Your muscles are growing strong

Yep! It's back to the office time again...

After the gales on the weekend, now comes the rain. What a lovely way to start a week - squishing one's way through leaf-and-sycamore-seed slime.

Never mind, eh? On this Tacky Music Monday, let's cheer ourselves up in the company of our Patron Saint of Grrrowling (and Dubious History) Miss Amanda Lear and her musclebound safety gays!

Amanda Lear - Love Your Body

Have a good week, dear reader.

Now what's right is right but you ain't been right yet

Here we go again...

After the cold and dank of Saturday, with only yesterday being nice enough to enjoy getting outdoors, I feel robbed of a proper weekend! Sigh.

Let's bring out the big guns this Tacky Music Monday to provide our much-needed wake-up call, shall we?

Our Patron Saint of Grrrowling (and Questionable History) Miss Amanda Lear fits the bill nicely:

Amanda Lear - These Boots Are Made for Walkin'

Have a good week, dear reader.

Way Up High

Back to the grind again, dear reader...

...however, this is the start of a very significant countdown - it's the first Gay Pride in London for three years this Saturday!

Who could be more appropriate on this Tacky Music Monday to lead the fanfare than our beloved Patron Saint of questionable history, Miss Amanda Lear herself?!

Amanda Lear - Over the Rainbow

Have a good week, folks.

The fashion pack? She created them...

Heavens. The original "bad girl" of the couture world, fashion designer beloved of both Freddie Mercury and Princess Diana, Queen of Pinkness, Dame Zandra Rhodes is eighty years old today!

All hail.

In her honour, how about...this rather appropriate house favourite?

Amanda Lear - Fashion Pack

Many happy returns, Dame Zandra Lindsey Rhodes (born 19th September 1940)!

[More Zandra here]

Champagne, caviar, haute-couture, expensive cars

It's that time of year again, when the bets begin on exactly how old (and, possibly, what gender) is our Patron Saint of Purring Miss Amanda Lear (whose birthday it was yesterday)...

As she herself has said many times before, however, it is nobody's business but her own - so instead, let's take our minds off the impending week of gloom on this Tacky Music Monday with the lady herself, and enough artificial satin on her accompanying safety gays and twirling dancers to spark a fire in that BBC tent!

Amanda Lear - Fashion Pack (with the Jeff Richer Dancers on Seaside Special)

Have a great week, dear reader.

Cocktail d'Amore

Amanda Lear - Cocktail d'Amore

Many happy returns, Miss Amanda Lear!

Dance with me - don't dance with me, no

Following on from the reminisces this week has brought - seeing Adam Ant live for the first time, and singing my tits off to Alison Moyet (whose own comeback earlier in the year was a bit, errm, less than I had hoped for) - I thought I'd do a little catch-up of newer music released in the past few months by artists I have loved for much, much longer...

Bowie meets Bernard Hermann? There have been many attempts to compare his new song to other artists: such disparate souls as Dave Brubeck, Radiohead, Public Image Limited, Milton Nascimento, Robert Wyatt, Tricky and - inevitably - Scott Walker. Needless to say, David Bowie's latest artistic endeavour (with the Maria Schneider Orchestra and, once again, with Tony Visconti) is remarkable - a "Modern Jazz" take on some of the darker moments of his own Berlin phase, perhaps? It's Sue (Or in A Season Of Crime), and it is awesome:

David Bowie - Sue (Or In a Season of Crime)

Shamefully overlooked by the buying public (yet again - like so many artists with real talent and integrity), here's the single that the sublime Miss Marianne Faithfull released to coincide with her Give My Love To London album at the end of September (which I did write about at the time but never featured this track in full) - Sparrows Will Sing:

Marianne Faithfull - Sparrows Will Sing

How about this for a surprise? The return (after thirty years' absence!) of the man whose genius - more or less - influenced everything in his wake, Mr Bowie, Mr Eno and Mr Visconti included, Signor Giorgio Moroder. He's back, to show the young 'uns how it's done, with his faboo new single 74 Is the New 24! [Yes, that is his age...]

