Lobotomy Room 21 March 2015 DJ Set List

/ The cover girl for the 21 March 2015 Lobotomy Room is the enigmatic Gertrude Forstner (stripper name: Lady Chinchilla). Between burlesque engagements (she was famous for her savage “cage act”) she was French sex kitten Brigitte Bardot's screen stand-in. Read more about Lady Chinchilla here / 

As described in the Facebook events page:

Skulk in the depths of drunken depravity - at LOBOTOMY ROOM!

At last - a club night for the hillbilly beau monde! LOBOTOMY ROOM! Where sin lives! A punkabilly beer blast! A 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 Graham Russell (of Dr Sketchy and Cockabilly notoriety). Expect desperate stabs from the jukebox jungle! Savage rhythms to make you writhe and rock!

Gay greasers, cry-babies, prison wives and juvenile delinquents of all ages are welcome at LOBOTOMY ROOM! The semi-regular cult club night returns to the suitable environs of a low-ceilinged subterranean sex dungeon basement in Dalston (aka downstairs at Hysteria)! No musical guests this time – just me playing all your putrid vintage sleaze favourites until you’re losing your mind!

All this and admission is gratuit. (That’s French for FREE!)

Lobotomy Room: Faster. Further. Filthier. 

A tawdry good time guaranteed!

/ This Lobotomy Room coincided with the birthday of "King of the Nudies", breast-fixated maverick film director Russ Meyer (21 March 1922 - 18 September 2004). I interpreted this as a good omen - and was right! Here is the delicious Lorna Maitland shakin' it in Meyer’s boob-tastic 1966 masturpiece (sic) Mondo Topless /

Wow! Saturday was dramatic! As revealed in my previous installment, the day started on a considerable high: seeing The Bob Mizer Foundation’s red hot vintage physique film The Golden Age of the American Male at The British Film Institute’s Flare Festival – and then encountering Fifties beefcake incarnate Tab Hunter (sigh!) backstage.

When I got home, I was puttering around getting ready to DJ later and gradually started feeling increasingly, dramatically rough. It kept getting worse until next thing I knew I was hugging the toilet bowl dry-heaving - and then projectile vomiting my lungs out! So odd, as I rarely get sick. (In retrospect I can confirm it was a sudden bout of the flu rather than food poisoning – Pal caught it within days!).

And what suck-y timing: not a great state to be in the night I had a Lobotomy Room scheduled! Cancelling wasn't an option – it would definitively burn a bridge with the venue if I cancelled with such short notice. I would never be able to approach Hysteria again! So – dashing to the bathroom to vomit every few minutes right up until I had to leave the house to head for Dalston - I sucked it up and carried on like normal. It was a long night and I was shivering and sweating profusely behind the DJ booth the whole time – but I stuck it out!

About the venue Hysteria: everyone seemed to love the ultra-minimalist soot-black basement. On the night it turned out the DJ booked for the bigger ground-level bar cancelled so I had the option of re-locating Lobotomy Room upstairs – but I infinitely preferred the dark and squalid S&M dungeon with exposed bricks illuminated by just a few red light bulbs – perfect for my purposes!

Hysteria was also my first ever venue with a proper late licence: on weekends it’s open until 3 am. That was definitely a learning curve. Between 10:30 pm until 12:30 the crowd was worryingly sparse and I was reconciling myself to a poorly attended night. But then at about 12:45 the place exploded with people and stayed frantically busy right up until chucking-out time. It was a big consolation to glance up and see throngs of people dancing! So the tenth-ever Lobotomy Room (and the first of 2015) was a painful night in some ways (by 3 am I was so drained I was virtually hallucinating), but ultimately successful.

/ Craig and Christopher /



/ Pal and Charlie (note Pal's beautiful La Rocka! t-shirt. I got him that for Christmas) /



/ Italian Barbara and I (I'm chewing a wasp, like usual - every damn photo every taken!)



