The Next Lobotomy Room Dance Party - Friday 28 February 2020

For your dancing pleasure, the strange’n’sleazy sounds of incredibly bizarre rockn'roll party Lobotomy Room return to the basement Bamboo Lounge of Fontaine’s bar on Friday 28 February!

Lobotomy Room! Where sin lives! A punkabilly booze party! Sensual and depraved! A spectacle of decadence! A night of Vintage Sleaze-o-Rama! Beat, Beat Beatsville Beatnik Rock’n’Roll! Bad Music for Bad People! Rockabilly Psychosis! Wailing Rhythm and Blues!! Punk cretin hops! Twisted Tittyshakers! 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!

Admission: gratuit - that’s French for FREE!

Facebook event page

 / Original source material for the beautiful new 2020 Lobotomy Room flyer: 22-year old starlet Barbara Windsor as the stripper Pony Tail in the 1960 British sexploitation movie Too Hot to Handle /

New flyer designed by Sam Oakley

/ Make new friends - at Lobotomy Room! (pictured: members of the Hell's Angels, 1964) /

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!  

I have serious issues with the frankly homophobic, puritanical, hypocritical and censorious Tumblr these days, but you can follow me on there. 

And I'm now spreading my message of filth on Instagram!

Lobotomy Room Dance Party DJ Set List 8 November 2019 plus Dirty Shame 9 November 2019

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 Fontaine’s (Dalston’s most unique nite spot) on Friday 8 November 2019!

Lobotomy Room! Where sin lives! A punkabilly booze party! Sensual and depraved! A spectacle of decadence! A night of Vintage Sleaze-o-Rama! 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! Grainy vintage black-and-white erotica projected on the big screen all night for your adult entertainment!

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!

“Hell-o? What’s that? Incredibly bizarre punkabilly dance party LOBOTOMY ROOM returns to Fontaine’s bar (Dalston’s most unique nite spot) on 8 November? And admission is FREE?” /

Good lord! With 2019 careering to an imminent close, I’d better get postin’! Note: there was meant to be one final Lobotomy Room dance party of the year on Friday 13 December – but it got cancelled because someone has reserved the entire venue (both floors of Fontaine’s) for a private party. Friday the thirteenth is genuinely unlucky – who knew? So, by default, the November 2019 Lobotomy Room was the last club night of 2019! Here is my scene report from the night - a jolting, dramatic human document ripped from the pages of life! Told with the intensity of white heat! Read it if you must!

/ Rockabilly royalty: Sparkle Moore with Gene Vincent /

“Rockabilly bombshell Sparkle Moore was born Barbara Morgan in Omaha in 1939. The quintessential bad girl, she dressed in leather (and often in men's clothes), with her short blonde hair greased back in an Elvis Presley-styled pompadour. Dubbed "Sparkle" in honor of a supporting character in the Dick Tracy comic strip, she signed to the Cincinnati-based Fraternity label to issue her debut single, the hiccupping "Rock-a-Bop," in late 1956, and though still just 17 years old she toured the US in support of the record, even opening for Gene Vincent at the peak of his fame. (A planned appearance on radio's Grand Ol' Opry was canceled due to a bout with laryngitis, however.) The sultry yet sinister "Killer" followed in 1957, but soon after Moore learned she was pregnant and abruptly quit performing to focus on raising a family. No subsequent recordings are known to exist, although an unreleased Fraternity ballad called "Flower of My Heart" subsequently appeared on several compilations, most notable among them 2004's Good Girls Gone Bad: Weird, Wild & Wanted, the first to assemble her complete recorded output in one disc (including a handful of alternate takes).”

/ From Allmusic Guide /

Enigmatic platinum blonde rockabilly icon - and perennial Lobotomy Room favourite - Sparkle Moore (born 6 November 1939) turned 80 just before this dance party! Sing along with me: “You should be labelled with a skull and crossbones / You’re a jinx to my soul …” Needless to say, I dropped one of Moore's tracks in tribute to the birthday girl. 

