Radical fairies, the state of the gay nation, jerk chicken and stuffed vine leaves, pyjamas, Edgeworth Bess and Vita Lampada

It has been a while - too long - since last I traversed the portals of the Royal Festival Hall function rooms, but last night a troupe of us (me, John-John, Paul, little Tony, Emma, Wayne et al) gathered for the last outing of "London's peerless gay literary salon" for 2016 - the ninth birthday of Polari (where does the time go? I've been a regular at this event for eight years)!

Host Paul Burston was appropriately attired in his fabulous new silk suit (from the swanky Brighton and Spitalfields tailor Gresham Blake) for the occasion, as he introduced the readers for the evening.



Opening proceedings was a genuine pioneer: founder member of the Gay Liberation Front in the UK, and stalwart of the anarchic drag troupe Bloolips (alongside our fave "Homosexual Hall of Fame"-er Miss Bette Bourne - see here, here, here and here), Mr Stuart Feather. He read a few wonderful recollections of the characters from those remarkable days of proto-revolutionary gay politics and communal living from his new memoir Blowing the Lid - Gay Liberation, Sexual Revolution and Radical Queens, and I was bewitched by it all...

There is, as is inevitable with a "limited-edition publication" such as Mr Feather's, nothing resembling an extract online, so instead here is the great man himself, with the aforementioned Ms Bourne, talking about Polari (the lingo, not the literary evening):

Stuart Feather and Bette Bourne talk about Polari

Next up was Mr Matthew Todd, former editor of Attitude magazine, whose insights (following Mr Feather's recollections from our cultural history) into the "state of gay society" into the here-and-now from his masterwork Straight Jacket made for some occasionally uncomfortable listening:

Culturally, homosexuality and misery have been linked so tightly by the haters over the years that they have become an offensive cliché to the point where any discussion is dismissed as prejudice. But discuss it we must.

More and more statistics reveal that LGBT people have higher levels of depression, anxiety, addiction and suicidal thoughts. The British Crime Survey 2009 showed that gay men used illicit drugs three times more than heterosexual men. It’s hardly a surprise. As therapist and author Joe Kort states so well in his book 10 Smart Things Gay Men Can Do to Improve Their Lives, what’s wrong is not our sexuality, but our experience of growing up in a society that still does not fully accept that people can be anything other than heterosexual and cisgendered (i.e. born into the physical gender you feel you are). It is the damage done to us by growing up strapped inside a cultural straitjacket - tight-fitting, one-size restraint imposed on us at birth - that leaves no room to grow. It makes no allowances for the fact that, yes, indeed, some people are different and we deserve - and need - to be supported and loved for who we are, too.

His whole reading was serious, yet not stifling in its analysis of the problems gay people still face coping with our social-media-savvy, drug-fuelled, abs-obsessed scene. There was much nodding of heads among our audience. I sincerely hope there will be many more people out there in the hedonistic "real world" who will read and learn from this book.



The very cute (with his new cropped-hair and glasses-free change of image from last time we saw him) Mr Dean Atta took to the stage to complete our triumvirate of talent for the first half. Entertaining and charming as always, he treated us to some powerful insights into life, loss, and relationships through his marvellous poetry (from his wildly popular compilation I Am Nobody's Nigger), including this one - his answer to the frequent question "where do you come from?":

I come from shepherd’s pie and Sunday roast
Jerk chicken and stuffed vine leaves
I come from travelling through my taste buds but loving where I live

I come from a home that some would call broken
I come from D.I.Y. that never got done
I come from waiting by the phone for him to call

I come from waving the white flag to loneliness
I come from the rainbow flag and the Union Jack
I come from a British passport and an ever-ready suitcase

I come from jet fuel and fresh coconut water
I come from crossing oceans to find myself
I come from deep issues and shallow solutions

I come from a limited vocabulary but an unrestricted imagination
I come from a decent education and a marvellous mother
I come from being given permission to dream but choosing to wake up instead

I come from wherever I lay my head
I come from unanswered questions and unread books
Unnoticed effort and undelivered apologies and thanks

I come from who I trust and who I have left
I come from last year and last year and I don’t notice how I’ve changed
I come from looking in the mirror and looking online to find myself

I come from stories, myths, legends and folk tales
I come from lullabies and pop songs, Hip Hop and poetry
I come from griots, grandmothers and her-story tellers

I come from published words and strangers’ smiles
I come from my own pen but I see people torn apart like paper
Each a story or poem that never made it into a book.

