Friday 31 August 2018

Singin' them straight to the heart songs


Our glorious Ipomoea lobata ("Spanish Flag") is at its peak.

The weekend draws ever closer, and the forecasters think it may be warm one - all the more excuse to sit with a glass or several of something refreshing in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers!

As we look forward to it, our party mood is helped all the more by two important celebrations.

Today is the centenary of the legendary Mr Alan Jay Lerner - the man who, with Frederick Loewe created the classic Broadway musicals My Fair Lady, Gigi, Brigadoon, Camelot and Paint Your Wagon (all of which also became classic movies)...

...and tomorrow, the last surviving BeeGee Sir Barry Gibb blows out 72 candles on his cake!

Neatly combining tributes to both men in one, how about Sir Barry's lovely song that pays tribute to the natural "home" of Mr Lerner's works?

Miss Candi Staton's version, of course. Thank Disco It's Friday!


Here we are in a room full of strangers
I'm standing in the dark
Where your eyes couldn't see me

Well, I have to follow you
Though you did not want me to
But that won't stop my lovin' you
I just can't stay away

Blaming it all on the nights on Broadway
Singin' them love songs
Singin' them straight to the heart songs

Blamin' it all on the nights on Broadway
Singin' them sweet sounds
To that crazy, crazy town

Now in my place
There are so many others
Standin' in the line
How long will they stand between us?

Well, I have to follow you
Though you didn't want me to
But I just can't stop lovin' you babe
Say, can't stay away

Blaming it all on the nights on Broadway
Singin' them love songs
Singin' them straight to the heart songs

Blamin' it all on the nights on Broadway
Singin' them sweet sounds
To that crazy, crazy town


Have a great weekend, dear reader!

Thursday 30 August 2018

Positively Byzantine



Despite the fact it was a Bank Holiday, and despite the fact (or possibly because of the fact) that everyone in the council appears to be on holiday, this week is dragging...

All the more reason to wallow once again in the luxurious lives of impossibly glamorous people in exotic locations, courtesy of the ever-wonderful Soft Tempo Lounge!


Sigh.

[Music: Maria by Charles Dumont]

Wednesday 29 August 2018

LPs with one letter removed

A mildly amusing distraction, courtesy of the ever-wonderful Dangerous Minds...















Now get on with your work.

Tuesday 28 August 2018

Dangerous levels of irritation


A train had to be held in a station while a group of dangerously annoying drama students were removed, it has emerged.

The students were identified after passengers reported seeing bellends singing show songs and gesturing lavishly, clearly with the intention of making people look at them.

Rail staff subsequently decided it would be unsafe for the train to continue on its two-hour journey with dangerous levels of irritation on board.

Commuter Nikki Hollis said: “If I’d had to listen to how ‘Hamlet is a seriously awesome play’ all the way to Bristol I might have smashed a window and hurled myself to my death.

“That and them doing strange poses in the aisle which looked as if they were rehearsing, but were actually just them showing off.”


Railway manager Stephen Malley said: “Drama students on public transport are a menace to themselves and others. Mainly others.

“If you see someone wearing a hat with a feather in or conspicuously doing vocal exercises, do the responsible thing and tell a member of staff.”


The service was delayed for 45 minutes while the students were ushered onto the platform, where they began prancing around and singing bits of Chicago.
The Daily Mash

Of course.

Speaking of which...


Mmmmmm... Leroy...

[Footnote: Gulp. "Doris Schwartz" (Valerie Landsburg) turned 60 this month...]

Monday 27 August 2018

We've hair on our chests, so what we like the best are the nights


l-r: Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden and Adolph Green

BBC Radios 3 and, to a lesser extent, 2 have been going mad lately in celebration of the centenary of the prolific composer Leonard Bernstein; featuring myriad compositions from his repertoire, some great and many - bearing in mind his penchant for modernism, which in orchestral music can be excruciatingly difficult to listen to - not so great.

The culmination of the celebrations was (inevitably) at the BBC Proms, with Prom 57 on Saturday (Lenny's actual birthday) dedicated to his first foray into the genre of musical theatre, On The Town. The film version of the stage production was a notable success, but Mr Bernstein boycotted it when the producers replaced all but three of his original compositions with ones by MGM Studios' "in-house" writer Roger Edens.

But here, by way of a jolly pick-me-up suitable on this Tacky Music Monday (despite the fact that is is a Bank Holiday so we're enjoying another free day off), are two numbers from that film version - the first composed by Leonard Bernstein, and the other by Mr Edens...