Giorgio Moroder - 74 Is the New 24

Featured as an interlude on Princess Kylie's Kiss Me Once tour (that continues as we speak), here are four tracks segued into one video sequence, recently released as an EP. Produced by William Baker in conjunction with producer/songwriter Fernando Garibay, and featuring the gorgeous Aaron Sillis, here's Sleepwalker:

Kylie & Garibay - Sleepwalker

And in complete contrast - here is a sneaky radio rip of Our Princess in another collaboration, with that other "national treasure" Jools Holland, in a cover of the Clash classic Should I Stay Or should I Go? [from Jools' new album Sirens Of Song]:



One of our Patron Saints Miss Amanda Lear has been slogging away all year to promote her album of Elvis covers (all done in her own inimitable fashion of course). Shamefully, I (an avowed Elvis-avoider) have not featured any of it. With the release this month of the deluxe edition of that album My Happiness, it is time to make amends with the Almighty Remix of her version of Suspicious Minds:

Amanda Lear - Suspicious Minds (Almighty Mix)

And, to conclude - just because I think we all deserve a bit of eye candy - here's the newest fantabulosa effort from our houseboys Kazaky - Pulse:

Kazaky - Pulse

Mine's racing...

As ever, enjoy - and let me know your thoughts!

A fever that's so hard to bear

It's Monday again - and a horrid week ahead, as I face a second interview tomorrow for a post in the new restructure in work. The stress in the office is palpable.

However, we can always rely on the fantabulosa Amanda Lear to offer a bit of a pick-me-up! On this Tacky Music Monday, here she is with her very own "Freddie Mercury-looky-likey" safety gays, and a very bad wig indeed, with her version of Fever:

Amanda Lear - Fever

And, as a bonus - to mark the fact she has a new album out (My Happiness, featuring thirteen tracks originally performed by Elvis Presley) - here's her wonderful new single, Suspicious Minds:

Amanda Lear - Suspicious Minds

At the court of Queen Lear (an article from The Observer, December 2000).

Enigma and operations

I am going into hospital this morning (in fact I will be there as you read this, having to attend theatre at 7am!!) for an operation to remove what is one of the most annoying signs of getting older, the dreaded varicose veins. It is day surgery, which means I should be out again (suitably drugged) later today. Ho hum. At least I get two weeks off work!

Anyhoo, surgery or no surgery, it is still a Tacky Music Monday. And who better to cheer everyone up but yesterday's birthday girl [as I have noted before, heaven only knows how old she really is] Miss Amanda Lear? - here in a most gob-smacking performance (on Italian TV, of course) of her classic Enigma (Give A Bit Of Mmmmmm To Me):

Amanda Lear - Enigma (Give A Bit Of Mmmmmm To Me)

And just to prove she's still a force to be reckoned with, here, from earlier this year, is the simply faboo combination of Miss Lear, our very own Andy Bell (of Erasure) and the master-DJ Yiannis with a stomping mix of La Bête et La Belle...

Amanda Lear feat. Andy Bell- La Bête et La Belle (DJ Yiannis mix)

Amanda Lear on Wikipedia

Suddenly I felt like dancing

It's Easter Bank Holiday, and of course millions of Brits are heading out for a miserable day in the rain at the seaside.

Time was when this particular British pastime was somewhat brightened by the prospect of the arrival at your chosen resort of the cheesiest of all 70s BBC variety shows - Seaside Special!

Alongside the likes of Little and Large, Keith Harris and Orville, Lena Zavaroni, Bernie Clifton, Showaddywaddy, The Wurzels, Sacha Distel, Peters and Lee, Val Doonican, Ronnie Corbett and Brotherhood of Man, they occasionally managed to entice some true talents to that draughty Big Top.

Amazingly, one of them was one of our patron saints here at Dolores Delargo Towers, Miss Amanda Lear! So, on this Tacky Music Monday, I'll let the performance speak for itself...

Amanda Lear with the Jeff Richer Dancers - Fashion Pack

Dazzling!

It was night and suddenly I felt like dancing.
I took a cab to show me to the disco scene.

He said: "OK, you wanna see those crazy people,
hustling at the door to get into Studio 54?!"

When I was in, everybody was Travolting!
The fashion queens, the models and the movie stars.
Andy snapping, Margeaux dancing with Scavullo.
Liza dancing on the floor and Bianca walking through the door.

Who is in?
Who is out?
Tell me, tell me, tell me!

Who is in?
Who is out?
Famous and trendy?!

"In-People" always have to smile in "Vogue".
They only travel by Concorde.
Doing things YOU can´t afford!

They are the fashion pack.
The people you see in the magazines.
They are the fashion pack.
They are always smiling in their limousines.

They only come out after dark, got to keep on their trendy tracks.
They are the fashion pack.

Rockstars sniffing, while Marisa is posing.
Bianca counting her paintings, the models of Zoli´s flirting...

Hey! what's your name?
Didn't I see you in "Interview" last month, or was it the "Ritz"?
Gee, You're so famous!
May I have your autograph?
Thanks! I will keep it forever!

Pop-a-licious

It's that time again, when I feel the need to share some of the newer music that I have picked up on recently...