/ Nell and Chris /


/ Hedonism - Lobotomy Room-style! /



/ Ginger beards unite: Christopher and Pal /



/ Stylish new face /



/ Pal and Sarah /



/ The adorable Sarah /



/ Mal (Cockabilly) and Christopher /



/ David, Vanessa and Sean / 

Wimoweh - Yma Sumac
Fever - Edith Massey
These Boots Are Made for Walkin' - Mrs Miller
Mama's Place - Bing Day
The Sneak - The Towers
That's a Pretty Good Love - Big Maybelle
The Slouch - Ray Gee and His Orchestra
Little Miss Understood - Connie Stevens
I Will Follow Him - Little Peggy March
How Much Love Can One Heart Hold? Joe Perkins and The Rookies
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
Let's Go, Baby - Billy Eldridge
Poor Little Baby - Billy Crash Craddock
Wailin' - The Fabulous Wailers
Jailhouse Rock - Masaaki Hirao
Rip It Up - Elvis Presley
Action Packed - Johnny Dollar
Hoy Hoy - The Collins Kids
Run Chicken Run - Link Wray
Chicken Rock - Fat Daddy Holmes
Chicken - The Cramps
Chicken Walk - Hasil Adkins
Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Beat Generation - Mamie Van Doren
Vesuvius - The Revels
Johnny Lee - Faye Adams
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Comin' Home, Baby - The Delmonas
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
He's the One - Ike and Tina Turner
I Live the Life I Love - Esquerita
Sick and Tired - Lula Reed
Lover Boy - Gene Wyatt
Love Me - The Phantom
I'm a Juvenile Delinquent - Ronnie Allen
I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent - Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers
Funnel of Love - Wanda Jackson
Intoxica - The Centurions
Scratching on My Screen - Ric Cartey
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
Batman - Link Wray
Goo Goo Muck - Ronnie Cook and The Gaylads
Torture Rock - The Rockin' Belmarx
Party Lights - Claudine Clark
Welfare Cheese - Emanuel Lasky
Roll with Me, Henry - Etta James
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Dirty Robber - The Fabulous Wailers
Khrushchev Twist - Melvin Gayle
Viens danser le twist - Johnny Hallyday
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Peter Gunn Locomotion - The Delmonas
Boss - The Rumblers
Tina's Dilemma - Ike and Tina Turner
Blockade - The Rumblers
Fools Rush In - Ricky Nelson
Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley
Wipe-Out - The Surfaris
Margaya - The Fender Four
She Wants to Mambo - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
Mambo Baby - Ruth Brown
De Castrow - Jaybee Wasden
Dragon Walk - The Noblemen
Breathless - X
Rock Around the Clock - Sex Pistols
Let's Have a Party - Wanda Jackson
Tongue Tied Jill - Charlie Feathers
C'mon Everybody - Sid Vicious
Dance with Me, Henry - Ann-Margret
Sweetie Pie - Eddie Cochran
Honolulu Rock'n'Roll - Eartha Kitt
Rock-a-Hula Baby - Elvis Presley
Beat Girl - Adam Faith
Tornado - Dale Hawkins
No Good Lover - Mickey and Sylvia
Cry-baby - The Honey Sisters
The Big Bounce - Shirley Caddell
Ain't That Lovin' You, Baby - The Earls of Suave
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Hanky Panky - Rita Chao & The Quests
Bombora - The Original Surf-aris
Pussycat Song - Connie Vannett
Sweet Little Pussycat - Andre Williams
Can Your Pussy Do the Dog? The Cramps
Revellion - The Revels
Little Darlin' - Masaaki Hirao
I Want Your Love - The Cruisers
Fujiyama Mama - Annisteen Allen
Jim Dandy - LaVerne Baker
How Does That Grab You, Darlin'? Nancy Sinatra
Somebody Put Something in My Drink - The Ramones
Nothing Means Nothing Anymore - The Alley Cats
Year 1 - X
I Stubbed My Toe - Bryan "Legs" Walker
Save It - Mel Robbins
Shortnin' Bread - The Readymen
Muleskinner Blues - The Fendermen
Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen
Willie Joe - The Mystery Trio
Wild, Wild Party - Charlie Feathers
Rock-A-Bop - Sparkle Moore
Lucille - Little Richard
Shout - Johnny Hallyday
My Boy Lollipop - Sakura and The Quests
Handclapping Time - The Fabulous Raiders

Further reading:

Read about all the Lobotomy Rooms to date here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

See the rest of the photos - raw, uncensored and uncut - from this Lobotomy Room on the flickr album. 

Lobotomy Room is kindly sponsored by the frou frou and chi chi Vivien of Holloway - for all your faux vintage bad girl glamour needs!

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

Follow me on tumblr for all your rancid kitsch and homoerotic vintage sleaze needs!

On 1 April 2015 I split for the annual Viva Las Vegas rockabilly weekender, followed by a few days in New Orleans. My blog about Viva Las Vegas 2010. My blog about Viva Las Vegas 2011. My blog about Viva Las Vegas 2012 (and trip to San Francisco). And finally, Viva Las Vegas 2013. 

/ From the 1965 Doris Wishman sexploitation film Bad Girls Go to Hell /

17 March 2015 Cockabilly DJ Set List

/ Heartbreaker: luscious young Swiss greaser punk photographed by the great Karlheinz Weinberger circa 1962 /

I won’t lie! This post will be a bit of a rush job – long on pretty pictures, short on text. At the moment I am one distracted mofo. Tonight (Saturday 21 March) is the latest installment of my own semi-regular trashy club night Lobotomy Room (the first one of 2015) in Dalston and I am vibrating with nerves. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, my stomach is full of vomiting butterflies!