 / “The violence that was normally only a promise (or threat) in rock'n’roll was realized in Esquerita’s sound.” Charles Gillett in his book The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock‘n’Roll / 

Also born in November: the flamboyant, pompadoured king (or should that be “queen”?) of outsider rhythm and blues Esquerita (born aka Eskew Reeder Jr on 20 November 1935 in Greenville, South Carolina. He died in 1986). Esquerita was such a beauty (and – alongside Jayne Mansfield – is one of the patron saints of my Lobotomy Room dance party club night). Photo via Norton Records’ Instagram page.

I won't lie: the crowd this night was small but ardent (people were dancing until almost 2 am). And the attendees included fabulous burlesque VIPS Mysti Vine and Trixi Tassels. For me, there is no greater compliment than having off-duty striptease ultra-vixens like this duo dancing to my music!

Snooker Final - Low Rocks
I Don't Need You No More - The Rumblers
My Boyfriend from Outer Space - The 5,6,7,8s
Sugar Town - Lara and The Trailers
Mau Mau - The Fabulous Wailers
Kismiaz - The Cramps
Katanga - Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Jungle Drums - Earl Bostic
I Would if I Could - Ruth Brown
Sweet Little Pussycat - Andre Williams
Let's Go Sexin' - James Intveld
Uptown to Harlem - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
Jukebox Babe - Alan Vega
Pass the Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Hanky Panky - Rita Chao
Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramonetures
Gunnin' for Peter - The Fabulous Wailers
Touch the Leather - The Fat White Family
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
Bombie - Johnny Sharp and The Yellow Jackets
Garbageman - The Cramps
Strychnine - The Sonics
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Tina's Dilemma - Ike and Tina Turner
Little Queenie - Bill Black Combo
I Don't Care - The Ramones
You're Phone's Off the Hook - X
Riding with a Movie Star - L7
Cha Cha Twist - The Detroit Cobras
96 Tears - Big Maybelle
Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! - The Bostweeds
Woodpecker Rock - Nat County and The Braves
Fools Rush In - Ricky Nelson
Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley
Party Lights - Claudine Clark
Rockin' the Joint - Esquerita
I Can't Believe What You Say - Ike and Tina Turner
I'm Blue - The Ikettes
Boss - The Rumblers
C'mon Everybody - The Sex Pistols
Let's Have a Party - Wanda Jackson
Wild, Wild Party - Charlie Feathers
Love Me - The Phantom
Rip It Up - Little Richard
Jailhouse Rock - Masaaki Hirao
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret

I've knocked-together a Spotify playlist for the songs I played. The usual caveats: disable shuffle for the full grittily authentic "you were there" experience. Let me take you on an aural journey into deep vintage sleaze-o-rama! The Spotify playlist is strictly approximate: much of the stuff I play isn't available on there and the tunes to select from shrinks all the time. Frustratingly, Spotify "purges" tracks on a regular basis, presumably for licensing reasons. But for now, it's the best medium for creating playlists. Listen to it here.

Dirty Shame - Saturday 9 December 2019

/ The sultry bad girl pictured above giving major badittude is Fontaine's boss lady, Emerald Fontaine  /

Bonus material! The following night, I just about scraped-together a few brain cells to drag my tired ass back down the stairs to Fontaine's Polynesian-themed Bamboo Lounge to DJ again! (Honey, I was exhausted! DJ'ing - and boozing - two late nights in a row is brutal at my age). This time I was doing a guest DJ'ing spot as part of Dirty Shame - a  confrontational "bad taste" evening of cabaret inspired by the twisted imagination of The Peoples' Pervert, John Waters! Emceed by Benjamin Louche, the festivities incorporated performance artists, exotic dancers, potent cocktails, free popcorn - and a screening of Waters' most infamous celluloid atrocity, Pink Flamingos (1972)! For the post-film club night, I played a set loosely inspired by the cinema of John Waters. Let's just say I spun music for juvenile delinquents of all ages! Dirty Shame is due to become a regular event in 2020. Be sure to "like" and "follow" the Fontaine's Facebook page to find out when the next one is.

Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Little Queenie - Bill Black Combo
Salamander - Mamie Van Doren
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Let's Go Baby - Billy Eldridge and The Fireballs
Be Bop A Lula - Alan Vega
Viva Las Vegas - Nina Hagen
Atomic Bongos - Lydia Lunch
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
What's Inside a Girl? The Cramps
Johnny Are You Queer? Josie Cotton
Teenage Lobotomy - The Ramones
Big Girls Don't Cry - Edith Massey
Pedro Pistolas Twist - Los Twisters
96 Tears - Big Maybelle
Johnny Hit and Run Pauline - X
Media Blitz - Germs
What Do You Think I Am? Ike and Tina Turner
The Swag - Link Wray
Aw Shucks Baby - Tiny Topsy
Comin' Home Baby - The Delmonas
She Said - Frank Scott and His Scottsmen
Drive, Daddy, Drive - Little Sylvia
The Flirt - Shirley and Lee
Intoxica - The Centurions
Revellion - The Revels
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Twistin' the Night Away - Divine
Ultra Twist - The Cramps
Muleskinner Blues - The Fendermen
Shortnin' Bread - The Readymen
Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
Bombora - The Original Surfaris
Juvenile Delinquent - Ronnie Allen
Wailin' - The Fabulous Wailers
Stranger in My Own Home Town - The Earls of Suave
Killer - Sparkle Moore
These Boots Are Made for Walkin' - Mrs Miller
How Does That Grab You Darlin'? - Nancy Sinatra
53rd & 3rd - The Ramones
Contact - Brigitte Bardot
My Way - Sid Vicious
One Night of Sin - Elvis Presley

Here's the Dirty Shame Spotify playlist! Once again - compiling this was a major bummer as so many essential tunes are missing from Spotify, such as "Johnny Are You Queer?" by Josie Cotton, punk granny Edith Massey's version of "Big Girls Don't Cry" and Lydia Lunch's magnum opus Queen of Siam (1980). C'mon, Spotify - raise your game!

Next Lobotomy Room film club: Wednesday 18 December 2019 

“It’s Got the Heat! And The Beat!” Yes! For the last film club of the year, let’s end things on a high with a FREE screening of the irresistible Mercedes Benz of rock’n’roll musicals – The Girl Can’t Help It (1956)! Starring perennial Lobotomy Room favourite, squealing and cooing sex kitten-gone-berserk Jayne Mansfield in one of her most iconic roles! And featuring performances by a star-studded who’s who of 1950s rock’n’roll greats including Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Fats Domino – all captured in glorious DeLuxe Color and CinemaScope! Wednesday 18 December!

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), specializing in the kitsch, the cult and the queer! Doors to the basement Bamboo Lounge open at 8 pm. Film starts at 8:30 pm prompt! Remember: the film is FREE so you can enjoy more cocktails! Speaking of which: Fontaine’s signature pink “Jayne Mansfield cocktail” will be available on the night for special price of £6.50! 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!  

I have serious issues with the frankly homophobic, puritanical, hypocritical and censorious Tumblr these days, but you can follow me on there. 

And I'm now spreading my message of filth on Instagram!

And just in case I don't post again before Christmas - here is your official Lobotomy Room Christmas playlist! A festive "vintage sleaze" Christmas soundtrack featuring all our Lobotomy Room favourites like Mae West, Ike and Tina Turner, Elvis Presley, Eartha Kitt and Ann-Margret! Think surf instrumental, rhythm and blues, punk and rockabilly Christmas tunes! No Mariah Carey, no Wham, no tired old "Fairtyale of New York" by The Pogues - guaranteed!! (Play it on "shuffle" for maximum seasonal pleasure). 

Lobotomy Room DJ Set List at Fontaine's 28 September 2018

/ Twist like Jayne Mansfield - at Lobotomy Room! /

From the Facebook event page:

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 28 September!

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!

One FREE signature Lobotomy Room cocktail for the first twenty entrants!

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!

/ Pagan! Primitive! Taboo! Revel in sleaze, voodoo and rock’n’roll – when incredibly bizarre dance party Lobotomy Room returns to Fontaine’s on Friday 28 September! /

Phew! The September 2018 Lobotomy Room dance party downstairs in the Tiki paradise of Fontaine’s Bamboo Lounge progressed dreamily. This was a massive relief because the July club night was catastrophic and really shook my confidence (let’s just say I DJ’d to a completely empty room for most of the night!). That’s why I never even bothered posting a July 2018 DJ set list on here. (We skipped doing an August 2018 Lobotomy Room club night because it fell on a bank holiday weekend – always a dicey time to do a club night). But flash-forward to end of September and we managed to pull a glamorous, sexy, hip and appreciative clientele. (No of course there are no photos from the night – you’ll have to just take my word for it!). In this racket, I’ve learned to take nothing for granted. Heartfelt thanks to everyone who came! To quote the great Lola Heatherton: I want to bear your children!

