From the Facebook event page:
Feeling jaded after Christmas? Didn’t get those cha cha heels you wanted? Come head-bang away those post-Christmas blues at Lobotomy Room! Friday 28 December 2018!
Yes! Revel in sleaze, voodoo and rock’n’roll - when incredibly bizarre dance party Lobotomy Room returns to the basement Bamboo Lounge of Dalston’s most unique nite spot Fontaine’s!
Lobotomy Room! Where sin lives! A punkabilly booze party! Sensual and depraved! A spectacle of decadence! A Mondo Trasho evening of Beat, Beat Beatsville Beatnik Rock’n’Roll! Bad Music for Bad People! Rockabilly Psychosis! Wailing Rhythm and Blues! Punk cretin hops! White Trash Rockers! Kitsch! Exotica! Curiosities! Think John Waters soundtracks, or Songs the Cramps Taught Us, hosted by Graham Russell. Expect desperate stabs from the jukebox jungle! Savage rhythms to make you writhe and rock!
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!
Let's end the year on a note of sleazy desperation!
/ Doesn't Christmas feel like it was a lifetime ago? /
Yikes! Considering the January 2019 Lobotomy Room dance party is this Friday (25 January), I’d better hurry up and post the December 2018 scene report. This one will probably be a rush job!
Organizing a club night in the social wasteland between Christmas and New Year’s Eve is always dicey. Will anyone even turn up? Huge swathes of people are likely to be out of town (London becomes a ghost town over the holidays), feeling lethargic after so much eating and drinking, or are skint post-Christmas. But Fontaine’s boss lady Ruby and I decided to plunge ahead with the December 2018 Lobotomy Room - and it turned out to be a successful, rowdy night. And we had some great dancers ripping it up on the floor until almost 2 am!
As you can see from the playlist below, I played a few tracks by Tiny Topsy. Discovering obscure mid-century rhythm and blues singers makes my world go round. If they’re an obscure rhythm and blues singer with a tragic and / or colourful backstory, even better! I think I first heard of Topsy via DJ Mark Lamarr’s radio show. Years later I spotted a Tiny Topsy CD displayed at one of the vendors at Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender and was struck by her intriguing appearance on the cover. I only just recently invested in one of her CDs - and she didn’t disappoint! Topsy’s identity has been shrouded in mystery for years: the skimpy AllMusic website biography for her shrugs, “For some years ‘Tiny Topsy’ was believed to be a pseudonym used by singer-songwriter Bernice Williams although this is now largely discounted. Just who Tiny Topsy was remains unknown.” The Wikipedia entry on Topsy is far more thorough: we now know she was born Otha Lee Moore (1930 – 1964) in Chicago and died tragically young aged just 34 of an intracerebral haemorrhage. Topsy didn’t get the opportunity to record much in her abbreviated life (and never scored any major hits), but her output is irresistibly tough, raunchy 1950s rhythm and blues belters. Her soaring, impassioned and soulful wail can favourably be compared to her better-known female R&B contemporaries like Big Maybelle, Big Mama Thornton and LaVern Baker. Adding to her appeal, the ironically-named Tiny Topsy (five feet tall, 250-pounds) looked like an escapee from a John Waters film. Seek her out!
