From the Facebook events page:
Raise the ghosts of Lux Interior and Jayne Mansfield Friday 28 October when Lobotomy Room presents a special putrid Halloween spectacular in the Polynesian-style basement Bamboo Lounge of Fontaine’s bar in Dalston!
COME for the film club! Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies is the FREE monthly film club with an emphasis on the cult, the kitsch and the queer. Embracing the spirit of Halloween, the October presentation is … Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)! A gleefully low-brow, raunchy broad comedy starring buxom, beehive-haired horror movie hostess Elvira, the beloved cult figure for generations of punks, psychobillies, Goths and misfits of all description. In the film Elvira inherits a haunted house en route to making her Las Vegas debut – but really, it’s all mainly an excuse for endless boob jokes. If you’re a fan of trashy eighties cinema or the humour of Pee-Wee Herman and John Waters, this is the Halloween movie of your (wet) dreams! Doors to the Bamboo Lounge will open by 8 pm for the film to start at 8:30 pm.
STAY for the FREE dance party afterwards! Once the film finishes, we’ll quickly shove the seating out of the way in time for the Lobotomy Room club night! Wilder than you can imagine! Explicit beyond belief! Revel in sleaze, voodoo and rock’n’roll! 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 – with an added macabre twist for Halloween (think “Goo Goo Muck”, 1950s Halloween novelty tracks like “Graveyard Rock” by Tarantula Ghoul, The Munsters' surf instrumental theme tune. And yes I will play "Monster Mash"). With vintage erotica projected on the wall all night long for your adult viewing pleasure!
A tawdry good time guaranteed! Fancy dress is encouraged but entirely optional!
Calling all crypt-kickers, coffin cuties, glamour ghouls and
creatures from the (black leather) lagoon!
This was the second time I’ve thrown a Halloween Lobotomy Room club at Fontaine’s. Halloween is of course “gay Christmas” so I decided to go
full bat shit and embrace it by combining the monthly Lobotomy Room Goes to the
Movies film club (usually last Wednesday of every month) with the actual
incredibly strange dance party Lobotomy Room on the same night as one Halloween
spectacular – and it worked reasonably well! It could have done with even more
people rocking up (that’s the mantra of all club promoters). There was a lot of
good stuff happening that Halloween weekend in London to compete with. But the
attendees who did show up were certainly hip and enthusiastic. And most
importantly – they danced! Right up until 1:30 am!
I may have over-estimated the allure of Elvira! For me, Elvira
(the inspired comedic creation of erstwhile Las Vegas showgirl turned actress Cassandra
Peterson) is one of the great pop culture cult figures du nos jours, belonging
to the same punky, deliberately-bad-taste pantheon as Pee-Wee Herman, Divine,
Lux and Ivy of The Cramps and Vampira. (Yes, I know you’re not meant to mention
Elvira and Vampira in the same breath! Let’s not open that whole can of worms –
I revere them both). But then I’m also North American and of a certain
generation: I used to love Elvira’s TV show as a kid in the eighties and my
friends and I eagerly embraced her deliciously crude 1988 film Elvira: Mistress
of the Dark as a trashy camp classic (there are whole stretches of dialogue I
can recite from memory! Q: “How’s your head?” A: “Well I’ve never had any
complaints!” “Grab a tool and start banging!” “When I want your opinion I’ll
beat it out of you!”). The movie is so brazenly boob-fixated it rivals
anything from the filmography of Russ Meyer! (And it’s also tighter and funnier
than most late-period efforts by John Waters).
But I got the impression that for Brits as a whole and
millennials in particular, Elvira’s oeuvre is pretty much an unknown commodity.
There was nowhere near the fervour for this screening as there was for Blonde Venus the month before. And perhaps the humour of Mistress of the Dark is an
acquired taste. The film is intentionally bad: it takes seriously smart people
to make a film this enjoyably dumb. Midway through my friend Eric whispered to
me, “This is the worst film ever made!” Shortly after he left. Ah, well. To me,
Elvira’s persona (equal parts Morticia Addams and Mae West) and her flippant, wise-cracking comedy stylings are like catnip. I’m still glad I picked it for
the Halloween Lobotomy Room! There’s so much comedy mileage in the preternaturally
ageless Elvira’s image, it’s a shame she didn’t make more films. After Mistress
of the Dark, there was only one more – the little-seen belated sequel Elvira’s Haunted Hills in 2001. (Tag line: “Evil. Terror. Lust. Some girls really know
how to party!” It’s worth seeking out).