We'll find the romance and danger waiting in it
Beneath the Broadway lights;
But we've hair on our chests
So what we like the best are the nights
Sights! Lights! Nights!

New York, New York, a helluva town.
The Bronx is up, but the Battery's down.
The people ride in a hole in the groun'.
New York, New York, it's a helluva town!



We're going on the town, New York,
We're riding on a rocket, we're going to really sock it,
Because tonight's the night.
We're going on the tube,
We're going to raise a riot, the Brooklyn Bridge we'll buy it,
And hit the hype tonight, the highest hype tonight.

East side, west side, rouse the city,
One day, one night, that's the pity.
And we won't look ahead,
We'll let the light of dawn get around,
We're really living, Jack, we're going on the town.


Indeed.

Leonard Bernstein (born Louis Bernstein, 25th August 1918 – 14th October 1990)

Sunday 26 August 2018

Get Old or Die Tryin'



Such larks!

On Friday evening, Hils, Crog, Madam Arcati, Julie, Ants, Mark and I all trotted off to a tent(!) on the South Bank, in the rain, to revel in the madness of Ida Barr's Bingo show!

Ida - the creation of the genius that is Christopher Green [see here and here] - is, of course, one of our fave comedy acts [Hils and Crog even had her perform/hold court at their wedding reception!], and although we have been to see her on many occasions, she didn't disappoint...

Her Bingo calls are anarchic:


Her mash-ups of Music Hall numbers (and even "Will.i.am Blake's Jerusalem") with modern urban music (the style she calls "Artificial Hip-Hop") are hilarious:


And, of course, no Ida Barr show would be complete until you've done the Hokey-Cokey and a Conga line:


Heaps of fun - topped-off with me having a very late night at Halfway II Heaven indeed - we wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Saturday 25 August 2018

I really tried to make it out; I wish I understood



Campness abounds!

The world's music gossip meejah is a-buzz with the impending release of Cher's album of ABBA covers - and, of course, the gayest DJs are already swarming all over every leaked track, with mash-ups galore.

Thanks to dear John-John (ABBA-fanatic extraordinaire), here's the latest - Cher versus ABBA and S.O.S.:


...and here's another one from a few weeks ago, as one Queen of Pop meets another:


Faboo!

Friday 24 August 2018

Fish were biting at the time when catching wasn't enough



Another weekend hoves into view; and it's another milestone - the last Bank Holiday we have in the UK until Xmas! But at least it is a nice long weekend to look forward to, and with the added bonus that for once I've been paid before the break, rather than afterwards...

All this and, sharing the day as he does with a weird combination of fellow celebrants that includes Tolstoy, national treasure Stephen Fry, novelist A. S. Byatt, R2D2 (the late Kenny Baker), politician and abolitionist William Wilberforce, transgender campaigner Marsha P Johnson, caricaturist Max Beerbohm, Jean-Michel Jarre and Yasser Arafat, it's the birthday today of the cool'n'sexy one from Shalamar, Mr Jeffrey Daniel.

Thus, we have a perfect excuse to delve into the archives of the band who preserved Disco for the 80s generation, and Thank Disco It's Bank Holiday Friday!


There it is, there it is
What took us so long, ooh, to find each other, baby?
There it is, there it is
This time I'm not wrong

In the sea of love we set our sails when waters were up
Two in search of love with no direction
Fish were biting at the time when catching wasn't enough
We couldn't make a sport of our affection

And who could change that we would sail into each other
Ooh girl, I never felt the wave of love so strong
And this love I never felt in any other
I trust it like the light, how this guides the ship to land
I found it when you touched my hand

There it is
What took us so long for a love so strong?
There it is, there it is
This time I'm not wrong


That's poetry, that is.

Have a good one, dear reader!

