of 77. I was impressed with her voice then, and even more so when she appeared later in Victoria Wood's excellent sketch Keep on Shopping.

She famously appeared as the brilliantly-named Judith Iscariot, Brian's girlfriend in Life of Brian.

Bizarrely Sue is now the newly-elected Mayor of Aberystwyth(!) in West Wales, and her first action is to call for a lifting of the town's ban on the Monty Python film.

I'm not making this up, you know... Read the BBC article

Here's some of the memorable moments from Sue's career:

Rock Follies of '77

Victoria Wood show - "Keep on Shopping"

Monty Python's Life of Brian - I want to be a woman

Caption competition for the weekend

Looking like a cross between Zaza in La Cage Aux Folles and a couple of watermelons in a sequin bag, here's the queen of chavs (sorry! top-selling author) Jordan aka Katie Price...



More pics on A Socialite Life

"Azúcar!"

It is five years since we lost the "Queen of Salsa" Celia Cruz - and what a loss!

Úrsula Hilaria Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born in 1925 in Havana, Cuba, and became a superstar in Latin America at a very early age. After the Castro takeover of Cuba however, she and her band refused to return, and Celia lived for the rest of her life in the USA.

A giant of the Latin American and Cuban music world, she worked in partnership with the master of Mambo and band-leader Tito Puente for many years and became known for her trademark shout "¡Azúcar!", ("Sugar!" in Spanish). During the 70s Celia and her collaborating musicians of the Fania All-Stars went on to tour the world with their infectious Latin-fusion brand of music, and by the 1990s she was undoubtedly the "Queen", winning a Grammy Award and the National Medal of Arts presented by Bill Clinton.

After her death in 2003, her body was taken to Miami to lie in state, and more than 200,000 of her fans paid their final respects. RIP, Celia Cruz.

Here she is, showing the young whipper-snappers how it should be done, at the Tito Puente tribute show in 2000:

Ricky Martin, Celia Cruz and Gloria Estefan

Celia Cruz online

Like so many queens they have no shame in public

What a fantastic evening "The Lavender Library" turned out to be... Not that I would have expected anything less, with the lovely Paul Burston and Rupert Smith in charge.

Brilliantly MC-ed by The Independent's Suzi Feay, gay writers and such stars as Julian Clary, David McAlmont, Stella Duffy and Andy Bell were asked to champion the gay books and writers that had most influenced them.



Diana Souhami amusingly championed Gertrude Stein and her long, eccentric relationship with Alice B Toklas; and Stella spoke in glowing terms about another literary lesbian Patricia Highsmith and her erotic novel Carol.

Andy was impressed with the similarities between his cruisy sex life and that of Joe Orton as much as the great man's writing, comparing the infamous cottage scene which Joe recalled with such relish in his diary with his own experiences when he encountered a young J*mi Som*rv*lle on Hampstead Heath!

Julian, more characteristically, chose one of our favourites - the Mapp & Lucia stories by E.F. Benson, all stylish and witty banter and mannerisms portrayed by supposedly "straight" characters, that reveal their true gay roots to the more discerning reader.

But for me the crowning glory was Paul Burston, who chose the book that I would say influenced me the most in my life - Queens by Pickles.

A masterpiece - this is one of my favourite books! It has played such a pivotal role in my gay life, and I actually have a guilty secret to share. Visiting the hideous 1960s mausoleum that passed for a library in Newport in the early 80s, I was searching for The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp - and discovered it had been catalogued by the neo-Fascist authorities that ruled the roost in South Wales at the time in the "Sexual Deviancy" section.

Outraged (and slightly intrigued) by this awful description, I made a thorough investigation of this particular area of the teak'n'gunmetal shelving and discovered the book (Queens) was part of the collection in that category. To my everlasting shame (not really!) I stole it (well, never returned it anyhow), and its tattered and well read and re-read pages adorn my bookshelf to this day (complete with added graffiti by a sexually frustrated reader, carefully Tipp-Exed out by the librarians - how very Joe Orton!)



Published in the year I came out - 1984 - the enigmatic author of Queens must have spent years observing people as he travelled through the London gay scene. His long list of characters - the Screaming Queen, the Straight-Acting Queen, the Old Queen, the Opera Queen, The YMCA Queen, the Insidious Queen, the Clone - and the scenarios and interplay between them that he portrays - are all instantly recognisable today.

Although Paul read out his particular favourite passage from the book, I have one of my own I need to share:

"The girly queens flock to Heaven like toddlers to a sweet shop. They flounce about the place, giggling and shrieking, hands and arms flung about in a wild sign language embellishing phrases like "She Never!" and "Ooh Gloria - don't!". They like to call each other bitch and never ever stand alone.

