Feel the heat and let it flow

It's the end of another week, dear reader, and heavens! It's been a hot-and-sticky one...

The heatwave continues today, with an extension of the "red alert, only travel if necessary" message from government - but, to be honest, I haven't seen a huge difference in the number of people commuting, or just travelling, through it all in spite of all the dire warnings. We Brits are more resilient than the tabloids (and our "lords-and-masters" in Parliament)  like to think we are, evidently!

As we sweat our way to the weekend, I'm enjoying this little run of "compare-the-decade" posts [here's 1976, and yesterday it was 1986] - so let's leap one more decade to 1996!

This week in June thirty years ago, there wasn't anything more than "average temperatures for the time of year", so nothing comparable at all to today. There was (yet again), however, a load of football shite preoccupying the masses, with the European Cup.

This might explain the fact that among other horrible occupants cluttering our charts [such as the godawful Fugees' massacre of Killing Me Softly at #1, Slime Dion, Mariah-fucking-Carey and Peter Andre] there were two "anthems" to that sport [including the first appearance of Three Lions by Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds] also "bed-blocking" the higher echelons.

Thank heavens, therefore, for this, which held its own for weeks amongst the detritus, and demonstrated that the 90s was, more than anything else, the Decade of Dance!

Thank Disco Eurodance It's Friday!

Livin' Joy - Don't Stop Movin'

You can do anything that you want to do
With your mind body and soul
Do it, prove it to yourself and say
I want (I want)
I will (I will)
I can do anything
It's a difficult world and you got to prove
That you're ready and you can do it
Nothing in this world can stop you
I know I can I will fulfil my dreams

Don't stop movin'
Keep it up
Keep on movin' get it right
Yeah you've got to get it right
Oh yeah oh
Don't stop movin'
I it's your life
Keep on movin' get it right
Yeah you've got to get it right

You can be mystical magical
Physically phenomenal
Good to go
Not slow
Feel the heat and let it flow

You've got to get it right

Have a fab weekend, peeps! Keep cool.

They drive an ice-cream van

Sharing the day with another panoply of "names" including Zizi Jeanmaire, William Randolph Hearst, Sir Thomas Beecham, Duke Ellington, Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, Leslie Jordan, Jeremy Thorpe, Uma Thurman, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Celeste Holm, Emperor Hirohito, Tammi Terrell, Andre Agassi, Lonnie Donegan, April Stevens, Baron Jacob Rothschild, Toots Thielemans, Professor Heinz Wolff, conductor Zubin Mehta (who is 90), Willie Nelson, Tommy James of The Shondells, Rod McKuen, Jerry Seinfeld, Jo O'Meara of S-Club 7 and - erm - Bernie Madoff...

...it's Bill Drummond's birthday today. Who? I hear you ask...

He was, of course, the co-founder of that most wonderfully loopy of late 80s/early 90s electro rave combos, The KLF!

I need no more perfect excuse (as if I would need one) to play this, their most completely off-the-wall hit that resurrected the career of a forgotten diva. I love it!

The KLF and Tammy Wynette - Justified and Ancient (Stand By The JAMs)

There never was anything like it before, and I very much doubt there'll ever be anything like it again.

Of Bowie, big cats, Cool Britannia, Baranski, Benidorm, Osmond brother, bonking blockade, Beethoven, Bond and the Black Dyke Band

Immerse yourself...

Another snippets post today, dear reader:

• God news: Everything these days seems to be "an immersive experience" - dinosaurs, the Titanic, numerous Egyptian kings and queens, the Vikings - and now it's David Bowie's turn! You’re Not Alone [pictured above] features an hour-long 360-degree film directed by Mark Grimmer – lead designer for the V&A’s blockbusting 2013 exhibition David Bowie Is – and is showing at London’s “immersive exhibition space” Lightroom. The blurb on its website reads: "Featuring the artist as its sole voice, a story composed from hundreds of interviews spanning a five-decade-long career at the cutting edge of art and culture sees Bowie invite you into his way of thinking like never before." We'll be the judge of that!
• "Here, kitty, kitty" news: The audience at a circus in Rostov, Russia got more than they bargained for when a ginormous Bengal tiger took advantage as a barrier collapsed, leapt out into the auditorium and bolted for the door. Without eating any children. More's the pity.

