Queeropolis, that fabled city - and a ginger bombshell!

Rounding-off what has proved to be an absolutely hectic week - not only my first one back in work after our holiday (with all that entails), but also Objects of Desire at the Petrie Museum, the open meeting of the organisers of Gay Pride in London 2017 and Polari LGBTHM special at the Southbank Centre on consecutive nights - Madame Arcati, Hils, History Boy, John-John and I trolled off to the quaintly old-fashioned Conway Hall last night for the traditional (almost) "end-of-term-party" for Camden & Islington LGBT History Month, the "Queeropolis" Ball!!



Sadly competing directly against the much-vaunted Winter Pride event that saw the one-night-only "revival" of London's legendary Popstarz alternative gay club night at The Scala in King's Cross, the crowd was admittedly smaller than one would have hoped-for - but we made our best efforts to get the party going! Always an excuse for dressing-up, this year's theme was "Legal and Civic Society" and "high court judge, an officer of the law, ancient Roman Senator or just ‘as you were’" were the suggestions. We opted to just go the latter, and go "smart'n'blingy", although Crog did say he'd modelled his "look" on Columbo, and Hils had a wig that could pass for a barrister's, so lots of fun was had with that...



DJs Jason Prince and Alexander Price certainly helped get us in the mood with their (largely) 80s and Disco playlist, and got everyone (including the lovely eccentric hostess-with-the-mostest at the aforementioned Petrie Museum Helen Pike) up and dancing. However, things really started shaking (literally, where her sexy dancing boys were concerned!) when the evening's Mistress of Ceremonies Lana Pillay took to the stage to perform her hit Pistol in My Pocket!



The evening's programme opened with a serious introduction by Camden LGBT Forum Trustee Natacha Kennedy, who reminded everyone of the importance of LGBT History Month and how some of the lessons learned from some of the darker chapters of our history were frighteningly close to being repeated today (particularly where Trans rights are concerned). After that we went for a fag and then to the bar, so missed both the poetry of Trudy Howson and the (very loud - we could hear it in the lobby) performance by former Adam Ant guitarist David Ryder Prangley.



However, on our return, there was a whirlwind on stage - "The Beyonce Experience". Not being a fan of "Queen Bey" nor her music, this was nevertheless surprisingly entertaining - just watching him/her and his/her backing dancers cavorting all over the stage was exhausting stuff, and brilliantly done.



After a special appearance from former creative director of Harvey Nichols (she was directly responsible to the store's prominent repeated presence in AbFab), reality television star (Mary, Queen of Shops) and proud lesbian mother (she was the first celeb to marry her partner once equal marriage became law in the UK) Mary Portas, it was time for the moment we had all been waiting for - our headliner, a veteran of Stock Aitken & Waterman, Eurovision and even the Lily Savage Show, SONIA!



For the uninitiated, the effervescent and diminutive ginger-haired diva was immensely popular in the late 80s and early 90s, with 11 UK Top 30 hits, before trying her hand at comedy acting and panto. Never one to take herself seriously, she charmed even the cynics among us with her infectious laugh, and was never to be seen without a smile. And she hasn't changed a bit! She still has that powerhouse singing voice, and she had the audience absolutely in the palm of her hand, everyone singing along and waving their arms as if the 1990s had never gone away.

And here, for your delectation, is a double-bill of her greatest hits:

Sonia - You'll Never Stop Me From Loving You

Sonia - Better The Devil You Know (Eurovision Song Contest 1993)

She was Great. Sophisticated. Mersey.

We (literally) had a Ball!

A little something to make me sweeter

All good things must come to an end. Some with a whimper - and some with a bang!

And so, all dressed for "an early preview of the afterlife", Hils, Crog, John-John, Paul, Mark and I trolled off to Islington Assembly Hall for One Night in Heaven, the traditional end-of-LGBT-History-Month gala hosted by Camden LGBT Forum on Saturday.



Oh, those fabulous balls we love to hold...

...and it was fabulous! What remnants there were of it. The "Whore of Hampstead" - drag queen Sandra - was advertised as our host again; she was nowhere to be seen (or heard!). Neither was the lovely Rosie Wilby; but we did have poetry from Trudy Howson. And, instead of the Gay Men's Chorus, we got some Ed Sheeran-wannabee with a guitar and a load of dull songs.

