From the Facebook events page:
Revel in sleaze, voodoo and rock’n’roll - when incredibly strange dance party Lobotomy Room returns to the Polynesian-style basement Bamboo Lounge of Dalston’s premiere Art Deco vice den Fontaine’s! Friday 29 April! With sensational special offer cocktails on the night!
Lobotomy Room! Where sin lives! A punkabilly booze party! A spectacle of decadence! Bad Music for Bad People! A Mondo Trasho evening of Beat, Beat Beatsville Beatnik Rock’n’Roll! Rockabilly Psychosis! Wailing Rhythm and Blues! Twisted Tittyshakers! Punk! White Trash Rockers! 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! Now with vintage erotica projected on the wall for your adult viewing pleasure! Come for the £6 cocktails - stay for the putrid music and dirty movies!
Admission: gratuit - that’s French for FREE!
Lobotomy Room: Faster. Further. Filthier.
It’s sleazy. It’s grubby. It’s trashy - you’ll love it!
A tawdry good time guaranteed!
/ Human sacrifice is strictly optional - at Lobotomy Room! Pic is from Macumba Love (1960) - a voodoo-themed horror film set in Brazil/
OK I’ve probably claimed this already – but this installment was
perhaps the single best Lobotomy Room yet! I’ve learned to approach each one
with an open mind and minimal expectations. The previous two Lobotomy Rooms in
a row were pretty quiet (think morgue or funeral parlour quiet). But on the
plus side, my Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies film club that Wednesday night
(27 April) was bustling. (The film selection was the ultra kitsch 1968 exploitation classick The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield. La Mansfield is, of course,
the face and patron saint of Lobotomy Room. It was gratifying to see the
attendees really embrace the spirit and celebrate all things Jayne. That night
warrants its own separate blog post). So
I was cautiously optimistic about Friday.
Friday night began quietly. Then a group of people would
arrive – followed by another group – and then more. And finally I glanced up
and we had a nice buzzing (and most importantly dancing) crowd. And what a hip,
stylish and sexy bunch! Of course I have no photographic evidence. (Multi-tasking
isn’t my forte and it’s pretty hard to DJ and dash around with a digital camera
documenting the scene). But trust me –
it was fabulous.
As per usual I endeavoured to whip-up an ambiance of
hardcore sensual and depraved vintage sleaze, musically and visually. (Apparently
one of Fontaine’s young male bar staff went upstairs and told boss lady Ruby, “It’s
a weird atmosphere down there.” That’s Lobotomy Room for you!). I played
burlesk tittyshaker films on the big screen most of the night (Bettie Page,
Tempest Storm and Lili St Cyr in bump-and-grind action, Russ Meyer’s
boob-tastic Mondo Topless). Towards the end of the night I swapped to fifties
and sixties beefcake homoerotica. At the first glimpse of grainy black and
white male semi-nudity, a guy’s voice exclaimed, “Why didn’t you start with
this? I’ve been looking at tits for an hour!” That was one of my highlights of
the night.
Like I said, I have no shots from the 29 April Lobotomy Room, but here are a few shots from the Mondo Jayne Mansfield film night on 27 April.