[Photo: the fabulous IanVisits blog; click any pic to embiggen]

• "Cool Britannia" news: A new free exhibition 1996: A celebration of the wildest year of Britain’s wildest decade - 30 years on promises to bring to life the spirit of the year when Britpop, Girl Power and superstar DJ club nights were at their imperial height, with outfits worn by The Spice Girls [including Geri's Union Jack boots, above], previously unseen Oasis memorabilia, personal items owned by legendary record producers and DJs Paul Oakenfold, Dave Pearce and Judge Jules, and the art, fashion, sport, and politics of that so-called "Cool Britannia" era. It runs from 16 April to 19 September 2026 at the City of London Corporation’s Barbican Music Library. "But don't look back in anger, I heard you say..."
• Gay icon(s) news: The fantabulosa Christine Baranski (and the equally faboo Richard E Grant) are set to star in a revival of Noel Coward's Hay Fever at Wyndham’s Theatre (from 22nd September)! Miss Baranski's debut on the West End stage, apparently [although we did see her at the Royal Albert Hall in Follies back in 2015, but that doesn't count]...

• RIP, Elsie Kelly aka "Noreen" in Benidorm...

• ...and Alan Osmond, eldest of the singing brothers.
• Safe sex shortage news: Thanks to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and a shortage of raw materials, the price of condoms is set to rocket by 30%!
• Culture with a capital "K" news: This year's BBC Proms season programme has been announced - with 86 Proms across eight weeks, 20 international ensembles, 41 orchestras and choirs from across the UK, 42 Proms appearances from the BBC’s own orchestras and choirs, 20 premieres including 17 BBC commissions and co-commissions, and 14 Proms across the UK including residencies at Bristol Beacon and the Glasshouse International Centre for Music (Gateshead), and the first ever Prom in Mold, North Wales; highlights include the Proms debuts of The New York Met Orchestra, the Spanish National Orchestra and the Mahler Academy Orchestra, a Prog Rock Prom, an evening with Evelyn Glennie, a celebration of soul legend Marvin Gaye, a brass band Prom with the Black Dyke Band, and a Prom featuring iconic music from the James Bond films titled "Bond and Beyond". Phew!

• And finally: Happy St George's Day to our English chums!

Pull that string! [click to embiggen]

And the weather? Beautiful and sunny, but still a chilly wind.

Bring us back together

Among a raft of fellow celebrants today, including Beatles impresario Sir George Martin (whose centenary it is), Mel Gibson (70), J.R.R. Tolkien, John Paul Jones, Victoria Principal, Anna May Wong, John Thaw, Ray Milland, Michael Schumacher, Sergio Leone, Victor Borge, ZaSu Pitts, Stephen Stills and Florence Pugh, it's Thomas Bangalter's birthday...

Who? I hear you ask.

He's probably most famous as one of "the men beneath the helmets", one half of the groundbreaking electro duo Daft Punk, but he was also responsible for this classic:

Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You

Ah, happy memories...

...from - gulp - 28 years ago!

Deep in my soul, I've got nothing to hide

It's almost that time - and after a busy week, I have never needed a weekend so much...

Time for a party, and who better to provide it than this Eurodance combo? Thank Disco It's Friday!

Strike - My Love Is For Real

In case you're wondering, dear reader - here is the "original" source of that 90s mega-dance-hit, Miss Abdul's version (with our Patron Saint of Yemenites Ofra Haza):

Paula Abdul feat. Ofra Haza - My Love Is For Real

Have a great weekend, dear reader!

If you wanna have a good time

It's a conga line!

We're heading off tonight for a bit of culture (with a capital "K"), as a little gang of us have booked tickets for Mozart's The Magic Flute at The Royal Opera House, no less!

Meanwhile, it's All Hallows Day today, also known as All Saints...

...so let's have some appropriate music for the occasion, shall we?

All Saints - I Know Where It's At

Fuck. That song is 28 years old! It's the same age as Sydney Sweeney, Max Verstappen, Zara Larsson, Jacob Elordi, Raye and Channel 5...

I CAN stand it today, actually...

Clogs!!

...because at 4pm today, I will officially be on holiday - and won't be returning to the benighted office until September. Yay!

A bit late this year for our annual pilgrimage to our beloved Amsterdam (my birthday having passed last weekend, when we are usually there) - but there's a very good reason.

We fly out next Wednesday, for several event-filled days of fun and merriment as the 'Dam celebrates its 750th birthday - with the Grachtenfestival, the Tall Ships, a viewing platform on the roof of the Nieuwe Kerk, food festivals and much more besides!

To kick off the party mood, how about one of the cheesiest of cheesy Dutch Eurodance acts? As Mr DeVice commented last time I posted this, "Where on earth was that video shot - outside Fawlty Towers??"

Twenty 4 Seven feat. Captain Hollywood - I Can't Stand It

Thank Disco Eurodance It's Friday!

Have a great weeekend, folks!

I'm not sure, but I think he luvs his baby

I'm back, from outta space... [Well, Portsmouth, actually - on "family duties" with Mother.]

With my birthday looming this Sunday (and it was my sister's last weekend), tomorrow is a "gathering of the clans" in Regent's Park - for the Grand Annual Picnic! And for once, the weather looks utterly perfect.

With all that in mind - despite my weary bones after the past couple of days and all that travel - it's time to party!

