Diana's message from the ether

Who better to help with your Coronation celebrations than Princess Diana, Queen of Hearts? Here are some tips from the former Royal everyone would much rather be watching on Saturday.

Stock up on drinks in advance
I’d recommend doing a shop for wine and beer today. The Coronation coverage starts early tomorrow, and the last thing you want is for Big Ears and his horse-faced shag to pop up on TV without a drink to take the edge off.

Should you make a Coronation Quiche?
I’d say ‘no’ on the entirely reasonable grounds that they sound fucking disgusting. I mean, spinach, green beans and cheese? It’s no wonder the Royals have got £21 billion stashed away if they’re too tight to splash out on an M&S quiche. If I was becoming Queen, which I know you’d all prefer, I’d insist on something decent like Coronation tandoori mixed grill.

Don’t miss the Household Cavalry
I’ve always had a certain fondness for this historic regiment, possibly due to shagging Major James Hewitt. The bastard sold my personal letters afterwards, but I’m prepared to let that slide. Yes, I love the Household Cavalry, who helped win the Battle of Waterloo and are, in my experience, better in bed than some weirdo husband who prefers talking to his plants to giving his hot young wife one. Naming no names, obviously.

When to say your pledge of loyalty
This has confused a lot of people, but don’t worry! During the ceremony, the Archbishop of Canterbury will give everyone a clear prompt. It’s that simple. Of course, you might not want to promise to lay down your life for a man whose only contribution to humanity is making posh biscuits no one buys. Just putting that out there.

Make your own Coronation playlist
Let’s face it, the music is going to be shit, so when boring old Westminster Abbey choir come on I’m just going to put Seven and the Ragged Tiger on my Sony Walkman. Katy Perry should be okay later on, but Charles doesn’t like pop music so he’ll have to look enthusiastic while hating every minute. Ha. Good.

Should you organise a street party?
Sadly you’ve run out of time to give the council the required 4-12 weeks notice and, if you intend to charge for alcohol, apply for a Temporary Events Notice. But there’s nothing to stop you having a party in your garden and inviting the neighbours. Just bear in mind it’s going to be a much less popular occasion than, say, the 1981 Royal Wedding, so don’t buy loads of sausage rolls unless you’ve got a chest freezer or a dog.

Stave off boredom by reminding yourself it’s a historic event
I found that helped me get through quite a few ballsaching Royal events. And in a way it is quite historical. With the Queen gone, Andrew’s unsavoury antics and hours of ridiculous medieval cosplay, I doubt people are going to be watching this bollocks for much longer.

The Daily Mash

Of course.

The People's Princess

Where exactly has the last quarter of a century gone, since the world was shocked into silence at the news of the death of the beautiful and captivating Princess Diana?

It seems like only yesterday that I wrote this:

They say everyone can remember where they were the exact time they found out the awful news about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. And yes, I know exactly where I was... Waiting for a ferry early in the morning from Roscoff in Brittany to Plymouth, there was a hastily scribbled A4 sheet of paper pinned to the information booth - "Lady Di dead".

Not understanding the full implication of this, we went back to the car and my boyf at the time translated the local radio reports from French into English. It was true! Our Royal Princess, fashion icon and "friend" was indeed gone for ever - and ironically died in a car crash in the capital of this very country.

The journey home was peculiar. I felt the news had not yet sunk in - not just for me, but also for the hundreds of passengers on board, many of whom were obviously just learning the dreadful news from looking at the widescreen TVs in the breakfast lounge. The gradual stunned silence that fell over what would normally be a chaotic crowd of returning Brits and French back-packers was eerie.

It may be crass to say that Diana herself in any way changed our world, but her death certainly made the biggest emotional impact I have ever known upon the public in Britain and across the globe. International media had made her THE face of a generation, and in death Diana eclipsed any megastar status she could ever have dreamed about.

Many people can make accusations about a "conspiracy" surrounding her accidental death, or about "the real Diana", but in many many ways she continues to live on (in pictures) as the young, beautiful woman we want to remember - an ethereal spectre of a most unusual era in British history.

It still hurts, just looking at these joyful photos of an iconic woman.

Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer, 1st July 1961 – 31st August 1997)

RIP

[click any photo to embiggen]

Canuck-fest, eh?

Not only would our dearly-missed Princess Diana have celebrated her 60th birthday today, but it also happens to be Canada Day!