However...



Al Pillay was - as always - a sparkling, loud, and very entertaining opening act. Totally unconnected to her performance on Saturday,and just for the hell of it, here he/she is with her own inimitable take on the fairy tale The Snow Queen:

Lana's Story Land - The Snow Queen

Meth - the only member of the advertised "Family Fierce" to show up - was a wonder to behold. Her "performance art" interpretations of Adele's Hello (inter-cut with snippets of Miss Jackson and, of course, Lionel Richie's identically-titled signature tune) and Katy Perry's Roar were in turn bewildering and hilarious.

But, if truth be told, there was only one act we really wanted to see - the utterly wonderful Andy Bell (of Erasure), of course!!



He was everything we expected, and more. With a set that didn't just stick to the "obvious" - his opening rendition of Erasure's Always, was a remix version - he has so much energy as a performer, he left many in the audience (some decades younger than he) exhausted just watching him.





In between Sacred from 2014's Erasure album The Violet Flame and his finale of crowd-pleasers including Blue Savannah and Respect (with a troupe of "backing dancers"; all the evening's performers), he proudly announced (before singing it) he was back at the top of America's Billboard Dance Chart with this one - Dave Aude feat. Andy Bell and True Original:

Dave Aude feat. Andy Bell - True Original

Pumped up with adrenaline, we cheered and whooped for more, but alas! We were to be disappointed. Despite everyone who attended having been issued with tickets that said it closed at 1am, we had no more from the acts, no more brilliant party choons from DJs Jonathan Kemp and Sadie Frost (as we had when we arrived); nothing else but... the raffle prize draw. Then the bar closed. To say we were disappointed is a bit of an understatement - but, as we were ushered out of the hall, we still had Andy Bell's voice ringing in our ears...

"Give a little respect to-oo-oo me!"

Erasure - A Little Respect

Jimmy, Judy, Al, Ida, Kimmy, a whore and me

What a momentous evening the end-of-LGBT-History-Month Gala Ball turned out to be!

We (John-John, Mark, Hils, Crog and I) were already excited at the prospect of seeing our headliner Jimmy Somerville - and, of course, about having another bloody brilliant excuse for dressing-up (one of the original things about the evening was to "come as your favourite historical character"; this had disappeared from the publicity by the time the flyers were out, but we didn't care). Hils dressed in full Suffragette uniform, Crog as Kemel Ataturk crossed with the shopkeeper from Mr Benn, I was some kind of meld between Lord Foppington and a Liberace impersonator, John-John came as Mr Humphries (hee hee) and Mark as a version of Liza Minnelli...







Our venue was the eccentric and twee Conway Hall, home to The Ethical Society, Darwinists, Humanists and every other sort of radical anti-establishment intellectual cause. Its great hall, stripped of furniture, looked even more impressive than I remembered it [the majority of events I've been to here have been in the somewhat "schoolroom-like" antechambers], and the capacity crowd represented a fine cross-section of ages, sexes, sexualities, gender identities, colours and creeds, as one would expect.



Opening the proceedings was our MC for the opening segments of the evening, the irrepressible "Whore of Hampstead Heath" Sandra, who warmed the audience up as only she can (and also in the process made a very welcome announcement that after her recent health scare, she is now "cancer-free"). Entertaining as Sandra is, of course, as was Trudy Hewson's poetry, it was when she got the crowd to part down the middle that we realised that a real star was in the building - and about to make a spectacular entrance.



Mzz Kimberley (for it was she) practically exploded into the room, sashaying up and down among the delighted crowd, exercising her phenomenal tonsils on (most appropriately) Dame Shirley Bassey's History Repeating. Taking to the stage itself (with difficulty, up the steep proscenium steps - although thankfully she didn't "do a Madonna"), she continued to wow the crowd on big numbers like Aretha's Reach.

She is utterly amazing, and we were gob-smacked. Here she is at another show singing Papa Told Me Not To Come:

Mzz Kimberley - Papa Told Me Not To Come

How does one follow an extravaganza like that? With a former Music Hall singer whose repertoire includes urban vibes, innit!