Thursday 23 August 2018

I was so upset that I cried all the way to the chip shop



Timeslip moment again - and The Liberator's teleportation device has landed us once more into the spookily familiar-yet-somewhat-alien world of the UK in 1978; a year of strikes, including firefighters, bakers (which led to bread rationing) and at the BBC, culminating in the "Winter of Discontent"; a year of civil wars including in Zaire, Comoros, Angola and Afghanistan; the year of Space Invaders, the Amoco Cadiz disaster, Ian Botham, Disco, The Camp David Accords, Watership Down, skateboards, P.W. Botha, the murder of Aldo Moro, Saatchi & Saatchi, Anna Ford, Dallas, the theft of Charlie Chaplin's coffin, curly perms for men, Strawberry Shortcake, the murder of Nancy Spungen by Sid Vicious, Freddie Laker, and Bob Marley's One Love Peace Concert; the year that Nicole Scherzinger, James Franco, James Corden, Smash Hits, Vanessa-Mae, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the first computer bulletin board system were born; and Robert Shaw, Michael Bates, two Popes (Pope Paul VI and John Paul I), Hollywood studio mogul Jack Warner, the Ellice Islands (which became Tuvalu), Harvey Milk and Golda Meir died.

In the news in August forty years ago: gunmen opened fire on an Israeli El Al airline bus in London, the world's first test tube baby Louise Brown's birth still obsessed the tabloids, the first balloon successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and there was mass speculation over whether the incumbent PM Jim Callaghan was going to call a snap election in the autumn (he didn't, and lost spectacularly to Maggie Thatcher the following year). In UK cinemas: Revenge of the Pink Panther, Thank God It's Friday. On telly: Seaside Special, Petrocelli, Captain Pugwash, and the 3,000th episode of Crossroads.

And in our charts this week in August 1978? Grease fever was upon us, despite the fact the film was yet to be released in cinemas (it arrived in September), as John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John You're The One That I Want had only just been toppled from the Number 1 slot after nine weeks by The Commodores' Three Times A Lady. Pushing hard for pole position were Darts, Boney M, Justin Hayward, 10CC, David Essex and Cerrone, and also present and correct were Clout, A Taste of Honey and City Boy. But one song that still stands out from the rest was this little novelty number...

Surely a stylistic influence on BritPop (if not yesterday's boys Oasis, certainly upon Blur and Pulp) - here's the lovely Graham Fellows... aka Jilted John!


I've been going out with a girl
Her name is Julie
But last night she said to me
When we were watching telly

(This is what she said)

She said listen John, I love you
But there's this bloke I fancy
I don't want to two time you
So it's the end for you and me

Who's this bloke I asked her
Goooooordon, she replied
Not THAT puff? I said dismayed
Yes but he's no puff she cried

(He's more of a man than you'll ever be)

Here we go, two three four

I was so upset that I cried
All the way to the chip shop

When I came out there was Gordon
Standing at the bus stop

(And guess who was with him? Yeah, Julie, and they were both laughing at me)

Oh, she is cruel and heartless
To pack me for Gordon
Just cos he's better looking than me
Just cos he's cool and trendy

But I know he's a moron, Gordon is a moron
Gordon is a moron, Gordon is a moron

Here we go, two three four

Oh she's a slag and he's a creep
She's a tart, he's very cheap
She is a slut, he thinks he's tough
She is a bitch, he is a puff
Yeah yeah, it's not fair
Yeah yeah, it's not fair

(I'm so upset)

I'm so upset, I'm so upset, yeah yeah

(I ought to smash his face in.)

(Yeah, but he's bigger than me. In't he?)

(I know, I'll get my mate Barry to hit him. He'd flatten him)

(Yeah but Barry's a mate of Gordon's in'e?)

(Oh well, I don't care)

I don't care
I don't care
Cause she's a slag and he's a creep
She's a tart, he's very cheap
She is a slut, he thinks he's tough...


FORTY YEARS ago? Sigh.

Wednesday 22 August 2018

Backbeat, the word was on the street


An indie band from the Britpop era have announced they are reuniting for a final massive argument.

Lupus Gazebo, who made 43 appearances on tapes that came free with the NME, released a statement on their website telling fans they would be in Sheffield this November for a comeback disagreement.

Lead singer Tom Booker said: “We’re not doing this for the money, we’re doing this for the fans. And also because Carl still hasn’t paid the rest of us back from when he crashed the van without insurance and I’m still massively pissed off about it.

“When I see him and the rest of those arseholes it’s going to be like we never went away. Get ready for some classic rows, including the one about eating spicy food on the tour bus and the one about Martin not sharing his coke even though he bought it with money from the band kitty.

“If it goes really well, who knows? Maybe we’ll get back in the studio and spend three weeks arguing over whether to shout ‘Uh yeah’ at the end of the second chorus.”
The Daily Mash

Of course.

PS the band in question is definitely not this lot...


