Christmas Cockabilly DJ Set List 17 December 2013

I’m rushing to squeeze in a few last blogs before Christmas and get up-to-date. I can’t let my haphazard and inept kooky DJ’ing misadventures go un-documented! This will probably read more tersely than usual – think of it as a telegram from hell!

The Christmas Cockabilly at The George and Dragon (epicentre of Shoreditch bohemia!) was on 17 December 2013. An East End hipster queer rockabilly booze party – what better way to usher in the holiday season?

I guest DJ’d alongside Cockabilly regulars Mal Nicholson and Elma Wolf. My work Christmas staff party was beforehand so I rushed straight to the venue stuffed to the gills with roast turkey and lager and feeling a bit lethargic – and promptly set about sweating to the oldies in The George and Dragon’s upper-mezzanine DJ booth! (It was insanely hotter than hell up there! I had opted to wear my biker cap and the sweat was rolling down my face and stinging my eyes in no time).

I’d packed my DJ bag under the influence of a thunderous hangover the day after my annual Christmas cocktail party. Perhaps that explains how I bleeding forgot to pack the 1957 Elvis Christmas album! I could’ve kicked myself – if I wasn’t going to play that at the Christmas Cockabilly, when would I?  I had totally intended to include Presley’s “Blue Christmas” and “Santa Claus is Back in Town” in my set – two swaggering Christmas anthems delivered with a sexy rockabilly snarl. Damn!

/ My photo of Los Straitjackets at Viva Las Vegas 2011 /

Thankfully I did pack ‘Tis The Season for Los Straitjackets: 13 Rockin’ Christmas Instrumentals! Nashville’s mighty veteran surf outfit Los Straitjackets (their identities perennially concealed behind Mexican wrestling masks) performed at the annual Viva Las Vegas rockabilly weekender in 2011 - and they blew my freaking mind.  (On their website they refer to themselves as “the world’s leading instrumental guitar band” – and I concur!). This year I made a point of tracking down their 2002 album of Christmas standards given a brutally stripped-down, rumbling and ominous surf treatment. It’s definitely a new festive favourite. Los Straitjackets’ versions of “Feliz Navidad” and “Jingle Bell Rock” pack an aggressive, nasty punk edge and make you want to kick over a Christmas tree!

Amongst the usual rancid assortment of mondo trasho vintage musical kitsch I sprinkled in some tracks from Kenneth Anger’s gay occult biker art cinema classic Scorpio Rising (1964). I know I’ve banged on a lot already about the impact of Anger’s underground oeuvre and Scorpio Rising in particular on me.  I saw that film at an impressionable age and it was genuinely transformative – it made me! Until the emergence of David Lynch, no filmmaker used seemingly innocuous, sweet and camp pop music to such twisted evocative ends. It continues to inspire me. Anyway, dropping in “My Boyfriend’s Back” by The Angels and The Surfaris’ “Wipe Out” was like my homage to His Satanic Majesty.

Hmmm: Cockabilly. Scorpio Rising. Kenneth Anger. Wishing you all a kinky Satanic homoerotic biker Christmas! 



/ Scorpio Rising in its entirety is currently available on Youtube. Ideally I'd recommend you buy it beautifully digitally re-mastered on DVD - but if you haven't seen it before, grab the opportunity before it gets yanked down! /

Feliz Navidad - Los Straitjackets
My Boyfriend's Back - The Angels
Bombora - The Original Surfaris
Heartbreakin' Special - Duke Larson
Mule Skinner Blues - The Fendermen
Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Chicken - The Cramps
Chicken Walk - Hasil Adkins
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret
Here Comes Santa Claus - Los Straitjackets
Tina's Dilemma - Ike and Tina Turner
Wipe-Out - The Surfaris
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
Party Lights - Claudine Clark
Revellion - The Revels
My Boy Lollipop - Sakura and The Quests
Whistle Bait - The Collins Kids
The Swag - Link Wray
Ah, Poor Little Baby - Billy "Crash" Craddock
I've Told Every Little Star - Linda Scott
I Live the Life I Love - Esquerita
Jingle Bell Rock - Los Straitjackets
Leave Married Women Alone - Jimmy Cavallo
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Scorpion - The Carnations
Salamander - Mamie Van Doren
The Whip - The Originals
One More Beer - The Earls of Suave

If you've made it down this far you get a bonus pin-up! From my red hot camera session with photographer Adrian Lourie in October 2013 for Meat magazine (think of it as the London equivalent of Butt - but better!).  My spread is featured in issue number 11, which is out now. You really should buy the whole issue and support a 100% independent queer publications (besides, it has photos of hot naked men!). The Meat website.

