Wise tips about glamour

I love this "Nanny Stern" of the fashion world!

1940s Fashion - a Vintage Guide to Glamour

Whooo, shit!

Just spent a morning trying to fiddle with my new mobile phone - suddenly all my pics have gone and I am a bit miffed about that.

Hey ho - here's a little something to cheer myself up!

The Candy Girls featuring Sweet Pussy Pauline - Wham Bam

Wham Bam by The Candy Girls - featuring Sweet Pussy Pauline, of course!

Incomparable!

On the fifth anniversary of the death of the "Incomparable" Hildegarde (at the ripe old age of 99!), and on my first day back at work after the move (incomparably knackered!), we are well overdue a very small sample of this marvellous lady's work methinks...

Hildegarde - I Was In The Mood For Love (1933)

The Incomparable Hildegarde

Hildegarde on Wikipedia

Let's dance - put on your red shoes and dance the blues

Now here's a novelty - earlier on this week we celebrated the birthday of Miss Vikki Carr. Here she is singing, with a fantabulosa mimed dance number performed by none other than the much missed Cyd Charisse - an excellent combination, you must agree...

[From The Silencers]

Really rich Italian Satanists

We have finally moved all our stuff in (thanks to Alistair, Steve and Alex who provided the muscle and the vehicles!), I am aching and knackered (as is Madame Arcati), but I still feel like a party - it is time to give some exposure to a truly trashy favourite band of mine: the filthy, gorgeous Euroclash pioneers Dirty Sanchez!! [No relation to the sordid MTV series of a similar name...]

First up is their sinister tale of Satanism, abduction, and Italians...

Dirty Sanchez - Really Rich Italian Satanists

And in this song, they sing the story of my life... Enjoy!

Dirty Sanchez - Give Head

Dirty Sanchez website

"So pack your toys away, your pretty boys away, your 45's away..."

An appropriate one for this particular Tacky Music Monday methinks...

Dolores Delargo Towers II opens its doors tomorrow!

Carole Bayer Sager - Moving Out Today

It’s any old millionaire in a storm, for I’ve got my mink to keep my heart warm

It's Sunday, and I am taking a bit of a breather between bouts of humping (oo-er, missus!) stuff to the new house.

In keeping with that mellow feeling, here is a magnificent performance by the doyenne of smokey torch songs and off-beat ballads, the one, the only, Miss Peggy Lee! Enjoy...

Peggy Lee - When The World Was Young

They call me coquette, and mademoiselle,
And I must admit I like it quite well.
It’s something to be the darling of all;
Le grande femme fatale – the belle of the ball,
There’s nothing as gay as life in Paris,
There’s no other person I’d rather be,
I love what I do – I love what I see,
But where is the schoolgirl that used to be me…?

Ah, the apple trees,
Where at garden teas,
Jack-o'-lanterns swung:
Fashions of the day,
Vests of appliqué,
Dresses of shantung,
Only yesterday.
When the world was young.

While sitting around we often recall,
The laugh of the year – the night of them all,
The blonds who were so attractive that year,
Some opening night that made us all cheer;
Remember that time we all got so tight,
And Jacques and Antoine got into a fight,
The gendarmes who came, passed out like a light,
I laugh with the rest – it’s all very bright.

Ah, the apple trees,
Sunlight memories,
Where the hammock swung,
On our backs we’d lie;
Looking at the shy,
Till the stars were strung,
Only last July,
When the world was young.

You’ll see me in Cape D’Antibes , or in Spain,
I follow the sun by boat or by plane,
It’s any old millionaire in a storm,
For I’ve got my mink to keep my heart warm:
And sometimes I drink too much with the crowd,
And, sometimes I talk a little too loud,
My head may be aching, but it’s unbowed,
And sometimes I see it all through the cloud…

Ah, the apple trees,
And the hive of bees,
Where we once got stung,
Summers at Bordeaux:
Rowing at Bateau,
Where the willow hung,
Just a dream ago,
When the world was young.

