Reflections on ... Little Richard: I am Everything (2023)

 

I finally watched the 2023 documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything. (It's streaming on Amazon Prime). Director Lisa Cortés succeeds in making it feel cinematic, and the archival performance footage of Richard in his prime alone is worthwhile. The best “talking head” contributors are Richard’s late exotic dancer girlfriend Lee Angel and pioneering transgender nightclub entertainer Sir Lady Java - and John Waters, of course! (Waters recalls he used to shoplift Richard’s records as a kid, and that his signature pencil-line mustache is a direct “twisted tribute”). By comparison, big name guests like Mick Jagger and Tom Jones mostly offer show biz platitudes (and Billy Porter is self-aggrandizing). 

One thing it accomplishes nicely: so often hidebound rock critics and filmmakers get hung up on "who influenced who" which descends into "who ripped off who" as if it’s always a negative thing. It's common knowledge that when “the Georgia Peach” was just starting out as a performer without his persona cemented, two flaming queer Black male rhythm and blues musicians - Billy Wright and Esquerita - inspired his musical approach and appearance (the towering, processed conk, thick make-up and mustache). As one of the talking heads savvily argues, Richard didn’t “steal” from them: rather, they provided a mirror for Richard to see his true self. 

Similarly, Cortés gives Ike Turner his due. A musical expert notes that Richard's piano playing was beholden to Turner’s, something Richard admitted (he raved about the impact of hearing "Rocket 88", the 1951 Kings of Rhythm track widely considered the first-ever rock'n'roll single). Yes, Ike was a monster to Tina, but his trailblazing musical genius must be acknowledged. 

Also: I am Everything zeroes in on Richard’s commercial eclipse. Various theories are offered: all the acclaim went to Elvis. Richard was simply so black and queer that he threatened the musical establishment. And, of course, he kept jettisoning rock’n’roll to record gospel music instead. But ultimately, as someone clarifies, in the fifties, Richard’s primary audience was teenagers – the ficklest audience of all! By the early sixties, they’d simply moved on to the next big thing. 

The finale where Cortés demonstrates Richard’s effect on modern pop culture with a montage presumably meant to represent his spiritual descendants (Cher! Harry Styles! Lady GaGa! Lizzo!) is misbegotten. Are we meant to think anyone who ever wore sequins owes Little Richard a debt? (At least the inclusion of Lil Nas X - a modern flamboyant Black male performer - is apt). Richard was instilled with a sense of shame and guilt as a child, and throughout his life alternated between extreme hedonism and extreme fundamentalist Christianity. Sadly, as one commentator argues, Richard set a great liberating example for other people but rarely truly enjoyed that liberation himself.

Reflections on ... Little Richard's Obituaries

Some random reflections on Bronze Liberace and all-round Flaming Creature Little Richard (born Richard Penniman, 1932 - 2020) after a week of sifting through the deluge of online tributes and obituaries. Some trends I noticed: a fixation with trying to pinpoint who the majestic Georgia Peach influenced rather than evaluating him as an artist in his own right.  The stale pale male hetero baby boomer guardians of hidebound rock history consistently gave the weird back-handed compliment that “without Little Richard, there would be no Beatles and / or Bob Dylan”, as if Richard’s greatest contribution or achievement was to beget those honkies. Younger writers (I try to never use the expression “millennials”, especially not as an insult) get similarly befuddled when trying to contextualize Richard’s legacy. For them, he’s primarily notable for influencing modern singers like Lizzo, Janelle Monáe, Lady GaGa … and Bjork?!

