Of Monty, Dame Julie, Chic, that fez, and Klaus Nomi

Another snippets post today, dear reader:

• Spring season news: Gardeners World is back on BBC2! More Monty Don, Ned, Adam Frost, Frances Tophill, Carol Klein, Sue Kent and all that floral loveliness, just in time for the Spring equnox! All's well with the world... We're in heaven.
• It's been on telly every Xmas ever since news: It is remarkably 60 years this month since that all-time classic film The Sound of Music had its premieres in the US and the UK. We know every word of dialogue, every song, and we'll still settle down afer too much sherry and watch it all over again! And, of course, cheer that line...
• A "fusion food too far"?: A pie with a filling made of spicy doner kebab meat has has been named Supreme Champion at the British Pie Awards 2025. It looks disgusting! [But, secretly, we all want to try one. Just once.]
• Genius appraisal news: Nile Rodgers’ 20 greatest tracks - ranked, according to Alex Petridis in The Guardian. Agree with the rankings or not, everything here is a classic...
• Premature condolences news: A football team in Bulgaria held a minute's silence for one of their former players before a match - but the poor sod was actually still alive! Oops.

• "Just Like That!" news: One of the revered comedy magician Tommy Cooper's trademark fezzes has sold for £7,000 - twice its sale estimate - at an auction of memorabilia of the late "national treasure".
• RIPs news: Over the last week, we've bid sad farewells to drag royalty Maisie Trollette, to that stalwart of fave "Twisted Disco" songs Bob Rivers, to the last surviving pilot from the Battle of Britain John "Paddy" Hemingway (aged 105), and to singer Andrea Neuenhofen aka "AnNa R.". Who? I hear you ask...

  ...well, by sheer coincidence while researching the wild'n'wacky world of Nina Hagen for yesterday's birthday tribute post, I came across a collaboration between the great lady and fellow German band Rosenstolz, of which AnNa R. [whose death, coincidentally, was announced on the same day I discovered her/them] was lead singer. I didn't feature it, but I discovered that the band also did an even more magnificent team-up [which was released at the same time, as a double-A-side single] that I just had to play! Klaus Nomi would be pleased...

Rosenstolz feat. Marc Almond - Total Eclipse

And the weather? It's been chilly this week, but from tomorrow the outlook is much more Spring-like. Which is appropriate.

Wunderbar!

Only a week late [and somewhat shame-facedly, after all that build-up of "more to come" that I gave her a few weeks ago!]...

...I feel we really need to celebrate the fact that Our Patron Saint of Crazy, Fraulein Nina Hagen blew out 70 candles on her cake last week! (Gulp!)

Our Nina is a remarkable woman of many talents, and since she first emerged into the limelight - across of the ruins of the Berlin Wall that had once divided her birthplace in the East from the rest of the world - she has certainly embraced a whole range of genres. All in her inimitible and unique style, of course!

Here she is in her full-on Goth-Punk heyday in 1982:

Nina Hagen - Smack Jack

...here, covering a Glam Rock classic originally by Sweet:

Nina Hagen - Ballroom Blitz [live in Rio]

...from Glam to glamorous, here's her tribute to wartime star Zarah Leander:

Nina Hagen - Wunderbar

...and she also had a rather brilliant foray into House music:

Adamski Featuring Nina Hagen - Get Your Body

...but whoever thought she would turn a Doris Day number into a dance track? She did, obviously!

Nina Hagen - Pillow Talk

...and she even fronted her very own Big Band:

Nina Hagen & Leipzig Big Band - Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

To finish - and to top it all - here is one of my favourite clips of the lady, surprisingly duetting with none other than that beloved purveyor of multilingual smoothness Miss Nana Mouskouri! When worlds collide, indeed...

Nina Hagen and Nana Mouskouri - Lili Marlene

There is no-one quite like Catharina "Nina" Hagen (born 11th March 1955).

All hail!

Sláinte!