What self-respecting son would take his elderly mum to a gay strip joint and get her pissed? Well, in the case of the lovely Zeus (who I featured a few weeks ago before this video was released), when your mother is the gloriously camp diva Sara Montiel, you dare not refuse! If she wants to, she will Sex Dance, and no-one can stop her:

Zeus - Sex Dance

Our favourite Madge impersonator Charlie Hides aka Kandi Kane Baxter has inevitably released his "tribute" to Gimme All Your Luvin':

Charlie Hides - Gimme All Your Luvin' (Madonna Parody)

Time for some Disco madness, as the Noo Yawk collective calling themselves the Phenomenal Handclap Band take a time machine right back to 1978 with their spookily authentic-sounding The Right One:

Phenomenal Handclap Band - The Right One

Closer to home (Manchester actually), here's the very weird We Have Band and their atmospheric Where Are Your People? (with a distinct nod to Tears for Fears methinks):

We Have Band - Where Are Your People?

Brightening up our soundscape as only she can, the marvellous Miss Gloria Estefan has another new single out - and this time she not only has taken a new approach by pastiching a 1920s sound (a la We No Speak Americano), but the video also pays a majorly camp tribute to movies beloved of us gayers like Rocky Horror, The Birdcage, Some Like It Hot and many more... Hotel Nacional is just brilliant!

Gloria Estefan - Hotel Nacional

We can never have enough of the fabulosa Amanda Lear in our lives - and here (at last) is the official video for her most recent delight - La Belle et la Bete (thanks, Henry!). And she looks just fab for a woman in her 60s (or 70s, no-one is quite sure):

Amanda Lear - La Bête et la Belle

And finally, house favourite "Ho" here at Dolores Delargo Towers, Mr Johnny McGovern aka Gay Pimp has a new album out - subtly called The Gayest Of All Time. And from it, a song that tells the story of an affliction that we, dear readers, have all suffered at one time or another - we've been Dickmatized! [The video is NSFW, so exercise caution]:

Jonny McGovern - Dickmatized

As always, enjoy!

Das Musik

Time for another of my semi-regular forays into some of the newer music that I have picked up on lately...

Let's open proceedings with dear, eccentric, Kate Bush with her new single Wild Man from her forthcoming album 50 Words for Snow. Very strange indeed...

Kate Bush - Wild Man

We always have time for a bit of "Gay Pirate Action" here at Dolores Delargo Towers, and this fits the bill just nicely. It's Aussie gaysters Garçon Garçon with their boppy little single Stay In Touch:

Garçon Garçon - Stay In Touch

Our icon Miss Amanda Lear is back again, with another new album I Don't Like Disco, and from it this single La Bete et la Belle. Now that's what I call style...

Amanda Lear - La Bête et la Belle

Also making a welcome return - thanks to Gaydar Radio, of all places - is Mr George Michael! As far as I was aware, the last time I heard about Georgie he was on tour with a full orchestra and splitting up with his boyfriend. When did he find the time to become a full-on club hitster? Here is DJ Marc Vedo's superb remix of Every Other Lover In The World (a favourite of Boy George, apparently; he plays it at all his DJ sets):

George Michael ft DJ Marc Vedo - Every Other Lover In The World

To finish on a jolly note, it's the wonderfully weird Mr Martin Solveig, teamed once more with the mad Canadians Dragonette plus Tokyo's finest 100-strong girly group Idoling!!! [sic] Here's his fabulous new single Big In Japan...

Martin Solveig & Dragonette feat Idoling!!! - Big In Japan

Happy listening!

Easter eggs

Opening our celebration of new(er) music that I have stumbled across this week is the magnificent Amanda Lear, who returns to our waiting arms with a brand new single Chinese Walk!

Amanda Lear - Chinese Walk

And now onto some cover versions of familiar songs - a concept which has always intrigued me (which is why I am such an avid fan of such twisted-covers specialists as Nouvelle Vague, Señor Coconut, Richard Cheese and the like). First up, courtesy of our friend John-John it's some delightfully weird young lady Maria Minerva tackling Abba's Honey Honey head-on... Quite unusual!

Maria Minerva - Honey Honey

Then there's the new "tribute" album from the Canadian label Paper Bag Records (free to download from their website), celebrating the silver anniversary of Madge's seminal True Blue album (a discovery to which I was alerted by my "sister under the skin" the lovely Henry over at Barbarella's Galaxy - again). It's a sadly somewhat "dated-sounding" collection - there's a band trying to be U2, another slightly reminiscent of Siouxsie, a neo-Mari Wilson, a would-be-Altered Images, and so it goes on. I recall discovering a very similar-sounding covers album called Hybrid Kids (with versions of songs such as Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?, Save Your Kisses For Me and All the Young Dudes on it) way back in 1979!

