It's Divine's birthday today!
All hail.
By way of a little tribute to the largest of our larger-than-life Patron Saints, here's an old favourite - Shake It Up, "performed" by... Ursula the Sea Witch:
Happy birthday, Harris Glenn Milstead aka Divine (19th October 1945 – 7th March 1988)
Read my tribute to the great Diva of Trash on the 70th anniversary of her birth last year - and also reminiscences on her notorious sojourn down the Thames for Gay Pride way back in 1985 (my first Pride)!
I can remember the screams and cheers even now...
Even more Divine here, here and here.
Today is indeed a sacred day. God, I wish Divine was still alive! x
ReplyDeleteShe is - in our hearts. And in our feather boas. Jx
DeleteDivine was divine.
ReplyDeleteSorry. Couldn't resist.
Divine trash, indeed. Jx
DeleteI saw her a million years ago in a tiny club in New Orleans and was mashed so close up to the stage, and Herself, if was sort of scary.
ReplyDeleteI too saw Divine a million years ago in a tiny club in Cardiff - she performed on the dancefloor, in the round, so we were all quite close. She was padded all round, and I am not sure why that was. She was dead less than a year later, however. Jx
DeleteThat must be the year I saw her in a (straight) club in Brighton - 86 or maybe early 87. My then partner was the disk jockey there and his dressing room was taken over by Divine for the night, he was touring then, after THAT appearance on Top Of The Tops. We were surprised to see the quiet man in a caftan come in, apparantly alone, and he stayed in the dressing room (with a buffet) until it was time for him to appear, then the Jungle Jezebel came striding out and joined us on stage and brought the house down. The boys and girls loved it, and the sweat flowed off him. He handed us signed pictures but did not stay long. Perhaps he and Grace Jones were the most extraordinary performers I saw on the scene then.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had (ever) seen Grace Jones live... Jx
DeleteThere was a festival, Purple In The Park, in 2002, rather like the Summer Rites events, an all day affair that went on into evening, by club promoter Wayne Shires, whom I knew to chat to, from hi clubs Substation and Crash. Grace was the headliner - bitch kept us waiting as it got dark for over 40 minutes, we are all getting restless and annoyed as the mood was dissipating - then she finally appeared and blew us away, those hits, those outfits, how she worked the stage. Loved it all - Yoko Ono was on the bill too, wailing away. Surreal.
ReplyDeleteMiss Jones has a reputation for doing that! We didn't go to Purple in the Park (nor Summer Rites) and, as I recall, the post-Pride party was in Hackney Marshes that year so we never went to that either, just the march (then called "Mardi Gras")... Jx
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