Happy Paddy's Day to all our Irish chums!

It is, however, also return-to-work day, so none of "the black stuff" nor "the amber nectar" for us, more's the pity...

Ah, well - on this Tacky Music Monday, I have a perfect antidote to all that gloom. Ireland's finest "crazy chicken twins" Jedward!

Jedward - Lipstick

[Yes, I would. Both at the same time.]

Have a good week, dear reader - and:

“May your glass be ever full. May the roof over your head be always strong. And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.”

You look like you're lots of fun

Our Cymbidium orchid is putting on another stunning show this year!

I've had another busy weekend in the garden, despite the chilly wind - two overgrown pots of pink phlox dug out, split up and the remaining bits planted up into one big pot, and a similar job done on the Salvia × jamensis "Nachtvlinder" (this time, one pot split between two new ones), plus a bit more pottering and pruning besides. Much more yet to do, but I think that'll suffice for one weekend!

Meanwhile - you know when you're getting old when you realise...

... that this faboo choon was actually Number One in our charts 40 years ago this week! Gulp.

Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)

And, to think - just last week we were stood in awe before one of the frock coats he wore around the time of this video...

Beware...

...The Idas of March!

[L-r: Ida Barr, Ida Lupino, Ida Clough]

Carry On Cleo

"Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!"

Ides of March on Wikipedia

[In case you have a feeling of deja vu, dear reader, this has become a bit of a tradition - see here and here. Too good not to repeat, methinks...]

Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air

A long, grey, chilly week shivers to its conclusion - and it's time to celebrate!

In fact, let's make it a double celebration, for yesterday was the 85th birthday of the simply faboo Miss Candi Staton, one of the last presiding "Queens of Disco" -

Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free

- and, indeed, of House!

Source ft. Candi Staton - You Got The Love

Thank Disco Candi It's Friday - and have a great weekend, dear reader!

Foiled!

'Sorry, do you mean al-you-min-ee-um?' Britain asks US

The UK has admitted it has never heard of the ‘Aloo-min-um’ the US is supposedly imposing a 25 per cent tariff on.

The unknown substance has been grouped together with steel, suggesting that it is a metal of some kind, but extensive searches have not found anything answering to the unusual name.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “A loo is a toilet. So perhaps they’re referring to some kind of ‘loo minimum’.

“But we don’t even export toilets to the US, because they require reinforcing with titanium to accommodate their weightier citizens. Does Donald Trump want a loo? We can send him a loo. I’d imagine he’s already got one.

“Aloo-min-um. It sounds almost musical, like a cross between ‘allelujah’, ‘luminous’ and ’minim’. Perhaps it’s some form of orchestral supply item? Maybe the New York Philharmonic is gasping for it so they can perform a Gershwin season.

“Either way we’ve no clue what it is, so we’ll have to hope the tariff lasts longer than 48 hours then see if we can spot it on the export documents. Aloo-min-um. It’s fun to say!”

He added: “Aluminium? Can’t be that. The spelling’s completely different.”

The Daily Mash

Of course.

Definitely not "homogenised and boring"!

“Dress as though your life depends on it or don’t bother!”

That was the mantra of the ultimate dressing-up queen, Leigh Bowery - and it was he and his circle of misfits and remarkable creatives around which the simply faboo exhibition Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London [that Our Sal, Hils, Crog, Madam Acarti and I trolled off to see at Zandra Rhodes' Fashion & Textile Museum in Bermondsey on Sunday afternoon] revolved.

With most of us being true "children of the '80s", it was practically compulsory!

Although "my era" - the New Romantics of the early '80s, epitomised by the likes of Steve Strange, Spandau Ballet, Marc Almond/Soft Cell, Human League, Duran Duran and Depeche Mode - had led the way, and peaked, a little earlier than when Leigh Bowery's Taboo club and all that came with it were scandalising the streets and the tabloids alike, the style, the home-made, vintage, recycled "looks" on show were all-too-familiar. And I loved it!