Today is gonna be the day
That they're gonna throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realised what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now

Backbeat, the word was on the street
That the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before
But you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now

And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you
But I don't know how

Because maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall

Today was gonna be the day
But they'll never throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realised what you're not to do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now

And all the roads that lead you there were winding
And all the lights that light the way are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you
But I don't know how

I said maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall


Whatever that is.

Tuesday 21 August 2018

Thought for the Day



Welcome to my world...

Monday 20 August 2018

Is this a dream, am I here, where are you?



The weekend may once again have flown by, it may indeed be the dreaded start of another week in the benighted office - but it also happens to be the centenary today of the one-and-only Miss Jacqueline Susann, the author who almost single-handedly invented (and certainly popularised - she remains one of the world's biggest selling authors, ever) the genre of trashy, glossy, salacious and camp-as-tits "popular fiction" that covers all the subjects that readers really want to read about - sex and drugs and glamorous, doomed people living jet-set lifestyles beyond the reach of ordinary folk.

Obviously, I have featured the grande dame before - read my post on the occasion of her 90th [yes! this blog has been going a long time...].

Perhaps Miss Susann's most famous work is (of course) Valley of the Dolls, the theme tune for which was a big hit for none other than Miss Dionne Warwick - and, by way of a celebration on this Tacky Music Monday, here she is singing it.

But, wait! I hear you cry. That Bacharach and David Andre and Dory Previn number is wistful, mournful and sedate - what part of the regular "Monday pick-me-up music" criteria does this satisfy?

You wait till you see the second number in this clip [or skip to the 4:05 mark]...


Jacqueline Susann (20th August 1918 – 21st September 1974)

Sunday 19 August 2018

Musique dans le Jardin


A view up my back passage

Having a bit of a chill-out day today, mainly in the (sunny) extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers, after the fun and frolics of yesterday's "gathering of the clans" in Regent's Park - our annual "birthday picnic" [a little late celebration of mine, my sister's and Houseboy Alex's birthdays] - at which copious quantities of alcohol and odd food combinations were consumed, and we laughed, sang and entertained ourselves until we were thrown out at dusk (re-convening at the nearest Wetherspoons, of course, to continue the party).

In keeping with the prevailing mood, here is a little slice of electro-tinged [sampling Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Enola Gay throughout] loveliness, courtesy of the Thievery Corporation, replete with its very strange video...


Sublime.

Saturday 18 August 2018

Not on the menu at our picnic today...










[Our gang at Regent's Park - altogether a much more genteel affair. Ha ha.]

Friday 17 August 2018

Darlin', you hold the power









The world mourns her loss.

Ending this long, tiring first week back in work after my fortnight's break, the death of Aretha Franklin could well have put a damper on the party mood somewhat, were it not for the Queen of Soul's musical legacy - just a few moments listening to that voice, and the world's woes just slip away...

To welcome the weekend in our traditional manner, it is indeed to that voice I turn to get us in a bit of a party mood. In true Aretha style, just when everyone had written her off as a semi-retired diva, back she bounced in 1998 (with a little help from an artist I never rated previously, nor since, Lauren Hill) with a number that (although largely overlooked today) really pushed all the right buttons. I loved this...


Listen dear
I realize that you've been hurt
Deeply, because I've been there
But regardless to who, what, why, when, and where
We are all precious in his sight
And a rose still and always will be a rose

Doo doo doo doo doo doo mmm
Dooby dooby doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo mmm

There was a rose I knew, I met her once or twice before
She was a pretty sweet thing, not the least bit insecure
Then you came with your slick game and played with her youth
Ashamed of the way you lied, played with the truth, hey, hey

Mmm, she never knew what hit her
Steal her honey, then forget her
Now the rose is scorned
She wears her thorns tryin' to forget about you

'Cause a rose is still a rose
Baby, girl, you're still a flower
He can't leave you and then take you
Make you and then break you
Darlin', you hold the power

Now believe me when I tell you that I've been hurt myself
When he tells you that he loves you and sees nobody else
And now you're so tough tryin' to wear tight clothes and things
Tossin' and flossin', tryin' to fill the void heartbreak brings

Oh..oh..yeah
When she faces the mirror, yeah
She's cryin', you can't hear her
Now the rose is scorned
She wears her thorns tryin' to forget about you

'Cause a rose is still a rose
Baby, girl, you're still a flower
He can't lead you and then take you
Make you and then break you
Baby, girl, you hold the power