/ Above: Trixi Malicous and Corinna. Corinna (on the right) had specially ordered the platinum blonde wig and miniature "toy chihuahua" from eBay for the night. Trixi always looks like that! /
/ Emma and Emily /
/ Corinna and I /
See more photos from The Wild Wild World of Jayne Mansfield night here:
My musical selections from the 29 April Lobotomy Room:
A Cruise to the Moon - Lydia Lunch
High Wall - The Fabulous Wailers
Sheba - Johnny and The Hurricanes
Three Cool Chicks - The 5,6,7,8s
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Wimoweh - Yma Sumac
Kismiaz - The Cramps
Adult Books - X
Little Darlin' - Masaaki Hirao
Beatnik - The Champs
Taboo - The Shangaans
Accentuate the Positive - The Bill Black Combo
Mama Looka Boo-Boo - Robert Mitchum
Dona Wanna - Wanda Jackson
Go Calypso - Mamie Van Doren
Mambo Baby - Ruth Brown
She Wants to Mambo - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
Love Potion # 9 - Nancy Sit
Gostaria de Saber (River Deep Mountain High) - Wanderlea
Blockade - The Rumblers
Black Tarantula - Jody Reynolds
Drive Daddy Drive - Little Sylvia
I Love the Life I Live - Esquerita
Sweet Little Pussycat - Andre Williams
Bombie- Johnny Sharp and The Yellow Jackets
Fever - Nancy Sit
Comin' Home Baby - The Delmonas
Rock'n'Roll Radio - The Ramonetures
Let's Go Baby - Billy Eldridge
Fools Rush In - Ricky Nelson
Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
He's The One - Ike and Tina Turner
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Peter Gunn Locomotion - The Delmonas
Gunnin' for Peter - The Fabulous Wailers
Viens danser le twist - Johnny Hallyday
Khrushchev Twist - Melvin Gayle
Ultra Twist - The Cramps
Twistin' the Night Away - Divine
Muleskinner Blues - The Fendermen
Shortnin' Bread - The Readymen
Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen
Batman Theme - Link Wray and His Wraymen
Rock Around the Clock - The Sex Pistols
Viva Las Vegas - Nina Hagen
Funnel of Love - Wanda Jackson
Breathless - X
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Action Packed - Ronnie Dee
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
The Big Bounce - Shirley Caddell
Juke Box Baby - Alan Vega
Margaya - The Fender Four
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
C'mon Everybody - Sid Vicious
Boss - The Rumblers
Sweetie Pie - Eddie Cochran
Intoxica - The Centurions
Aphrodisiac - Bow Wow Wow
Heatwave - Martha and The Vandellas
How Much Love Can One Heart Hold? Joe Perkins and The Rookies
Where's My Money? Willie Jones
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
Trash - The New York Dolls
Honolulu Rock'n'Roll - Eartha Kitt
Rock-A-Hula - Elvis Presley
Chicken - The Cramps
Chicken Walk - Hasil Adkins
Upcoming Lobotomy Room dates for your social calendar:
Wednesday 25 May 2016: As host and DJ of the regular monthly Mondo Trasho punkabilly club night Lobotomy Room, I – Graham Russell - will occasionally crash Fontaine’s free weekly film night and screen a rancid title of my choice, with an emphasis on the cult, the queer and the camp! The Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies film club selection in May is … The Valley of The Dolls! Wednesday 25 May!
“You have to climb Mount Everest … to get to The Valley of The Dolls.” Before Mommie Dearest … before Showgirls … the original “What the hell were they thinking?” Bad Movie We Love was The Valley of the Dolls. (Or Vallée des poupées if you want to get all French about it). A perennial favourite of drag queens and a cult classic for connoisseurs of kitsch, the unintentionally hilarious and wildly entertaining 1967 film adaptation of Jacqueline Susann’s lurid 1966 bestseller took the already trashy source material – and went even tawdrier with it! (At the film’s premiere, an outraged Susann reportedly called the film “a piece of shit!”).
A cautionary tale about the perils of show business, it follows the travails of three ambitious casualties of the glamour jungle: friends Anne, Neely and Jennifer. (The “dolls” of the title refer to the fistfuls of uppers and downers the characters pop like Tic Tacs throughout – usually washed down with booze).The Valley of The Dolls packs everything discriminating thrill-seekers demand in its lunatic two hours: hammy performances, pill-popping, bouffant wigs, catfights, slurring drunken scenes, rehab, drug-fueled meltdowns and crap-tastic musical numbers.
This screening is dedicated to the memory of Dolls’ recently deceased-leading lady Patty Duke (14 December 1946 – 29 March 2016). Former child star Duke is rivetingly awful rampaging through the role of Neely O’Hara, a scenery-chewing performance so berserk it can be favourably likened to Ann-Margret’s in Kitten with a Whip. Get yourself a stiff drink and strap yourselves in for a wild ride when Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies presents The Valley of The Dolls!
As usual: arrive circa 8 pm to order your drinks and grab the best seats. The film starts at 8:30 pm prompt. The Bamboo Lounge seats about 22 people. If you’re feeling proactive, contact Fontaine’s to reserve a seat in advance: email ruby@fontaines.bar or call 07718 000546. Events page
Friday 27 May 2016: Oh god, it's happening again ... the next Lobotomy Room club night. Events page.
Further reading:
Read about all the previous antics at Lobotomy Rooms to date here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here , here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Follow me on tumblr for all your kitsch, camp, retro vintage sleaze and fifties homoerotica needs!
Follow me on twitter!
"Like" and follow the official Lobotomy Room page on Facebook if you dare!
No comments:
Post a Comment