Mamie Van Doren's Christmas Pictorial in Escapade Magazine (1966)

 

In the countdown to Kitschmas ... Mamie Van Doren's festive pictorial for Escapade magazine, 1966.

I posted this set on my Facebook and Instagram accounts earlier. Instagram instantly went haywire flashing warnings that my post violates their terms and they are deleting it. I scrambled to delete it from Facebook as well - I can't risk going to Facebook or Instagram jail or losing my accounts!

These pics are 57 years old but still freaking out the prudes! Anyway, posting them here for your delectation.

Next Lobotomy Room Film Club: Bell, Book and Candle (1958) on 15 December 2022

 

On Thursday 15 December the Lobotomy Room film club returns with a festive presentation – with an occult twist! 

I don’t know if anyone but me considers ultra-stylish 1958 romantic comedy Bell, Book and Candle a “Christmas movie”. It stars ethereal Kim Novak as a sultry barefoot beatnik witch who casts a love spell on her neighbour James Stewart – even though he’s engaged to another woman! (Yes – this represents the second onscreen pairing of Stewart and Novak. Earlier the same year they memorably starred together in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Vertigo!). But the action of Bell, Book and Candle opens on Christmas Eve, the first music we hear as the credits end is “Jingle Bells”, and the film premiered in New York on Christmas day 1958! 

The supporting cast includes Jack Lemmon and Elsa Lanchester (yes – the Bride of Frankenstein). And for connoisseurs of chic fifties fashion and décor, Bell, Book and Candle is a dream! In short: it’s the perfect seasonal choice for our last film club of 2022! (If this selection elicits a sense of “déjà vu all over again” – we tried to show it in 2020 but cancelled due to lockdown. Then we scheduled it for Christmas 2021 but had to cancel when the Bamboo Lounge was reserved at the last minute for a private party. Hopefully the third attempt is the charm!). 

Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies is the FREE monthly film club devoted to cinematic perversity! Third Thursday night of every month downstairs at Fontaine’s bar in Dalston! Two drink minimum (inquire about the special offer £5 cocktail menu!). Numbers are limited, so reserving in advance via Fontaine’s website is essential. Alternatively, phone 07718000546 or email bookings@fontaines.bar to avoid disappointment! The film starts at 8:30 pm. Doors to the basement Bamboo Lounge open at 8:00 pm. To ensure everyone is seated and cocktails are ordered in time, please arrive by 8:15 pm at the latest.

Facebook event page. 

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). 

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! 

  

Christmas Lobotomy Room 2 December 2016 DJ Set List

/  I call this “A sex kitten contemplates Christmas”: Ann-Margret, early sixties (presumably around the time she starred in Kitten with a Whip) / 

From the Facebook event page:

Christen Christmas party season 2016 on a sweaty, desperate note – at Lobotomy Room! When we transform the Polynesian-style basement Bamboo Lounge of Dalston’s premiere Art Deco vice den Fontaine’s into Santa’s grotto! Friday 2 December!

For the final festive and boozy Lobotomy Room of 2016, we’re combining the film club AND the dance party! COME for the FREE screening of the most kitschy and campy of all seasonal TV specials – Pee-Wee Herman’s 1988 Playhouse Christmas Special! Watch agog as bow-tied perverse brat Pee-Wee welcomes a mind-boggling cavalcade of super star special guests to his playhouse - including queer favourites Grace Jones, Little Richard, Cher, Joan Rivers, Charo, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Oprah Winfrey and kd lang!

Afterwards, STAY for Christmas cocktail capers at FREE incredibly strange dance party Lobotomy Room! Wilder than you can imagine! Explicit beyond belief! Revel in sleaze, voodoo and rock’n’roll at Lobotomy Room! Where sin lives! A punkabilly beer blast! 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 some abrasive atomic-era Christmas tunes thrown in! Vintage erotica projected on the big screen all night for your adult viewing pleasure!

Won’t you join me for a snowball or egg nog and learn the true meaning of Christmas with Pee-Wee Herman? Whether you’re naughty or nice, a tawdry good time is guaranteed!