I haven’t seen a single reference to the late, great pioneering transsexual soul diva Jackie Shayne (1940 – 2019), who I’d argue is one of Richard’s spiritual heirs. (The outrageous and regal Shayne looked and sounded like a hybrid of Little Richard and Eartha Kitt). Or, for that matter, bold soul sister Tina Turner. The relationship between Richard and the turbulent Turners is under-documented. Richard freely admitted that hearing “Rocket 88” by Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm in 1951 “made my big toe shoot up in my boot” and profoundly fired his own musical imagination.  (He “borrowed” the piano intro to “Rocket 88” for his own “Good Golly, Miss Molly”). Ike Turner and Richard were life-long friends (Richard wrote the introduction to Ike’s 1999 memoirs Takin’ Back My Name and delivered a eulogy at Ike’s funeral in 2007). And – let’s face it – the two men shared a cocaine habit in the seventies. The details are vague, but intriguingly, Richard claimed that when young unknown Anna Mae Bullock first joined Ike’s band, Ike begged him to instruct the novice how to sing. “Ike came and asked me to teach her. He asked me, “How would you sing this song?” And when I sang, he would tell Tina, “Now that’s what I want you to do.” But when she [Tina] talks today, she never mentions my name.”” (Having read both of Tina’s autobiographies, he’s right. Tina mentions the personal significance of LaVern Baker, Sister Rosetta Rosetta Tharpe, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Otis Redding and James Brown on her singing - but entirely snubs Richard). So, in theory, it could be argued, without Little Richard, there would be no Tina Turner (or at least not the raw, unabashedly sensual lioness Tina Turner we now know and love).  

/ The tempestuous Ike and Tina Turner in the early days /

In fact, for mainstream white straight writers there’s been little attempt to analyze Richard’s musical output or persona outside of the prism of white rock’n’roll or to understand the flamboyant black urban “chitlin’ circuit” rhythm and blues milieu of strippers, drag queens and minstrel shows he emerged from. Tavia Nyong’o’s piece in The Guardian is exemplary for locating him in this context. Richard didn’t invent the wheel or emerge from nowhere. As Nyong’o argues, by the forties – when the teenaged drag queen Richard was performing in travelling minstrel revues under the name Princess Lavonne - there was already a vibrant “black sexual underground” of “freakish men” (this, Nyong’o notes, was how “the black speech of the period named gender-non-conforming males” and not necessarily a pejorative). Richard had no shortage of positive role models to emulate here. There was Richard’s complicated relationship with wild man mentor, friend and lookalike Esquerita (aka Eskew Reeder Jr, 1935 - 1986).  There was "Hip Shakin' Mama" Patsy Vidalia (1921 - 1982), the “femme impersonator” entertainer and emcee of New Orleans night club The Dew Drop Inn, where Richard performed. There was queer R&B singer Billy Wright (1932 - 1991), who encouraged Richard to adopt his own signature dandified style of thick pancake make-up, pencil-line mustache and processed pompadour “conk” hairstyle. In these circles, no one would have batted an eye over Richard’s songs “Lucille” (about a drag queen) and “Tutti Frutti” (a paean to the joys of anal sex). Maybe Richard’s gift to the world was to introduce aspects of this debauched queen-y subculture above ground into white popular culture, thus loosening it up? Provocatively, Nyong’o asserts that white rock critics have consistently dismissed and misunderstood Richard’s gospel records as “inferior” to his rock’n’roll work. Maybe it’s time for those to be reappraised?

/ Below: the enigmatic Esquerita /

/  File Under Sacred Listening: The King of the Gospel Singers (1962) /

In his New York Times opinion piece “Little Richard’s Queer Triumph”, Myles E Johnson vividly evokes Richard in concert in Paris in 1966. At a climactic moment he strips-off his sweat-drenched shirt and hurls it into the crowd. Regardless of gender, everyone there would have fought each other for this sacred artifact, “For those in the audience, it must have been fantastical to see, and a deeply erotic thing to witness. To think, in 1966, a black queer man - over the course of his life he would identify himself as gay, bisexual and “omnisexual” - could be a sex god. He was a symbol of brazen sensuality, three years before Jimi Hendrix would use his tongue and guitar to catapult a nation beyond their prudish sensibilities at Woodstock.”

