For thirty days you're on your back

It's the end of another stressful week in work - but at least I have an office Xmas booze-fest to look forward to tonight! [For a change (hopefully) one that doesn't involve having to smile unconvincingly at bosses in festive jumpers, and involves people who know how to have a laugh...]

In the meantime, let's be daring, sling on a skin-tight powder blue outfit, and practice our spinning - in the company of the arch-funksters Tavares with their incredible performing trousers...

...and Thank Disco It's Friday [the Thirteenth - oo-er!]!

Tavares - It Only Takes A Minute

RIP, Arthur Paul "Pooch" Tavares

What's an hour of the day?
We throw at least one away
And walk the streets for half the year
Tryin' to find a new career

If you get a flu attack
For thirty days you're on your back
Doing not a single dance
Baby, give me half a chance

It only takes a minute, girl
To fall in love, to fall in love
It only takes a minute, girl
To fall in love, fall in love

How philosophical.

Have a good one!

Baby, the place is rockin'

Attention all paraskevidekatriaphobics - it's Friday 13th!

Not that that matters one iota, as any weekend is very welcome, superstitions or no superstitions...

We need to party!

Although the news that Rudolph Isley has shimmied off to Fabulon (leaving only one Isley remaining) is sad, the brothers' musical legacy is joyful.

It is time, dear reader, for us to squeeze ourselves into some very stretchy clothing indeed, glue our wiglets on tight, and get practising those party moves. For we have competition in the dance stakes!

The lovely line dancers on Soul Train have been busting a gut rehearsing for their one moment in the spotlight, and it would be curmudgeonly not to join in...

Isley Brothers - It's A Disco Night [Soul Train]

Thank Disco It's Friday the Thirteenth!

Have a good one!

Avoid black cats. And ladders. Don't break any mirrors.

I don't care what you do to them

Again, we breathe a sigh of relief that the weekend is looming - and once more, the Met Office has tantalisingly forecast it's going to warm up again...

In anticipation - it's party time! So let's retrieve a variety of gaily decorated hats out of the dressing-up box, funk along with the S.O.S. Band - and Thank Disco It's Friday!

The S.O.S. Band - Just Be Good To Me

Friends tell me I am crazy
That I'm wasting time with you
You'll never be mine
That's not the way I see it
'Cause I feel you're already mine
Whenever you're with me

People always talk about reputation
I don't care 'bout your other girls
Just be good to me
Friends are always tellin' me you're a user
I don't care what you do to them
Just be good to me

Life is a game of chances
So I'll take my chance with you
And you I won't try to change
We, talk about it and I'd
Rather have a piece of you
Than to have all or nothing

But just be good to me, in the morning
Just be good to me, in the afternoon or evening
Just be good to me

I'm not the jealous type
I won't tie you down when you need me
I'll be around
I'll be good to you, you'll be good to me
We will be together, be together

Have a disco-tastic weekend, dear reader!

In the Bush

As another gruelling week draws mercifully to its close, so it;'s time for me to muster up the mood for a party...

...with a little help from an old, old favourite - and the not-aware-of-the-camera-at-all Soul Train dancers! As I said @adecadeago: "I can almost smell the acrylic and hairspray from here!"

Musique - Push, Push, In The Bush

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Have a good one, dear reader!

Disco arithmetic!

click to embiggen

Another gruelling week draws to a close - and not a moment too soon.

Let's get our culottes on, tease out our Afros--- and join the Soul Train line, shall we? Thank Disco It's Friday!

Undisputed Truth - You + Me = Love (Soul Train, 1976)

Have a great weekend, dear reader!

Woo! Yeah!

click to embiggen

Another tortuous week's work is almost over. It has been a slog!

Never mind, eh? Tomorrow we have a visit to London from The Mother, and my sis and I are taking her to see Princess Diana's frocks at Kensington Palace - that should be a glittering day out, I'm sure!

It's also a Bank Holiday weekend - yay! - [our last three-day weekend until Xmas] so despite the grim, cold weather, we have plenty to celebrate. Let's get the party started with a lady for whom the epithet "the higher the hair, the closer to god" might have been coined - the late, great Miss Lyn Collins...

...and Thank Disco It's Friday!

First up, a remix of her original (James Brown-produced) number:

Lyn Collins - Think (About It) [DJ Richie Rich Remix]

...and here is the great lady again, having (only slightly) toned-down the wiggage, with an equally funky number:

Lyn Collins - Rock Me Again & Again

Now that's an impressive set of tonsils.

Have a great weekend, dear reader!

---

Footnote:

Think (About It) is one of the most-sampled records ever - the Woo! Yeah! refrain alone was integral to the early days of House and Hip-Hop music...

La La La La La La La La

Wheeeeee!

A weekend is looming, and the forecast is for no rain (for a change!) so we may be able to get out into the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers and do some clearing of the detritus of autumn...

However, even if there's not really a prospect of doing much in the way of partying, given the latest level of restrictions, in our head we're always up for a boogie - just like the energetic types of Soul Train [albeit somewhat slower and creakier] and the effervescent Ritchie Family. 

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Ritchie Family - Brazil [Soul Train, 1975]

Have a great weekend, dear reader!

Don't fight the feeling, give yourself a chance

Another (particularly fractious) week drags inevitably to a close - and it's time to start thinking about letting our hair down [in my case up and out - I'm starting to look like Doc Brown in Back to the Future]!

Who better to get the glitterball rolling than the marvellous KC and the Sunshine Band?

Thank Disco It's Friday!