Further reading:

Lurid photos from the 2011 Christmas Cockabilly at The George and Dragon

The next Lobotomy Room (my depraved and sensual occasional club night - where the international sin set meet!) is Saturday 28 December 2013. Full details here

If you don't already, follow me on tumblr: vintage, retro, kitschy, homoerotic - and NSFW!

Cockabilly DJ Set List 9 October 2013

/ Nice 1950s beefcake "ass shot" of delectable young Tony Curtis /

Cockabilly (London’s only monthly gay rockabilly night!) triumphantly returned to its ideal venue / spiritual home The George and Dragon earlier this summer after a lengthy hiatus.  (Epicentre of East End bohemia George and Dragon is my favourite bar in London – close second is the nearby Joiners Arms). Happy times! It was great to guest DJ at the October 2013 Cockabilly. DJ’ing at one of these nights always feels like getting back to basics: it was at the earliest Cockabillies circa 2008 I gradually started easing myself into the dark art of DJ’ing. I've been addicted ever since! Cockabilly (and the two guys who organise it, Mal and Paul) will always have a place in my heart for setting me on my demented and inept path.

Having said that, the night was quite messy: 1) I got pretty drunk early on and 2) there was technical issues a go-go. The George and Dragon recently underwent some renovations and moved the DJ booth from its traditional corner by the bar to an upper mezzanine level. DJ’ing up there certainly feels glamorous and the view is great but ever since the relocation the audio has been weirdly muted. (I’d seen nightclubbing royalty Princess Julia DJ at The George and Dragon just before this Cockabilly and kept thinking, "Does she realise how quiet the volume is?"). This time Mal and I had the volume cranked up as high as it would go (it was jammed in the red!) and yet my friend Eric (seated with my friends Pal and Phil) was texting me from his table below, “Turn it up, grrrl!” It was really frustrating, playing some of my most rancid and blistering tunes and knowing it was muffled! Finally savvy Elma Wolf (of Twat Boutique notoriety), one of the night’s co-DJs, arrived and immediately declared she could barely hear what I was playing. She knelt down, fiddled with some secret dial I didn't even know was there, and instantly remedied the sound problem! Suddenly the music was blaring – loud, confrontational and obnoxious, just the way I like it! Which was a relief, but I was bummed out the entire first half of my set had been barely audible! Elma recommended I might as well play the same tracks all over again - no one would know the difference.  Aaack!

Cockabilly may be billed as a gay rockabilly night, but really the emphasis is on keeping things rowdy, good-natured and boozy rather than sticking to any particular genre. As per usual at Cockabilly, I whipped together a pagan, primitive and taboo tsunami of vintage musical sleaze: 1950s rock’n’roll, surf instrumentals, punk, kitsch-y weird shit, obscure cover versions and rhythm and blues (I played Ike and Tina Turner twice!). I'm always really critical looking back at my set list wondering, why the hell didn't I play this instead? (For example I'd packed Charlie Feathers, Hasil Adkins, Wanda Jackson, Esquerita - and didn't play a single track by any of 'em! Ah, well - next time). 

/ No one fused hardcore punk thrash and rockabilly quite like Los Angeles punk band X - one of my favourite groups of all time. Playing a track by them at  Cockabilly or Lobotomy Room is freaking essential /

In other news, I can now add “glamour model” to my CV. I had a “red hot camera session” with the insanely talented Adrian Lourie for Meat magazine the night before Cockabilly. How much did I take off? You’ll have to wait for the next issue (due end of November 2013) to find out. (Presuming I make the cut and am included!).  The photo shoot was a lot like this. I was channeling Jayne Mansfield the whole time, and sucking in my stomach so hard my eyes were popping out of my head.

Further reading:

Read about previous Cockabillies here, here, here, here and here.

Follow me on tumblr for loads of vintage kitsch, smut and homoerotica (NSFW to the max!)

Dragon Walk - The Noble Men
Little Queenie - The Bill Black Combo
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Welfare Cheese - Emanuel Lanskey
Batman Theme - Link Wray and His Ray Men
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
He's The One - Ike and Tina Turner
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
Whistle Bait - The Collins Kids
Rock Around the Clock - The Sex Pistols
Ring of Fire - The Earls of Suave
Margaya - The Fender Four
Big Bounce - Shirley Caddell
Year 1 - X
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
Breathless - Arlie Neaville
Sweetie Pie - Eddie Cochran
Chicken - The Cramps
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
Woo-Hoo - The Rock-A-Teens
Roll with Me Henry - Etta James
Fools Rush In - Ricky Nelson
Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley
C'Mon Everybody - Sid Vicious
Boss - The Rumblers
Tina's Dilemma - Ike and Tina Turner
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades

12 May 2012 Dr Sketchy Set List

 / A strawberry blonde that's never existed in nature: Sex kitten extraordinaire Ann-Margret /

This Saturday afternoon Dr Sketchy at The Old Queen’s Head happened to coincide with my birthday. The reliably louche Dusty Limits was on emcee duties. Our burlesque performer and female model was the diminutive Amelie Soleil, who I’ve never worked with before. She has a circus school background and is a contortionist: she can do the splits as casually as most of cross our legs, and was able to hold the pose for an eye-watering length of time! She also incorporated fire-eating into her burlesque act – wow! You can read about Amelie’s pretty remarkable background in circus, cabaret and burlesque here. Our male model was the aptly-named Luscious Luke, who's recently been featured as a pin-up in Meat magazine (think of it as the UK equivalent of Butt).

   

/ Luke and Dusty topping up their fluid intake/

   

/ The ultra-bendy Amelie Soleil /

   

/ Amelie and Luke ensemble /

Because it was my birthday, I invited along some friends of mine: Angela (the sassy Scottish lassie who put the “ange” in “danger”), Paul (aka Johnny Cashpoint, formerly of art-punk band Matron – who should’ve made it big!), Derek and “Stuckist” artist and musician Ella Guru (formerly of the Voodoo Queens, currently in The Deptford Beach Babes). All of them were Dr Sketchy virgins, and really seemed to dig it.

   

/ My official birthday 2012 portrait: no photo of me is complete without my trademark sweat patch /

I’m still working in new material from CDs I bought at Amoeba Records in San Francisco in April. From Ain’t Love Grand, the much-maligned 1985 fifth album by the Los Angeles punk band X (a record that rocked my world as a teenager. It merits a whole blog to itself), I played the dramatic and bluesy torch song “My Goodness”, which seemed to make an impression. The punk-y and strange last few songs were just me clowning around because I was drunk by then and it was my birthday. I’ve also started introducing some tracks from a compilation CD entitled Good Girls Gone Bad I picked up at the wonderful Rooky Ricardo's Records in San Francisco. (God, how much do I love this store? I also bought some Ike and Tina Turner fridge magnets there. Imagine! Ike and Tina fridge magnets! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven). The compilation is a gem: I would call it an early 60s girl group anthology (it does feature some great obscure girl groups with names like The Tiaras, The Fortune Cookies and The Half-Sisters) but it mostly comprises tear-jerking laments by dimly-remembered wholesome white solo “girl singers” from that late 1950s-early 1960s post-army Elvis and pre-Beatles period that conventional baby boomer rock historians routinely condemn as some kind of cultural 

wasteland.  

/ Rooky Ricardo's Records on Haight Street /

Well, received wisdom sucks. Yes, the pop music of this era is often terminally un-hip, tame and neutered: think clean-cut teen idols like Tommy Sands, Connie Francis, Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, think "Kookie, Kookie Lend Me Your Comb.". Yet because the music is so white bread, wholesome and square, there’s often an intriguing bat squeak of strangeness and kinkiness under its middle of the road veneer. Transgressive filmmakers like Kenneth Anger (think Scorpio Rising (1963); the Paris Sisters cooing “Dream Lover” in Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965) would comfortably fit on Good Girls Gone Bad) and David Lynch recognise this, returning again and again to the music of this period for their soundtracks. Lynch in particular: Bobby Vinton’s “Blue Velvet”, Connie Stevens’s “16 Reasons” and Linda Scott’s “I’ve Told Every Single Star” in Mulholland Drive (2001). The early 1960s is also the period John Waters came of age as a teen and which he lovingly evokes in Hairspray (1988).

   