/ Above: Elvira's climactic Las Vegas spectacular /
/ Below: historic encounter - when I met Elvira at Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender in 2011! /
Once the film credits rolled, I leapt into action, quickly replacing the DVD with some grainy black-and-white vintage homo porn and stacking the chairs to make space for dancing. My musical policy for the night was to mix some abrasively kitsch Halloween novelty songs from the fifties and sixties with the customary Lobotomy Room rancid cocktail of punk, rockabilly, rhythm and blues and surf. (I know "Hard Magic" by Divine doesn't qualify as a "Halloween tune", but it does have those howling werewolf sound effects so it fit!). Obviously, a generous sprinkling of tracks by The Cramps – the much-missed archetypal voodoobilly band for whom every day was Halloween - felt de rigueur. It was especially gratifying to look out and see everyone jump up and dance to “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett. I knew they would!
Night of The Vampire - The Moontrekkers
Monster in Black Tights - Screaming Lord Sutch and The Savages
Bloodshot - The String Kings
She's My Witch - The Earls of Suave
Rigor Mortis - The Gravestone Four
Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon - The Cramps
Rockin' in the Graveyard - Jackie Morningstar
The Munster's Theme - Milton DeLugg and The All-Stars
Spooky - Lydia Lunch
Vampira - Bobby Bare
Theme from The Addams Family - The Fiends
King Kong - Tarantula Ghoul
Feast of the Mau Mau - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Alligator Wine - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
Midnight Stroll - The Revels
Anastasia - Bill Smith Combo
Monster Surfing Time - The Deadly Ones
Scream - The 5,6,7,8s
Sunglasses After Dark - The Cramps
Vampira - The Misfits
Surf Rat - The Rumblers
Monster's Party - Bill Doggett
Hard Magic - Divine
Forming - The Germs
The Way I Walk - The Cramps
Your Phone's Off the Hook - X
Jukebox Babe - Alan Vega
Rock'n'Roll High School - The Ramonetures
Viva Las Vegas - Nina Hagen
Bossa Nova Baby - Elvis Presley
You Sure Know How to Hurt Someone - Ann-Margret
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Boss - The Rumblers
He's the One - Ike and Tina Turner
Be Bop A Lula - Alan Vega
Funnel of Love - Wanda Jackson
Breathless - X
Rock Around the Clock - The Sex Pistols
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Somethin' Else - Sid Vicious
Touch the Leather - Fat White Family
Harley Davidson - Brigitte Bardot
Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers
Do the Zombie - The Symbols
Teenage Lobotomy - The Ramones
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
Viens danser le twist - Johnny Hallyday
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Peter Gunn Locomotion - The Delmonas
Gunnin' for Peter - The Fabulous Wailers
I'm a Woman - Peggy Lee
Hipsville 29 BC - The Sparkles
Gostaria de saber (River Deep Mountain High) - Wanderlea
Under My Thumb - Tina Turner
Shout - Johnny Hallyday
Bombora - The Original Surf-aris
Big Girls Don't Cry - Edith Massey
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Can Your Pussy Do The Dog? The Cramps
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
These Boots Are Made for Walkin' - Mrs Mills
Somethin' Else - Sid Vicious
Atomic Bongos - Lydia Lunch
Hanky Panky - Nancy Sit
Viva Las Vegas - Elvis Presley
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret
[Illegible]
Big Bounce - Shirley Caddell
Blitzkreig Bop - The Ramonetures
Let's Go - Billy Eldridge
My Way - Nina Hagen
Downtown - Mrs Mills
/ Everything tastes better drunk out of a skull. Your intoxicated host and DJ at Lobotomy Room on 28 October at Fontaine's! How could I not wear my Vampira t-shirt for Halloween (the same one Lux Interior of The Cramps used to wear)? Note that I happen to be holding the soundtrack to Pink Flamingos in my hand! /
/ Below: I was too busy behind the DJ booth to take many shots on the night, but I had to take a pic of these two. They managed to come to Lobotomy Room in spite of clearly life-threatening bloody injuries! Such commitment! /
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 and here
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