Can it really be thirty years this month since this absolute classic choon was firing up our dancefloors? How time flies. Thank Disco Ibiza House It's Friday!

The Original - I Luv U Baby

I smell dry ice...

Have a good weekend, dear reader!

Sweet!

Yes! The weekend's almost here - so it's time to let our hair down...

With the sad news that DJ Eamon Downes has departed, much too soon, for the Great Rave Tent in the Sky - what better way to wave goodbye to another tedious week than with this, his most famous hit? An irresistible choon from the "Decade of Dance"...

Thank Disco Old-Skool It's Friday!

Liquid - Sweet Harmony

Ravin'! We're ravin'!
[We go to Wetherspoons, have a few drinks and a burger and go home, more like.]

Have a great weekend, peeps!

Happiness is just around the corner

The countdown's almost over, dear reader - it's Gay Pride tomorrow! We're expecting the boys from Essex this evening, who are staying over for the festivities, so this evening will be a takeaway, loads of booze and a bit of a "dress rehearsal" of our outfits, no doubt.

To get us in the mood, here's a simply faboo kitschy camp number that's guaranteed to get the party started...

Thank Disco It's Gay Xmas Eve Friday!

Vengaboys - We Like to Party! (The Vengabus)

Have a fantabulosa Pride weekend, dear reader!

Push it!

Now, that's what I call a party! [The send-off for our beloved Lady Shaston] - which made the news here and here, among others

After an unusual, but still taxing, week - three out of five days were taken up by all-day training, which means I've been stuck in our living-room doing work-related stuff for far more time than I would like [I'm not a "work-from-home sort of person"; I never did so before the pandemic lockdowns, and I have largely avoided doing ever since] - the weekend is looming. And it's forecast to be the hottest so far this year!

We need to get ourselves in the party mood, dear reader - and what better way than with a dance classic, from another genius who has recently departed for Fabulon, DJ/producer/singer John Reid? If the name is unfamiliar, his band's biggest hit certainly won't be...

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Nightcrawlers - Push The Feeling On

That song is (scarily) thirty years old - and still no-one has a clue what he's singing.

Have a great weekend, dear reader! Wear sunscreen.

She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge

Another view up my back passage. I'm spoiling you, dear reader.

It's the start of a three-day Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK - and true to form, the Piccadilly Line (our nearest Tube) is not running. Again.

That's a bit of a bugger, as I am heading to Leicester Square to meet up with fellow "Marvel-geek" John-John to go and see the latest MCU blockbuster Thunderbolts* [the asterix is intentional], so my journey is going to be slightly convoluted (but manageable)...

Meanwhile... a bit of news has caused consternation among people who don't yet believe they're actually getting older - this classic song is thirty years old this week! Gulp. To me, it's timeless...

Pulp - Common People

...as is the William Shatner version, but that's a whole different subject altogether...

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!

You got to know that that will never do

Yes, dear reader, "St. Hallmark's Day" is upon us once again. The shops have been groaning under the strain of pink-and-red-themed items - cards, balloons, flowers, chocolates, bubbly; even a prawn medley (how seductive!) - since before our holiday, in the hope that the cash registers will be pinging as lovelorn chavs queue to buy gifts for their beau. Bleurrcchh! All this commercialisation makes me sick.

Never mind, eh? I may still be on leave, but as is traditional at the end of any week [and this is indeed the last weekend for me before the daily grind begins all over again], it's time to start planning that party!

Here's something - ahem - suitably romantic for the occasion:

Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Have a great one, folks!

It's where I wanna be, yeah

One way to work off all that chocolate, I suppose...

It does seem rather daft to be extolling the joys of the impending weekend-to-come, when a) we've only been back in work two days, and b) we've just spent a couple of weeks indulging in total hedonism and excess, but...

...it's traditional - Thank Disco It's Friday!!

Brothers In Rhythm - Such a Good Feeling

Have a good (and restful) one, dear reader. That's my plan!

[NB the vocal sample is from Charvoni - Always There, later covered by Jocelyn Brown and Incognito]

Feel alright

We're unlikely to see him in Benalmadena, more's the pity

It's Midwinter's Day. The Winter Solstice. The darkest of them all.

However, the good news is - from tomorrow the days start getting longer again!

At Dolores Delargo Towers, our thoughts are not on the cold nor the dark, on "festivities" nor present-giving. No! Our annual holiday to Spain is booked for the first week of February, so all our thoughts are on "escape"...

Here's a song that always says "sunshine" to me...

Supergrass - Alright

We are young
We run green
Keep our teeth nice and clean
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright

We wake up, we go out
Smoke a fag, put it out
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright

Are we like you?
I can't be sure
Of the scene as she turns
We are strange in our worlds

But we are young, we get by
Can't go mad, ain't got time
Sleep around if we like
But we're alright

Got some cash
Bought some wheels
Took it out
'Cross the fields
Lost control, hit a wall
But we're alright

Are we like you?
I can't be sure
Of the scene, as she turns
We are strange in our worlds

But we are young
We run green
Keep our teeth nice and clean
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright

That song is twenty-nine years old. Gulp.