Smart, aye! Smartttt...

Couldn't resist posting this little paean to my 'ome town...

Newport State of Mind

Au reservoir!

Today is the anniversary (143rd actually, but what's a number?) of the birth of the fabulously camp author E.F. Benson.

One of three gay brothers and a lesbian sister (what must their Victorian parents have thought?), Fred was the youngest, and - despite his older brother composing the lyrics to Land Of Hope And Glory - left us the most cherished of legacies, especially here at Dolores Delargo Towers.

For it was the youngest Benson who brought us the exquisite Mapp and Lucia! If anyone has not heard of them before, these tales of small-town snobbery, rivalry and bitchiness are a must-read. However, it is for the practically perfect Channel 4 TV series, starring Geraldine McEwan, Prunella Scales and Nigel Hawthorne that we love these tales the most.

Lucia's Art Deco gowns! The precision of the barbed put-downs! The machinations of reaching the top of the social ladder in Tilling! Oh, how we love it... Enjoy!

Mapp & Lucia - Au Reservoir

Mapp & Lucia on IMDB

The Friends of Tilling website

No, no no, I...

Stressful stuff, this moving business! All the planning, all the closing down of utility bills, all the money! (eek!) And to top it all, my home broadband chose last night to quit working - just one more thing to sort out...

Never mind, eh? This is a momentous Friday - our last at the current Dolores Delargo Towers after nine years.

Who better to help us celebrate in true weekend fashion than the mother of roller-boogie herself, Miss Gloria ["sorry about being a god-botherer"] Gaynor herself? Thank Disco It's Friday!

Gloria Gaynor - Never Can Say Goodbye

Yo Viviré

As we hurtle towards moving house next week - up to our eyes in bags and boxes and bubble-wrap - we jollied ourselves along last night with a healthy dose of the music of that supreme First Lady of Salsa, the magnificent Celia Cruz (who died seven years ago last week).

Here's just a small sample of her fabulousness - enjoy!

Celia Cruz - Yo Viviré

Celia Cruz - Que Le Den Candela

Celia Cruz - La Negra Tiene Tumbao

¡Azucar!

My only sunshine

Today my thoughts (for no apparent reason) turn to a time, many years ago, when my obsession was with a type of music that broke all the rules of what went before - inevitably involving two earnest individuals and a synthesiser.

Of the proponents of "that type of music" way back in 1981, a certain Eddie and Sunshine were a magnificently quirky addition to the genre, and I loved them - memories of seeing them live at Sophia Gardens Pavilion (supporting Ultravox) come flooding back... Enjoy!

Eddie & Sunshine - Another, Another Teardrop

Eddie & Sunshine - There's Someone Following Me

Eddie & Sunshine - People Talk

Eddie and Sunshine on MySpace

Brainwash me for living my life

Tuesday is usually the dullest day of the week, so I think it's appropriate that we brighten things up and celebrate the magnificence that is Miss Grace Jones... Here is the wonderful lady's official video for her new single Love You To Life.

I want that hat!

Grace Jones - Love You To Life

A Mark, a Yen a buck or a pound - You're not gonna reach my telephone

Eternal thanks to my MySpace friend the lovely Tony for this one!!

That marvellous lady Christine Pedi, formerly of Forbidden Broadway fame - who we went to see in her one-woman show back in June 2009 - plays Lady GaGa as Liza Minnelli and Beyonce as Carol Channing...

Christine Pedi - Telephone

Sheer unadulterated genius!

Creating a Storm

I stumbled across a genuinely tacky artist for this Tacky Music Monday - enter stage left Mr Joel Evan, singer and nude gay model, with a marvellously OTT video for his new single Storm...

Joel Evan - Storm

I tell myself don't be a chump

Many happy returns today to that magnificent bundle of Mexican vivaciousness - Miss Vikki Carr!

