Las Vegas Grind! Viva Las Vegas 2011

Viva Las Vegas 2011 seemed to go by a blur! Maybe that’s the reason I took less good photos than usual. Less of my American friends went this year, which was a bit of a letdown. I caught brief glimpses of Satan's Angel and Dean Micetich of DiCE Magazine (aka the artist formerly known as Kid Rocker) but then never saw them again for rest of weekend. Missed Sweetpea’s Hootch and Smooch warm-up party on afternoon of Thursday. Didn’t make it into Double Down Saloon or Atomic Liquor and Cocktails (my two favourite Las Vegas dive bars. In fact Jim and I did make a special trek to go to the Double Down Saloon, but I neglected to bring my passport and the bouncer on the door wouldn’t let me in because I didn’t have ID to prove I was over 21! At my age!). Didn’t catch Big Elvis's lounge act this year (a sacrilege!). Didn’t catch either the burlesque showcase or the burlesque contest, even though my friend Sarah (aka Slinky Sparkles) was a contestant in the competition (the long queues to get in to both were extremely off-putting). Where the hell did the time go?!

/ After about a grand total of twelve and a half hours in an airplane, Sarah and Jim were gasping for a cigarette by the time we arrived in Vegas /

/ Sarah and I at The Orleans. Note her Vivienne Westwood handbag. It's genuine /

The highlights: Caught some great bands. Pachuco Josey y Los Diamantes. The Modern Don Juans. Los Straitjackets. Los Tiki Phantoms. (Yes, the future of rockabilly is Latino!). After Chuck Berry’s creaky and underwhelming performance in 2010 (Jim and I left after watching only three or four songs), I was wary of headliner Jerry Lee Lewis but the 75-year old rockabilly legend was in great voice and on stately / majestic form (even if he didn’t sing “Breathless”, my favourite song of his).

/ Closest thing I could get to a close-up of Jerry Lee Lewis performing at the car show /

Meeting Mistress of the Dark Elvira at the car show involved queuing in the baking sun for about 35 minutes and then buying wildly over-priced merchandise for the privilege of having my photo taken with her – but was well worth it to meet one of my teenaged idols. Elvira (aka Cassandra Peterson) was gracious and charming, and the woman is an ageless icon, revered by punks, rockabillies and Goths.

/ Elvira and I /

/ Close-up of Elvira: the photo is even better with me cropped-out! /

/ Present-day flame-haired veteran burlesque legend (and star of Teaserama) Tempest Storm at the car show /

/ Tempest Storm in the fifties /

Exploring the Charleston Antique Mall (a treasure trove of mid-century vintage kitsch) was fun. Was great seeing Jorge from Los Angeles (aka DJ Zorch) and his beautiful new girlfriend, albeit briefly. Finally meeting Sean Law! The pool parties with the surf band Aquasonics performing live every afternoon. For their sets they were joined onstage by Seattle burlesque starlet Miss Kitty Baby go-go dancing. Watching Kitty Baby (an escapee from a 1960s Russ Meyer film, with added tattoos) shake it like a Poloroid in the dreamy Vegas sunshine while drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon is a life-affirming experience: if the Viva Las Vegas weekender has a queen, it’s Miss Kitty Baby.

/ Me, Jim and Jorge (aka DJ Zorch from Los Angeles) /

/ Historic Meeting: Two Canadians Meet in Las Vegas! Sean Law and I /

/ Go, baby, go! Miss Kitty Baby in action, go-go dancing to the surf sounds of the Aquasonics /

/ Jim and Miss Kitty Baby: Note how the lurid colours of his Hawaiian shirt and her go-go dancer outfit coordinate beautifully /

Fittingly, one of the film selections on the flight back to London was the classic 1953 Marlon Brando juvenile delinquent / motorcycle gang film The Wild One. I hadn’t seen it since I was a teenager and before popping an Ambien and crashing out for most of the journey I made a point of watching it. By today’s standards some aspects of The Wild One may seem camp-y and dated, but it’s a tightly-constructed, energetically told and really enjoyable B-movie, and as a rockabilly fanatic it obviously holds a timeless fascination for me. For one thing, the film came out before rock’n’roll burst through, so it’s surprising when a smouldering and insolent young Brando swaggers into a cafe and fires up the jukebox, instead of a burst of twang-y rockabilly it emits ... jazz. (Frantic bebop jazz, but even still! No wonder the trailer refers to them as “jazzed-up hoodlums”). And the clothes Brando and his gang The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club wear are so covetable they had me virtually drooling. The black leather engineer boots, the perfect Levis with the perfect turn-ups, the t-shirts, the leather jackets, the caps, the sunglasses, the quiffs, the sideburns ... Brando and his gang remain the absolute visual / sartorial ideal for male rockabillies in the way that, say, Bettie Page or Mamie van Doren do for female rockabillies.

Anyway, roll on Viva Las Vegas 2012!

See more of my Viva Las Vegas 2011 photos on flickr

A Date with El Vez! El Vez at The 100 Club in London

El Vez is one red hot tamale! Routinely described as “The Mexican Elvis”, that only hints at what El Vez (aka Robert Lopez) actually does. Injecting the Elvis Presley song book with a jolt of spicy ancient Aztec blood, El Vez looks like a black velvet painting come to life, and his shows are a riot of rock’n’roll, punk energy, kitsch, sex appeal, politics and humour.

Sadly he rarely performs in London these days, so when El Vez returned to play at the 100 Club attendance was mandatory! True to form, he put on an explosive show backed by his band The Memphis Mariachis and accompanied by the Elvettes.