From TimeOut:

Taboo, the short-lived nightclub on a corner of Leicester Square, swiftly became a home for Leigh and other noted creatives – like Boy George, John Galliano and Pam Hogg – to dance, indulge and, most importantly, dress up. The dance floor is replicated next door, a crowd of mannequins dressed in all manner of get-ups posing under one glittering disco ball. There are some terrific clothes here, stuff that stops you in your tracks because it is so bizarre or inventive (it’s hard to miss David Cabaret’s pin-stripped bulbous catsuit, also shown in a blown-up photograph of him wearing it on a Wednesday night Heaven at the end of the show). You’ll wonder how our wardrobes all got so homogenised and boring.

But it’s not just a case of ‘ooh-ing’ and ‘ah-ing’ at the clothes. What this exhibition does so well is situate the pieces in the wider context of London as a global creative hotspot. A sprawling timeline sketches out the socio-economic context, detailing how the availability of squat housing coupled with free higher education and market culture helped to pave the way for the creativity of the decade, against the backdrop of Thatcher’s rise to power and the introduction of Clause 28. Not yet constrained by capitalist pressures, these creatives could experiment, innovate, be silly and make clothes purely for their own pleasure.

The whole thing was simply boggling - the fact that the majority of items on show weren't behind glass, allowing a really close view of original clothes not just worn by the clubbers themselves, not just those designed, made and sold by designers such as Pam Hogg, Rachel Auburn, BodyMap, Red or Dead, John Galliano and Stephen Linard (largely at Kensington Market), but also outfits that were worn and popularised by the likes of Neneh Cherry, Kim Wilde, Martin Fry of ABC, Pete Burns of Dead Or Alive, Marc Almond, Lana Pellay, Maggie De Monde of Scarlet Fantastic, Alannah Currie of Thompson Twins, Mark Moore of S-Express, Bros and (of course) Boy George!

It took co-curator Martin Green (himself a former club kid) two years to track down the clothes for the exhibition.

This was a brilliantly dazzling show of creativity [sometimes poignant, given that all this hedonism took place just as the AIDS era was making a massive impact upon the gay scene at the time; indeed many of the labels crediting the visionaries behind the designs revealed the salutary information that many of them died in their early 30s, Leigh Bowery among them] that was not only an eye-opener, but gave me (and our gang) a shudder of nostalgic memories.

I'm incredibly happy we got to see this before it closed!

...and, speaking of Taboo, here's one of its regulars with his/her one big hit, filmed at that very club:

Lana Pellay - Pistol In My Pocket

[click any pic to embiggen]

What the Hell?

We ask you: is Britain fucking trying to lose Eurovision?

After a narrow escape with Sam Ryder, is the UK choosing our Eurovision entry so we fail and dodge the expense of hosting its humiliating spectacle?

Hannah Tomlinson, entomologist: “The group we’ve chosen reached the quarter-finals of 'The Voice' in 2019. That is by definition the cream of Britain’s musical talent.”

Denys Finch Hatton, barrister: “67 years of flamboyant freaks with light-up nipples singing upside down in a flaming longship winning, and we enter a girl group. Nul points in the bag.”

Oliver O’Connor, town crier: “Remember that year we almost sent them Katie Price seven months pregnant in a pink PVC catsuit? In retrospect it was obvious we’d Brexit.”

Will McKay, theatrical dresser: “Where’s it being held? Switzerland. Neutral. So it would seem the organisers of Eurovision knew continent-wide war was coming.”

Steven Malley, roofer: “But nobody will vote for us anyway, because everyone hates us. We’re Europe’s Millwall.”

The Daily Mash

Of course.

But I think I'll let you, dear reader, be the judge...

Remember Monday - What The Hell Just Happened? [UK entry, Eurovision Song Contest 2025]

Thoughts?

Waiters?* In those outfits?

Back to the grind again...