A great favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers, the four-times Grammy-winning Señorita Carr has had a long and fabulous career as a prime exponent of powerful torch songs and Hispanic classics, and at the age of 69 she is still performing today!

Here she is in her glittering TV special Memorias, Memorias, the soundtrack of which is a much revisited part of our bizarre audio collection,(with guest Arturo Sandoval):

Vikki Carr and Arturo Sandoval - Piel Canela

And here is one of the campest-of-camp songs ever, Miss Carr's signature tune, and a song we do all the gestures to - every time!:

Vikki Carr - It Must Be Him

Vikki Carr website

Adam Rickitt's balls

Hot on the heels of the news that the gorgeous Adam Rickitt is to release a brand new album this year, the sexy one has stripped off (again) for an awareness campaign for testicular cancer.

Swoon...

Mr Rickitt will also be appearing on stage at Gay Prides across the UK this summer. I think he knows his audience! Read more.

And speaking of stripping...

Adam Rickitt - I Breathe Again

"I'm at an age where my back goes out more than I do"

"It's a good thing that beauty is only skin deep, or I'd be rotten to the core."

It was the 93rd birthday yesterday of the irrepressible and crazy-haired Phyllis Diller; in her time the greatest female stand-up comedian in the world!

In her long career, Miss Diller worked with greats such as Bob Hope, entertained the troops in Vietnam, had her own TV show and was a long-standing character in the US daytime soap The Bold and the Beautiful, made several movies and provided voice-overs for hit animation such as A Bug's Life, and found time to lend her considerable support to gay rights issues. Phew!

Facts about Phyllis Diller:

• Although one of her famous props was a long cigarette holder, she never smoked in her life
• Her autobiography is called Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse - a description she applied to her own on-stage appearance.
• The mayor of Philadelphia officially proclaimed 8th June 2001 as "Phyllis Diller Day".

She is remarkable! Many happy returns...

Phyllis Diller and her bird legs

The lady herself is a great fan of plastic surgery, allegedly having undergone fifteen separate procedures. Here she is explaining a little more...

Phyllis Diller on plastic surgery

Phyllis also recorded several albums, singing "classics" in her own inimitable style...

Phyllis Diller - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Tell them I'm having the same!

I couldn't resist sharing this little slice of fabulousness - as Our Joan entertains the "troops" in a way only Alexis Carrington Colby Dexter can...

Joan Collins - Boys in the Backroom

I bet the Boys in the Backroom were squealing with delight!

Dandy in the Underworld

RIP Sebastian Horsley (8th August 1962 – 17th June 2010)

Brazil - lalalalalala!

We went to the House of Homosexual Culture's Boys and Girls from Brazil evening yesterday, John-John and I suitably attired in Carmen Miranda t-shirts - and it was a fascinating little event! Host Paul Burston was wearing flip-flops ("Havaianas", apparently), the place was packed out with an exotic mix of people, samba music was playing - lovely...

We began with a thought-provoking presentation from the chap from the Naz Project, in which he outlined the reality of how Brazilian gay people who head to this country seeking freedom and fortune often find themselves isolated by language, and in some circumstances drawn into easy sex and drugs, with the consequence that barebacking and HIV infection is a growing problem.



The lovely Nick Field (the only non-Brazilian on the bill) read one of his excellent poems, about his orgasmic love for Rio de Janeiro, and then it was time for an unusual scenario - Paul interviewing his husband Paulo about the cultural differences between being born in Brazil and now living in London.

Apparently it is best not to pretend to be German, as British people have more of a bias against that race than they do against Brazilians... All through the interview I couldn't help but notice that marriage to one of Bridgend's finest sons has led to the beauteous Paulo developing a rather Welsh accent! :-)



After a very sweet presentation by Jane Sacco about lesbian life in small town Brazil, Paul's second interviewee was the very sexy dancer Thiago Drewry, a philosophy graduate-turned-go-go-boy.