/ The ever-fierce Esquerita (1936-1985) is the sassy and defiant face of Cockabilly! Like his friend and contemporary Little Richard, the outrageous Esquerita qualified as both the King and Queen of rhythm and blues. Click on a pair of diamanté shades and freak out the squares in his honour! /

/ In Bed with Tab Hunter /

First off: some red-hot gossip. Courtesy of literary roué Rupert Smith I was privileged to be snuck into this afternoon’s sold-out screening of The Golden Age of The American Male at The British Film Institute’s Flare Festival as his “plus one”. Screening afterward was Tab Hunter Confidential – a revealing new documentary in which the dreamy heartthrob actor confides what it was like being a closeted gay celebrity in atomic-era Hollywood. Rupert and I were in the VIP “green room” afterwards drinking when the team behind Tab Hunter Confidential arrived – including Tab himself, his long-term boyfriend and entourage. He sat directly opposite me and as I confided to Rupert, my heart was pounding and I couldn't stop staring! A quick Google search confirmed Hunter is 83 now – and still stunningly, remarkably jaw-droppingly handsome! Silver hair, powerful shoulders, and a jaw line chiseled out of granite. (I could hear him speaking to people and his manners are old-school impeccable). Rupert and I were swooning!

/ Sexy hillbilly Larry Harris photographed by Athletic Model Guild. Those rockabilly sideburns! /

The Golden Age of the American Male was a compilation of the Athletic Model Guild’s short homoerotic beefcake / physique films from the Fifties and Sixties. Think greaser punk hoodlums in posing pouches and engineer boots wrestling and spanking each other – delicious! About 75% of all the vintage gay porn I post on here and on tumblr inevitably originates from AMG - that studio represents the acme. It was a symphony of juvenile delinquent rough trade, all gap-toothed smiles (some of the younger models straight out of their teens still had acne), oiled quiffs and sprinkled with crude reform-school tattoos cavorting to a soundtrack of obscure rockabilly and surf music. (The most famous – and instantly recognisable – face among them was teenage pre-Warhol Joe Dallesandro). In other words – my definition of heaven!  There were nice segments with guys dressed as black leather-jacketed The Wild One-style bikers, sailors and Roman centurions. But for me the most joyous sequence was intercut bits of AMG boys frantically go-go dancing stark naked (think jiggling “helicopters”) – life-affirming! The main man behind AMG was photographer, filmmaker and connoisseur of firm male flesh Bob Mizer (1922-1992). Today The Bob Mizer Foundation is working on preserving, digitising and gradually making these films commercially available as DVDs. I dream of projecting this stuff against the wall when I DJ at Cockabilly or Lobotomy Room!

On 1 April 2015 I jet out for this year’s Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender (2-5 April) – followed by a few days of recuperation in the torrid voodoo realm of New Orleans. I've never been there before and I’m really intrigued.  I intend to luxuriate in and absorb New Orleans’ sleazy Southern Gothic underbelly by hopping between atmospheric dive bars and channeling Tennessee Williams and John Rechy’s City of Night. In my research I've already learned that Tennessee Williams’ regular watering hole was Cafe Lafitte in Exile. My guide and host will be New Orleans-based journalist Kevin Allman, who’s tipped me off that John Waters’ favourite local bars when he’s in town are the Double Play (described as “a really seedy trans/hustler bar”) and the Corner Pocket (similar to The Fudge Palace in Waters’ 1998 film Pecker. Tea-bagging ahoy!). What better recommendation?

Anyway:  this month Cockabilly (London’s only regular monthly queer rockabilly night! Rock around the cock!) fell on a Tuesday. Let’s face it: Tuesday night just isn't anyone’s idea of rock’n’roll no matter how you cut it. Nonetheless, Cockabilly boss man Mal and I did our damnedest to stir-up a raunchy and desperate ambience. Here is what I played.

Scorpion - The Carnations
Dangerous Lips - The Drivers
I Want Your Love - The Cruisers
Tina's Dilemma - Ike and Tina Turner
Bombora - The Original Surf-aris
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
Action Packed - Johnny Dollar
Boss - The Rumblers
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret
Gunnin' for Peter - The Fabulous Wailers
Big Bounce - Shirley Caddell
Dragon Walk - The Noblemen
Year 1 - X
Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
I Love the Life I Live - Esquerita
Roll with Me, Henry - Etta James
Chicken - The Cramps
Run Chicken Run - Link Wray
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
Cooler Weather is A-Comin' - Eddie Weldon
Cry-baby - The Honey Sisters
Party Lights - Claudine Clark
Welfare Cheese - Emanuel Laskey
Honolulu Rock'n'Roll - Eartha Kitt
Rock-a-Hula Baby - Elvis Presley
Blockade - The Rumblers
Salamander - Mamie Van Doren
Handclappin' Time - The Fabulous Raiders
Black Tarantula - Jody Reynolds

/ Ideally, the scene at the bar Tuesday night would have looked more like this /

Further reading:

Last blog post I expressed my anxiety about Google’s proposal to clamp down on “adult content” and what it meant for the future of my blog. Happy days! After a tsunami of bad publicity and much rage amongst bloggers, Google has climbed down and are now maintaining their existing policies. Phew! My message of filth continues!  

Read about the sordid antics at previous Cockabillies here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,  here, here, here and here. 

Follow me on tumblr for all your retro, kitsch and homoerotic vintage sleaze needs! 

Details of my next Lobotomy Room club night (Saturday 21 March 2015 at Hysteria in Dalston)