See a rose is still a rose
Baby, girl, you're still a flower
He can't lead you and then take you
Make you and then break you
Darlin', you hold the power

Let your life be in the sunshine
Not the darkness of your sorrow
You may see your all today
When you know it'll come tomorrow

Tough to be, but life ain't over
Just because your man is gone
Girl, love yourself enough to know
That without him your life goes on
Without him your life goes on
Without him your life goes on

'Cause a rose is still a rose
Baby, girl, you're still a flower
He can't lead you and then take you
Make you and then break you
Baby, girl, you hold the power

See a rose is still a rose
Baby, girl, you're still a flower
He can't lead you and then take you
Make you and then break you


Excellent - but, with the assistance of some very clever knob-twiddlers, it became a staple floor-filler in the clubs, too!


Have a good weekend, peeps - and Thank Disco Aretha It's Friday!

RIP Aretha Louise Franklin (25th March 1942 – 16th August 2018)

Thursday 16 August 2018

The undisputed Queen of Fuckin' Everything



Our Patron Saint Queen Madge has crossed that milestone so dreaded by many an artist famed for their looks and image - for the former Miss Ciccone blows out sixty candles on her cake today!

The lady herself, however, doesn't really seem to give a shit. She is, and remains, the most successful female music artist in history, and she certainly has never bowed to the opinions of others. [A true Leo!]

Indeed, many pretenders to her throne have come and gone in the four decades since that effervescent, be-ribboned, diminutive figure first leapt onto our screens (in an episode of The Tube with Jools Holland and the late Paula Yates) in January 1984...


...but whether "the virgin":


..."the cool club kid":


..."the controversialist":


..."the style-setter":


..."the slut":


..."the icon":


..."the witch":


..."the pop-satirist":


..."the workout video instructress":


..."the gay earth-mother":


...or "the goddess":


...Our Glorious Leader did it first, did it better, and will continue to rule all that she surveys!

Many happy returns, Madonna Louise Ciccone (born 16th August 1958)!


STOP PRESS:
08:10

A little birthday message from "Cher" - "Whooooooo?!!":

Wednesday 15 August 2018

Them that's got shall have



And so, farewell, then, jazz legend and actress Miss Morgana King [whose death was only announced today, five months after her passing]...



...and her magnificent 'do!



Here she/it is in action on US variety show The Hollywood Palace:


...and here she is again, in some very estimable vocal company indeed!


RIP Morgana King (born Maria Grazia Morgana Messina, 4th June 1930 – 22nd March 2018)

Tuesday 14 August 2018

You gotta wrap your fuzzy with a big red bow







It's the Feast of Our Lady of Sleazy New York Disco, otherwise referred to as Miss Ana Matronic's birthday! All hail.

Most famous, of course, as the frontwoman of one of our all-time fave bands here at Dolores Delargo Towers, the Scissor Sisters, it is quite sad that (just in time for her birthday party), her erstwhile partner-in-crime the gorgeous Jake Shears has confirmed that the Sisters' "hiaitus" [which has been going on for six years] is more-or-less a permanent break-up, after all. I'm wearing a black armband as we speak, sweetie...

Never mind, by way of a tribute to the great lady (and the sexy man) - here are the Sisters at their very best. It's my life's anthem.

All together, now!


When you're walkin' down the street
And the man tries to get your business
And the people that you meet
Want to open you up like Christmas
You gotta wrap your fuzzy with a big red bow
Ain't no sum bitch gonna treat me like a ho
I'm a classy honey kissy huggy lovey dovey ghetto princess

Cause you're filthy oooh, and I'm gorgeous
Cause you're filthy oooh, and I'm gorgeous
You're disgusting oooh, and you're nasty
And you can grab me oooh, cause you're nasty

When you're runnin' from a trick
And you trip on a hit of acid
You gotta work for the man
But your biggest moneymakers' flaccid
You gotta keep your shit together
With your feet on the ground
There ain't no one gonna listen
If you haven't made a sound
You're an acid junkie college flunky dirty puppy daddy bastard

Cause you're filthy oooh, and I'm gorgeous
Cause you're filthy oooh, and I'm gorgeous
You're disgusting oooh, and you're nasty
And you can grab me oooh, cause you're nasty

Cause you're filthy, oooh, and I'm gorgeous
Cause you're filthy, oooh, and I'm gorgeous
You're disgusting, oooh, and you're nasty
And you can grab me, oooh, cause you're nasty


Remarkably, given my utter adoration of that track since I first heard it way back in 2004 - unless my blog search facility or, indeed, I have gone completely tits-up, I don't believe I have ever featured it on this blog before!

