Wouldn't you think I'm the girl who has everything?

"Quadruple Threat.
Acts, Sings, Dances, Pours a decent pint.
Rotherham's finest export since Paul Shane."

Having trekked across Regent's Park after work on Friday to the Open Air Theatre box office to book tickets for their forthcoming production of Evita, I felt I was in need of some libations, so paid a visit to our customary haunt Halfway to Heaven down in the West End. I was very glad I did, too, as not only was there a decent smattering of "our gang" (well, Paul, Mark and John-John, anyway) and other regulars in attendance, and a flying visit from our currently residing-out-of-town chum Pretty David, but there was a cancellation among the usual Friday night drag fare; this meant that (at short notice) the stalwart of late night cabaret, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern (RVT), Edinburgh Fringe and - as she took great delight in (repeatedly) telling us - cast member of the new film of the wildly successful West End musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie [alongside Richard E Grant], Miss Myra DuBois ("The Songbird of South Yorkshire") was in residence!

I have seen the saintly Myra loads of times before, as pub quiz host, emcee, interviewer and general lynchpin of a number of RVT evenings, but this was the first time I'd caught one of her one-woman shows. She's chuffing hilarious, too!

"I make it my mission to personally connect with every single member of my audience. That’s why so many of them leave the theatre as life-long AdMyras. “AdMyras” being the pet term I give to my fans. Like Lady Gaga has her “little monsters” and Kate Bush has the ‘socially inept’. I have my AdMyras. And there’ll be songs, my goodness there’ll be songs! I can’t put myself on a stage and not sing for my people, it wouldn’t be fair. Songs, laughter and a fully stocked bar. That’s what punters can expect from one of my shows!"

I laughed till tears streamed down my cheeks at her acidic repartee, her admonishments of misbehaving members of the audience, and, of course, those "songs"...

Myra DuBois and the Spiders in Bras

Myra DuBois - Part of Your World (from The Little Mermaid)

Now that's what I call an old trouper!!

Myra DuBois official website.

I move like a cat, charge like a ram. Sting like a bee, babe I wanna be your man!

I have had a bugger of a day today battling with a hijack virus that apart from giving me pop-up pages every thirty seconds seems to think that my homepage is not good enough (it's the BBC) and should be substituted with something else, and that Google is not good enough as a search engine so keeps flashing up AskJeeves pages... It still hasn't gone, but the number of virus checks and anti-spyware runs I have had to do means I have hardly had a chance to do what I like best - web surfing and posting blogs - before the damn Trojan pops up again and I have to log off.



Anyhow, I had a fabulous evening yesterday in the company of our fave drag icon Trindy (whose 50th birthday it is tomorrow), and her outrageous "Bowie Night"! It all started well, with the "lady" herself arriving on stage resplendent in black feather headdress to perform the classic Diamond Dogs.

Then all of a sudden, the crowd of middle-European lesbians who had been drinking at Halfway all day decided to take their tops off and parade around the downstairs bar, tits-a-bobble! Trindy loved it - shrieking from the stage "Oh fuck! It's the Isle Of Wight Festival, 1970!", before launching into numbers from my favourite Bowie albums Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust.

The show was a stunning success - with straights and gays, Queen Bitches and lesbians alike all up bopping away in a genuine nostalgia trip! So much so, that once the allotted time had passed Trindy (never one to miss a beat!) performed encores of Marc Bolan/T Rex numbers.

We moved upstairs after the final cheers, to meet up with Tony, Ginger Dave and others (who we had seen earlier on their way to see Dirty White Boy and had returned raving about the show), when all of a sudden more familiar Glam Rock strains emerged from downstairs! Drunk on her success, Trindy had decided to carry on the party atmosphere - so down we went for a fabulous set of songs by Suzi Quattro, Glitter Band, Slade, Sweet and even Mud! A great night!