Doors to The Bamboo Lounge open at 8 pm. Film starts at 8:30 pm

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who came to the Christmas Lobotomy Room club in the Bamboo Lounge of Fontaine's! The last Lobotomy Room of 2016! (Don’t worry – Lobotomy Room returns end of January 2017). Nothing says "Christmas" quite like Pee-Wee Herman, grainy black-and-white vintage homo porn and snarling punk music! It rocked until 1:30 am and things got messy towards the end (one of Fontaine’s trademark golden palm trees got knocked over! Very naughty!).

/ Rat-up your hair like a teenage Jezebel this Christmas! Merry Christmas to all the hair hoppers (via patron saint of the beehive, Ms Ronnie Spector) /

Embracing the festive spirit, I aimed to sprinkle the odd Christmas tune into my usual putrid selection in a typically half-assed way: think Elvis, Mae West’s ultra-camp 1966 Wild Christmas album, various rhythm & blues and rockabilly Christmas novelty stuff (i.e. “There's Trouble Brewin'” by Jack Scott) and plenty from the single greatest modern Christmas album – 'Tis the Season for Los Straitjackets! (2002), in which the savage Mexican wrestler-masked surf punks tear through twang-y surf instrumental interpretations of traditional Christmas music.  For a sampling, check out Los Straitjacket’s ominous rumbling rendition of “God Rest You Merry Gentlemen” here.

Otherwise, I kept things frantic and punk-y. I play at least a few tracks by X every time I DJ.  “Year 1” (from X’s 1981 album Wild Gift) is something of a Lobotomy Room staple: a one minute and thirty one second tantrum, with a jittery Exene Cervenka breathlessly exclaiming the lyrics like she’s introducing a new dance craze. Below is a ferocious clip of early, lacerating X in 1980 (the year they unleashed their debut album Los Angeles) performing “Your Phone’s Off the Hook”. The two iconic essential faces of early Los Angeles punk were Darby Crash of The Germs (the scene’s Sid Vicious, dead by 22) and Exene. The most vivid and accurate description of Exene’s voice I’ve ever read was in some Rolling Stone review from many years ago: “a flat kewpie doll shriek.” You wouldn’t call morbid death kitten Exene anything as conventional as the “singer” or “frontwoman” of X: she was their moll / twisted bride / voodoo dolly. Kill me and take me to Los Angeles!  

Another Lobotomy Room perpetual is Alan Vega (23 June 1938 – 16 July 2016), the debauched lounge lizard crooner-from-hell from New York electro-punk duo Suicide. I play his solo material rather than Suicide: I love his jagged, speed-freak twist on rockabilly (like his throbbing cover of Gene Vincent’s Be Bop A Lula spliced with the Peter Gunn theme ). Simply playing a track by Vega creates an instant ambiance of sleaze. Just witness this menacing and hostile 1981 performance of “Jukebox Babe”. Vega’s thousand-yard death glare! The disheveled hot mess of a female go-go dancer gyrating and jiggling behind him out of time to the music! The way, midway through, Vega starts wordlessly screeching! The moment he snarls, “C’mon! Move your asses, fuckfaces!” to the crowd. Ensure to watch it through until the end when he contemptuously flips the finger (double finger, in fact!) and spits at the audience before he stalks offstage. 