Never mind, eh? As long as we have our Patron Saint of "if a thing's worth doing, it's worth over-doing" Señorita Sara Montiel - whose birthday it would have been today - and her "homosexuales seguridad" on a Tacky Music Monday, all's well with the world...

Sara Montiel - Las Camareras

Have a good week, dear reader.

[* "Las Camareras" - "waiters" (or, more accurately "waitresses", so we know what role those safety gays really play!) in Spanish]

Cccan't You See?

On another beautiful Spring day, "our gang" (well, Madam Acarti, Hils, Crog, Our Sal and I, anyhow) have been wallowing in the memories, styles, sounds and images of an incredible era five decades ago - at the marvellous Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London exhibition at the Fashion & Textiles Museum in Bermondsey [on its last day, indeed]!

More on that later, no doubt...

...meanwhile, here's one of the songs that was playing as we wandered, eyes agape at the spectacular array of weird and wonderful outfits on display:

Vicious Pink - Cccan't You See

It's all such a long, long time ago... Sob.

Pack up your rubber duck, I'd like to wish you luck

I wish he'd been around to - ahem - help!

Another busy day in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers - I gave the bench a second coat of teak oil (after Madam Arcati had scrubbed all the algae off and given in a first coat on his day off on Monday), and more hardy geraniums and our favourite blue phlox have been split up and repotted - and all day it was so sunny and warm, it might have been early May!

Meanwhile...

On this International Women's Day, sharing a birthday are a raft of impressive women - including Cyd Charisse, "Little" Peggy March, Lynn Redgrave, Claire Trevor, Harriet Samuel (Victorian entrepreneur behind one of the UK's biggest jewellers, H. Samuel), Beatrice "Tilly" Shilling (pioneering British motorbike racer and aeronautical engineeer during WWII), Louise Beavers (prominent African-American actress, co-star in Imitation of Life)...

...and Carole Bayer Sager!

Here's the lady herself (with a sort-of-appropriate number):

Carole Bayer Sager - Moving Out Today

Love it!

He Can't Find Love?! *

Wheeee!

Yessss! Another weekend's in sight, and it's a blessed relief, indeed.

Let's get the party started - with a bit of Turkish Delight [and birthday boy - he's 45 years old today!] worth breaking your Lenten/Ramadan fast for, dear reader!

As I said the first time I featured him: "Mr Boz is evidently Turkey's answer to Ricky Martin. Like 'Our Favourite Latino' I imagine he probably takes it up the pooper, too."

I'm still imagining that. A lot.

Murat Boz - Aşkı Bulamam Ben

Thank Disco Turkey It's Friday!

Have a great weekend, dear reader!

[*"Aşkı Bulamam Ben" = "I Can't Find Love" in Turkish]

World Book Day

The adaptation is on your TV screens as we speak.

Tiddy oggy! *

Happy Saint Piran's Day, dear reader! "Saint Who?", I hear you ask...

Patron Saint of Pasties Cornwall - land of legends such as King Arthur and his court (supposed occupants of Tintagel Castle), "Jack the Giant Killer", piskies, mermaids, Tristan and Isolde, pirates and ghost ships - Piran was allegedly responsible for several miracles. Not only did he supposedly survive being tied to a millstone by the Irish and cast into the sea, but also "discovered tin" [the county's greatest export during the boom years of the Industrial Revolution], when a stone on his fire leaked a white liquid in the shape of a cross. Of course.

Leaving all that stuff aside, among Cornwall's "great and good", including Richard Trevithick (inventor of the world's first working railway steam locomotive), Daphne du Maurier (author of the books behind films such as Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, The Birds and Don't Look Now), Susan Penhaligon, Rory McGrath, Winston Graham (author of Poldark), Kristin Scott Thomas, Humphry Davy (inventor of the mining safety "Davy Lamp") and Richard D James (aka Aphex Twin)...

