This is it!

The weekend looms ever closer...

...and it's time for a celebration! Another notable "birthday girl" this week was the very lovely disco queen Miss Melba Moore, who was 80 on Wednesday.

Facts about Miss Moore:

• Her mother was a singer, her birth father was a bandleader and her step-father was a jazz pianist, so it was inevitable that music would be her chosen career.
• She started out as a backing vocalist for the likes of Frank Sinatra and Aretha Franklin.
• She succeeded Diane Keaton in the lead role in Hair on Broadway in 1969.
• In her long career, she won a Tony for her role in the musical Purlie, three Grammy nominations for her music, and in 2023 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Not exactly a "household name" here in the UK, admittedly - she only ever had two Top 20 hits - but this one is the one for which she will be eternally remembered. Thank Disco It's Friday!

Melba Moore - This Is It

Many happy returns, Melba Moore (born Beatrice Melba Smith, 29th October 1945)!

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Meanwhile...

Today is Samhain, Calan Gaeaf, Dziady, Allantide, Hop-tu-Naa, The Season of the Witch - it's Hallowe'en!

Even the Pet Shop Boys have got into the spirit...

Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin (Bryce Miller Monster Mix)

...however, it is this clip that is my unending tradtion at this time of year, knowing full well that is scares my dear sister witless, every time:

The Return of Count Yorga

Careful who you bite, dear reader - and a have a fab, spooky weekend!

It's heavenly, it's ecstasy

I like short working weeks - our extended break in Essex overlapped the (grim and cold - it's traditional!) Bank Holiday and I had Tuesday off as well - but a weekend is a weekend is a weekend.

Tonight, John-John and I are off to the Stoke Newington Literary Festival for an evening with the marvellously eccentric Andrew Logan (of "Alternative Miss World" fame - see here, here and here), in conversation with journalist and friend-of-the-gays Libby Purves and with "a cast of friends including Fenella Fielding [and quite possibly Dame Zandra Rhodes and Molly Parkin as well]! How could we not?

So, let's get the party started in our time-honoured fashion. Time to get those clothes you crocheted yourself back out of the closet - just as the marvellous Miss Melba Moore (with another hit from that "long hot summer of '76") has - and Thank Disco It's Friday!

Melba Moore - This Is It

This Is It, indeed!

Have a great weekend, dear reader...

Hey There

I am aching from digging and potting and planting the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers (before the downpour - typical UK Spring), and completely not in the mood to get up and about for work this morning. Never mind, it's only for a couple of days - I'm off on leave from Wednesday (yay!) ...

Let us not forget that today would have been the 91st birthday of one of our ultimate Patron Saints, Miss Bea Arthur - and this Tacky Music Monday, we have not only the great lady herself, but also Rock Hudson, Melba Moore and Wayland Flowers and Madame to cheer us along! Hey There Good Times, indeed!

Bea Arthur featuring Rock Hudson, Melba Moore and Wayland Flowers and Madame - Hey There Good Times

RIP, darling Bea.

This is it

Friday at last! We have John-John's "black'n'bling" party to look forward to tomorrow night, and the sun will shine...

Time, methinks for a little bit of the marvellous Melba Moore...

Here she is with her 80s floor-filler:

Melba Moore - Love's Coming At Ya

And let us not forget that Miss Moore brought us this stomper, well before Dannii Minogue had even started with the Mickey Mouse Club. Thank Disco It's Friday!

Melba Moore - This Is It