KC & The Sunshine Band - Shake Your Booty

Have a good weekend, dear reader.

Gotta do your thing, and let it all hang out

It's Gay Xmas Eve!

I have a half-day off this afternoon, and so from 12.30, let the party commence...

We'll let the Soul Train Dancers, and a most appropriate song, start the festivities - and Thank Disco It's Gay Pride Friday!

T-Connection - Do What You Wanna Do

Everybody's startin' to pick on you
Just can't let them tell you what to do
You've only got one life, so live it cool
In this world of strife, you can't be a fool

Don't let nobody tell ya what to do
You gotta be your judge, and your jury too
Don't let nobody tell ya what to do
Gotta be your judge and jury too

All right

Gotta do your thing, and let it all hang out
Gotta really show them, what it's all about
Move on up, don't look around
People will always try to put you down, down, now

Don't let nobody tell ya what to do
You gotta be your judge, and your jury too
Don't let nobody tell ya what to do
Gotta be your judge and jury too

Have a faboo festive weekend, dear reader.

Let's go!

Phew! It's almost the finale to a particularly lonnnng week - and the weather is once again on our side, as we lookout on the prospect of blue skies all weekend.

I feel the party spirit in the air - and I think today's birthday boy Archie Bell (with his Drells, and some help from the Soul Train dancers, of course) has the right idea... Let's Go Disco, indeed!

Archie Bell & the Drells - Let's Go Disco

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Have a good one...

Archie Lee Bell (born 1st September 1944)

Baby, the place is rockin'

I can't put into words how very welcome it is to be counting down the hours to the end of that week.

By way of relief - it is time, laydees'n'gentz, for us to squeeze ourselves into some very stretchy clothing indeed, glue our wiglets on tight, and get practising those party moves. For we have competition in the dance stakes!

The lovely line dancers of Soul Train have been busting a gut rehearsing for their one moment in the spotlight, as they prance to the Isley Brothers' classic It's a Disco Night (Rock Don't Stop), and it would be curmudgeonly not to join in...

Isley Brothers - It's A Disco Night (Soul Train)

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Have a good one.

Calling all cars...

Almost there...

Hurtling towards what now looks like being a wet weekend, we still have no excuse not to dig out that old halter-neck jump-suit from the back of the wardrobe, and boogie on down with the foxy ladies of First Choice!

A most appropriate song for today (and I make no apologies for playing it again), dedicated to the very un-lovely Kim Jong-un - it's Armed and Extremely Dangerous... Thank Disco It's Friday!

First Choice - Armed and Extremely Dangerous

Have a great weekend, dear reader!

Push, Push

Nursing a bit of a champagne hangover after a most unusual evening of smutty literary readings at London's first sex shop aimed at women (Paul Burston, Stella Duffy and Rebecca Chance at "Sh!" in Hoxton Square), we have a Bank Holiday weekend ahead to plan!

A good way to start is in the company of the Soul Train dancers, strutting their stuff to the classic Push, Push, In The Bush by Musique... I can almost smell the acrylic and hairspray from here!

Musique - Push, Push, In The Bush

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Have a great weekend!

Space-age divas

It's the birthday tomorrow of the lovely Sarah Dash of LaBelle fame.

Any excuse, really, to play something from those magnificent space-age divas! I wouldn't even begin to suggest you try and dress like this as we celebrate the forthcoming weekend...

LaBelle - Lady Marmalade (Soul Train)

Thank Disco It's Friday!

LaBelle on AllMusic website

Extremely dangerous

It's the end of what feels like one of the longest weeks of my life. It is never easy coming back to drudgery after a few great weeks off...

However, the weekend means party time, and what better way to warm up than by shaking out that Afro wig, slipping into something sparkly in canary yellow, and boogieing down with the lovely First Choice, with Armed and Extremely Dangerous? Thank Disco It's Friday!

First Choice - Armed and Extremely Dangerous

Boogie like it's 1973!

Cole and Boogie

At last, this week drags itself to an end - at times I felt this would never happen...

We're off to the rather swanky Pheasantry in Chelsea tonight to see the venerable actor John Standing (Sir John Ronald Leon Standing, 4th Baronet, no less), performing his one-man tribute to Cole Porter, which should be rather fabulous.

In the meantime, I suggest we all don our afro wigs, our tightest satin trousers and platform shoes and funk along with Kool and the Gang and Jungle Boogie - Thank Disco It's Friday!

Kool & The Gang - Jungle Boogie

Have a great weekend, whatever you do!

Not for Church Folk

Thank heavens, a long Bank Holiday weekend is almost upon us! The weather is not predicted to be too bad either - good for our (second) housewarming party.

To round off the recurring theme of decadence that has woven its way into this week's blogs here at Dolores Delargo Towers, who better than the magnificent potty-mouthed Soul diva Miss Millie Jackson? Thank Disco it's Friday!

Millie Jackson - Ask Me What You Want (Soul Train 1972)

With albums with titles such as Feelin' Bitchy, E.S.P. (Extra Sexual Persuasion) and Not for Church Folk, she carved herself a singular niche as one helluva sassy lady! Famously slagged off by a critic for swearing too much on stage (her audiences loved it!), Miss Jackson came up with this elegant response...

Millie Jackson - Fuck You Symphony

Millie Jackson website

Get your jump-suits on!

Thank Disco it's Friday! Whatever you do tonight, have a great time - and don't forget to rehearse your dance moves - I am!

Love the jump-suits, love the hair, love to boogie!

Sylvers - Boogie Fever

Indeed.