Fabulous.



Speaking of fabulous, after the swift fag'n'booze break, in which I had a chance to catch up with the lovely Uli from Gay's the Word bookshop, we welcomed to the mike Polari stalwart VG (Val) Lee.

Doing her best to fit in with the "Being a Man" festival-themed evening, she read a couple of "pyjama-related" extracts from her new book Mr Oliver's Object of Desire, not least our eponymous hero's encounter with the predatory "Doreen":

VG Lee reads at Polari

As ever, a crowd-pleaser. We love her...



Our headliner for the evening was the bestselling author Mr Jake Arnott, who has a new novel The Fatal Tree out early next year - "a world of 'academies' (brothels), 'bung-nippers' (pickpockets), 'buttocks' (prostitutes) with 'Covent Garden Gout' (syphilis) being chased by 'prig-nappers' (Thief-Takers), it tells the tale of the notorious prostitute and pick pocket "Edgeworth Bess", and her escapades in the seedy underworld of 18th Century London with the gangs of ne'er-do-wells who met at Mother Clapp's Molly House. Sounds complex and deliciously intriguing, Mr Arnott's literary talents always impress - and I look forward to reading more about the terrifyingly amoral "Bess" and her motley crew when the book arrives in February.

However for us, he read a piece from his last novel, the equally mysterious House of Rumour, which wove an even more extravagantly decadent tale involving the mysterious disappearance of yet another "amoral" anti-heroine called "Pirate Jenny", and the rumoured involvement of transvestite prostitute named Vita Lampada. What actually became of all of them was about to be (literally) revealed in the middle of an encounter between a slightly-too-nosey female reporter and the book's protagonist "Jack". Exhaustingly curious...



And, on that note, with the customary curtain call and the usual round of schmoozing and "Happy New Year" wishes to all the assembled literati, that was it until - gulp - 27th January 2017. On that occasion, our erudite stars will be Stella Duffy, Rosie Garland, Nathan Evans, Chris Chalmers and Ann Mann. And I can't wait!

We love Polari.

Taking on the establishment with high heels and lipstick

One of the best things about the fantabulosa biographical film on the life of gay icon Bette Bourne, that little Tony and I went to see at the V&A last night, is that it is one of those rare beasts - a documentary about the fight for gay liberation during the 70s and 80s here, in Britain.

Cinematic documentaries about gay history are more often than not exclusively about the USA (as the Stonewall riots, the Gay Lib movement that emerged out of anti-Vietnam hippydom, and black and feminist civil rights activism were all American phenomena it isn't that surprising), so it is refreshing to get perspectives from some of the surviving activists who fought similar battles on this side of the pond.

Bette Bourne - "who took on the establishment with high heels and lipstick" - and her Gay Liberation Front chums (many of whom were residents in her infamous "drag queen squat", and some later joined Bette in the triumphal alternative drag troupe Bloolips) were indeed galvanising participants in one of my favourite of all direct action protests...

On 9th September 1971 Mary Whitehouse, Malcolm Muggeridge, Lord Longford, Cliff-fucking-Richard and various assorted clergy, god-botherers and other nutters convened a mass meeting of their Festival of Light, a movement dedicated to opposing "the permissive society" in all its forms, at Methodist Central Hall opposite the Palace of Westminster.

Unbeknownst to the assembled worthies, Bette Bourne, Lavinia Co-op, Michael James, Gretal Feather, Martin Corbett, Peter Tatchell and many other founding members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) had infiltrated the prayers. Many of Bette's coterie were disguised as nuns, and as the speakers tried to address the crowd they began slinging porn from the balcony. Others shouted, clapped and screamed at inappropriate moments. Mr Corbett, who had calmly pretended to be a Hall official and ordered technical staff out of the basement, brought the lights down.

As Peter Tatchell recalls: "On the night, mayhem erupted. When Malcolm Muggeridge, speaking out about homosexuals, declared, 'I don't like them.' The feeling was mutual. Mice were released into the audience; lesbian couples stood up and passionately embraced. A dozen GLF nuns in immaculate blue and white habits charged the platform shouting gay liberation slogans, and a GLF bishop began preaching an impromptu sermon which urged people to 'keep on sinning.'"

It all apparently ended, before the police and security were able to forcibly remove them, with the drag nuns doing the can-can on the stage in front of the astounded speakers!