"Once out of the pubs and set free in Heaven's wide-open spaces, they know no restraint. Lacking androgynous beauty, they daub themselves with Boots blusher and eye-liner, and bat their eyelashes like Sixties sluts... Like so many queens they have no shame in public, but can be quite suburban and prudish in private. This is always an annoying reversal and lets them in for a lot of abuse which, because they are so desperately inadequate, they enjoy...

"Although impressed by money, they are unlike rent boys, and want sex more than cash, more than stardom even. Heaven is where they hope to find love one day. Love, of course, is the same regular big cock."

I think we can identify with that - we have all met these caricatures at some stage in our lives, along with all the others in the book. I certainly can spot Pickles' "types" whenever and wherever I enter a gay bar, and have spent many an absorbing evening doing just that!

Pickles also illustrated his work with some quite grotesque sketches of grotesque people...









Queens by Pickles is a must-read book for every gay person - I cannot recommend it enough!

It is out of print but is available through Amazon Stores

I want some act-shon, I want to live..

Happy 55th birthday today to Disco diva Alicia Bridges, whose camp anthem I Love The Nightlife was given a new lease of life in the 1990s when it featured prominently in Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Of course I remember the song from the first time around in 1978, at the crest (and ultimately the start of the demise) of the Disco boom - and at the height of my teenage testosterone boom, too!

A (suddenly) tall fifteen-year-old, I was proud to be the only one of my friends to get served at the bar in the local youth club in Newport (South Wales), all the while buzzing to the sounds of Sylvester, Dan Hartman, Patrick Juvet and Miss Bridges...

Alicia Bridges - I Love The Night Life

[I only wish I could say they were all happy memories, but given the time it took me to finally leap screaming from the closet (I was 21) those teenage years were somewhat clouded by angst. I should have taken heed of the words!]

Ooooh I, I love the nightlife
I got to boogie
On the disco 'round, oh yea
Oh, I love the night life
I got to boogie on the disco 'round, oh yea

Please don't talk about love tonight
Please don't talk about sweet love
Please don't talk about being true
And all the trouble we've been through
Ah, please don't talk about all of the plans
We had for fixin' this broken romance
I want to go where the people dance
I want some action
I want to live
Action, I got so much to give
I want to give it
I want to get some too

Ooooh I, I love the nightlife
I got to boogie
On the disco 'round, oh yea
Oh, I love the night life
I got to boogie on the disco 'round, oh yea

Please don't talk about love tonight
Your sweet talking won't make it right
Love and lies just bring me down
When you've got women all over town
You can love them all and when you're through
Maybe that'll make, huh, a man out of you
I got to go where the people dance
I want some action
I want to live

Action
I got so much to give
I want to give it
I want to get some too

Oh I, I love the nightlife
I got to boogie
On the disco 'round, oh yea
Oh, I love the night life
I got to boogie on the disco 'round, oh yea

Oh, I love the night life
I got to boogie
On the disco 'round, oh yea
Oh, I love the night life
I got to boogie
On the disco 'round, oh yea
Oh, I love the night life
I got to boogie
On the disco 'round, oh yea

Don’t come the Brigadier bitch with me, dear!

Very welcome news that not only did representatives of the army march at the Pride parade this year, the last of the armed forces to allow uniformed gay personnel to do so, but they have signed up to the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme in an effort to become an even better employer of gay people.

What a difference to the old days!

Monty Python - Military Fairy

Read the BBC article

Grace the Cannibal

Possibly one of the most awesome performers of our age, the terrifyingly fabulous Grace Jones - who recently turned 60 years old and performed a rapturously received set at the recent Meltdown at the South Bank - releases a new album Hurricane in October 2008, her first in two decades!

Here's the video for the first single Corporate Cannibal - brilliant!

Grace Jones - Corporate Cannibal

Read the BBC review of her Meltdown show

You're lookin swell, Dolly

"There is never an evening when, somewhere in the world, the music and lyrics of Jerry Herman are not being sung by a lady in a red headdress, or a lady with a bugle, or a middle-aged man in a wig and a boa."

The grand-daddy of the high-kicking, sequinned camp showbiz number Jerry Herman celebrates his 77th birthday today!

We love Jerry - another of those wonderful out gay men who keep Broadway and the West End alive with shows such as Mame, Hello Dolly and La Cage Aux Folles. He provides a complete balance against the likes of Sondheim and Bernstein - they do the clever, the thought-provoking and the symphonic, but leave it to Jerry to provide the va-va-voom!

