Christmas Dr Sketchy 21 December 2011 DJ Set List

/ Christmas Sweetheart: Diana Dors, the British Jayne Mansfield /

This one will be a quickie, as I'm meant to be rushing out the door for a Christmas Eve dinner party! The last Dr Sketchy of 2011 went off with a bang! Our elegant resident emcee Dusty Limits was on top form. The featured model and performer was a new girl, the stunning and statuesque Beatrix Von Bourbon, who looked like a spicy rockabilly pin-up come to life. (Come to think of it, because of her extensive tattoos and piercings she probably qualifies more as a psychobilly!).

As an added bonus, my friend Jim (the one I go to Viva Las Vegas with) stopped by for a few drinks, accompanied by his dog Daisy. It’s always nice to kneel down and kiss the top of Daisy's head while DJ’ing (although what she tends to do is lunge for my mouth and plant a wet messy doggy kiss right on my lips when I do that. I’m wise to Daisy’s tricks!). On some of the quieter tracks, the audience may have been able to hear Daisy’s grunting and snorting noises from the DJ booth.

/ Season's Greetings -- via the great Bettie Page (surely one of Dr Sketchy's patron saints) /

Musically, I aimed to whip-up the festive mania with my kitsch-iest and most abrasive selection of Christmas tunes, swirling together lounge, exotica, surf, doo-wop, rhythm and blues, rockabilly and just plain weird shit (the Mae West Christmas album seems to baffle people year after year!). I actually deeply love campy Christmas novelty songs: this year there was only one Dr Sketchy in December, and my CD player broke when I had my own Christmas cocktail party a few weeks ago – so I really seized the moment and revelled in the chance to wallow in this stuff. As of Boxing Day, all my Christmas music is going to be moth balled for another twelve months.

Christmas Song - Chet Baker
Exotic Night - Martin Denny
Violets for Your Furs - The Continental
Candles Glowing - Marlene Dietrich
The First Snowfall - The Coctails
White Christmas - Elvis Presley
Let Christmas Ring - The Coolbreezers
Ole Santa - Dinah Washington
Jingle Bells - Johnny Mercer
Cool Yule - Louis Armstrong
Merry Merry Merry Merry Christmas - Ruby Wright
Put the Loot in the Boot, Santa - Mae West
Jingle Bells - Gene Autrey
Christmas Time is Coming - Stormy Weather
Snowfall / Snowfall Cha Cha - George Shearing / Billy May
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus / Jingle Bell Bossa Nova - Eddie Dunstedter
Hey Santa Claus - The Moonglows
Baby It's Cold Outside - Carmen McRae and Sammy Davis Jr
Winter Wonderland - Peggy Lee
I Want a Man - Thelma Cooper
Here Comes Santa Claus - Elvis Presley
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Dean Martin
Sleigh Ride - Lloyd Glenn
Nothin' for Christmas - Eartha Kitt
I'd Like You for Christmas - Julie London
Christmas Island - Bob Atcher and The Dinning Sisters
My Christmas Prayer - Billy Fury
Christmas Wish - El Vez
Santa Claus is Back in Town - Elvis Presley
Santa Baby - Mae West
White Christmas - The Ravens
Jingle Bells - The Vel Mares
Frosty the Snowman - The Ventures
Santa Please Don't Pass Me By - Jimmy Donley
Christmas in Heaven - Billy Ward & His Dominoes
Jingle All the Way - Lena Horne
Fat Daddy - Fat Daddy
Let It Snow - Wayne Newton
Sleigh Bells, Reindeer and Snow - Rita Faye Wilson
Winter Wonderland - Chet Baker
Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
Warm December - Julie London
Christmas in Jail - The Youngsters
Jingle Bell Rock - Wayne Newton
Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
Far Away Christmas Blues - Little Esther
Silent Night - Dinah Washington
Little Drummer Boy - Marlene Dietrich
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Billie Holiday
The Merriest - June Christy
I Wish You a Merry Christmas - Big Dee Irwin and Little Eva
Christmas Morning - Titus Turner
This Year's Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
There's Trouble Brewin' - Jack Scott
Sleigh Ride - El Vez
It's Christmas Time - The Five Keys
With Love from Me to You - Mae West
Here Comes Santa Claus - Elvis Presley
Blues for Christmas - John Lee Hooker