Unfortunately managing to keep his clothes on throughout the evening, Thiago related an unusual tale of the culture shock of arriving here to find himself working as a kitchen porter and in a variety of menial jobs unsuited to a qualified professional, then discovering that he could make far more money by shaking his toosh for the boys (logical really)...

Another great evening, and one I am very glad not to have missed!

Ary Barroso - Aquarela do Brasil

Heartbreaks and promises, I've had more than my share

Conversation turned last night to the eternal joys of Euro dance music.

We came to the conclusion that disco never died, it merely transformed through Hi-NRG, Italo-Disco, House, UK Garage and Handbag into something a bit like this...

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Robin S - Show Me Love

Robin S on MySpace

Pansies By The Pair!

I have to pay due deference to the fantastic Felix in Hollywood, whose blog I have been following for a while, for introducing me to some wonderful excerpts from gay history - and I just have to reproduce this blog for your delectation today. It gave me such great pleasure...



Leif and Paul Rocky (nee Leif and Paal Roschberg), were born 27th February 1909 in Oslo Sweden. If the boys' Army Officer dad had no inkling of their 'artistic' bent, clues started arriving when at age 11 they co-authored a book of fairy tales. Uh-oh. Soon enough though, the lads traded in their writing plumes for ballet slippers. After studying the dance in Oslo and seemingly London and Paris, they turned 18 and made their stage debut at The Casino de Paris.

To say they wowed the people is to understate. They were described as "two tall disturbingly attractive youths…alike as two peas in a pod. On stage and off it was impossible to tell them apart."



It was in the summer of 1928 at the Concert Mayol that Paul and Leif introduced an act that would seal their fame, impersonating the legendary, and recently retired, Dolly Sisters.



No less than "The Queen of Parisian Music Hall" Mistinguett was entranced. She took the little Swedish meatballs under her wing, and of they flew to tour London. While there, the twins managed to get themselves arrested for public indecency and soon the three returned to Paris. A very successful tour of the continent with Mistinguett followed...

In 1932 The Rocky Twins arrived to conquer Hollywood. They didn't do so bad at it either. They performed all over town, and were invited guests at the Hearst Castle and Lew Cody's Malibu ranch. They ran around with a glamorous Pink Brigade that included Tallulah Bankhead, songwriter Lorenz Hart, Tyrone Power, Billy Haines, director Edmund Goulding, and producer Leonard Sillman. Sillman remembered:

"Talent they had not, but they were fairly bursting with boyish charm. They had taken over a huge villa in Beverly Hills and proceeded to give the most gilded parties since the great days of the wild, or silent era, when a party was a party. The Rocky parties were always climaxed by a mass visit to their bedroom where the twins would display their jewelry. They had diamonds by the peck and gold ornaments by the pound, given to them (they said) by the crowned heads of Europe."

Any act based on youthful beauty has a 'sell by' date stamped all over it, and this one was no exception. The twins appear to have retired their partnership in 1937.

The rest of their lives were lived always connected in some way to the arts. Paul died in New York on 21st March 1955. Lief died on 10th May 1967 in Kristiania, Norway.

The Rocky Twins

Another fascinating blog about the Rocky Twins

Move out of my way

As our pint-sized Pop Princess Kylie celebrates the great news that Aphrodite is not only at Number 1 in the UK, but has debuted in the Top 20 in the US as well, let us flit back a whole decade to another renaissance in the lady's career. Can it really be ten years since this was at the top of the charts?

Kylie MInogue - Spinning Around

Make it so

Happy 70th birthday today to a man with the sexiest voice in theatre - Mr Patrick Stewart!

From Shakespeare to Picard, Beckett to X-Men, with hundreds of other plays and appearances over the years, the man is a captivating and charismatic actor - and a (secret) crush of mine...

Here's his gayest performance ever, in the fantabulosa film Jeffrey. Many happy returns...

Patrick Stewart in Jeffrey

La Reine

On this Tacky Music Monday I return to one of the icons of camp for our entertainment...