/ Scala Cinema flyer from 1982 /

In other news: two nights before Lobotomy Room, it was divoon to DJ at London's Scala for Jane Giles’ book launch on Wednesday 26 September 2018! (Giles was one of The Scala Cinema's former programmers. Her book – a lavish history of the much-missed temple of cinematic sleaze / Sodom Odeon entitled simply Scala Cinema: 1978 – 1993 - is an exquisite deluxe coffee table tome). To be honest, I was thrilled just to be asked. Luckily, I moved to London just in time to experience the final year or so of the Scala Cinema. (I remember feeling bereft when it closed!). The first double bill I ever saw at The Scala was within a month or two of arriving in London and it was Girl on a Motorcycle / The Wild Angels – in other words, both Marianne Faithfull and Nancy Sinatra as black leather-clad biker mamas! This was when Kings Cross was still a genuinely dangerous grungy red-light area / junkie central (just getting from the tube station to the cinema felt like risking your life!). From there, I plunged into underground classicks (sic) like Pink Narcissus, Thundercrack and double-bills of John Waters, Russ Meyer, Kenneth Anger, Andy Warhol, Richard Kern and Bruce LaBruce films. The Scala truly warped me at an impressionable age! It shaped me into the dysfunctional hot mess I am today. Wandering the staircases and corridors of The Scala on Wednesday felt Proust-ian because – since the cinema closed in ’93 – I’d never really spent much time there. Popstarz was never my bag (I’ve never been an indie kid!) and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a music gig there. Someone had expertly-edited together five-hours’ worth of representative Scala film trailers playing on an endless loop on the big screen. It included films I personally associate with The Scala from first-hand experience (Daughters of Darkness, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Myra Breckenridge, Polyester, Glen or Glenda?) and films that were big at the time that I’d pretty much forgotten (The Fourth Man, Down by Law, Drugstore Cowboy). I DJ’d for an hour (in a cage!). My first job was to evoke the seedy sexploitation / grindhouse ambiance of The Scala with Divine, Elvis, Jayne Mansfield, The Cramps, punk, rockabilly, surf instrumentals and selections from films like She-Devils on Wheels, Pink Flamingos and Scorpio Rising. My second job: to keep the bevy of glamorous onstage go-go dancers shakin’ it hard! I hope I succeeded! 

Anyway, here's what I was laying-down at the September 2018 Lobotomy Room:

Der Karibische Western - Lydia Lunch
Steel Pier - The Impacts
Road Runner - The 5.6.7.8s
Kismiaz - The Cramps
Mau Mau - The Fabulous Wailers
Katanga - Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Esquerita and The Voola - Esquerita
Working On Me, Baby - Tiny Topsy
Fever - Edith Massey
Money Money - Big John Taylor
Surf Rat - The Rumblers
Drive Daddy Drive - Little Sylvia
The Swag - Link Wray
She Wants to Mambo - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
Mambo Baby - Ruth Brown
I Don't Need You No More - The Rumblers
Ridin' with a Movie Star - L7
I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramonetures
Three Cool Chicks - The 5.6.7.8s
Salamander - Mamie Van Doren
Woodpecker Rock - Nat Couty and The Braves
Year 1 - X
Vampira - The Misfits
Pedro Pistolas Twist - Los Twisters
Bombora - The Original Surfaris
These Boots Are Made for Walkin' - Mrs Miller
Lightning's Girl - Nancy Sinatra
Harley Davidson - Brigitte Bardot
Touch the Leather - Fat White Family
Bad Boys Get Spanked - The Pretenders
Be Bop A Lula - Alan Vega
Viva Las Vegas - Nina Hagen
Somethin' Else - Sid Vicious
Breathless - X
Funnel of Love - Wanda Jackson
Bottle to the Baby - Charlie Feathers
Let's Go, Baby - Billy Eldridge
The Big Bounce - Shirley Caddell
Juvenile Delinquent - Ronnie Allen
I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent - Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers
Fools Rush In - Rickie Nelson
Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley
Sweetie Pie - Eddie Cochran
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Big Maybelle
Run Chicken Run - Link Wray
Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Chicken Walk - Hasil Adkins
Chicken - The Cramps
Chicken Rock - Fat Daddy Holmes
Jukebox Babe - Alan Vega
Atomic Bongos - Lydia Lunch
Forming - The Germs
Margaya - The Fender Four
Muleskinner Blues - The Fendermen
Shortnin' Bread - The Readymen
Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen
Batman - Link Wray
Boss - The Rumblers
He's the One - Ike and Tina Turner
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Party Lights - Claudine Clark
I Just Don't Understand - Ann-Margret
Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad - Tammy Wynette
One Night of Sin - Elvis Presley