To redress the balance somewhat, how about a mash-up of Scissor Sisters' magnum opus with an all-time classic from the Rocky Horror Picture Show...?

[2020 UPDATE: gone from the interwebs, unfortunately.]

Monday 13 August 2018

When you can feel light and gay, then you'll be lovely as a holiday



Oh gawd.

Time to shake off all the fun and the frolics of the past fortnight, and head back to the benighted environs of the office...

Eeek!

At the delightful Rick Skye Liza Live! show on Friday, he (of course) touched upon Miss Minnelli's eternal debt/tribute to the one-and-only Kay Thompson. So what better way to cheer us all up on this Tacky Music Monday than with another of the Grande Dame's utterly sublime routines (here tutoring the gamine Audrey Hepburn) from Funny Face..?


On how to be lovely
(On how to be lovely)
You got to be happy
(You got to be happy)
When you can feel
light and gay
Then you'll be lovely
as a holiday.

On how to be charming
(On how to be charming)
You got to be merry
(You got to be merry)
If only to weave a spell
And you'll be lovely
As a carousel too.

I (I know you can) show how.
It's (it's all in the) know-how.
And (and once you know) oh how
The world looks good to you
As it should to you.

On how to be lovely
(On how to be lovely)
You got to be jolly
(You got to be jolly)
When you can be fancy-free
And flash a smile that
Folks come flocking to see.

You'll be as lovely
As can be.


Not just at the moment. Give me few more mugs of coffee...

Sunday 12 August 2018

Lydia, oh Lydia



My last day of "freedom", and, disappointingly, the weather has stubbornly remained grey and grizzly - despite forecasts to the contrary.

Hey ho, let's escape somewhere gorgeous in the company of impossibly glamorous (but typically for so many '60s continental films, downright miserable) people; courtesy of the ever-wonderful Soft Tempo Lounge...


Ah, that's better.

[Music Ancora Un Po by Lydia MacDonald
Film: La Notte (1961)]

Saturday 11 August 2018

"Lady Peaceful", "Lady Happy"



For my birthday treat yesterday, a little coterie from our "gang" (Me, Madam Arcati, Crog, Hils, John-John, Jim and Paul) went along to our fave cabaret venue [described by our star turn as "the most fabulous of London's tube stations"] Crazy Coqs at Café Zedel - to see the triumphant return of an old "friend", the fantabulosa Rick Skye as "Slice O'Minnelli"!

As he helpfully reminded us when we met up after the show, it has been eight years since he last performed in the UK but, my word, he's lost none of the Bazazz for which we love him so!
Displaying Minnelli’s physical and vocal mannerisms along with a smashing voice, Skye has created an outrageous show, tracing Minnelli’s legendary career. This is an evening of new writing, comedy, characterisation and musical performance. - Musical Theatre Review
Adding to the repertoire of (fondly) piss-taking routines and numbers we loved at previous Slice O'Minnelli shows - see here - such as My Wheelie Chair, Don't Tell Mama and Too Quiet, Love, Rick worked into this new revue a brilliant "mash-up" of Kander and Ebb [or "Scrambled and Egg", as he put it] style music with Liza's famous (notorious?) cover of Beyonce's Single Ladies from Sex and the City II, Liza's famous collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys Losing My Mind, and a selection of Liza songs sung "straight" from a range of her shows/films, including Say Yes! from Liza With A Z, My Own Best Friend from Chicago, And The World Goes 'Round and the eponymous theme from New York, New York, and (of course) this one from Cabaret...


An absolute blinder of a show! I do hope [as Mr Skye hinted] that this is not the last time we see the best "Liza" in town in London!

Friday 10 August 2018

Birthday Princess



Born on this day (among many others): Henri Nestlé (who marketed the world's first milk chocolate), composer Alexander Glazunov, Miss Norma Shearer [“What do you expect? She sleeps with the boss.” - Joan Crawford], the "Queen of Technicolor" Rhonda Fleming (still with us; she blows out 95 candles today), (former Mr Debbie Reynolds then Mr Elizabeth Taylor) Eddie Fisher, Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss (former Lord Justice and auntie of Nigel Havers), the fantabulosa and much-missed Miss Kate O'Mara, the equally fab Miss Ronnie Spector (75 today), sex god Antonio Banderas...