I also loved David Remnick’s testimonial in The New Yorker. Summarizing Richard’s frenzied musical attack in the fifties, Remnick concludes “he is a human thrill ride.” How succinct is that? He’s also eloquent on Richard’s lifelong, agonizingly painful conflict between his sexuality and his fundamentalist Christianity. Some gay fans find it impossible to forgive the ailing Richard’s disillusioningly homophobic 2017 interview in which he disparages his past and his homosexuality. But walk a mile in Little Richard’s shoes. This was, Remnick reminds us, the kid whose father kicked him out of the family home aged 13 for his effeminacy and who grew up marginalized and bullied (“The kids would call me faggot, sissy, freak.”). “It seemed evident that Little Richard both thrived on his sexuality but suffered terribly from the time that he had been cast out of his own home as a boy. Despite the flamboyance of his performances and his carriage, he never quite settled, publicly, on a sexual identity. Sometimes, he would say he was gay, sometimes bisexual, sometimes “omnisexual”; there were moments, feeling the weight of his religious background, when he even denounced homosexuality.”

Unsurprisingly perhaps, it’s cult filmmaker and The People’s Pervert John Waters - always voluble about his worship for Little Richard - who says it best. “He was the first punk,” he exclaimed to Rolling Stone. “He was the first everything … to me, he was always a great figure of rebellion and sexual confusion. People didn’t talk about him being gay or anything. I don’t know if he was beyond that because he was so scary. They didn’t even know what he was. He was a Martian more than being gay. It was like he was from another planet.” Maybe that’s Little Richard’s crowning accomplishment. In real terms, his musical heyday was brief. But he defiantly let his freak flag fly and gave others the freedom to follow his example. All hail the queen! We'll never see his like again.

/ Little Richard looked exceptionally beautiful on this day /

/ Below: my boyfriend Pal's tribute to Little Richard. T-shirt via Printers Unknown / 

Further reading:

My account of seeing Little Richard give one of his final public performances at Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender in 2013. 

Lobotomy Room DJ Set List at Fontaine's 30 November 2018

/ Early line-up of the glorious bad girls of rhythm and blues, the Ikettes from the Ike and Tina Turner Revue: Jessie Smith, Robbie Montgomery and Venetta Fields. I played the Ikettes' song "I'm Blue" in my set / 

From the Facebook event page:

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! Friday 30 November!

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!

A tawdry good time guaranteed!

/ “There’s no stoppin’ the cretins from hoppin’ / You gotta keep it beatin’ for all the hoppin’ cretins …” /

Following our insane, triumphant and vomit-splattered Halloween spectacular in October, incredibly bizarre dance party Lobotomy Room returned to the Polynesian splendor of Fontaine’s basement Bamboo Lounge on Friday 30 November 2018. Could we maintain that urgent, desperately frantic momentum? Oh, hell yeah! Mainly thanks to birthday girl Kit and her group of friends!  Wild, uninhibited, hungry-for-kicks – they were the ideal Lobotomy Room crowd! 

And for once we have documentary evidence! Justyna did double-duty on the night as bartender and nightclub photographer!

Here's what I played ...

