19 March 2014 Dr Sketchy Set List

/ Showtime for the Rita Hayworth of Burlesque, the regal Tempest Storm /

For the 19 March 2014 Dr Sketchy at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, eternally naughty emcee Ophelia Bitz kicked off proceedings with the musical number “Red Riding Hood” by the late Brit drag legend Danny La Rue (her spiritual show biz father).  Bad girl of cabaret Ophelia was feeling particularly juicy this night. Indicating her sparkly red showgirl dress, she declared, “I’m dressed as Mae West’s vagina.”  After featured burlesque artiste Bettsie Bon Bon departed the stage stripped down to g-string and pasties, Ophelia picked up Bettsie’s discarded bra from the floor, held it to her face and inhaled deep (think Dennis Hopper and his gas mask in Blue Velvet).

/ Ophelia's lingerie-sniffing was reminiscent of this, too: Shelley Winters in What's the Matter with Helen? (1971). Via /

The two featured guest performers and models this time were the pretty damn dazzling Bon Bon and Amelie Soeil. (I hadn't seen Ms Bon Bon since Bestival 2012). I was struck by what seasoned pros both of them are. In both of their acts, things went wrong – it was impressive how they rolled with it without breaking stride. Poor Bettsie Bon Bon suffered a wardrobe malfunction – she couldn't get her corset off. Eventually she managed to virtually wrestle herself out of it - and injure herself in the process. (“I made myself bleed trying to get my tits out for you,” she later informed the audience). Soleil, meanwhile, did an eye-watering act that involved eating razor blades. Yikes! Freaky! It was like something out of an old school carnival sideshow. I’m one squeamish mofo and I had to watch bits of it between my fingers. At one point Soleil whipped out a cigarette lighter or some matches (I forget which) to apparently do some fire-eating but they wouldn't light because of the onstage fans. She swiftly abandoned that idea and continued to blow our minds with the razor blade-eating.

/ Last month I posted a photo of Korla Pandit (1921-1998) with Yma Sumac. Here he is with Poison Ivy and Lux Interior of The Cramps, looking suitably reverent to be in his presence /

It probably sounds perverse, but my favourite part of DJ’ing at a Dr Sketchy at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern is early on, just as people start arriving, I’m am playing tinkly exotica lounge music and the venue is darkened and lit just by candles (once Dr Sketchy properly starts, the house lights come up so that people can see their drawings!). My new ritual is opening with a track by the turbaned high potentate of exotica, the enigmatic Korla Pandit.  From there, I went in a swirling Middle Eastern belly dancer direction (obviously playing “Uska Dara” by Miss Eartha Kitt was obligatory). “Taita Inty (Virgin of The Sun God)” by high priestess of exotica Yma Sumac ends with the sound of a gong being struck. Martin Denny’s “Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish” begins with the sound of a gong – playing them back-to-back segued seamlessly! I always play the Marilyn Monroe-Jane Russell duet “A Little Girl from Little Rock” from the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes when two women model together – maybe a bit predictable, but it always gets a laugh. Everyone loves that film.

Love Song of the Nile - Korla Pandit
Taita Inty (Virgin of the Sun God) - Yma Sumac
Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish - Martin Denny
The Maharajah of Megador - The Blue Echoes
Uska Dara - Eartha Kitt
Kizmiaz - The Cramps
Tonight You Belong to Me - Patience and Prudence
Some of These Days - The Kordt Sisters with Swing Accompaniment
Mama's Place - Bing Day
Fever - Edith Massey
Ain't That Good? George Kelly and Orchestra
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
I'm Blue - The Ikettes
Night Walk - The Swingers
I Ain't in the Mood - Helen Humes
Long Distance - Garnell Cooper and The Kinfolk
Where's My Money? Willie Jones
Don't Blame It On Me - Ike and Tina Turner
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Uptown to Harlem - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
I Live the Life I Love - Esquerita
Night Scene - The Rumblers
Handclapping Time - The Fabulous Raiders
Catwalk - Jack Constanzo
Aged and Mellow - Little Esther
Willow Weep for Me - The Whistling Artistry of Muzzy Marcellino
Basin Street Blues - Julie London
Where Flamingos Fly - Linda Lawson
Lazy - The Nuns
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
Little Queenie - Bill Black's Combo
Mama Looka Boo Boo - Robert Mitchum
Rum and Coca Cola - Wanda Jackson
Go Calypso - Mamie Van Doren
Delilah Jones - The Thunderbirds
Lovin' Spree - Ann-Margret
My Pussy Belongs to Daddy - Faye Richmonde
Champagne Taste - Eartha Kitt
Give Me Love - Lena Horne
L'eau a la bouche - Serge Gainsbourg
A Little Girl from Little Rock - Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell
Hiasmina - Jean Seberg
Hot Licks - The Rendells
Sexe - Line Renaud
Pass the Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
Dragon Walk - The Noblemen
I Got Stung - Elvis Presley
Scorpion - The Carnations
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
One Monkey Don't Stop No Show - Big Maybelle
Wipe Out - The Surfaris
Last Call for Whiskey - Choker Campbell
Hit The Road Jack - Ray Charles