The last word, of course, went to Bette, who, at her subsequent trial for her part in the protest, was asked by the judge to remove her hat, and said "No! It goes with the shoes."

Thus, the title of the movie was born.

Bette Bourne - It Goes With The Shoes is a marvellous, disarmingly honest, up-front and charming insight into one of our heroes/heroines here at Dolores Delargo Towers. Mainly filmed at Bette's home or in parts of London where she was brought up and resided - the family home was very near us in Stoke Newington/Green Lanes - Mark Ravenhill really manages to get to the root of her extraordinary life. I am very pleased I got to see it, on only its third showing in the UK.

The evening concluded with Bette herself taking to the stage for questions, and she received a well-deserved ovation for her enormous contribution to the history of gay rights, and to showbiz. A star.

Here are some extracts from the film, for your delectation:









Read my entry on Bette Bourne from February at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp.

Get Hur! - our history interpreted

Ably steered once more by our genial host and all-round expert in gay antiquity Egyptologist John J Johnston, last night's Camden & Islington LGBT History Month event Every Good Thing at the wondrous Petrie Museum was sheer joy...



The premise of the evening was that a selection of hand-picked LGBT figures from the world of arts and academia were invited to speak a little about the stories behind their chosen objects from the museum's collection. A very clever way to introduce a number of wonderfully enlightening discussions about our gay antecedents - some of the stories familiar, some less so. [And many of which will appear, or indeed have already appeared, in the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp as time goes on.]



Opening the selection, the very charming actor and comedian Tom Allen chose a very tiny alabaster head of a sculpture of Alexander the Great. That led us into an examination of the passionate love between the young world-conqueror and his lover and general Hephaestion, on whose death was honoured by Alexander as a Divine Hero. At the time of his own death eight months later, Alexander was still planning lasting monuments to Hephaestion's memory, and, it has been written that the Emperor's own premature death was partly brought on by his inconsolable grief at his loss.

Writer James Goss (who has worked on various Dr Who and Torchwood-related media for several years) chose the object that gave us perhaps the most wonderfully camp back-story of the lot. The subject, another tiny head from a tiny statue, was of an Old Kingdom Pharaoh of whom we had never heard before - Pepi II, whose nocturnal wanderings to visit his burly lover, General Sisene, complete with a "shag-ladder", were fabulous - and the discussion had the whole audience laughing.



Taking a step away from face-to-face conversation, Director of Camden LGBT Forum Lou Hart had given her apologies as she was double-booked with conflicting History Month events - but nonetheless recorded her insights into her choice of a frieze of Akhenaten, the radical and later vilified Pharaoh who, with his wife Nefertiti and quite possibly his male lover Smenkhkare after her death, dragged a reluctant Egypt away from the old gods towards his own brand of sun-worship. Lou's analysis of the peculiarly androgynous way Akhenaten is usually portrayed, and the unconventionally sensual depiction of his domestic set-ups, surmised that he may have deliberately or otherwise conveyed a trans- or at the very least a "fey" and unmasculine gender identity. Interesting stuff, indeed...



The (rather cute, Madam Arcati and I thought) Public Astronomer Marek Kukula, true to his profession, chose the shadow clock of Senenu, who was a mystic, a scientist and scribe at the highly camp cross-dressing court of the female Pharoah Hatshepsut, an era shrouded in conspiracy and naughty goings-on.

It was time for another pre-recorded topic, as Mr Johnson proudly introduced an audio recording from Professor of Gay and Lesbian Studies at Nottingham Trent University Gregory Woods, who used the statue of Antinous that adorns the main University College London (UCL) building upon whose campus the Petrie Museum resides to open the topic of that doomed boy, favourite and beloved of Emperor Hadrian. Was he a self-sacrifice for the continued health and prosperity of his God-Emperor lover? Was the frenzy that surrounded his ascendancy to the role of deity a major factor in the rabid homophobia of the Christians who took over Rome not long afterwards? The questions perpetuate his adoration by gays even to this day. [I have, of course, written of Antinous before (following last year's History Month event at the museum) - see here and here.]

Next up, artist Andrew Prior has apparently been so inspired by the beautiful boys (and girls) depicted on the sarcophagi of the later Romano-Egyptian era that he has produced several works of his own based upon their style - and very camp they are too! Check them out on his website.