Lucille Ball - Mame

Caroline O'Connor - Look What Happened to Mabel

Original London Cast 1985 - La Cage Aux Folles

Louis Armstrong and Barbra Streisand - Hello Dolly!

Happy birthday sweetie...

It’s an up and under!

This made me laugh! Apparently, on Sunday afternoon New Zealand rugby fans watching a regular sports programme found themselves viewing hardcore pornography instead.

Read the BBC article

This gives me the spurious reason - as if I need one! - to post some gratuitous pictures of semi-naked rugby players...







Dieux du Stade official site

We like this one, Pats!

With all the exuberance that surrounded the Pride weekend, we seem to have neglected to mention the 50th birthday celebrations of Miss Jennifer Saunders, one of the greatest queens of comedy... Happy (belated) Birthday, darling...

French and Saunders - Dangerous Liaisons

Ab Fab - Wine Tasting

Myths, legends and Victorian whores

What a fantastic day Pride London turned out to be, as the weather forecast for heavy showers on Saturday changed by the second, and the sun shone on our parade!



As ever, our gang took to dressing-up for the occasion like ducks to water, and didn't we all look fabulous, sweetie? We had decided our "look" for this year months before the official theme of "fairy tales, myths and legends" was announced - and went for a Gothic/Bal Masque/Decadent Dandies theme, which fitted with this quite well...



And the girls had great fun by taking their dressing-up into Sweeney Todd territory and decided that "Victorian whore" was the fashion du jour. Our cousin Lauren even travelled from Canada for the occasion complete with her "Whore" costume packed in her case!



Dozens of gaudy floats, thousands of beautiful boys, semi-naked men and the usual clutch of bemused onlookers, and Boris - the official turnout is estimated at 500,000!



Brilliant fun as always... We just love an excuse to dress up!

I like to do manly things

So we reach "Gay Pride Eve", and I couldn't resist posting this favourite...

Gay Pimp - Soccer Practice

We let our hair down, so to speak, and mock ourselves with tongue-in-cheek

As we continue the countdown to Pride, here is an absolute classic song that serves to remind us why we should never forget what pioneers our predecessors were, and how much we owe to them for what they went through to get us to the situation gay people are in today...

Charles Aznavour - What Makes A Man A Man?

What Makes A Man A Man?
My mum and I we live alone
A great apartment is our home
In Fairhome Towers
I have to keep me company
Two dogs, a cat, a parakeet
Some plants and flowers
I help my mother with the chores
I wash, she dries, I do the floors
We work together
I shop and cook and sew a bit
Though mum does too I must admit
I do it better
At night I work in a strange bar
Impersonating every star
I'm quite deceiving
The customers come in with doubt
And wonder what I'm all about
But leave believing
I do a very special show
Where I am nude from head to toe
After stripteasing
Each night the men look so surprised
I change my sex before their eyes
Tell me if you can
What makes a man a man?

At 3 o'clock or so I meet
With friends to have a bite to eat
And conversation
We love to empty out our hearts
With every subject from the arts
To liberation
We love to pull apart someone
And spread some gossip just for fun
Or start a rumour
We let our hair down, so to speak
And mock ourselves with tongue-in-cheek
And inside humour
So many times we have to pay
For having fun and being gay
It's not amusing
There's always those that spoil our games
By finding fault and calling names
Always accusing
They draw attention to themselves
At the expense of someone else
It's so confusing
Yet they make fun of how I talk
And imitate the way I walk
Tell me if you can
What makes a man a man?

My masquerade comes to an end
And I go home to bed again
Alone and friendless
I close my eyes, I think of him
I fantasise what might have been
My dreams are endless
We love each other but it seems
The love is only in my dreams
It's so one sided
But in this life I must confess
The search for love and happiness
Is unrequited
I ask myself what I have got
Of what I am and what I'm not
What have I given
The answers come from those who make
The rules that some of us must break
Just to keep living
I know my life is not a crime
I'm just a victim of my time
I stand defenceless
Nobody has the right to be
The judge of what is right for me
Tell me if you can
What makes a man a man?

Tell me if you can
Tell me if you can
Tell me if you can
What makes a man a man?

Bring on the Men!

So only a few more days to go before Pride, and out of the blue I discover this little moment of genius...

Maria Alvarez de Toledo - Bring On The Men

You are a nice man. And I like you.

Continuing my countdown towards Gay Pride this weekend, here is another odd little gem for your delectation...

Roddy von Seldeneck - Homosex Discoteque

Homosex? Yes please.