Keep me coming back for seconds

Ah, Mr Marcus Reeves. The man who Elaine Paige described as "a new Tim Rice", whose singing, costumery and musical writing has been a major source of entertainment for us at Dolores Delargo Towers for many years - notably here, here and here.

Our very first encounter with Mr Reeves' prodigious talent was our sojourn to see his musical based upon the life of the art-loving nun who became a television sensation - Postcards from God: The Sister Wendy Musical way back in 2007. And latterly, he has turned his hand to poetry, with the publication ["hot from my publisher, Prontaprint"] of his collection Sighs Ten.

And it was to the launch of the audio version of his ‘chapbook’ that Jim and I ventured into the wilds of Haggerston in Hackney on Wednesday...

Haggerston's gay pub The Glory is a venue founded by alternative drag superstar Johnny Woo, and - quite a surprise given the preponderance of "attitude-heavy" trendy bars in neighbouring Hoxton, Shoreditch and Dalston - is reasonably-priced and quite charming. The cosy upstairs bar belies the capacious downstairs club area in which Mr Reeves was to perform, and, for a mid-week event, it housed a substantial number of people in the audience (which was pleasing to note, for Marcus's sake).

Disappointingly for us camp aficionados, Mr Reeves has ditched the extravagant costumes and make-up for a "dressed-down" look. In his own words (describing his hooded top) he looked "like a pink marshmallow" as he took to the stage, to entertain us with extracts of all his repertoire - a number of favourites from Quicksilver including Mad Bad World and Black Tears (done "jazz style"), some from his EP Three Little Words, and an appearance from Sister Wendy! - as well as his poignant poems. He was met with such rapturous applause, he even did an encore (a reprise of Mistaken Identity). It was thoroughly entertaining.

For your delectation, here are just a couple of extracts an extract from Sighs Ten:

2023 UPDATE: All gone from Soundcloud and YouTube, but Marcus performing Give Me Your Hand is still available on Vimeo [but refuses to embed].

All this and more may be found on the Marcus Reeves website.