Mau Mau - The Fabulous Wailers
Exotic - The Sentinels
Katanga - Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Kismiaz - The Cramps
I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramonetures
I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song) - The Ikettes
Party Lights - Claudine Clark
I Don't Need You No More - The Rumblers
Drive Daddy Drive - Little Sylvia
I Live the Life I Love - Esquerita
I'm Comin' Over - X
Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Chicken Rock - Fat Daddy Holmes
Run Chicken Run - Link Wray
Chicken Walk - Hasil Adkins
Chicken - The Cramps
Jukebox Babe - Alan Vega
Atomic Bongos - Lydia Lunch
Media Blitz - The Germs
Teenage Lobotomy - The Ramones
Riding with a Movie Star - L7
Woo-Hoo - The Rock-A-Teens
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6.7.8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
Pedro Pistolas Twist - Los Twisters
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Peter Gunn Locomotion - The Delmonas
Bombora - The Original Surfaris
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Jane in the Jungle - The 5.6.7.8s
Road Runner - The Fabulous Wailers
Vampira - The Misfits
Forming - The Germs
Viva Las Vegas - Nina Hagen
Be Bop a Lula - Alan Vega
Breathless - X
Let's Have a Party - Wanda Jackson
Wild, Wild Party - Charlie Feathers
Rock Around the Clock - The Sex Pistols
Jailhouse Rock - Masaaki Hirao
My Baby Does the Hanky Panky - Rita Chao and The Quests
Bang Bang - Betty Chung
Gostaria de Saber (River Deep, Mountain High) - Wanderlea
Harley Davidson - Brigitte Bardot
Touch the Leather - The Fat White Family
Somethin' Else - Sid Vicious
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
Juvenile Delinquent - Ronnie Allen
Garbage Man - The Cramps
Rockin' Bones - Ronnie Dawson
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Big Maybelle
Let's Go Baby - Billy Eldridge
Fools Rush In - Ricky Nelson
Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley
He's the One - Ike and Tina Turner
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Sweet Little Pussycat - Andre Williams
The Pussycat Song - Connie Vannett
Scorpion - The Carnations
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Pass the Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies
Year 1 - X
Boss - The Rumblers
Muleskinner Blues - The Fendermen
Shortnin' Bread - The Readymen
Batman Theme - Link Wray
Love Me - The Phantoms
I Stubbed My Toe - Bryan "Legs" Walker
Revelion - The Revels
Steel Pier - The Impacts
Black Tarantula - Jody Reynolds
Margaya - The Fender Four
Tina's Dilemma - Ike and Tina Turner
Esquerita and The Voola - Esquerita
Intoxica - The Revels
Ultra Twist - The Cramps
Twistin' the Night Away - Divine
Cretin Hop - The Ramones
C'mon Everybody - Sid Vicious
Blitzkreig Bop - The Ramonetures
Nothing Matters Anymore - The Alley Cats
Heartbreak Hotel - Buddy Love
Ring of Fire - The Earls of Suave
Comin' Home, Baby - The Delmonas
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
Treat Me Right - Mae West
Roll with Me Henry - Etta James
Shake Appeal - Iggy and The Stooges
Nausea - X
Your Phone's Off the Hook - The Ramonetures
Steppin' Stone - The Sex Pistols
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret
Woman - Peggy Lee
These Boots Are Made for Walkin' - Mrs Miller
How Does That Grab You Darlin'? Nancy Sinatra
Aphrodisiac - Bow Wow Wow
Let's Go Sexin' - James Intveld
Bossa Nova Baby - Elvis Presley
Don't Be Cruel - Bill Black Combo
Cry-baby - The Honey Sisters
Johnny Are You Queer? Josie Cotton
What Do You Think I Am? Ike and Tina Turner
My Way - Nina Hagen
One Night of Sin - Elvis Presley

/ Booze party! Wild! Wild! Wild! /

Listen to the strange’n’sleazy sounds of Lobotomy Room from the safety of your own home! I’ve knocked together a Spotify playlist based on what I played at the November dance party.  (For accuracy, disable the shuffle function!). It’s only approximate because some tracks were unavailable on Spotify: The Revels are barely represented on there at all! Other missing songs include Betty Chung’s Mandarin language cover of “Bang Bang”, Josie Cotton’s immortal “Johnny Are You Queer?” Nina Hagen’s berserk rendition of “My Way” and Bryan “Legs” Walker’s drunken hillbilly rant “I Stubbed My Toe.” Spotify – sort out these glaring omissions! Anyway, explore the Wild, Wild World of Lobotomy Room here. 

Upcoming events: at Lobotomy Room, we have all your festive needs covered in December 2018! 