This was the definitive star turn of the evening, and should definitely be Trindy's signature tune (along with Radiohead's Creep that she performs as part of her more general show) - laydeez'n'gentlemen, Mr Marc Bolan...

T Rex - 20th Century Boy

Fabulous.

Give me your hand, 'cos you're wonderful

Last night, leaving the Arts Theatre after revelling in the joys of Shirley Jones, it was time for a drink. So being creatures of habit, John-John, Russ, Joe and I headed back to Halfway to Heaven.

To our delight, the drag show was still in full swing downstairs, with the irrepressible Mrs Moore, the skinniest drag on the scene Tanya Hyde, and the fantabulosa glam rock maven Trindy! Usually on Wednesday it is "Glam Jam" with Lady Imelda and CJ, but they were off in Glasgow apparently, filming the latest Weakest Link Drag Queen Special. I have no problem with either of them, but the format of that particular evening's entertainment veers uncomfortably close to karaoke (featuring as it does some West End players singing their versions of popular standards) and that is a particular genre of entertainment that I cannot bear. Piano bar sing-along, yes. Drag show, yes. Karaoke, never.

So it was worthwhile going down on this occasion, and, as ever, "the girls" didn't disappoint. I was particularly pleased when the lovely Trindy added a new song to her repertoire, and performed Rock'n'Roll Suicide just for me (we had been chatting earlier about favourite Bowie numbers, and I mentioned that this was one of mine). She has a whole "Bowie Special" show coming up, so I must look out for that!

Surprisingly, when you search YouTube for some of our favourite drag acts, there is very little footage available. I posted some that I found in my blog about the Sinders tribute show last October. But I am overjoyed to have found this... Over to Trindy!

Trindy as The Groover

PS She normally sings live, by the way...

All About Sin

Yesterday, to mark what would have been the 42nd birthday of the legendary "Sinders" (who survived the Admiral Duncan bomb and was brutally murdered by a gang five years ago), his friends Alison and (our mate) Sally organised a gala evening of entertainment at Halfway to Heaven to raise money for the Albert Kennedy Trust, which supports homeless young gay people.

Appropriately titled "It's All About Sin", giving their time for free were some of the London scene's greatest drag acts including our hosts Kelly Mild and Crystal d'Canter, Kevin Cruise, Tanya Hyde, Lady Imelda, Rose Garden, Mrs Moore, Titti La Camp and Sandra - and it was one helluva show!

Among the highlights were the £100 that was popped into Imelda's bra for her to flash her "mangina" (which she did, briefly - eek!), one random bloke who raised a fortune to display his bare ass at the crowd, Rose Garden selling snogs (including a passionate clinch with lesbian Jools from QX magazine), and Mrs Moore hijacking punters for their small change on their way to the loo...

All the acts were magnificent, and early estimates reckon that well over £1000 was raised in four hours! Excellent stuff, and here are some random clips of the "ladies" themselves:

Crystal and Kelly - Suddenly, Seymour

The award winning Mrs Moore

Rose Garden ft Diamanda

Lady Imelda - With One Look

Titti La Camp @ Halfway to Heaven

Clapham Street Party 6

[PS The photo at the top of the page was taken about nine years ago at a party at Sally's pub, with Sinders (in cap).]

David "Sinders" Morley tribute site

Albert Kennedy Trust

Halfway II Heaven

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

How can you sum up in a short space of time the reasons why you like a particular artist?

That was the conundrum set at the Marc Almond Orpheus in Exile album signing at HMV, when, just after having been onto the stage with the great man, spoken briefly to him, had photos taken and got him to sign my CD, I was collared by an interviewer and camera from Reuters TV.

"How long have you been a fan?" "Since first seeing him on Top of the Pops performing Tainted Love, I suppose."

"Are you pleased to see him make a comeback after his accident?" [Doh!] "Of course - we all were! I saw him at one of his first stage appearances afterwards [at the Patti Smith Meltdown in 2005], and he performed brilliantly, and got huge applause."