Further reading:

In August 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. 

Upcoming dates for all your Lobotomy Room-related needs:

Wednesday 17 October 2018

Who doesn’t love a lesbian vampire movie? Decades before Ingrid Pitt in The Vampire Lovers (1970), Delphine Seyrig in Daughters of Darkness (1971) or Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger (1983), the original Sapphic glamour ghoul was Dracula’s Daughter (1936)! Embracing the macabre spirit of Halloween, on 17 October Lobotomy Room presents this compelling classic from the same cycle of 1930s Universal Pictures horror masterpieces that includes Bela Lugosi as Dracula (1931) and Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Accompanied by her faithful hunchbacked assistant, mysterious and wraith-like Hungarian Countess Marya Zaleska (portrayed by the morbidly beautiful Gloria Holden, sporting a dramatic wardrobe of capes and gowns) arrives in London following the death of her father Count Dracula. Offered a glass of sherry, the Countess quotes her late father (“Thank you. I never drink . . . wine”). Before long she’s leaving a trail of drained corpses in her wake! The most elegantly Art Deco of vampire films, Dracula’s Daughter is the ideal choice to watch over cocktails at Fontaine’s.

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! Doors to the basement Bamboo Lounge open at 8 pm. Film starts at 8:30 pm prompt. We can accommodate thirty people maximum on film nights. Arrive early to grab a seat and order a drink! Full gruesome details on event page.

Friday 26 October 2018

It’s creepy and it’s kooky … mysterious and spooky … it’s all together ooky … it’s the Lobotomy Room Halloween dance party! Revel in sleaze, voodoo and rock’n’roll on Friday 26 October at the punkiest, campiest, kitschiest low-brow Halloween bash this accursed month! Downstairs at Fontaine’s bar (Dalston’s most unique nite spot!). 

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! Campy 1950s and 60s Halloween novelty songs all night, with added 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 for your adult viewing pleasure! Fontaine’s special Halloween-themed cocktail menu available on the night!

One FREE signature Lobotomy Room cocktail for the first twenty entrants!

Admission: gratuit - that’s French for FREE!

Lobotomy Room: Faster. Further. Filthier!

Full putrid details here.

Lobotomy Room at Fontaine's 25 May 2018 DJ Set List

From the Facebook event 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 most unique nite spot Fontaine’s! Friday 25 May!

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 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! Grainy black-and-white vintage erotica projected on the big screen all night for your adult viewing pleasure! 

One FREE signature Lobotomy Room cocktail for the first twenty entrants! 

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!

/ Kick-happy? Thrill-hungry? Always reckless? Do I have the club night for you! /

This month we were graced by two visitors from Hollywood – well, Palm Springs via the Cannes film festival! Possibly lured by this month’s featured cocktail (the Jayne Mansfield), P David Ebersole and Todd Hughes – the flamboyant film-making duo behind red-hot recent documentary Mansfield 66/67 - took a break from hustling their new project at Cannes to swing by and do the frug and the Watusi! (If everything goes according to plan, Mansfield 66/67 will be the June 2018 Lobotomy Room film club presentation. Read my online review of Mansfield 66/67 for queer art and culture magazine Hiskind here). Like any self-respecting Los Angeles punk, David and Todd jumped up to thrash and flail when I played a track by X! There was even a tense moment of high conflict when a big group of crusty punks arrived, were caught smuggling-in their own booze and Fontaine’s boss lady Ruby forcibly ejected them!