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Los Straitjackets
Santa Claus is Back in Town - Elvis Presley
Santa Don't Pass Me By - Jimmy Donley
Shanghaied - The Fabulous Wailers
Surf Rat - The Rumblers
Three Cool Chicks - The 5,6,7,8s
Fever - Nancy Sit
Eight Ball - The Hustlers
Christmas in Jail - The Youngsters
Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me - Mae West
Dragon Walk - The Noblemen
Killer - Sparkle Moore
The Swag - Link Wray and His Ray Men
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Los Straitjackets
Comin' Home, Baby - The Delmonas
Santa Claus is Back in Town - Elvis Presley
Adult Books - X
Hey Santa Claus - The Moonglows
Let's Have a Party - Wanda Jackson
Lou Lou - Darrell Rhodes
Beatnik - The Champs
Your Phone's Off the Hook - The Ramonetures
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Fujiyama Mama - Annisteen Allen
Sweet Pussycat - Andre Williams
I Love the Life I Live - Esquerita
Santa Baby - Mae West
Kismiaz - The Cramps
Mau Mau - The Fabulous Wailers
Taboo - The Shangaans
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Wimoweh - Yma Sumac
Go Calypso - Mamie Van Doren
Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me - Elvis Presley
Feliz Navidad - Los Straitjackets
Wipe Out - The Surfaris
There's Trouble Brewin' - Jack Scott
Let's Go Baby - Billy Eldridge
Bikini Girls with Machine Guns - The Cramps
Scorpion - The Carnations
Year One - X
Be Bop A Lula - Alan Vega
C'mon Everybody - Sid Vicious
Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad - Tammy Wynette
You're the One for Me - Wanda Jackson
Wiped Out - The Escorts
Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio? The Ramonetures
Cretin Hop - The Ramones
Vampira - The Misfits
Nothing Means Nothing Anymore - The Alley Cats
Boss - The Rumblers
Atomic Bongos - Lydia Lunch
Jukebox Baby - Alan Vega
Forming - The Germs
Rock Around the Clock - The Sex Pistols
Here Comes Santa Claus - Los Straitjackets
Breathless - X
Somethin' Else - Sid Vicious
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
Woo Hoo - The Rock-A-Teens
He's The One - Ike and Tina Turner
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Big Bad Boss Beat - Teen Beats
Touch the Leather - The Fat White Family
Contact - Brigitte Bardot
Viens danser le twist - Johnny Hallyday
Khrushchev  Twist - Melvin Gayle
Twist Talk - Jack Hammer
Year One Twist - The Ramonetures
Twistin' the Night Away - Divine
Big Girls Don't Cry - Edith Massey
Muleskinner Blues - The Fendermen
Shortnin' Bread - The Readymen
Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
Gostaria de saber - Wanderlea
Under My Thumb - Tina Turner
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
Margaya - The Fender Four
Bombora - The Original Surf-aris
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Pass the Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies
Fist City - Loretta Lynn
Your Phone's Off the Hook - X
Ain't That Lovin' You Baby - The Earls of Suave
Frosty the Snowmen - Los Straitjackets
Two Headed Sex Change - The Cramps
It's A Gas - The Rumblers
Hanky Panky - Rita Chao and The Quests
Intoxica - The Centurions
Aphrodisiac - Bow Wow Wow
My Way - Nina Hagen
We're A Happy Family - The Ramones

/ Don’t you hate it when people say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”? Only kidding! /

One of the downsides of being stuck behind the DJ booth all night is I don't get much opportunity to take any photos of my gorgeous attendees! Here is a just a handful of glamour shots I managed to take! 












Bonus material:




/ The heavenly intonations of The Del Rubio Triplets! /

/ "Now the only thing missing is Charo!" /




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

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!

Christmas - at Lobotomy Room! Friday 2 December 2016

Inaugurate the 2016 Christmas party season on a note of sweaty desperation on Friday 2 December – at Lobotomy Room! When we transform the Polynesian-style basement Bamboo Lounge of Dalston’s premiere Art Deco vice den Fontaine’s into Santa’s grotto!

For the final festive and boozy Lobotomy Room of 2016, we’re combining the film club AND the dance party into one night! COME for the free screening of the most kitschy and campy of all seasonal TV specials – Pee-Wee Herman’s 1988 Playhouse Christmas Special! Watch agog as bow-tied perverse brat Pee-Wee welcomes a mind-boggling cavalcade of super star special guests to his playhouse - including queer favourites Grace Jones, Little Richard, Cher, Joan Rivers, Charo, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Oprah Winfrey and kd lang!

Afterwards, STAY for Christmas cocktail capers at free incredibly strange dance party Lobotomy Room! Wilder than you can imagine! Explicit beyond belief! Revel in sleaze, voodoo and rock’n’roll at Lobotomy Room! Where sin lives! A punkabilly beer blast! 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 some abrasive atomic-era Christmas tunes thrown in! Vintage erotica projected on the big screen all nigh for your adult viewing pleasure!

/ Because nothing says "Christmas" like vintage gay porn and snarling punk music! Celebrate Christmas with a twist - at Lobotomy Room! /

Putrid music! “Adult” movies! Won’t you join me for a snowball or eggnog and learn the true meaning of Christmas with Pee-Wee Herman? Whether you’re naughty or nice, a tawdry good time is guaranteed!

Doors to The Bamboo Lounge open at 8 pm. Film starts at 8:30 pm

/ Below: Christmas pin-ups via John Waters' favourites Edith Massey and Jean Hill /

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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

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!