[and then the killer question] "Why do you like Marc?" How can you answer that? So I flustered a bit, realising there was limited time and said "He is one of Britain's greatest singers. He can turn his hand to so many different genres of music, and perform them all superbly."

Not sure whether any of these slightly pedestrian answers will ever get broadcast, but it does rather throw you when confronted by a boom mike...

The event was a great experience - it's not often you get to meet someone whose influence on your life is so immense. It is something that cannot be summed up in a few soundbites. Marc was charming and affable, even in the face of hundreds of eager fans and slightly agitated security staff [one of whom I knew from a previous life in Plymouth, but that's another story!]. It really made me feel good - and I know it did the same for the gang of "Almondettes" I was with (Ange, Yvonne, Tony, Lydia, Adrian and the rest).





All of us floating on cloud nine - particularly Ange, who Marc recognised immediately, and Yvonne, who was chuffed to bits at Marc's admiration for the portrait she had done for him - we settled our thoughts over a drinkie at Halfway to Heaven, and Yvonne and I went on to do Mrs Moore's Monday Quiz downstairs (which we didn't win, dammit), finishing off with a nightcap in the bar at Yvonne's hotel till the wee small hours.



A great day indeed!

Buy Orpheus in Exile from Amazon

Books, booze and buxom drag

What a fab day yesterday! I went along to Prowler in Soho to listen to Paul Burston reading from his best-seller The Gay Divorcee, knowing that quite a few people on MySpace were also going to be there to give support.

Read my review on Amazon

I got chatting to Clayton and boyf Jorge, "Dexter Clark - Celebrity Hairdresser" (who is working on a one-man show, coming to a theatre near you soon), and met up with Ange, Tony, Yvonne, Roland and Dino.

There weren't that many other people apart from MySpacers in the audience, but as it was such a scorching day I had no doubt that most queens would be sunbathing somewhere...

So, once Paul had read one of the more salacious pieces from his book (appropriate really - the blow-by-blow account of an orgy, in a setting surrounded by posh pants and poppers), and Yvonne had presented Paul with a chocolate champagne bottle, everyone who hadn't already got a copy had their books signed, and some klutz managed to break a camera (me - oops, sorry Tony!) we decided the best option was to troll off to Tesco for booze and join the shirtless hordes (and Ginger Dave) in Soho Square.





After an hour of gossip, sunshine and "spot the hairdresser", Ange had to go but the rest of us decided to catch the last part of the drag show at Halfway to Heaven. And what good timing! We caught Mrs Moore's last two numbers - fab as always - and the Abba/Erasure finalé from Crystal and Kelly, which is guaranteed to put everyone in a good mood.

Not content with leaving it there, I ended up joining Tony again and Grumpy later on for a few bevvies and more drag in The Old Ship in Limehouse. We had thought Yvonne and Dino would join us, but evidently the journey to the wilds of the East End was a step too far...

All in all a grand day out, Gromit!

Super Troupers

We had a great time at Halfway to Heaven yesterday afternoon, thanks to the lovely CK - aka Crystal D'Canter and Kelly Mild, glamorous cabaret artistes extraordinaire.

Madam Arcati has always had a concern that the age of the classic drag queen performer - the type of act that sings and has some patter, rather than those who just dress in funny costumes and mime - was over, now that some of the old troupers (Phil Starr, Dockyard Doris et al) are dead. But these two - each was a recent winner of the "Drag Idol" competition - prove that the spirit of Music Hall, and its successor the drag show, is alive and well and in Central London every Sunday!

The girls are great singers and entertainers, and you ain't seen nothing till you've seen their audience participation version of The Court Of King Caractacus! Here they are at the recent Clapham Street Party:

Crystal D'Canter and Kelly Mild at Clapham Street Party

And here's a sing-a-long for Monday (unfortunately without all the actions!)

Court of King Caractacus