To cheer us up after a grand sunbathing weekend, at the start of what looks like it may be a wet and grey week, Mesdames et Monsieurs - Mme Dalida!!!

Dalida - Tico, Tico

Dalida on Wikipedia

Young love, first love - filled with true devotion

Happy 79th birthday today to the (former) Queen of Closets, 1950s heart-throb Tab Hunter!

Discovered and re-named by by the infamous Hollywood agent Henry Wilson, the young Artie Gelien was subject to gossip and innuendo for much of his career (with alleged affairs with Tony Perkins and Rudolph Nureyev) - but managed to sustain his success in more than forty films and had his own TV show.

A passable singer, too (Jack Warner created Warner Bros Records just for him), his album When I Fall In Love is a treasured oddity here at Dolores Delargo Towers.



Once his closet doors began to creak open in the 1970s and 80s, he progressed from heart-throb to "cult" figure, appearing in episodes of The Love Boat and Charlie's Angels (among others), and on the big screen opposite Divine in both Polyester and Lust In The Dust.

His 2005 autobiography finally put into words what he had been trying to tell the world for a long time, and spoke in full of what it was like to be a gay actor in the restrictive world of Hollywood. Mr Hunter continues to work to this day (with a film biopic of Divine and one of his own life story both in production as we speak)...

Happy birthday, sexy!

Tab Hunter - Young Love

Tab Hunter Confidential - The Making of a Movie

Tab Hunter website

It's a Scandal...

In the sultry summer of 1963 (a welcome relief following that big freeze), the Beatles were world-beaters, the Beeching Axe was falling on our railways, the Cold War was only slightly thawing after the Cuba Crisis, my mother was heavily pregnant with me, and the Profumo Affair was headline news around the world.

It is apt, methinks, for me to post this slice of gorgeousness...

Dusty Springfield & Pet Shop Boys - Nothing has been proved

The Profumo Affair

Effusive mercurial, effeminate ethereal

Many happy returns to a true living diva, Mr Peter Mark Sinclair Almond!

Marc Almond - (He Has A Touch Of) Lavender

Mauve cravat and corduroy jeans
Well we all know what that means
A halo of curls
For Satyricon girls

Our Lady of the flowers
Grows shadier by the hours
Lady Stardust, Judy Teen
In your own Moonage Daydream

Blusher smeared across your cheeks
Kohl that stayed around for weeks
Smudged on your eyes
A Biba disguise
Maybelline in shades of green
Coloured up your teenage scene
Light of foot and limp of knees
In the 1970's

Last night's panstick
On yesterday's grime
You displayed all your bruises
While I covered all mine
Elusive mercurial
Effeminate ethereal
They whisper as you swish by
Your eyes up to the sky
Lavender, lavender
He's got a touch of lavender
Lilac and lavender
Lavender

Heartache Noir leaving a scar
Exploring all the shades to be
Through life's black and white TV
St. Dirk of Bogarde
Showed you what to discard
So you splashed on some Brut
And lowered your voice
When Charlie was really your choice

Last night's Lurex gave yesterday shine
You held on to your sparkle
While I lost all mine
Those long drunken nights
With the misfits and rebels
Playing the angel
While sleeping with devils
Lavender, lavender
He's got a touch of lavender
Lilac and lavender
Lavender

And this is the part
Where you'd get beaten up
But you're saved by a quip
And a whole lot of luck
Frankie and Charlie have gone
Now Larry and Kenny
Once they all had a beard
Sadly now don't have any

Last night's indiscretion
Was yesterday's crime
You stayed true to yourself
But I was poisoned by my time
Elusive mercurial
Piss-elegant ephemeral
They whisper as you swish by
Your eyes up to the sky

The renters on the 'Dilly
In their fake leather jackets
Say she's 'ere on the meat rack
Knowing all of the rackets
Where everything's gift wrapped
And coming in packets
Just a knock on the door to some
Club where no need to say more

Lavender, lavender
He's got a touch of lavender
Lilac and lavender
Lavender

So much there's not to say
You don't have to anyway

Get up and...