/ Ladies and gentlemen - the Jayne Mansfield! The pink cocktail contained strawberry-infused vodka, Chambord, cherry bitters and was topped with sparkling champagne! Served with homemade raspberry sherbet and a heart-shaped lollipop, it’ll get you cooing and squealing like a sex kitten! /

There was additional drama when I ran upstairs to go for a piss and misjudged the timing! (This is  a perennial problem for all DJs - especially those of us who play short'n'snappy 2 1/2 minute punk and rockabilly tracks!). The current song ended and Pal (my stoical boyfriend) nipped into the DJ booth and turned up another tune. But when I came down, there were TWO songs playing simultaneously! Pal is still doing imitations of me demanding, “What have you done? What have you done?!” 

A handful of pics from the night:

/ Ruby (Fontaine's sex kitten proprietress) and I /

/ Red-headed vixen Louise - a vision in animal print! /

/ Filmmakers P David Ebersole and Todd Hughes /

/ P David Ebersole, Ruby and Todd Hughes /

/ Ruby and Pal /

My set list:

Bullwinkle - The Centurions
Hey Little Star - Ann-Margret
Sugar Town - Lara and The Trailers
These Boots are Made for Walkin' - Mrs Miller
Fever - Edith Massey
Leave Married Women Alone - Jimmy Cavallo
Little Queenie - Bill Black's Combo
Sweet Little Pussycat - Andre Williams
Two-Headed Sex Change - The Cramps
8-Ball - The Hustlers
Handclapping Time - The Fabulous Raiders
Nobody But You - Mamie Van Doren
Save It - Mel Robbins
Mau Mau - The Fabulous Wailers
Kismiaz - The Cramps
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Little Darlin' - Masaaki Hirao
Dream Boy - The 5,6,7,8s
Adult Books - X
Train to Nowhere - The Champs
Mambo Baby - Ruth Brown
She Wants to Mambo - Johnny Thunder and Patti Palladin
Havana Affair - The Ramones
Steel Pier - The Impacts
Drive Daddy Drive - Little Sylvia
Rockin' the Joint - Esquerita
Don't Be Cruel - Bill Black's Combo
All You Gotta Do - Tracy Pendarvis
Jukebox Babe - Alan Vega
Atomic Bongos - Lydia Lunch
Wipe-Out - The Lively Ones
Beatnik - The Champs
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Let's Go, Baby - Billy Eldridge
Scorpion - The Carnations
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Pass the Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
I Can't Believe What You Say - Ike and Tina Turner
Krushchev Twist - Melvin Gayle
Bikini Girls with Machine Guns - The Cramps
I Don't Need You No More - The Rumblers
Riding with a Movie Star - L7
Hanky Panky - Rita Chao and The Quests
I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramonetures
Batman Theme - Link Wray and His Raymen
Breathless - X
I'm a Woman - Peggy Lee
Funnel of Love - Wanda Jackson
Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad - Tammy Wynette
Muleskinner Blues - The Fendermen
Shortnin' Bread - The Readymen
C'mon Everybody - Sid Vicious
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent - Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers
I'm a Juvenile Delinquent - Ronnie Allen
He's the One - Ike and Tina Turner
Party Lights - Claudine Clark
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
Pedro Pistolas Twist - Los Twisters
Comin' Home Baby - The Delmonas
Gostaria de Saber (River Deep, Mountain High) - Wanderlea
Under My Thumb - Tina Turner
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
Wallflower (Roll with Me Henry) - Etta James
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret
Bossa Nova Baby - Elvis Presley
Viva Las Vegas - Nina Hagen
Somethin' Else - Sid Vicious
Your Phone's off the Hook - X
Forming - The Germs
Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio? The Ramonetures
Human Fly - The Cramps
Vampira - The Misfits
Surf Rat - The Rumblers
Wipe-Out - The Surfaris
Margaya - The Fender Four
The Swag - Link Wray
Year 1 - X
Boss - The Rumblers
Shake Appeal - Iggy and The Stooges
Strychnine - The Sonics
Lightning's Girl - Nancy Sinatra
Harley Davidson - Brigitte Bardot
Five Years Ahead of My Time - The Third Bardo
Touch the Leather - Fat White Family
Bad Boys Get Spanked - The Pretenders