18 January 2012 Dr Sketchy Set List

Suck it in! Buxom sweater girl Jayne Mansfield

The first Dr Sketchy of the New Year! I hadn’t DJ’d since the last one on 21 December 2011 (which had been all Christmas music, anyhow) and was itching to get back behind the decks at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Our emcee this time was a newbie, comic performer James Huntington (aka James H) making his Dr Sketchy debut (he did a great job). We had two model / performers: Bettsie Bon Bon made a welcome return visit after posing at the 8 October 2011 Dr Sketchy (and for her burlesque number wore an amazing exploding black feather headdress), and Crimson Skye, who performed in her drag king persona Duncan Donut. The leering and hirsute Duncan was a bit of a dirt bag, to be honest! He had a constant “wardrobe malfunction” (a certain private part of his anatomy was hanging out of the side of his thong pretty much the whole time) which I’m not convinced was entirely accidental! Thinking of sleazy gender-fucked songs for Duncan’s pose was a fun challenge (I went heavy on raunchy “blue” novelty songs by the likes of Faye Richmonde and Filthy McNasty). Then when Duncan and a scantily-clad Bettsie posed together, I laid-on a series of sultry male / female duets (Elvis and his Viva Las Vegas leading lady Ann-Margret, a heavy-panting Serge Gainsbourg and Bardot, etc).

I cheekily swiped some photos from the night via the Dr Sketchy Facebook page without asking permission! These shots are by Andrew Hickinbottom.

/ The gorgeous Bettsie Bon Bon /

/ Duncan Donut, mercifully keeping it covered this time /

Early on I tried to shake things up and do something a bit different, making an abortive attempt to create an eerie, atmospheric David Lynch-ian musical vibe. I've recently re-discovered one of my old favourites, unjustly forgotten chanteuse Julee Cruise, and that ghostly, finger-snapping 1950s jukebox-in-a-haunted house feel is where my head is at these days. But I’ve got to say I didn’t quite pull it off (and the sold-out capacity crowd was pretty rowdy and noisey), so I probably won’t attempt that again anytime soon! Anyway, that’s why you see Cruise’s sublime "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart" midway through the set list. I got back on track, taking listeners on an erotic journey south of my border (OK, maybe not) with my more usual titty shaker instrumentals and frantic rhythm and blues wig-outs (Ike and Tina, Esquerita, Big Maybelle, etc).

/ (RIP, Jennifer Miro of The Nuns. Pic from the wonderful book We're Desperate: The Punk Photography of Jim Jocoy, which documents the San Francisco / Los Angeles punk scene between 1978-1980) /

Midway through the set I also worked in a tribute to the late Jennifer Miro, inscrutable ice queen front woman of pioneering San Francisco punk band The Nuns, who died of cancer on 16 December 2011, aged just 54. The track “Lazy” is from The Nuns’ 1980 self-titled album. Two years earlier they’d supported The Sex Pistols at their legendarily cataclysmic final gig at San Francisco’s Winterland, ensuring The Nuns would forever at least be a footnote in punk history. (Art-y but melodic and memorable, with the right management, record label and better luck, The Nuns could have been a West Coast equivalent of Blondie). Miro’s alluring persona was post-Marlene Dietrich and post-Nico: an icily pristine platinum blonde who exuded retro glamour, with a wonderfully glacial, haughty and deadpan voice. Her obituary certainly makes for melancholy reading: despite making music since she was 18-years old, Miro never enjoyed the financial rewards that accompany mainstream success (cult and punk credibility doesn’t do much for the bank balance) and before her death she was working as a receptionist. Miro died riddled with breast and liver cancer, alone and presumably in agony (she’d opted to eschew traditional chemotherapy and even pain killers for alternative homeopathic medicine). The original and definitive incarnation of The Nuns was short-lived, imploding in a welter of drugs and recriminations. Relocating to New York and re-naming herself Mistress Jennifer, Miro would maintain different line-ups of The Nuns over the decades, working a dominatrix image and taking things in a fetish-y/Gothic direction which, to be frank, looked embarrassing. Better to listen to the wry, stark and timeless-sounding Weimar Republic decadence of “Lazy”, with just Miro accompanying herself on the piano. It slotted in beautifully with the Marilyn Monroe and Dietrich tracks that followed (and it anticipates Nico's version of "My Funny Valentine."). It also makes you wonder what could have been. Jennifer Miro deserved better.