Next film club:

Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies is the FREE monthly film club downstairs at Fontaine’s bar (Dalston’s most unique nite spot!) devoted to Bad Movies We Love (our motto: Bad Movies for Bad People), specialising in the kitsch, the cult and the queer! For the final cinema club of 2018 (on Wednesday 19 December), let’s wind things down with a crowd-pleaser – John Water’s delirious 1981 black comedy Polyester! A parody of 1950s “women’s pictures”, Polyester sees 300-pound drag monster / leading lady Divine cast against type (and giving one of his definitive performances) in a rare sympathetic role, as long-suffering suburban housewife Francine Fishpaw! It’s an apt choice for last film of 2018 for two reasons: 2018 represented the 100th anniversary of the birth of beloved punk granny Edith Massey (1918 –1984) and Polyester represents her last appearance in a John Waters film. And dreamboat leading man Tab Hunter (1931 – 2018) died earlier this year. 

Doors to the basement Bamboo Lounge open at 8 pm. Film starts at 8:30 pm prompt. Arrive early to grab a seat and order a drink! We can accommodate 30 people maximum. First come, first serve! Note that Fontaine’s Christmas cocktail menu will be available, and the featured cocktail of the night is hot buttered rum!

Event page

Next Dance Party:

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!

Event page

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!  

Post-Christmas Lobotomy Room at Fontaine's DJ Set List 29 December 2017

From Facebook event page:

Feeling jaded? Didn’t get the cha-cha heels you wanted? Head-bang away your post-Christmas blues – at Lobotomy Room!

Yes! 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 most unique nite spot Fontaine’s! Friday 29 December 2017!

Lobotomy Room! Where sin lives! A punkabilly booze party! Sensual and depraved! 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! 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! Grainy black-and-white 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!

Downstairs in the basement Bamboo Lounge of Fontaine’s, Lobotomy Room was worried. Worried that people hadn't prepared themselves for the inevitable post-Christmas comedown! This club night was offering a public service!

Scheduling a club on the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s – when loads of people would still be out of town and whole swathes of public transport comprehensively immobilised due to engineering work – is always a risk.

/ Jayne Mansfield and Santa Claus /

But happily, this one turned out to be a blast! The crowd was small but enthusiastic and rowdy. I laid-on a putrid soundtrack of ominous surf instrumentals, punk cretin hops, desperate rockabilly and greasy rhythm and blues. Thanks in particular to the gang of bad girls who danced and drank until 1:30 am! The spirit of Female Trouble's Dawn Davenport, Chiclet and Concetta lives! One of them asked me to play “Party Lights” by Claudine Clark – perhaps the single best song request I’ve ever received in all my years of DJ’ing! 

Der Karibische Western - Lydia Lunch
Steel Pier - The Impacts
Surf Rat - The Rumblers
Jane in the Jungle - The 5,6,7,8s
Wailin' - The Fabulous Wailers
Vampira - Bobby Bare
Vampira - The Misfits
Goo Goo Muck - Ronnie and The Gaylads
Bikini with No Top on the Top - Mamie Van Doren and June Wilkinson
Scratching on My Screen - Ric Cartey
Adult Books - X
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Beat Girl - ZZ en de Maskers
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
I Don't Need You No More - The Rumblers
Forming - The Germs
Rock-A-Bop - Sparkle Moore
Don't Be Cruel - Bill Black Combo
Let's Go Baby - Billy Eldrige
Comin' Home, Baby - The Delmonas
Scorpion - The Carnations
Pedro Pistolas Twist - Los Twisters
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Pass the Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Year 1 - X
Rock Around the Clock - The Sex Pistols
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Action Packed - Ronnie Dee
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
Woo-Hoo - The Rock-A-Teens
Shakin' All Over - Johnny Kidd and The Pirates
Treat Me Right - Mae West
Intoxica - The Centurions
Love Me - The Phantom
Jailhouse Rock - Masaaki Hirao
Heartbreak Hotel - Buddy Love
Sweetie Pie - Eddie Cochran
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
Somethin' Else - Sid Vicious
Wild, Wild Party - Charlie Featherss
Let's Have a Party - Wanda Jackson
Be Bop a Lula - Alan Vega
Batman Theme - Link Wray and His Ray Men
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
He's the One - Ike and Tina Turner
I'm a Woman - Peggy Lee
These Boots Are Made for Walkin' - Mrs Miller
How Does That Grab You, Darlin'? Nancy Sinatra
Johnny Are You Queer? Josie Cotton
Party Lights - Claudine Clark
Bossa Nova Baby - Elvis Presley
Roll with Me Henry - Etta James
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret
Crawfish - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
Big Girls Don't Cry - Edith Massey
Twistin' the Night Away - Divine