Returning to a favourite gay historical theme, child prodigy pianist Mark Viner chose a coin from the reign of Emperor Hadrian to focus on the hysteria of the way the burly world leader expressed his grief over the death of Antinous, the raising of an entire city in his name (that continued to worship him long after Christianity had become the Empire's official religion) and the numerous incarnations of the beautiful one's image that survived long after other, older, deities had been disregarded (often re-named and re-designated as being of other historical figures).



On the home stretch of the discussion, the editor of Gay Star News Tris Reid-Smith chose a rather fabulous piece - an ancient and fragile segment of papyrus that told the myth of Seth and Horus, the original brawling gay bitches (and uncle and nephew), whose ninety-year war for the throne of the King of the Gods culminated in a rather fab seduction - "how lovely your backside is!" says Seth to Horus - and a spunk-fest that decides the contest once and for all in young Horus's favour. You'd have to hear it to believe it, and this was written in around 1850 BC!

Our final guest, another Dr Who and Torchwood writer Joseph Lidster chose a little pink hippo amulet, which, continuing the story Tris Reid-Smith had set up, illustrated another aspect of the battle between Seth and Horus, whereby they transmogrify into hippos - whose own behaviour includes the victor in battle "mounting" the loser as part of their submission routine. Even in nature, it seems...



But now the academic stuff drew to a close, and it was time for the most wonderful treat - a live performance by our dear gay icon Bette Bourne [who today I have made our latest "exhibit" in the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp] and his partner of 37 years Paul Shaw, who masterfully performed one of their classic "interpretative" pieces "Get Hur!"!



True to the night's theme, the piece (very) roughly followed the gay love story of Hadrian and Antinous, and included a hilarious audience-participation sketch Titty-bum, titty-bum, bum, bum (to the tune of the William Tell Overture). Truly, truly awesome to behold - and a perfect finale to a brilliant evening!

Petrie Museum

Camden and Islington LGBT History Month

Bette Bourne over at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp

"I love flouncing as much as any other queen!"

How would you sum up your life in three acts? You couldn't! I couldn't! And if your life was as interesting as Bette Bourne's? - well...

Playwright and author Mark Ravenhill has helped the venerable queen (dowager?) to do just that, by basically bringing a set of interviews they did a couple of years ago to the stage. Acknowledging this fact from the outset, it was inevitable that the format would make this a slightly "stiff" performance in parts - both players reading from the page - but it's the stories that Bette has to tell that make this a sublime experience.

In two hours, this unique life is explored - from his earliest memories of being a theatrical toddler with an abusive father, through school-day fumblings with other boys, to a serious stage career, his notorious gay commune life and politics, New York and the anarchic Bloolips drag troupe, the AIDS era, and his evolution into today's revered theatrical legend (he has even played Lady Bracknell...). Bette even entertained us with some of the songs from his shows - it was magical!

We love Bette Bourne - we saw him in Rock - the Henry Wilson Story two years ago, when he was also inducted into the "House of Homosexual Culture Hall Of Fame". A fascinating and multi-faceted grande dame indeed - catch this while you can!

Mark Ravenhill and Bette Bourne - A Life in Three Acts

Bette Bourne - A Life in Three Acts is at the Soho Theatre

England’s Stately Homo

"Life was a funny thing that happened to me on the way to the grave."

"An autobiography is an obituary in serial form with the last instalment missing."
Quentin Crisp

We paid fitting homage last night to the most influential camp gay man of the 20th century Quentin Crisp, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth. Organised once more with great chutzpah by Rupert Smith and Paul Burston aka The House of Homosexual Culture at the South Bank, this gala was a real treat!

Opening with the enigmatic La John-Joseph who unexpectedly performed a striptease, removing a tweedy conservative suit to reveal another, more characteristically Quentin-esque blue outfit and chiffon scarf, we knew we were in for an eclectic night.

"I recommend limiting one's involvement in other people's lives to a pleasantly scant minimum."
Quentin Crisp

Our invited panel of guests all spoke from a slightly different perspective about their friendship with Mr Crisp (he always referred to people with the formal "Mr", including "Mr Christ" and even "Mr The Ripper"). We heard from his boigraphers Paul Bailey and Andrew Barrow, the "living embodiment of Quentin on Earth" Bette Bourne and, with a moving compilation film of home movies and first hand accounts from his family, the great man's great nephew Adrian Goycoolea.

Apart from the ever fabulous Bette's extract from his one-man show Resident Alien (showing again in the new year at the New End Theatre apparently!), the real highlight for us was an exclusive preview of some scenes from the forthcoming ITV drama An Englishman in New York, a sequel to the classic 1975 ITV drama The Naked Civil Servant and once more starring John Hurt as Quentin.