However, there is one quite decent cover that caught my attention... Young Galaxy's version of Open Your Heart:

Young Galaxy - Open Your Heart

Shaking us out of our complacency, the marvellously mad Miss Róisín Murphy is back again with a most shocking video for her latest collaboration with Dutch DJ Mason - Boadicea:

Mason feat. Róisín Murphy - Boadicea

Now breathe...

I think a little more gentle madness is in order after that, so let us celebrate the fact that Thomas Dolby (he of She Blinded Me With Science fame) is back! I don't usually like anything that resembles Country'n'Western (except Dolly Parton, in very small doses) but how can you resist a song called Here Come The Toadlickers with a video featuring drug-addict puppets having sex? I can't...

Thomas Dolby - The Toadlickers

To conclude, an intriguing little number by an intriguingly-named band, Fenech-Soler (which sounds like it should be a brand of chocolate):

Fenech-Soler - Stop and Stare

Have a great Oestrus!

Troubles melt like lemon drops

It is the start of Gay Xmas week, otherwise known as the countdown to Gay Pride on Saturday! As ever, this event is the highlight of the social calendar - our gang starts planning it almost a year in advance, and Madame Acarti and I have our costumes all ready to go.

On this Tacky Music Monday I have a suitably kitsch song that links not one, but two, gay icons together to kick us off - what better than the iconic Amanda Lear singing Judy Garland's classic standard?

Amanda Lear - Over The Rainbow

Enjoy!

Mmmmmm!

It's a slow week... I need cheering up.

Miss Amanda Lear always manages to make me happy, especially when she performs a tableau like this!

Give A Bit Of Mmmmmm To Me, indeed...

Amanda Lear - Enigma (Give A Bit Of Mmmmmm To Me)

I just found me a brand new box of matches

For no better reason other than the fact that this lady always cheers me up, here's a fabulous version of a fierce song by the wonderful Amanda Lear...

Amanda Lear - These Boots Are Made For Walking

"With your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue..."

In 2002 A Hollywood movie producer was planning a film of her book My Life With Dali and wanted Claudia Schiffer to play Amanda Lear. "I ran into Claudia at a restaurant," Lear recalls. "She said, 'I love your book! Who wrote it for you?' I said, 'I did, darling. Who read it to you?' So that was the end of that. They never made the movie."

Today may well mark the 70th (or 68th, or 64th, or as she claims, 61st) birthday of that glamorous and mysterious siren, the model, singer and Dali muse Miss Amanda Lear!

Why the mystery? It is so typical of Miss Lear... For apart from evading questions about her age, the debate remains open as to whether she was actually born a man! Apparently old photographs of the young Alain Tapp do exist, and April Ashley stated publicly that she met him/her before the operation in 1963. Nevertheless, he/she climbed to a position of fame as the companion of Salvador Dali (collector of the exotic for many years) and became a fashion model.

It was at one of these catwalk shows in 1973 that Miss Lear was first spotted by Brian Ferry and she became the cover girl on Roxy Music's seminal For Your Pleasure album. David Bowie (another collector of the exotic) adopted her for his Ziggy Stardust tours, and it was he who encouraged Amanda Lear to become a recording artist in her own right. The rest, as they say is history - to date she has remarkably sold approximately 15 million albums and 25-30 million singles worldwide, and has released two albums this year alone!

After her marriage to Frenchman Alain-Phillippe Malagnac in 1979, she began to vigorously deny her transsexuality and as supposed proof posed nude for several men's magazines. While this certainly proved to her delighted fans that she still had an amazing body despite being in her 40's, her case was always unconvincing and the mystery was enhanced, not completely refuted. Tragedy struck Amanda in December 2000 when her home in France burnt down, killing her husband and destroying many of her and Dali's paintings.

Yet she refused to stop working, and is still a much-loved performer (and "gay icon") today. Happy birthday to a true trooper!

David Bowie with Amanda Lear - Sorrow

Amanda Lear - Follow Me

Amanda Lear - Brand New Love Affair

Amanda Lear biography

The end of the world?

As the news breaks today that our galaxy is in fact swirling around a massive black hole - a news item that will be a feast for the tabloids, no doubt, despite the fact that it is 158 thousand, million, million miles from the Earth - I thought I'd pluck some items from the bizarre world that is my brain...

Paul Anka - Black Hole Sun

Amanda Lear - Black Holes

Skeeter Davis - End of the World

Black Hole discovered