/ Finally: Not quite a tittyshaker, but it will do -- and it's seasonal. Shake it! /

2 August 2010 Dr Sketchy at The Paradise in Kensal Green

Felt like one of the sweatier, more chaotic Dr Sketchy nights, but still fun – some challenges can really keep you on your toes and keep you focused. The main technical glitch was that no one could locate a microphone for the master of ceremonies Dusty Limits to use. It stressed me out, but Dusty is such a consummate pro he was completely nonchalant about it and just projected his voice a bit louder. (Anyway, a mic was finally sourced midway through the night for him). The two exquisite models were Miss Johnson (aka Ruka, the brains and beauty behind Sugarlesque) and Vee Worldmistress. Towards the end of the night they posed together. I had an elegant French chanson number cued up and ready to play, but then I saw their pose: Miss Johnson sprawled across Vee’s lap, ready to be spanked, straight out of an Irving Klaw / Bettie Page bondage photo session. So I scrambled to find and cue something more raunchy and lewd: “Here Comes the Bug” by The Rumblers (the percussion almost sounds like spanking noises anyway).

Catwalk - Jack Constanzo
All of Me - Little Jimmy Scott
Pick Up - The Corvettes
Beat Generation - Mamie van Doren
Little Ole Wine Drinker Me - Robert Mitchum
Oh Baby - Esquerita
I Would If I Only Could - Ruth Brown
After Hours - Bob Taylor
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret
Nosey Joe - Bull Moose Jackson
Destination Moon - Dinah Washington
Astrosonic - Jimmie Haskell
Fool I Am - Pat Ferguson
Frenzy - The Hindus
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
The Strip - The Upsetters
Vesuvius - The Revels
It's Legal - Shirley Ann Field / John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Cafe Bohemian - The Enchanters
Mi Palomita - Yma Sumac
Cha Cha Cha du Loup - Serge Gainsbourg
The Lady is a Tramp - Hildegard Knef
Street Scene - Lou Busch
The Strip - The Upsetters (played again in error. It was that kind of night!)
Oh Honey - Gloria Wood
Fever - Timi Yuro
I'm a Bad, Bad Girl - Little Esther
A Woman Wouldn't Be a Woman - Eartha Kitt
Harlem Nocturne - Martin Denny
Honky Tonk - Bill Black Combo
I Got a Right to Sing the Blues - Billie Holiday
Travellin' Light - Chet Baker
Work Song - Nina Simone
Born to Cry - Johnny Thunders
Pink Champagne - The Tyrones
Blue Kat - Chuck Rio & The Originals
Bachelor in Paradise - Ann-Margret
Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby - Ann Richards
Do It Again - Eartha Kitt
Chery Pink - Bill Black Combo
Love Me - Marlene Dietrich
Shangri-La - Spike Jones
Take It Off - The Upsetters
Night Train - Alvino Rey
Blondie's Strip - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Kiss - Marilyn Monroe
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
La Javanaise - Juliette Greco
Mack the Knife - Hildegard Knef
C'est Si Bon - April Stevens
Let's Get Lost - Chet Baker
Makin' Whoopee - Marlene Dietrich

Jane Morgan singing "C'est Si Bon": not the version I played (in fact I'd never heard of this singer before), but this clip is so irresistably kitsch (the ultra low-budget set! The pouting, crotch-thrusting go-go dancers! That cotton candy bouffant wig!) I had to include it on here.




The late Johnny Thunders singing Dion’s “I Was Born to Cry”. His second last record was Copy Cats, a brilliant album of covers on which he duets with smoky-voiced Noo Yawk bloozie chantoozie Patti Palladin. I bought it on vinyl when it first came out in 1988, then many years later bought it again when it was reissued on CD. Yes, a heroin-ravaged Thunders looks distressingly cadaverous here, like a corpse being dangled on wires (he only had a few more years to live – he was dead by 1991) but he’s still in great, powerful voice and what a magnificent pompadour!



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