... there is (surprisingly) one Michael John Kells "Mick" Fleetwood - co-founder of Fleetwood Mac! By way of a celebration, of all that legendary band's repertoire [I like a lot of their stuff, needless to say, but they have never been top of my list, to be honest - I must be just about the only person of a certain generation who has never had Rumours in their collection], this is my ultimate fave:

Fleetwood Mac - Tusk

St Piran's day on Wikipedia

[" tiddy oggy" = a type of pasty from Cornwall]

Of butlers, cucumbers, pies, Oscars and Dame Shirl

RIP, Jack Vettriano, prints of whose works, incuding "The Singing Butler" [above], are some of the best-selling in British history.

Another snippets post today, dear reader:

• Oscars news: The culmination of "the back-slapping season" has come and gone, and yet again a load of awards went to people we don't know or care about, and to a clutch of films I have not, and will never see. Yawn.
• More art news: A Brueghel miniature painting has been rediscovered, 50 years after it was stolen.

• Weirdest carnival ever? In La Paz, Bolivia, there is an annual cucumber parade (Farándula de los Pepinos) in the carnival season leading up to Mardi Gras (which is today). I wouldn't want that with my pancakes!
• Thick as a plank news: An 18-year-old woman in Florida was arrested after vandalising the car of her ex-boyfriend's neighbour, rather than his. And Americans wonder why we sneer at their education system?
• Happy British Pie Week! Yes, unbelievably, the beloved comfort food of varying quality meat encased in pastry does indeed have its own "awareness week". Who am I to argue? Yum, yum.
• And finally: Happy 80th birthday today to Dieter Meier, brainchild behind the Swiss oddball synth pioneers Yello! By way of a tribute, these masterpieces...

Yello - The Race

Yello - Oh Yeah

...and one of my all-time favourite songs, ever!

Yello featuring Shirley Bassey - The Rhythm Divine

Utter perfection.

And the weather? Spring, Spring, Spring!!

Oh, don't throw your past away, you might need it some rainy day

The Spring sun, low in the sky, is indeed startling on the eyes. However, the joy it brings is somewhat marred by the prospect that another week of drudgery in the office has begun.

Hey ho. On this Tacky Music Monday, for no other reason whatosever than it/he's a joy to watch, how about a bit of Hugh Jackman to warm the cockles?

Imagine...

Hugh Jackman - Everything Old Is New Again [The Boy from OZ]

Oh, how I wish we'd ever had the chance to see this show!

Have a good week, dear reader.

Weekenders on our own, it's such fun

Crocus explosion!

Another glorious sunny day in the garden, and things are looking better all the time. Madam Arcati was up far earlier than I and sorted out the pile of old pots that we had plonked under one of the benches, and swept up the clag that had accumulated at that end of the garden. I got some more repotting and pruning done, a task that's always satisfying. Four bin bags filled with old compost, leaves, weeds and crud later, and we're pleased with the results!

Incidentally, today would have been the birthday of the marvellous Lou Reed, so I think this one is most appropriate for our "Sunday Music" today, don't you?

Lou Reed, David Bowie and friends - Perfect Day [original BBC Children in Need song, 1997]

Fuck! That faboo ensemble version is 28 years old!
[I see dead people...]

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

Our daffs have been glowing in the sunshine today!

Happy Saint David's Day, dear reader!

It's been a beautiful day for the celebration of all things Welsh - and floral - and I have spent it fruitfully in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers. I've dug out and repotted a big Thalictrum and two hardy geraniums, pruned back a few more ferns, and redone the window box that had been ripped out and scattered everywhere by a bastard fox, pottering and tidying as I went along. Now I'm aching - but happy.

Speaking of things to cheer one's spirits - how about a bit [and I know which bit I'd have liked when he still looked like that!] of Sir Tom Jones, Tom Jones? Os gwelwch yn dda!

Tom Jones- Help Yourself

Fab-las!

Speaking of all things Welsh - "What's occurring?"

Gavin & Stacey: The Best of Nessa

Well lush.