It's been an unsettling week - coming down to earth with a bang after the best Pride weekend for ages, planning to move house in a few weeks (because the landlady is selling up), and Madame Acarti getting another new job.

As we head towards what may well be another gorgeous sunny weekend (involving a high proportion of sorting things into boxes, probably), I think I should share a song that is guaranteed to lift the spirits. What better than the lovely Silver Convention? (Just check out the audience - they're hilarious!).

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Silver Convention - Get Up and Boogie

Ya, ya!

Heavens - is it really thirty years since this one was topping the charts in the UK?

Kate Bush - Babooshka

Incy Wincy Spider

Here's a sublimely weird recent discovery I felt the need to share today...

I know very little about the lady, but I rather think this may not be the last we hear of Kirsty Almeida:

Kirsty Almeida - Spider

Kirsty Almeida website

We were there!

A thoroughly exhilarating experience (I still have the dance moves embedded in my inner being)...

Pride 2010 Big Dance - Holding Out For A Hero

La Grande Dame

I neglected to celebrate the 94th birthday last weekend of the magnificent Olivia De Havilland!

A goddess of the silver screen, she (and her estranged sister Joan Fontaine, also still alive at the age of 92) has seen it all - she dallied with Errol Flynn, starred in Gone With The Wind, battled the studio system and won, married the Paris Match editor Pierre Galante and won an Oscar (later then her sister, which caused the notorious 60-year rift).

And she got to slap Bette Davis!

Olivia de Havilland slaps Bette Davis

Olivia De Havilland on IMDB

Speed!

It's my first day back in work after Gay Xmas weekend, and I need some stimulus.

I considered this as an option, but I think coffee and tea may well have to suffice...

The Apple - Speed

Lunedi felice!

As we hit the big "come-down" after a brilliant Pride weekend, the fact remains that Monday is always going to be dedicated to Tacky Music here at Dolores Delargo Towers.

So to that end, here is a glittering double-bill of kitsch, featuring the lovely Patty Pravo, Italian singing sensation and a triumph of art over nature! Enjoy...

Patty Pravo - Pensiero Stupendo

And here she is with fellow countrywoman, and one of my all-time favourite icons of tackiness, Raffaella Carra...



Ay ay ay!

Proud!

What a f***ing fantastic weekend!

The best Pride in years with a huge gang of friends and family (my sister Hils, Madame Acarti, Pride "virgins" his sister Carol, his niece and nephew Jen and Stuart, and the not-so-virginal Baby Steve, Alex, John-John, Sally, Louise, Tony, Paul and Jim) all decked out in our theme for this year - black, white, feathers and diamonds!



The weather stayed warm and pleasant, the march was a million strong, the atmosphere was incredible! We minced along the whole march in a glittering display my dears, even if I say so myself - fuelled by champagne and adrenalin - ending up as always at Halfway to Heaven. We did the "Big Dance" at 5pm in Trafalgar Square to Holding Out For A Hero, and went on enjoying the day till four o'clock in the morning at Sally's pub!

Never ones to quit while we're ahead, the family spent today in the company of the sublimely talented Crystal DeCanter and Kelly Mild, Trindy and Bag'O'Chips back at Halfway. In all, a fantastic Gay Xmas weekend!!!

Judy Garland - Get Happy

Pride London BBC article

Pimping Pride

On this, the great day in the social calendar that is Gay Pride, we have to give due recognition to one man who put the "homo" back into bonhomie... Laydeez and gentlemen, Mr Johnny McGovern (aka The Gay Pimp)!!

Starting slow and sultry-like, here's a salutary lesson for the ladies out there.

Gay Pimp - Don't Fall In Love With a Homo

Getting a little tougher, we have his ultimate classic (and my enduring favourite), the divine Soccer Practice:

Gay Pimp - Soccer Practice

From innuendo to full-on, here's Mr Pimp telling it like it is!