/ This month’s birthday boy! Sex Pistols bassist and ultimate punk pin-up Sid Vicious (10 May 1957- 2 February 1979, born John Simon Ritchie) would have turned 61. As you can see, I dropped a few putrid Vicious tracks in tribute. Polaroid of Sid Vicious at the Mabuhay by Jim Jocoy from his essential 2002 book We’re Desperate /

Dates for your social calendar:

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! And boy, are we cooing and squealing in ecstasy this month to present MANSFIELD 66/67! In fact, the night will be the launch party for the DVD release! Wednesday 20 June!

Skulls! Pentagrams! Heart-shaped swimming pools! Chihuahuas! Mansfield 66/67 contains all the components essential for an irresistibly campy cult film-in-waiting. Think of Todd Hughes and P David Ebersole’s wildly enjoyable 2017 documentary (“a true story based on rumour and hearsay”) as When the Sex Kitten met the Satanist. It speculates about just what happened when Hollywood’s doomed, bosomy platinum blonde glamour queen Jayne Mansfield (1933 – 1967) encountered charismatic young devil-horned founder of the First Church of Satan Anton LaVey (1930 – 1997) during the messy final year of her life – in particular, whether he placed a curse on Mansfield, causing her fatal 1967 car crash. Featuring guest appearances from John Waters and Mamie Van Doren, a twangy surf guitar soundtrack, interpretive dance and animation, Mansfield 66/67 plays-out like a delirious hot-pink fever dream and is a suitably adoring valentine to Jayne Mansfield – the Patron Saint of Lobotomy Room!

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! Dressing-up like Jayne is highly encouraged! A special-offer pink Jayne Mansfield cocktail will be available on the night! It’ll be a devil worshipin’ good time! Full squalid details on event page.

Next Lobotomy Room club: Friday 29 June 2018! 

Further reading:

Follow me on tumblr for all your kitsch, camp, retro vintage sleaze and fifties homoerotica needs!

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"Like" and follow the official Lobotomy Room page on Facebook if you dare!  

Lobotomy Room at Fontaine's 27 April 2018 DJ Set List

From the Facebook event page:

Attention, late night diversion seekers! 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 27 April!

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 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! Grainy black-and-white vintage erotica projected on the big screen all night for your adult viewing pleasure! 

FREE cocktail for the first twenty entrants! 

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!

/ Cocktails - Lobotomy Room-style! /

The promise of a free cocktail makes all the difference! The April 2018 Lobotomy Room at Fontaine’s bar represented a bit of a re-launch. We’re now introducing a signature range of special Lobotomy Room cocktails exclusive to the club night (a new one is unveiled each month!) and the first twenty entrants to descend the stairs to the basement Bamboo Lounge received one free drink.This alluring offer seemed to do the trick as last month we had a buzzing, hip and sexy crowd of revelers! Special thanks in particular to Tara for bringing her vicious girl gang! Loud music, free-flowing alcohol and mean girls dancing ensures a raucous night! Booze party! Wild! Wild! WILD!  

For once, I actually have some photographic evidence from the night!

/ They are the hellcats no one likes / Man-eaters on motorbikes! Tara (in black catsuit) and friends with me - the host of Lobotomy Room! /

      
/ “The wild, weird world of the Beatniks! Sullen rebels, defiant chicks, searching for a life of their own!” Dalston After Dark! Pal and Tara /

/ We now have gorgeous Lobotomy Room loyalty cards! It gets stamped with each drink you buy, and then you win a free bottle of prosecco! /

/ Savage rhythms to make you writhe and rock! /

The night's musical soundtrack:

Scratchin' - The Fabulous Wailers
Steel Pier - The Impacts
Train to Nowhere - The Champs
Little Queenie - The Bill Black Combo
Beaver Shot - The Periscopes
Surf Rat - The Rumblers
Jukebox Babe - Alan Vega
Atomic Bongos - Lydia Lunch
Kismiaz - The Cramps
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Mau Mau - The Fabulous Wailers
Fever - Nancy Sit
I'm a Woman - Peggy Lee
Don't Be Cruel - The Bill Black Combo
Johnny Hit and Run Pauline - The Ramonetures
Riding with a Movie Star - L7
Bombora - The Original Surfaris
Three Cool Chicks - The 5,6,7,8s
Woo Hoo - The Rock-a-Teens
Ain't That Lovin' You, Baby? The Earls of Suave
Sweet Little Pussycat - Andre Williams
I Live the Life I Love - Esquerita
Goodbye So Long - Ike and Tina Turner
Adult Books - X
Ah Poor Little Baby - Billy "Crash" Craddock
Let's Go Baby - Billy Eldridge
Wild Wild Party - Charlie Feathers
Let's Have a Party - Wanda Jackson
Killer - Sparkle Moore
Goin' Down that Road - Ersel Hickey
Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor - Johnny Horton
What's Wrong with Me? X
Teenage Lobotomy - The Ramones
Harley Davidson - Brigitte Bardot
Lightning's Girl - Nancy Sinatra
Bad Boys Get Spanked - The Pretenders
Touch the Leather - The Fat White Family
Pillow Case - The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black
Shake Appeal - Iggy and The Stooges
Woodpecker Rock - Nat County
Love Me - The Phantom
Dames, Booze, Chains and Boots - The Cramps
Your Phone's Off the Hook - X
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Complication - The Monks
Pedro Pistolas Twist - Los Twisters
Forming - The Germs
These Boots Are Made for Walkin' - Mrs Miller
How Does That Grab You Darlin'? Nancy Sinatra
Gostaria de Saber (River Deep, Mountain High) - Wanderlea
Hanky Panky - Rita Chao and The Quests
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
Be Bop A Lula - Alan Vega
Nothing Means Nothing Anymore - The Alleycats
I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramonetures
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
What's Inside a Girl? The Cramps
Wipe Out - The Surfaris
Margaya - The Fender Four
C'mon Everybody - Sid Vicious
Scorpio - The Carnations
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Pass the Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies
Viva Las Vegas - Nina Hagen
Breathless - X
Rock Around the Clock - The Sex Pistols
Rockin' Bones - Ronnie Dawson
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
Comin' Home, Baby - The Delmonas
Muleskinner Blues - The Fendermen
Shortnin' Bread - The Readymen
Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen
Batman - Link Wray and His Ray Men
Boys are Boys and Girls are Choice - The Monks
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Gunnin' for Peter - The Fabulous Wailers
Peter Gunn Locomotion - The Delmonas
Ultra Twist - The Cramps
Viens danser le twist - Johnny Hallyday
Twistin' the Night Away - Divine
Twist Talk - Jack Hammer
Johnny Are You Queer? Josie Cotton
Under My Thumb - Tina Turner
Big Girls Don't Cry - Edith Massey
Jailhouse Rock - Masaaki Hirao
Bossa Nova Baby - Elvis Presley
Heartbreak Hotel - Ann-Margret
My Way - Sid Vicious

Dates for your social calendar:

The next Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies film club is Wednesday 16 May!

Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies is the FREE monthly film club downstairs at Fontaine’s devoted to Bad Movies We Love, specialising in the kitsch, the cult and the camp! In May, the featured presentation is – Shanghai Express (1932)! 

The fourth of the seven sumptuously kinky films director Josef Von Sternberg and leading lady / muse Marlene Dietrich made together, Shanghai Express was the most commercially successful of their collaborations (it was the highest-grossing film of 1932) and widely considered their definitive masterwork. Set during the Chinese civil war, it stars impossibly sultry German glamour-puss Dietrich as “the notorious white flower of China” Shanghai Lily (“it took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily!”). She’s described as a "coaster" or "woman who lives by her wits along the China coast" (1930s shorthand for prostitute). When her fellow passengers on the express train from Peking to Shanghai are taken hostage, Shanghai Lily – the woman who “wrecked a dozen men up and down the China coast” - seizes the opportunity to redeem herself. A shimmering Art Deco spectacle, Shanghai Express is the perfect film to watch over cocktails in the splendour of Fontaine’s Bamboo Lounge!

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! Event page

The next Lobotomy Room dance party is Friday 25 May! Remember: one complimentary Lobotomy Room cocktail for the first twenty entrants! 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!