Without further ado, let's pay due deference to the land that gave the world William Shatner, Fay Wray, Pamela Anderson, Ryan Reynolds, Bryan Adams, Keanu Reeves, Leonard Cohen, Michael Buble, Alanis Morrisette, Jim Carrey, Avril Lavigne, Donald and Kiefer Sutherland, Joni Mitchell, Mike Myers, Shania Twain, Leslie Nielsen, k.d. lang, John Candy, Paul Anka, possibly the world's first fuckable Head of State Justin Trudeau, and - erm - Justin Bieber, Drake and Slime Dion(!) with this delightful ditty [from a citizen of a completely different former colony altogether]...

Kevin "Bloody" Wilson - You Can't Say Cunt in Canada

About Canada Day.

Everywhere that beauty glows you are

It is twenty three years since Diana, Princess of Wales' death rocked the world.

The last Bank Holiday is upon us, and for a change on a Monday I am not spitting feathers about work. The weather isn't too bad - not warm, by any stretch of the imagination, but more sunshine than we've had for a while - and I have been out in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers doing a bit of dead-heading. If it stays dry, we'll be watering and feeding the pots later in anticipation of an "Indian Summer". We deserve one...

Despite the sad recollections that inevitably accompany the anniversary of the death of our beloved Princess Diana, there is still a need, methinks, to "jolly things up" at the start of any week.

As it happens to be the birthday today of the late, great Alan Jay Lerner [creator of My Fair Lady, Gigi, Camelot and many more incredible musicals], let's have a number from one of the great man's perhaps lesser-known productions, the almost-appropriately-titled Royal Wedding.

On this Tacky Music Bank Holiday Monday, what better than a breathtakingly choreographed number by the marvellous Fred Astaire to provide us with a wake-up call?!

Fred Astaire - You're All The World To Me

Everywhere that beauty glows you are
Everywhere an orchid grows you are
Everything that's young and gay, brighter than a holiday
Everywhere the angels play you are

Indeed.

Twenty years of hurt

Time has flown.

As the headlines are full once again with pictures and recollections of one of the most-mourned women in history, twenty years on from the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, so the memories flood in.

There is little I can meaningfully add to the endless analysis of her legacy, so I return to what I said in this very blog ten years ago:

They say everyone can remember where they were the exact time they found out the awful news about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. And yes, I know exactly where I was... Waiting for a ferry early in the morning from Roscoff in Brittany to Plymouth, there was a hastily scribbled A4 sheet of paper pinned to the information booth - "Lady Di dead".

Not understanding the full implication of this, we went back to the car and my boyf at the time translated the local radio reports from French into English. It was true! Our Royal Princess, fashion icon and "friend" was indeed gone for ever - and ironically died in a car crash in the capital of this very country.

The journey home was peculiar. I felt the news had not yet sunk in - not just for me, but also for the hundreds of passengers on board, many of whom were obviously just learning the dreadful news from looking at the widescreen TVs in the breakfast lounge. The gradual stunned silence that fell over what would normally be a chaotic crowd of returning Brits and French back-packers was eerie.

It may be crass to say that Diana herself in any way changed our world, but her death certainly made the biggest emotional impact I have ever known upon the public in Britain and across the globe. International media had made her THE face of a generation, and in death Diana eclipsed any megastar status she could ever have dreamed about.

Many people can make accusations about a "conspiracy" surrounding her accidental death, or about "the real Diana", but in many many ways she continues to live on (in pictures) as the young, beautiful woman we want to remember - an ethereal spectre of a most unusual era in British history.

They were sad days...

Sir Elton John - Candle in the Wind at Princess Diana's funeral

RIP, Diana. We still miss you.

Retrospection

It is nineteen years to the day that the dreadful news permeated the world. Our Princess Diana was dead, and nothing would be quite the same again...

The musical landscape in August 1997 was dominated by boy-bands (Backstreet Boys, No Mercy, 911, Boyzone, OTT), BritPop (Oasis, Suede, Ocean Colour Scene, Blur, Chumbawamba, Stereophonics), R'n'B (Shola Ama, En Vogue, Mary J Blige, Coolio, All Saints; and Will Smith at No 1) and a clutch of classic club acts (Sash, Gala, DJ Quicksilver, Todd Terry, Ultra Nate, Livin' Joy) - but this was also an era when some more "introspective" acts rose to the fore, such as Radiohead, The Verve, and The Beloved.

And, most appropriately on this sad anniversary, it is to the latter we turn for a little moment of retrospection:

The Beloved - Sun Rising

Love is just a state of mind that we leave behind
It's just the sun rising

Indeed.

RIP Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances, née Spencer, 1st July 1961 – 31st August 1997)

Majestic

It is frightening how time flies.

Can it really be fifteen years since the world woke to the chilling news of the tragic and dramatic death of our beloved Princess Diana?

It seems like only yesterday that I wrote of my memories of that awful day, a decade on...