Gay Pimp - For The Fellas That Like The Fellas

And by way of a finale to this brief selection of the wonderful Johnny's repertoire, an anthem that really resonates on this day of all days:

Gay Pimp - Wrong Fag To Fuck With

Gay Pimp website

I feel real

It is indeed "Gay Xmas Eve", but there is also a tradition here at Dolores Delargo Towers to make every Friday a glitterball-tastic day!

Who better to provide the fanfare for this weekend's big party than the irrepressible, outrageous Queen of Disco herself, Sylvester?!

Sylvester - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Time to remember

It is important not to lose sight of the underlying political reason behind why the Gay Pride event is so important. This year we celebrate 40 years since the foundation of the Gay Liberation Front in the UK (and with it, shortly afterwards, the very first Gay Pride in London).

Without these brave and vocal queens and dykes bringing the issues of discrimination, bigotry and inequality to the public eye, we would not have any of the "luxuries" which we take for granted today. No gay clubs, no gay pubs on the high street, and certainly none of the "rights" we now have in law (at last). There are still inequalities today (even in the fluffy world of coalitions and utopian idealistic government) and we still have a long way to go to change attitudes in society towards us.

These are the original demands set out by the GLF back in 1970. How many have we really achieved?

1) That all discrimination against gay people, male and female, by the law, by employers, and by society at large, should end.
2) That all people who feel attracted to a member of their own sex be taught that such feelings are perfectly normal.
3) That sex education in schools stop being exclusively heterosexual
4) That psychiatrists stop treating homosexuality as though it were a problem or sickness, thereby giving gay people senseless guilt complexes.
5) That gay people be as legally free to contact other gay people through newspaper ads, on the streets, and by any other means they may want, as are heterosexuals, and that police harassment should cease right now.
6) That employers should no longer be allowed to discriminate against anyone on account of their sexual preferences.
7) That the age of consent for gay males be reduced to the same as for straights.
8) That gay people be free to hold hands and kiss in public as are heterosexuals.

Gay Liberation Front - a History

Gay Liberation Front at 40 - Pride London

Holding Out For A Hero?

Speaking of choreography (see my previous blog), here's a taste of one of the things to expect at the Pride gathering in Trafalgar Square.

According to their website: "At Pride London 2010 the whole Main Stage and the crowd in Trafalgar Square will be dancing along to Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero".

"Watch this video to see David Hoyle, porn star Ashley Ryder, GLF's Alan Wakeman, Holestar and many others show you how it's done, get practising and see you for the Big Dance in Trafalgar Square on July 3rd!"

It all kicks off during the 5pm to 7pm slot, apparently...

Pride Big Dance 2010 - Holding Out for a Hero

Pride main stage line-up

Divine decadence

In this week of anticipation of Gay Xmas, our outfits are ready and the preparations for the parade are just about done. Now, all we need is the choreography...

I rather think this might be a possibility (Nazis aside, of course)! Now where do I find a four-poster bed like this?

Salon Kitty

Not DFS, for sure!

Sing a rainbow

It's a week of milestones this week (as well as the countdown to Pride). Most remarkably, my favourite lady pop singer of all time the magnificent Debbie Harry reaches her 65th birthday today! Now, that is scary...

Here's an unusual excerpt from Miss Harry's glorious career - and a suitably "rainbow-themed" song - as she follows in the footsteps of so many megastars with an appearance on The Muppet Show:

Debbie Harry and Kermit the Frog - Rainbow Connection

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
and what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
and rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we've been told and some choose to believe it.
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

Who said that every wish would be heard
and answered when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that and someone believed it.
Look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us star gazing
and what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

All of us under its spell. We know that it's probably magic.

Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound that called the young sailors.
The voice might be one and the same.
I've heard it too many times to ignore it.
It's something that I'm supposed to be.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.