Of course, we were overjoyed that our favourite purveyor of "Artificial Hip Hop" Ida Barr was on the bill. She made such an impression on our gang when we first saw her on stage that Hils and Crog even hired her to perform at their wedding! Naturally, she had the crowd singing along and completely nonplussed (a medley of the hymn Jerusalem with Nicki Minaj, anyone?) in turn.

In case anyone wants to understand just what the bloody hell I am on about, here's Ida's new song BPM:

Ida Barr - BPM

"Use your culture, or lose your culture!"



The remarkable Al Pillay is a stalwart of old-school campaigning, a former pop star and television actor, and a brilliant show-person. At last year's Ball, he/she saved the day with a buzzing high-energy set of dancy numbers. This year he/she was more in the mood for some rallying protest songs, and we were treated to such crowd-pleasers as The Times They Are A-Changin’ and some dire words of warning about the dangers of complacency about voting in this election year.

Brilliant - and a perfect lead-in to the thing most people were waiting for - the appearance on stage of the legendary (and surprisingly sexy) Jimmy Somerville! I nearly died (this was the first time I have ever seen him live).



Being a very special one-off appearance for LGBT History Month, he simply had to perform many a gay boy's anthem (including mine) Smalltown Boy, and, this being only a short set, he concluded with the song that had the whole room jumping up and down - Don't Leave Me This Way. But in between, he spoke movingly and at length about his own experiences of being young, gay and radical in the 80s, of being part of the movement that spawned Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (see my blog about the story behind the movie Pride), and the sense of loss he felt when his good friend Mark Ashton of that group became one of the early casualties of the terrifying AIDS epidemic. And then, he sang a number that he admitted he hadn't sung for over a decade...

Like a bolt from the blue, the lyrics started: "I never cried the way I cried over you." I could feel the wave of emotion across the audience as those of us who had been there, who had actually suffered those losses as Jimmy had, began to cry; hearing his treasured classic For A Friend for the first time in years.

Tears were streaming down my cheeks: "As I watch the sun go down, watching the world fade away, All the memories of you come rushing back to me." We hugged, strangers united in our collective memories. This is our history. This was needed.

Communards - For a Friend

I was, however, immensely glad for the relief of that Thelma Houston gay anthem, and the chance for a good old rollicking bop.

Jimmy Somerville, I love you.



I felt sorry for Camden's very own top-drawer drag legend Earl Grey. For, once those people who only came to see Jimmy had left en masse, and Al Pillay had done the raffle (which always takes ages), there was quite a depleted audience for his superb "Judy Garland" act. But my heavens, it was worth it - he flawlessly captures every tic, every movement, every inflection of the Original Gay Icon (note the capitals), and should be far more highly recognised for it than, say, the eternally dreary Rufus Wainwright.

With the closing hour thrown over to the campest-of-camp disco and pop, courtesy of DJs Jonathan Kemp, Sadie Frost and Alexander Price, we were sated.





This was one fantastic evening! Nigel, Tessa and the gang at Camden LGBT Forum did us proud.

Balls

The end-of-LGBT-History-Month "Glamour Factory" Ball we went to on Friday was a mixed bag, to say the very least.

On the one hand, it gave us an excuse (if any were needed!) for us to dress up to the nines in our best Warhol/60s/70s/glamorous "frock coats and bibbity-bobbity hats"; we had a marvellous vintage fashion parade (from students at Goldsmiths, taking gay musical icons through the decades as its theme); Earl Grey did a magnificent turn as Judy Garland, and a slightly less magnificent appearance as HM The Queen; Islington councillor James Murray proudly announced that the UK's very first legal gay marriage will be held at the Town Hall on 28th March; and the DJs Jonathan Kemp, Sadie and Joe Pop did us proud with suitably retro music to bop to.



On the other hand, our "host" Bird la Bird was possibly the most annoying, unfunny (and on occasions, downright offensive with her anti-monarchist incoherent ranting) individual I have encountered since Tony Blackburn at Proms in the Park; several "ladies-who-like-playing-pool" decided that "free bubbly" was something to sink by the bucketload, leading to some very blokey behaviour indeed; and the live music - for a celebration of gay history, remember - consisted of a bunch of Heavy Metal rockers. More than two-thirds of what had been a huge and diverse audience left before the excessively loud thrashing guitars had played their second number...