Serenata - Jonah Jones Quartet
Fever - Hildegard Knef
Melancholy Serenade - King Curtis
Watermelon Gin - Florence Joelle's Kiss of Fire
Pas Cette Chanson - Johnny Hallyday
Sea of Love - The Earls of Suave
Rigor Mortis - The Gravestone Four
Rockin' Back Inside My Heart - Julee Cruise
Ebb Tide - Al Anthony, Wizard of the Organ
Dancing on the Ceiling - Chet Baker
Lunar Rhapsody - Les Baxter
Pad - Bobby Summers
It's Crazy, Baby - Ike and Tina Turner
Wipe Out - The Escorts
Unitar Rock - Willie Joe and His Unitar
That's a Pretty Good Love - Big Maybelle
Wait A Minute, Baby - Esquerita
House Party - The Party Rockers
Love Potion # 9 - Nancy Sit
Commanche - The Revels
Handclapping Time - The Fabulous Raiders
Crawlin' - The Untouchables
Beat Party - Ritchie & The Squires
Womp Womp - Freddie & The Heartaches
Traume - Francoise Hardy
Strip-tease - Nico
Un Ano D'Amor - Mina
Lazy - The Nuns
Lazy - Marilyn Monroe
The Laziest Gal in Town - Marlene Dietrich
Are You Nervous? The Instrumentals
Bombie - Johnny Sharp and The Yellow Jackets
Witchcraft - Elvis Presley
Dance with Me Henry - Ann-Margret
Nosey Joe - Bull Moose Jackson
Lucky Lips - Ruth Brown
Drums A G-Go - The Hollywood Persuaders
Don't Be Cruel - The Bill Black Combo
My Pussy Belongs to Daddy - Faye Richmonde
Seperate the Men from the Boys - Mamie van Doren
Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Big Man - Carl Matthews
Ice Man - Filthy McNasty
The Coo - Wayne Cochran
A Guy What Takes His Time - Mae West
Crazy Vibrations - The Bikinis
The Beast - Milt Buckner
The Stripper - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Lola Lola - Eartha Kitt
Hump-a-Baby - Little Ritchie Ray
You're the Boss - Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret
Little Girl / Little Boy - John and Jackie
Je t'aime, moi non plus ... Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot
Pop Slop - Bela Sanders Und Sein Tanzorchester
Chattanooga Choo Choo - Denise Darcel
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
Hot Licks - The Rendells
Esquerita and the Voola - Esquerita
Dragon Walk - The Noblemen
Scorpion - The Carnations
Lucille - Little Richard

Finally, in my blog for the 23 November 2011 Dr Sketchy, I wrote about two great European divas: Italy's Mina and France's Francoise Hardy. It didn't occur to me until later that musically they overlapped on one memorable occasion. In 1966 Mina scored a big hit in Italy with "Se telefonado", written for her by Ennio Morricone --one of her essential statements. The same year Hardy would adapt her own French lyrics to Morricone's tune and release her interpretation, "Je Changerais D'avis."

Compare and contrast!

Mina's original


Francoise's French-ified version

8 October 2011 Dr Sketchy Set List

Early 1960s Ann-Margret: distilled essence of sex kitten

For once I have some photos from the day to post: my old pal Melissa Houston was in attendance armed with a seriously impressive big-ass photojournalist camera, and it turns out she’s a pretty damn good photographer . Seriously – who knew Melissa had any talent? She also had a good (crotch-level) seat right by the front of the stage – oh, the sights she must have seen that afternoon!


Las Vagueness: Me behind the DJ booth, lost in thought -- or just blank?

This nicely laidback and boozy Saturday afternoon Dr Sketchy at The Old Queen’s Head in Angel featured the ever-soigné Dusty Limits as emcee, Bomb Voyage modelling and Bettsie Bon Bon performing a bump-and-grind striptease routine and modelling.


Dusty Limits

The dazzling Bettsie Bon Bon knows how to make a real impression: rather than stripping down to her pasties and g-string and stopping, she kept going ... disrobing until just a tiny glittery silver heart-shaped merkin was left to preserve her modesty!