The whole night was a bit of a reunion and nostalgia trip: it was my friend Sparkle Moore (the platinum blonde doyenne of the London vintage / retro scene) who first brought El Vez to London in the mid-90s for his London debut at The Garage. A gang of us who were at that historic gig also went to this and we were dazzled by El Vez all over again.

Postscript: It looks like I’ll be interviewing El Vez for Nude magazine, so watch this space.

/ Mexican Elvis Impersonators Prefer (Platinum) Blondes: Vivien (aka Vivien of Holloway), El Vez and Sparkle Moore /

El Vez and I: Unfortunately I seem to be doing an imitation of Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel from The Simpsons.

See all the photos on my flickr page

Check out the official El Vez website

Las Vegas Grind! Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend 2010

After a three year gap, was more than ready to get my ass back to Las Vegas for the 13th annual Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender. Travelling to Vegas from London is one punishing mutha of a journey but it’s such a blast it’s worth the agonising jet lag. Here are my highlights:

Drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon beer: it sponsored Viva Las Vegas this year. You can see their logo on the backdrop of the main stage; it’s the white trash / trailer trash lager of choice in the US and sadly not available in the UK. When I drink it, it’s an act of loving tribute to Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet.

Catching up with American friends, especially Kim from Seattle, seeing Los Angeles-based Dean Micetich (a total surprise; didn’t know he’d be there) and meeting George from LA and Aaron and Allen from Seattle for the first time.

/ Below: Dean Micetich of DiCE Magazine /

/ Jorge from LA /

The food: in Las Vegas it’s trashy but addictive. Jim and I ate mostly in The Orleans’s Courtyard Cafe. I’ll miss the endless free coffee re-fills (unheard of in the UK!) at breakfast. A week of omelettes, burritos, French fries and beer has given me a Homer Simpson-style paunch that enters the room 30 seconds before I do. Ooh my arteries. Maybe I should get my cholesterol checked ...

The burlesque showcase (couldn’t get into the burlesque contest itself; it was filled to capacity). It opened with a short but thunderous set by the awesome garage-punk / surf band The Del Rays with two gorgeous show girls go-go dancing (one of them my buddy Robin from Seattle, aka Miss Kitty Baby). Even if you see a lot of burlesque (and I do), the standard of burlesque performers at VLV is so incredibly high you can’t help but be dazzled. There were appearances by two veteran burlesque legends: 80-something Dixie Evans (the Marilyn Monroe of burlesque!) introduced Kitten de Ville doing one of her steamy 1950s routines called the Casting Couch. And 65-year old Satan’s Angel closed proceedings with a sizzling performance that showed what a seasoned pro can do. I got to talk to her at the Alligator Bar of the Orleans later on, when she graciously agreed to have her photo taken. She’s a fascinating character: gritty and funny with a raspy flat voice, reminded me a bit of bad girl Ashley St Ives from the Russ Meyer film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. She told me she’s from San Francisco, started performing in 1960 and performed in Vegas from 1968 – 1980. Apparently she’s working on her memoirs. What a woman! Her Myspace page

/ Below: Satan's Angel and I /

Someone filmed Dixie Evans introducing Kitten de Ville and posted it on Youtube. Great video:



Highlights:

Blind Rage and Violence (Deke Dickerson’s hilarious and vicious Link Wray tribute act)

Probably the best vintage car show anywhere in the world

First Lady of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson was on ferocious great form as always. Her voice is as raucous as ever and from the stage she exudes a natural un-jaded warmth and sweetness. Obviously one of the big draws this year for many was the headliner Chuck Berry, who played at the car show. Sadly the general consensus was that he sounded like he was struggling and is past his prime as a performer; on the plus side, from a distance he still looks like a brown-eyed handsome man and it was a spine-tingling moment to see him do his duck walk. For me Wanda outshone him but then at 73 she’s still comparatively youthful to Chuck Berry’s 84. Her new double A-sided single produced by Jack White from White Stripes is certainly intriguing: she covered Johnny Kidd & the Pirates’ “Shakin’ All Over” and even more excitingly, Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good.” Jackson’s honky tonk angel delivery on the latter transformed it into an instant classic Country & Western lament.

Bands: I enjoyed Quarter Mile Combo and of course Big Sandy & The Flyrite Boys are always amazing. Plus plenty of other bands whose names I didn’t catch! In terms of new bands, there was a showcase of Latino rockabilly bands all on the Los Angeles-based record label Wild Records. Sadly I didn’t catch the names of most of the bands (!) but saw Pachuco Jose y Los Diamantes and they were absolutely mind-blowing. Alongside Wanda Jackson, they were my musical highlight.

The Pool party: always a day of sun-drenched, Pabst Blue Ribbon-fuelled heaven. Surrounded by cuties in their vintage-style bathing suits and sunglasses is like being in a 1950s cheesecake pin-up photo-shoot come to life (although their 1950s counterparts weren’t liberally sprinkled with tattoos like the girls in Vegas are today!). The whole day was sound-tracked by two spectacular instrumental surf bands: The Eliminators and the fez-sporting The Surfside IV. (Note: about 90% of the pics taken at the pool party were taken by my friend Jim. He was urging me to take photos of the girls in their bathing suits – I should be used to asking strangers if I can take their photos after having been a nightclub photographer for years, but I felt too shy so he took my camera and started snapping away. It turns out he’s a glamour photographer in the making!).

/ James's idea of heaven: James with two bathing beauties /

Finally, the jiving contest: I stood and watched it with an expert running commentary from Kim from Seattle. I know sod all about jiving, but it is fun to watch – it makes you feel like you’re in the John Waters film Crybaby.

Anyway, since I got back the jetlag has been excruciating but Viva Las Vegas 2010 was worth it, and Jim and I have already reserved a room at The Orleans for Viva Las Vegas 2011.

Anyway, the photos are up on flickr