"16 Reasons" in Mulholland Drive The Connie Stevens original (Better known as an actress, platinum blonde starlet Connie Stevens cut a few records in the early 60s, singing in a breathless little girl voice. Her "Little Miss Understood" is one of my highlights on Good Girls Gone Bad). Connie Stevens in her beehived glory When I bought the CD, the man who I assume to be Rooky Ricardo himself exclaimed, “Oh you’ll like this – it’s white girls with problems.” Corny as hell, the songs pack a fluffy kitsch period charm, but also throb with innocence and urgent teen drama. Good Girls Gone Girl Bad sketches out a soap opera realm in which tearful, passive-aggressive and needy girls next door pine for their “good-bad but not evil” leader of the pack-bad boys in heartbreak ballads. “Twenty four hours of loneliness / Twenty four hours of heartbreak / Every minute has been like this / How much more can I take?” Bonnie Lou demands, audibly at the end of her rope, while Joni Lymon’s “Happy Birthday Blue” is a variation on “It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To.” On “Call Him Back”, Donna Lewis argues with her boyfriend on the phone, hangs up on him and then goes batshit crazy regretting it. Things reach a fever pitch with “It Should Have Been Me”, in which the lead singer of the aforementioned Fortune Cookies turns deranged stalker, watching her ex’s wedding from a phone booth across the street. Her delivery makes you hope the newlyweds have taken out a restraining order. (It’s worth remembering that it was around this time (1960) that Ike Turner first unleashed on the world his tigress of a wife, the volcanic Tina. Consider her frankly sex-wracked scream on “A Fool in Love” and then consider the disparity between black rhythm and blues and white pop records of the time). The yearning lyrics and keening vocals on Good Girls Gone Bad bristle with the kind of dysfunctional "stand by your man" masochism whose DNA still pulses in the knowingly retro, noir-ish and David Lynch-ian music of ice princess Lana Del Rey today. “He can‘t be all bad / even though he’s got an awful lot of rebel in him ...” long-forgotten ingénue Cobey Carson simpers. “It’s no wonder he’s in trouble every day / No kind word ever comes his way ...And I’m glad he’s mine.” That’s precisely the kind of sentiment Del Rey (the only modern pop star who matters) explores in a more overtly troubled/troubling, potentially self-destructive way in songs like “Blue Jeans” and “Born to Die.” Of course one of the (many) things Del Rey takes so much flack for is being a poor feminist role model for her “irresponsible” lyrics (her intriguing 1950s good girl/bad girl mixed messages are older than Ann-Margret and Nancy Sinatra). Lana, oh, Lana: I understand you But masochistic themes of romantic despair are present in all great love songs – they’re the life force of pop itself. Think of the mid-century female masters of the art of heartbreak (Piaf longing for her legionnaire, the entire oeuvre of Billie Holiday, Dusty Springfield wailing “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself”) and all the blues and Country & Western greats of both genders (an utterly defeated Hank Williams crying into his beer on “You Win Again”). Good Girls Gone Bad taps into this, and makes me shudder in ecstasy. Anyway, later that night I met up with Christopher and Lauren and went to The Hillbilly Hop (London’s best monthly rockabilly club; kudos to its promoter, Greaser Leo). From there, things got messy, but it was fun and worth the next day’s hangover. I quickly snapped a few drunken (brutally close-up) photos at the Hillbilly Hop. Consider them Nan Goldin-style portraits of my friends Lauren Christopher Danny Danny again Quiet Village - Martin Denny Run - Jeri Southern Laisse-moi tranquille - Serge Gainsbourg Wimoweh - Yma Sumac Mama Look A Boo Boo - Robert Mitchum Go Calypso - Mamie Van Doren De Castrow - Jaybee Wasden La Bamba - Eartha Kitt Vesuvius - The Revels I Want Your Love - The Cruisers Margaya - The Fender Four Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades You Can't Stop Her - Bobby Marchan Screwdriver - Luchi Chicken - The Spark Plugs Kruschev Twist - Melvin Gayle Chop Suey Rock - The Instrumentals Love Potion # 9 - Nancy Sit Fujiyama Mama - Annisteen Allen The Bee - The Sentinels Oo-Wee, Mr Jeff - Georgina Lane Tall Cool One - The Wailers Always True to You in My Fashion - Denise Darcel 8 Ball - The Hustlers Fever - Ann-Margret You're My Thrill - Chet Baker (instrumental) Mon coeur n'était pas fait pour ça - Juliette Greco Anasthasia - Bill Smith Combo Strolling After Dark - The Shades Womp Womp - Freddie and The Heartaches Hard Workin' Man - Captain Beefheart A Man What Takes His Time - Marlene Dietrich I Want a Boy - Connie Russell Handclapping Time - The Fabulous Raiders One Mint Julep - Sarah Vaughan Dragon Walk - The Noble Men Hurt Is All You Gave Me - Ike and Tina Turner This Thing Called Love - Esquerita That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires Boss - The Rumblers How Come You Do Me? Junior Thompson The Beast - Milt Buckner Do It Again - April Stevens Kiss - Marilyn Monroe My Goodness - X Mondo Moodo - Earls of Suave Lazy - The Nuns Crazy Vibrations - The Bikinis You're the Boss - Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret Bonnie and Clyde - Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot Love is Strange - Johnny Thunders and Patti Paladin Begin the Beguine - Billy Fury Mack the Knife - Hildegard Knef La Javanise - Juliette Greco The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard Witchcraft - Elvis Presley Viens danser le twist - Johnny Hallyday Beat Girl - Adam Faith Little Miss Understood - Connie Stevens Big Girls Don't Cry - Edith Massey What's Wrong with Me? X What Do You Think I Am? Ike and Tina Turner