"If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style."
Quentin Crisp

In a typically bizarre closing piece, David Hoyle loudly proclaimed his feelings about Mr Crisp's influence on his own life, and on ours, in his own inimitable way - it is a lttle known fact that the artist formerly kinown as The Divine David was one of only a handful of people who went to the cremation ceremony after Quentin's sudden death while on tour in Manchester.



"Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are."
Quentin Crisp

The finale was the much-vaunted Quentin Crisp look-alike contest. Although Paul did ask if I would join the line-up on stage, I felt that merely wearing a pink fedora might not stand up to the competition, and the winner among the strange beauty pageant was some pretty chicken (unusually dressed more like Mary Tyler-Moore for some reason) - understandably a far more likely candidate for the top prize of being photographed for the cover of QX magazine...



A truly grand piece of entertainment all in all, and one I wouldn't have missed for the world!

Between a Rock and a hard place...

"It's a gay Pygmalion. My character turns this gasoline attendant into the highest paid movie star on the planet. He takes a callow youth and turns him into Rock Hudson, who was the perfect, ideal man - or so everyone thought."

What a great evening's entertainment Rock turned out to be!

This was not only a rather good play by Tim Fountain about the Machiavellian world of 50s Hollywood - personified in the bravura performance of Bette Bourne as Roy Willson, agent to the stars and supreme influence over the young Rock Hudson, manipulating the closeted gay hick into the macho "straight" star he became - but also a small-theatre extravaganza.

Advertised as a "red carpet event" we all went togged up, to be greeted with a lovely man in a sari, several queens with glitter in their hair, a six-foot drag queen, cute boys with braces - and Fenella Fielding!

Fuelled with complimentary glasses of Kir Royale and copious trays of mini cup-cakes, courtesy of the management of the Oval House Theatre, we and the rest of the audience (including Paul Burston, David McAlmont and other glit-lit-erati of the gay world) adored the play, Bette, and the sexy Michael Xavier (as Rock) in a frequent state of undress...

But it was the epilogue to the evening that provided the most fascinating entertainment.



Inducting Bette Bourne into the "House of Homosexual Culture Hall of Fame", Rupert Smith encouraged Bette to share with us some anecdotes of his extraordinary life - friendships with Ian McKellan and Quentin Crisp, his life in a drag commune ("the second floor was the make-up room - 270 shades of nail varnish"), and as founder of the infamous Bloolips drag theatre troupe. His recollections of a world long gone, of people who really made a difference during the time of the Gay Liberation Front right though to the tabloid-hate-filled AIDS era, provided a magical end to a magical evening!

The making of "Rock" - part 1

Read the review in the Evening Standard

Red Carpet and Bloolips

I just booked tickets for our gang to attend a very special event indeed. That iconic figure Bette Bourne will be inducted into the House of Homosexual Culture Hall of Fame on 30 May...

This fabulous description of the grand dame featured in The Guardian:

"On stage and off, Bette Bourne is the embodiment of a certain tradition of British camp. Even making a cup of coffee in the kitchen of his west London flat, he wears scarlet lipstick, eyeshadow and a funny hat, from under which his curly mop of hair protrudes in every direction. In performance, either with his own company or as an actor for hire, he tap-dances, delivers caustic one-liners and wears enough paint to make a good start on the Forth Bridge."

Bette was a founder member of the Bloolips Queer Theatre troupe, whose anarchic brand of camp was a big hit on "the circuit" during the 1980s, and has progressed since their demise to become an award-winning (if still avant garde) actor - he portrayed his friend Quentin Crisp in the hit play Resident Alien, and appeared as the fat queen with the poodles in the stage adaptation of Theatre of Blood with Jim Broadbent a couple of years ago.

On the evening of the award we will also see Bette in Rock, a new play all about the machinations that went on in the 1950s to protect the true sexual identity of the young Rock Hudson. He/she plays Henry Willson, the man who made him a star; the most unscrupulous agent in Los Angeles.

Bette Bourne deserves this accolade, having played every bit as important a role in our gay history as the more mainstream players. It is also an excuse to get our best bib and tucker on for what is described as a "Red Carpet Event" - I can't wait!

Camp, moi?

Bette Bourne

The play "Rock" at the Oval House Theatre

Bette Bourne interviewed in The Guardian in 2005