Shut up

Penitentiary missing the letter "s"..?

Hoorah! The weekend is in view - and with it, the prospect of getting ourselves into a party mood!

What better way to start the countdown than this faboo number that, until I heard it on the radio recently, I hadn't thought about in years..?

Beware, dear reader, this can quite easily become an "earworm" - you might well find yourself singing it in the queue at Tesco!

Thank Disco Sebastian It's Friday!!

Sin With Sebastian - Shut Up (And Sleep With Me)

Have a great weekend, peeps!

Weapons of mass destruction

Happy Bonfire Night! Enjoy the fireworks...

As well as watching all nine episodes of Agatha All Along on Saturday, John-John also dug out an old "X-Men" movie I hadn't seen - X-Men: First Class, that ostensibly covers the "origin story" of the mutant superhero team.

It has many flaws - not least playing "fast-and-loose" with the original comics version, including characters that were only written decades after the original team's debut, and dropping other integral characters altogether, which infuriated me throughout.

It might have helped if the dialogue, (some of) the acting, and the zig-zagging plot had been better. At times towards the end, I felt like I was reliving the utterly dreadful Independence Day, but with mutants.

It really comes to something when the best performance in the entire film was given by the lovely Michael Fassbender's impressive groinage! My kind of mutation....

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Speaking of groinage...

It would have been Robert Mapplethorpe's birthday yesterday.

His 1989 touring exhibition The Perfect Moment, a retrospective following his death, caused huge furore and much clutching of pearls over the inclusion of the rather charming "Man in Polyester Suit" [as featured, left] (among other somewhat near-the-knuckle photos).

Portrayals of gay erotica were anathaema to the establishment in the Reagan era!

The exhibition's cancellation by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington provoked a censorship battle about national funding for the arts that was front-page news for the next year.

[click any pic to embiggen]

---

...and here's an appropriate number for the occasion:

20 Fingers feat. Gillette - Short Dick Man

All hail Priapus!

There's always something there

Whew. The weekend's almost here! The skies are blue again (even if it's cold). Much to celebrate...

...so let's take a moment to enjoy those fabulous balls we used to hold - and Thank Disco Tin Tin It's Friday!

Tin Tin Out feat. Espiritu - Always Something There To Remind Me

Have a great weekend, dear reader!

They split up out of sheer boredom

Everyone is still talking about Oasis, but did you know these other bland 90s bands are already touring again?

Cast
A band whose most famous song perfectly describes their very best material: Alright. Bandleader John Power was previously in The La’s, which is a bit like Michelangelo finishing the Sistine Chapel and then dedicating the rest of his career to drawing cocks on toilet doors. Unbelievably, Cast released their seventh album in 2024, making a mockery of the phrase ‘practice makes perfect’.

Kula Shaker
Covid destroyed much that people loved while leaving evils unscathed. As a case in point, Kula Shaker’s most recent albums were released in 2022 and 2024. If their post-pandemic comeback passed you by, it’s because their brand of Eastern-tinged psychedelia is as fun to listen to as small children banging saucepans at 8pm on a Thursday evening.

Shed Seven 
Imagine tickets going on sale for a Britpop band’s tour but with no colossal queues or dynamic pricing scandals. You’ve just imagined the Shed Seven 30th anniversary tour. These chancers actually reformed way back in 2007 and have even released a couple of dull new albums. If only you’d known – you could have not gone to see them all over again.

The Bluetones
These guys hit the big time with that song that sounds really like the Stone Roses but not as good. They staggered on until 2011 when they eventually split up, probably out of sheer boredom. Then they selflessly reformed four years later after realising their only value to society was giving pissed middle-aged people a fleeting pang of nostalgia by playing their only recognisable song. You know the one, it’s really like the Stone Roses but not as good.

Puressence
Manchester’s Puressence were the ‘next big thing’ for about a decade. They had a handful of top 40 hits in the late 90s; you probably heard them on Radio 1 and forgot what they went like while listening to them. Songs like This Feeling and All I Want are so generic it proves that AI is perfectly capable of replicating human creativity. Their 2024 reunion gig at the 2,290-capacity Albert Hall was just big enough for everyone who gave a shit to get a ticket.

Sleeper
Remember Sleeper? No? Sale of the Century? No? ‘We’ll spend the whole night making love on the sofa’? No? Female singer? No, not Elastica, they were good. Louise Wener? Fit but thick? Ah yes, now you remember! Fancy listening to their new albums and going to see them live just to hear Inbetweener? No? Fair enough.

The Daily Mash

Of course.