Bettsie Bon Bon

The ornately-tattooed Bomb Voyage is definitely one of our punkier and edgier models. On this occasion she posed while wielding a baseball bat, so I cranked-up the aggression and confrontation musically. “She is My Witch” is pretty much Bomb’s theme tune; the knuckle-dragging piano and unearthly screams of Esquerita’s blood-curdling “Esquerita and the Voola” suggests the soundtrack to a Santería voodoo ritual -- or human sacrifice.


Bomb Voyage

Later, Dusty asked for a Beatnik-style art-y jazz instrumental. Needless to say I dusted-off "A Cruise to the Moon" from Lydia Lunch's 1979 death-jazz Queen of Siam album, over which Dusty improvised some finger-snapping Beat poetry. It worked dreamily, daddio.

Beatnik Poetry, Part 1 (Note: that's Uncle Fester from The Addams Family on piano -- I shit you not).


Beatnik Poetry, Part 2


Towards the end of the day, I improvised a little mini-tribute to Sylvia Robinson of 1960s rhythm and blues duo Mickey and Sylvia, who died on 29 September 2011, aged 75. Robinson had a fascinating and long career on pop’s fringes as a singer, songwriter and producer: after her musical partnership with Mickey Baker ended, the durable Robinson went on to have disco hits in the 1970s (like "Pillow Talk") and was a key figure in the emergence of hip hop in the early 1980s. Obviously it’s her early R&B I prefer. I played the snarling “No Good Lover” by Mickey and Sylvia, Johnny Thunders and Patti Paladin’s cover version of “Love is Strange” and her sassy early solo song (when she was billed as "Little Sylvia")“Drive, Daddy, Drive.”


A pretty girl is like a melody: Bettsie Bon Bon and Bomb Voyage pose together

Afterwards, Mel and I went on a bar crawl, from The Old Queen’s Head to The Joiners Arms to The George and Dragon. It got messy. Let’s stop here ...

Watermelon Gin - Florence Joelle's Kiss of Fire
Little Ole Wine Drinker Me - Robert Mitchum
Souvenir, Souvenir - Johnny Hallyday
Friction Heat - Bonnie Lou
Leave Married Women Alone - Jimmy Cavallo
The Flirt - Shirley and Lee
Get Back, Baby - Esquerita
I Ain't in the Mood - Helen Humes
Greasy Chicken - Andre Williams
Fever - Nancy Sit
Baby Let Me Bang Your Box - The Bangers
Beaver Shot - The Periscopes
Poon Tang - The Treniers
Nosey Joe - Bull Moose Jackson
Eager Beaver Baby - Johnny Burnette
Cafe Bohemian - The Enchanters
I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues - Billie Holiday
You're Driving Me Crazy - Chet Baker
Angel Face - Billy Fury
Shangri-La - Spike Jones New Band
Go Slow - Julie London
Traume - Francoise Hardy
Ford Mustang - Serge Gainsbourg
Night Walk - The Swingers
She's My Witch - The Earls of Suave
The Rat - The Ventures
Rigor Mortis - The Gravestone Four
Esquerita and The Voola - Esquerita
A Cruise to the Moon - Lydia Lunch
Beat Generation - Mamie van Doren
Beat Party - Ritchie & The Squires
Elle est Terrible - Johnny Hallyday
Drums A Go-Go - The Hollywood Persuaders
My Daddy Rocks Me - Mae West
8 Ball - The Hustlers
Blues in My Heart - The John Buzon Trio
C'est Si Bon - April Stevens
Teach Me Tonight - Dinah Washington
Mack the Knife - Eartha Kitt
Chattanooga Choo Choo - Denise Darcel
Drive-In - The Jaguars
Beat Girl - Adam Faith
The Coo - Wayne Cochran
I Learn a Merengue, Mama - Robert Mitchum
Go, Calypso! - Mamie van Doren
Rum and Coca-Cola - Wanda Jackson
Groovy - The Groovers
Frenzy - The Hindus
Rockin' Bongos - Chaino
Train to Nowhere - The Champs
You Don't Know Baby - Wanda Jackson
Boss - The Rumblers
Rip it Up - Little Richard
No Good Lover - Mickey and Sylvia
Love is Strange - Johnny Thunders and Patti Paladin
Drive, Daddy, Drive - Little Sylvia
Happy, Happy Birthday Baby - The Tune Weavers
Stop and Listen - Mickey and Ludella
Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley
Begin the Beguine - Billy Fury
Love for Sale - Hildegard Knef