Thank heavens for Al (Lana) Pillay, in all his/her glittering fabulosity! He/she even dedicated his/her smash hit Pistol In My Pocket to the benighted Vladimir Putin.

And here, for your delectation, is that very song:

Lana Pillay - Pistol in my Pocket

Camden and Islington LGBT History Month 2014 was another massive success (the biggest in the world, by all accounts), and I look forward to being involved/supporting next year's events!

Magnificent balls

The Rainbow Flag flew proudly above Islington Town Hall, as the light faded and we waited in the pub opposite for the doors to open at the Assembly Hall on Friday - for the event of the season, the Big Bang Ball (the celebration party for Camden and Islington LGBT History Month)!



Opening the show, the London Gay Big Band were brilliant, and kept the party going with - ahem! - a swing...



Hils and History Boy took full advantage of the dance class.



The effervescent Mrs Moore was our MC for the evening - and had us once again in stitches with her impromptu banter, and in awe of her fab singing voice.



The DJ, Ian James, was gorgeous.



Rights campaigner Father Bernard Lynch, Trustee and Co-Chair of Camden LGBT Forum, addressed the audience with a straight-from-the-hip rallying cry about the importance of LGBT History Month.



Our headline act was the Lesbian New Romantic tribute band, the wittily-named Joanne Joanne, who weren't bad at all actually - even if some of the tracks they chose were somewhat obscure ("We don't do Rio" is their mantra, apparently). They did do this one, however, Girls on Film:

Joanne Joanne - Planet Earth

Everyone - including LGBT royalty such as the marvellous Al Pillay - seemed to be enjoying themselves, and considering it was a cold miserable day in February, around 120 people in attendance - many of them in the most outrageous Sci-Fi-theme costumes - was quite a good turnout methinks.

In all, as balls go, full and satisfying!

Steampunk, Tango and big wigs

Our gang (Hils, Madam Arcati, Crog, Jim and I) all made a fabulous effort dressing up for the grand "Steampunk"-themed LGBT History Month Ball last night!

And we had a great time - with a cheesy disco and pop DJ, lesbian Tango exhibition, dance classes and a motley crue of similarly attired gayers from Camden and Islington, in the fab Art Deco surroundings of the Islington Assembly Hall (part of the Town Hall, resplendent with its first ever rainbow flag on the roof), how could we not?

In addition to the mayhem, our cabaret for the evening was the marvellous drag queen Miss Hope Springs, described on her website thus:

"Ex Vegas showgirl turned lounge act cocktail pianist Miss Hope Springs is on tour in Europe after the Starlight Lounge at the Pink Pelican Casino, where she had been entertaining since the sixt... I mean seventies... was dynamited and turned into a parking lot.

Having recently become single after her husband Irving ran off with his gym buddy Carlos, Hope is searching for that elusive trio - no... not her musicians, but love, happiness and success.

Currently living in her Winnebago, Miss Hope Springs is available for private parties, weddings and bar mitzvahs."

She was unfortunate in the fact that much of her audience at the Ball were mainly busy chatting at the bar (and some chatting right at the front of the stage - how rude!). But she growled magnificently through three hilarious numbers, before leaving us. Here's the "lady" herself...

Miss Hope Springs - Trog

It was a superb evening, and a fitting way to round off the events of LGBT History Month, which finishes at the end of February!

We are off to Brighton today for a few days, so "normal service" here at Dolores Delargo Towers may well be subject to further disruption...

Tu M'as Promis

Having a very slow day indeed after line-dancing our tits off at the "Winter Ball" last night (held to celebrate the close of this year's LGBT History Month in the glittering Islington Assembly Hall), I've been in the mood for replaying some favourite videos.

Including this slice of artistic genius by the magnificent Pierre et Gilles for Italian diva In-Grid - I adore it!

Lamur feat. In-Grid - Tu es foutu

And here is the latest - fantabulosa! - single by the lady herself...

In-Grid - Vive Le Swing