Twenty Thousand Leagues - The Champs
Katanga - Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm
Exotic - The Sentinels
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Mau Mau - The Fabulous Wailers
Kismiaz - The Cramps
Papa Oom Mow Mow - The Rivingtons
Fujiyama Mama - Annisteen Allen
Three Cool Chicks - The 5.6.7.8s
Bullwinkle Part II - The Centurians
Adult Books - X
Train to Nowhere - The Champs
Khrushchev Twist - Melvin Gayle
Tarantula - The Tarantulas
You're the One for Me - Wanda Jackson
Dragon Walk - The Noblemen
I Don't Need You No More - The Rumblers
Vesuvius - The Revels
Killer - Sparkle Moore
Surf Rat - The Rumblers
Dames, Booze, Chains and Boots - The Cramps
No Good Lover - Mickey and Sylvia
Working On Me Baby - Tiny Topsy
The Big Bounce - Shirley Caddell
Underwater - The Frogmen
Save It - Mel Robbins
Oo Ba La Baby - Mamie Van Doren
Bop Pills - Macy "Skip" Skipper
I'm Blue - The Ikettes
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
Strychnine - The Sonics
Little Queenie - The Bill Black Combo
Uptown to Harlem - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
Jukebox Babe - Alan Vega
Atomic Bongos - Lydia Lunch
Riding with a Movie Star - L7
Viva Las Vegas - Nina Hagen
Wipe-Out - The Surfaris
I Can't Believe What You Say - Ike and Tina Turner
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Garbage Man - The Cramps
Blitzkreig Bop - The Ramonetures
Deuces Wild - Link Wray
Pedro Pistolas Twist - Los Twisters
Peter Gunn Locomotion - The Delmonas
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Gunnin' for Peter - The Fabulous Wailers
Hanky Panky - Rita Chao and The Quests
Woo-Hoo - The Rockateens
Bomb the Twist - The 5.6.7.8s
Viens danser le twist - Johnny Hallyday
Ultra Twist - The Cramps
Juvenile Delinquent - Ronnie Allen
Be Bop A Lula - Alan Vega
Let's Go Baby - Billy Eldridge and The Fireballs
Tongue Tied Jill - Charlie Feathers
Tongue Tied - Wanda Jackson
Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad - Tammy Wynette
Breathless - X
Rock Around the Clock - The Sex Pistols
Jailhouse Rock - Masaaki Hirao
Whistle Bait - The Collins Kids
Rockin' Bones - Ronnie Dawson
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Big Maybelle
Rockin' the Joint - Esquerita
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
You Shoulda Treated Me Right - Ike and Tina Turner
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Bacon Fat - Andre Williams
What's Wrong with Me? X
Forming - Germs
I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramonetures
Bombora - The Original Surfaris
Margaya - The Fender Four
You Sure Know How to Hurt Someone - Ann-Margret
Kissin' Cousins - Elvis Presley
Jim Dandy - LaVern Baker
Believe What You Say - Ricky Nelson
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
The Wallflower (Roll with Me Henry) - Etta James
C'mon Everybody - Sid Vicious
Sweetie Pie - Eddie Cochran
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret
Domino - Roy Orbison
Aw! Shucks Baby - Tiny Topsy
/ The glorious Ike and Tina Turner Revue photographed in 1968 - surely one of the cultural high points of 20th century Western civilization? Let’s have a heated debate! /
I've knocked-together a Spotify playlist of all the tracks I played at the December 2018 Lobotomy Room. You can listen to it here. As ever, not all the songs were available on Spotify, so in parts this playlist is an approximation! And for the full "you-were-there" experience, disable the "shuffle" option and listen to in sequence!
Further reading:
In August 2018 I spoke my brains to To Do List magazine about the wild, wild world of Lobotomy Room, the monthly cinema club – and my lonely one-man mission to return a bit of raunch, sleaze and “adult situations” to London’s nightlife! Read it - if you must - here.
Follow me on twitter!
"Like" and follow the official Lobotomy Room page on Facebook if you dare!
"Like" and follow the official Lobotomy Room page on Facebook if you dare!
The next Lobotomy Room club is Friday 25 January 2019!
Now for the uninhibited broad-minded sin set! Revel in sleaze, voodoo and rock’n’roll - when incredibly strange dance party Lobotomy Room returns to the basement Bamboo Lounge of Dalston’s most unique nite spot Fontaine’s! Friday 25 January!
Lobotomy Room! Where sin lives! A punkabilly booze party! Sensual and depraved! A spectacle of decadence! A Mondo Trasho evening of Beat, Beat Beatsville Beatnik Rock’n’Roll! Bad Music for Bad People! Rockabilly Psychosis! Wailing Rhythm and Blues! Twisted Tittyshakers! Punk cretin hops! White Trash Rockers! Kitsch! Exotica! Curiosities and Other Weird Shit! Think John Waters soundtracks, or Songs the Cramps Taught Us, hosted by Graham Russell. Expect desperate stabs from the jukebox jungle! Savage rhythms to make you writhe and rock! Vintage erotica projected on the big screen all night for your adult viewing pleasure!
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!
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