Date for your social diary:

The next Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies film club presentation (the first of the New Year!) is ... Strait-Jacket! 17 January 2018!

Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies is the FREE monthly film club downstairs at Fontaine’s devoted to Bad Movies We Love (our motto: Bad Movies for Bad People), specialising in the kitsch, the cult and the queer! On Wednesday 17 January Lobotomy Room shamelessly jumps on the Feud: Bette and Joan bandwagon (I mean, embraces the spirit!) with a screening of campy horror masterpiece Strait-Jacket (1964) – starring Joan Crawford as a deranged ax murderess!

Call it “hagsploitation” or “psycho-biddy”, Strait-Jacket (directed by low-budget trash maestro William Castle – one of John Waters’ primary influences) is a stark, vicious little b-movie featuring a truly berserk and mesmerizing performance from bitch goddess extraordinaire Crawford! If you liked What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? or Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte, you’ll LOVE Strait-Jacket!

Doors to the Polynesian-style basement Bamboo Lounge open at 8 pm. Film starts at 8:30 pm prompt. Arrive early to grab a seat and order a drink. (Special offer cocktail on the night to be announced!). I’ll be projecting grainy black-and-white vintage erotica on the big screen for your pre-film “adult” entertainment!

Event page

Read more about our film club

The next incredibly strange Lobotomy Room dance party is Friday 26 January! Official event page.

Further reading:

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! 

  

Lobotomy Room at Fontaine's DJ Set List from 24 February 2017

From the Facebook event page:

“It’s just what you need when you’re down in the dumps / One half hillbilly and one half punk …”

It’s back! The first Lobotomy Room of 2017!

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 24 February! 

Lobotomy Room! Where sin lives! A punkabilly booze party! Sensual and depraved! 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 big screen all night for your adult viewing pleasure! Come for the special offer 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!

/ No sin too great ... no lust too degrading ... at Lobotomy Room! /

Good lord! I’d better post this unblushing revoltingly candid scene report / exposé about last month’s Lobotomy Room because soon it will be time for this month’s! (The March instalment of Lobotomy Room at Fontaine’s is Friday 31 March. Read the full squalid details here).

February’s incredibly strange dance party was a bit different because the Polynesian-style basement Bamboo Lounge was booked for a private party, so Lobotomy Room had to re-locate upstairs to the main bar. That meant I couldn’t project my usual flickering, grainy black-and-white vintage erotica on the big screen, but it worked out OK. We just had to work a bit harder to generate our own ambience of sleaze instead!

This Lobotomy Room was also noteworthy because it represented the “hen party” of my friend Rachael, who’s getting married in the beginning of April. (North American readers: you would call it a bachelorette party). The bridezilla (sorry, bride-to-be) looked radiant in a vintage dress. 

For once, I have some photo documentation from the night.