RIP

Lest we forget

Diana, Princess of Wales (born 1 July 1961 – died 31 August 1997)

Changed the world

This week in 1997 was a strange one, as the world began to wake up to the loss of Princess Diana. Her death had a particularly (and well-documented) moving effect on the people of Britain, and tributes in music - as well as those floral and political - were just about to flood the scene, with Elton John predominant to the end of the year.

But what was the musical state of play just before Royal funereal hysteria took hold? Were there any significant choons we have forgotten from that long, hot summer of 1997? How about these..?

The Course - Ain't Nobody

Todd Terry featuring Jocelyn Brown and Martha Wash - Something Goin' On

Gala - Freed From Desire

Chumbawamba - Tubthumping

Where did you get that hat?

I have always had a "thing" for hats - whether those of Schiaparelli or Cecil Beaton, Philip Treacy or Mitza Bricard for Dior. Among my greatest style icons are people who can really wear hats - George Melly, Audrey Hepburn, Gloria Swanson, Molly Parkin, Grace Jones, Greta Garbo, Isabella Blow. So it was no surprise, really, that we had to go and see the exhibition Hats - an Anthology at the V&A before it closes tomorrow.

It was a sumptuous extravaganza - so many beautiful and bizarre creations I just wanted to try on!

Influenced by Cecil Beaton's 1971 V&A show Fashion - an Anthology and including 300 examples of millinery and its inspirations throughout history - from an Egyptian Anubis mask dating from 600 BC, a Coptic Fez (ca. 1100), a Tudor knitted beret and a silk and straw bonnet dating from 1807, to the most unusual creations of today - it was collated and artistically inspired by the wunderkind milliner to the stars Stephen Jones.



Born in 1957, Stephen graduated from London's St Martin's School of Art in 1979 and began to make hats for friends - just at the right time for the post-punk Futurist/New Romantic dressing-up world that heralded the early 80s.

At around that time he lived in a squat with Boy George, among others - and as the only squatter with a car, he used to drive the Boy around to the Blitz Club and other arty nights where they would parade their latest outrageous sartorial creations.

As his designs became wildly in demand amongst the uber-hip (Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Steve Strange) within a year of graduating he had his own shop in Covent Garden. Things really took off when Jean-Paul Gaultier saw George wearing one of Stephen's designs in the video for Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? and invited him to design the hats for his latest Paris show.

He went on to acquire the greatest accolade of the age when Princess Diana commissioned him to design for her, and his fame was assured - over the years he has worked with Vivienne Westwood, Claude Montana, Comme des Garcons, Marc Jacobs, Thierry Mugler and John Galliano, and his surreal creations have been worn by just about everyone including the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Marilyn Manson, Pink, Gwen Stefani, Alison Goldfrapp, Beyonce Knowles and Dita Von Teese.

Even renowned contemporary and rival surrealist milliner Philip Treacy learned his trade on work placement with Stephen Jones...

A genius - and a brilliant exhibition!

Hats - an Anthology

Stephen Jones Millinery

A decade of mourning

TEN YEARS! It seems incomprehensible...

An icon for a generation was tragically killed a decade ago, and yet she is hardly ever off the front pages (particularly if you look at The Express every Monday!).

They say everyone can remember where they were the exact time they found out the awful news about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. And yes, I know exactly where I was... Waiting for a ferry early in the morning from Roscoff in Brittany to Plymouth, there was a hastily scribbled A4 sheet of paper pinned to the information booth - "Lady Di dead".

Not understanding the full implication of this, we went back to the car and my boyf at the time translated the local radio reports from French into English. It was true! Our Royal Princess, fashion icon and "friend" was indeed gone for ever - and ironically died in a car crash in the capital of this very country.

The journey home was peculiar. I felt the news had not yet sunk in - not just for me, but also for the hundreds of passengers on board, many of whom were obviously just learning the dreadful news from looking at the widescreen TVs in the breakfast lounge. The gradual stunned silence that fell over what would normally be a chaotic crowd of returning Brits and French back-packers was eerie.

It may be crass to say that Diana herself in any way changed our world, but her death certainly made the biggest emotional impact I have ever known upon the public in Britain and across the globe. International media had made her THE face of a generation, and in death Diana eclipsed any megastar status she could ever have dreamed about.

Many people can make accusations about a "conspiracy" surrounding her accidental death, or about "the real Diana", but in many many ways she continues to live on (in pictures) as the young, beautiful woman we want to remember - an ethereal spectre of a most unusual era in British history.

Read more on the BBC

[Oh, and if anyone has never seen The Queen with Helen Mirren, the definitive recollection of this bizarre time ten years ago - you really should!]