...and ME!!

As of midnight tonight, I will officially be nearer 60 than 50... Gulp. To "celebrate" this fact, here's something rather appropriate from the charts this week in 1979:


Thank Disco It's my birthday Friday!

Thursday 9 August 2018

Flattery, indeed



Today is National Women's Day in South Africa.

One of that country's most famous exports (despite her having actually been born in Mumbai) was the late, great Juliet Prowse.

So let's use that excuse to cheer ourselves up, as we mourn the demise of the Great British Heatwave of 2018 (it's been pissing down today, and the temperatures are more or less back to normal for this time of year), with a clip of the great lady herself, dancing with the eternally sexy Sal Mineo!


Any spurious and convoluted excuse to feature gyrating sexy young totty? Moi?

Of course.

Wednesday 8 August 2018

While you were away...









We had a fabulous five days in Amsterdam, and we are still recovering after the hectic Gay Pride partying - but what did we miss while we were away?

Not a lot, truth be told.

It's no great surprise - since we experienced extremely hot and sweaty temperatures in the 'Dam - that the rest of Europe has also been experiencing continuing heatwave conditions, not least the overheating rivers of Switzerland, pugs getting heatstroke, bananas ripening in Nottingham, and a shortage of fans across the UK; we also missed Boris Johnson's much-criticised opinion on burkas and the furore it has caused among the liberal elite; we (of course) ignored the latest ranting Tw*tter tirades of Trump against China and Iran; and we missed the announcement of the the death of stalwart of 80s-90s children's TV in the UK Barry Chuckle [I always found the Chuckle Brothers disturbingly creepy, but hey ho].

We missed the 118th anniversary of the birth of HM The Queen Mother, what would have been the 90th birthday of Andy Warhol, and the 80th birthday of national treasure Sir Terry Wogan; as well as the birthdays of some living legends, such as the last of the crooners Tony Bennett (92), Dame Barbara Windsor (81), our Patron Saint of Copla Andaluza Isabel Pantoja (62) and Geri Halliwell (now Horner, 46)...

...and speaking of La Pantoja:


As the Dutch might say, Lekker!

Tuesday 7 August 2018

Pak alles wat je kan!


Hanging out with Cher outside Amstel 54 (formerly known as the Amstel Taveerne)

Darlings! We're back from the delights of the beautiful city of Amsterdam - a little tired, but basking in the memories of a most fantastic holiday indeed: Gay Pride on the canal, FEBO, street parties, sleaze, fizzy lager, oompah music, gorgeous-and-very-very-tall totty galore, Van Dobbens broodje, genever shots, ticker-tape-confetti cannons, wonky buildings, more fizzy lager, sing-a-longs-in-a-language-we-don't-understand, and everything...

...and speaking of sing-a-longs, I always delight in bringing back a little something for your listening pleasure - so, from this visit, this incredibly catchy number from (the rather cute) Andre Hazes Jr. is absolutely the perfect thing; it's a song that went down a storm at every party event we stumbled into!


Leef! Alsof het je laatste dag is
Leef! Alsof de morgen niet bestaat
Leef! Alsof het nooit echt af is
Leef! Pak alles wat je kan...

En ga-a-a-a, a-a-a-a
Pak alles wat je kan
En ga-a-a-a, a-a-a-a
Ga
Pak alles wat je kan!


Which translates as:

Live! As if it is your last day
Live! As if the morning doesn't exist
Live! As if it's never really over
Live! Grab everything you can...

And g-o-o-o-o, o-o-o-o
Grab everything you can
And g-o-o-o-o, o-o-o-o
Go
Grab everything you can!


...which just about sums our long weekend up, really, dear reader!

Thursday 2 August 2018

Mijn Mokums paradijs



By the time you read this, dear reader, we will be heading off to the joys of our favourite city (after London, of course), Amsterdam for their fantabulosa Gay Pride!

All together now...


Geef mij maar Amsterdam
Dat is mooier dan Parijs
Geef mij maar Amsterdam
Mijn Mokums paradijs


See you next week, dear chums!

Wednesday 1 August 2018

The Queen's Balls



On the eve of our trip to Amsterdam, the countdown continues - with a really weird one!

I stumbled across this completely by accident last night, and, in a moment of madness just had to share it with you, dear reader...


There are no words. In Dutch, or otherwise.