/  Christopher and Pal /

/ Stylish ginger trio /

/ Rachael and I /

/ Rachael and I /

/ Rachael and I. Rachael is seemingly channelling Divine as Babs Johnson in Pink Flamingos? This is a rare shot that gives you an indication of Fontaine's beautiful Art Deco-style decor (note the golden palm tree) /

/ Yorkshire's finest: Rachael and Christopher /

Anyway, here's what I played:

Handclappin' Time - The Fabulous Raiders
Little Queenie - Bill Black's Combo
Fujiyama Mama - Annisteen Allen
Treat Me Right - Mae West
Intoxica - The Revels
Fever - Edith Massey
Three Cool Chicks - The 5,6,7,8s
I'm Blue - The Ikettes
Mau Mau - The Fabulous Wailers
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Wimoweh - Yma Sumac
Kismiaz - The Cramps
Beauty is Only Skin Deep - Robert Mitchum
Dona Wanna - Wanda Jackson
Go Calypso - Mamie Van Doren
Blockade - The Rumblers
How Much Love Can One Heart Hold? Joe Perkins and The Rookies
The Flirt - Shirley and Lee
She Wants to Mambo - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
I Was Born to Cry - Dion
Little Darlin' - Masaaki Hirao
I've Told Every Little Star - Linda Scott
I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramonetures
Fools Rush In - Ricky Nelson
Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley
Be Bop A Lula - Alan Vega
My Baby Does the Hanky Panky - Rita Chao and The Quests
Saber de gostaria - Wanderlea
You Sure Know How to Hurt Someone - Ann-Margret
Shout - Johnny Hallyday
Woman - Peggy Lee
Treat Me Right - Mae West [played in error!]
Boss - The Rumblers
What Do You Think I Am? Ike and Tina Turner
Tornado - Dale Hawkins
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
Wildwood - Sil Austin
Big Bounce - Shirley Caddell
Woo-Hoo - The Rock-A-Teens
Let's Go Baby - Billy Eldridge
Savin' My Love - Wanda Jackson
Wild Wild Party - Charlie Feathers
Hillbilly Surfer - Whitey White
Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad - Tammy Wynette
The Swag - Link Wray
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
Jim Dandy - Laverne Baker
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
Your Phone's off the Hook - The Ramonetures
Breathless - X
Rock Around the Clock - The Sex Pistols
Heartbreak Hotel - Buddy Love
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
He's the One - Ike and Tina Turner
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Action Packed - Ronnie Dee
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
Somethin' Else - Sid Vicious
Viva Las Vegas - Nina Hagen
Atomic Bongos  - Lydia Lunch
Jukebox Baby - Alan Vega
Batman Theme - Link Wray
Shortnin' Bread - The Readymen
Muleskinner Blues - The Fendermen
Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen
Margaya - The Fender Four
Wipe-Out - The Surfaris
Surf Rat - The Rumblers
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Pass the Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies
Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Vesuvius - The Revels
Dance with Me Henry - Ann-Margret
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Bikini Girls with Machine Guns - The Cramps
C'mon Everybody - Sid Vicious
Johnny Hit and Run Pauline - The Ramonetures
Year 1 - X
Teenage Lobotomy - The Ramones
Lightening's Girl - Nancy Sinatra
Vampira - The Misfits
Salamander - Mamie Van Doren
Touch the Leather - Fat White Family
Harley Davidson - Brigitte Bardot
Viens danser le twist - Johnny Hallyday
Peter Gunn Locomotion - The Delmonas
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Khrushchev Twist - Melvin Gayle
Twist Talk - Jack Hammer
Twistin' the Night Away - Divine
Ultra Twist - The Cramps
Sweetie Pie - Eddie Cochran
Hoy Hoy - The Collins Kids
Bossa Nova Baby - Elvis Presley
Beat Girl - Adam Faith
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret
Roll with Me Henry - Etta James
I Love the Life I Live - Esquerita
Goodbye So Long - Ike and Tina Turner
Rock-A-Bop - Sparkle Moore
These Boots are Made for Walkin' - Mrs Mills
Big Girls Don't Cry - Edith Massey


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, here, here, here and here.

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Scrawl the date in blood! The next Lobotomy Room punkabilly booze party at Fontaine's is Friday 31 March 2017! Details here.