Lobotomy Room 27 December 2014 featuring Jane Ruby

From the Facebook events page:

Escape the boredom that imprisons us all – at LOBOTOMY ROOM!

Frug, twist, watusi and monkey away your post-Christmas / pre-New Year’s Eve ennui - with the throbbing excitement of Lobotomy Room at East London boîte de nuit Paper Dress Vintage!

Lobotomy Room – a punkabilly beer blast! A sensual and depraved spectacle of decadence for the permissive Continentally-minded! A Mondo Trasho evening of Beat, Beat Beatsville Beatnik Rock’n’Roll! Rockabilly Psychosis! Wailing Rhythm and Blues! Twisted Tittyshakers! Punk Cretin Hops! Kitsch! Exotica! Curiosities and other Weird Shit! Think John Waters soundtracks, or Songs The Cramps Taught Us, hosted by DJ Graham Russell (of Dr Sketchy and Cockabilly notoriety). Expect desperate stabs from the jukebox jungle! Savage rhythms to make you writhe and rock!

Musical guest is JANE RUBY - the bluesy chantoosie who purrs and belts in a voice of pure pink cashmere. Perhaps best-known as the hour glass-contoured frontwoman of South London’s now-defunct voodoobilly band Naked Ruby throughout the 2000s, Ruby then sang and played guitar in all-girl surf punk outfit The Deptford Beach Babes – and now she’s seducing audiences with her new one-woman solo act. Ruby’s songs evoke visions of Ann-Margret in her Kitten with a Whip prime twisting frantically to Link Wray and are informed by her chequered past. Hailing from the wastelands of Adelaide, Australia has left the devilish red-haired singer a life-long glamour junkie, something Ruby indulged via her stints as a former nudie cutie artist’s model, dancer (Can-Can, flamenco and belly) and cocktail lounge jazz diva covering Billie Holiday and Nina Simone standards (an apprenticeship that still lingers in her femme fatale vocal antics). Ruby’s lyrics are sometimes spun from her real-life debauched alcohol-fuelled Janis Joplin-esque misadventures and sometimes are Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!-style revenge fantasies (assuming her songs about killing men are not based on firsthand experience). Blues, flamenco-tinged rock’n’roll and dirty stories are assured. If we’re lucky Ruby might even throw in a spot of belly-dancing!All this and admission is gratuit. (That’s French for FREE!)

Lobotomy Room – a tawdry good time guaranteed!

To paraphrase The Ramones: there was no stoppin’ the cretins from hoppin’ – at the 27 December 2014 LOBOTOMY ROOM!

I had vowed to myself I would do one final (third) Lobotomy Room for 2014 – and I pulled it off! My expectations were realistic: this is the third time I've done a Lobotomy Room at Paper Dress Vintage on the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, so I knew already the streets of Shoreditch would be a desolate ghost town and loads of my friends would be out of town. But everything considered ... we did pretty damn well!

Swingin’ special musical guest red-headed blues mama Jane Ruby (an old friend of mine from way back in the nineties) certainly helped. A vision in vintage aquamarine sequins and working a towering tousled beehive ‘do, Ms Ruby cast a spell with her heavenly intonations, accompanying herself with just guitar on a beguiling mix of original material and inspired covers (including “I Put A Spell on You” and “These Boots Are Made for Walking”).  Kudos as well to Paper Dress Vintage’s unflappable bar manager Carla for literally keeping everyone intoxicated. But mainly thanks to the hip, good-natured, enthusiastic dancing crowd who were a pleasure to DJ for. They helped ensure Lobotomy Room ended 2014 on a high. 

Who knows what 2015 holds in store for my fetid club night?

/ Jane Ruby rockin' around the Christmas tree /



/ Paul, Pal and Dez /



/ Those Amy Grimehouse girls Alex and Mia /



/ Eric and Charlie /



/ Stylish couple /



/ The Italian contingent: the fabulous Barbara (centre) and friends /




/ Hip couple: Vanessa and David /



/ Dance floor action, seen from the DJ booth /



/ Only one photo of me taken all night - and it's ghastly! (I look like I'm chewing a wasp in every photo ever taken). But still, it's Jane Ruby and I /



/ When Jane Ruby sang a song in Spanish, it sparked a spontaneous outbreak of flamenco dancing - a definite Lobotomy Room first! It was like a moment from a Pedro Almodovar film / 

Fever - Edith Massey
These Boots Are Made for Walking - Mrs Miller
Dangerous Lips - The Drivers
Little Queenie - Bill Black's Combo
Virgenes del Sol - Yma Sumac
Mama's Place - Bing Day
Beat Generation - Mamie Van Doren
Kismiaz - The Cramps
Fever - Nancy Sit
Mau Mau - The Wailers
I Live the Life I Love - Esquerita
Misirlou - Martin Denny
Fujiyama Mama - Annisteen Allen
Ain't That Good? George Kelly and Orchestra
Mambo Baby - Ruth Brown
She Wants to Mambo - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
Torture Rock - The Rockin' Belmarx
Intoxica - The Centurions
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
You're the One for Me - Wanda Jackson
Margaya - The Fender Four
Tear It Up - Johnny Burnette and The Rock'n'Roll Trio
I'm a Bad, Bad Girl - Little Esther
The Swag - Link Wray
How Much Love Can One Heart Hold? Joe Perkins and The Rookies
Tina's Dilemma - Ike and Tina Turner
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Dirty Robber - The Wailers
Bombora - The Original Surfaris
Johnny Lee - Faye Adams
Wild Wild Party - Charlie Feathers
Rip It Up - Little Richard
Jailhouse Rock - Masaaki Hirao
Rock Around the Clock - The Sex Pistols
Year One - X
Comin' Home, Baby - The Delmonas
Ain't That Lovin' You, Baby - The Earls of Suave
Save It - Mel Robbins
Handclapping Time - The Fabulous Raiders
The Big Bounce - Shirley Caddell
Club Delight - Jack Jolly
No Good Lover - Mickey and Sylvia
Shortnin' Bread - The Readymen
Muleskinner Blues - The Fendermen
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Pass the Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies
Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley
Fools Rush In - Ricky Nelson
Jim Dandy - LaVerne Baker
Dance with Me, Henry - Ann-Margret
Wipe-Out - The Surfaris
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
C'mon Everybody - Sid Vicious
Teenage Lobotomy - The Ramones
Love Me - The Phantom
Chicken Walk - Hasil Adkins
Boss - The Rumblers
Chicken - The Cramps
Hoy Hoy - The Collins Kids
Cry-baby - The Honey Sisters
I Want Your Love - The Cruisers
Tall Cool One - The Wailers

Further reading:

Read about all the Lobotomy Rooms so far here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

See the rest of the photos from this Lobotomy Room on my flickr page

Lobotomy Room is kindly sponsored by Vivien of Holloway - for all your faux vintage glamour needs!

Lobotomy Room flyer designed by the muy guapo and muy talented Ego Rodriguez.

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