As threatened on the Facebook
events page...
Witness forbidden voodoo rites
and adult situations - at LOBOTOMY ROOM!
Yes! Leave all sense of shame and propriety at the door - when LOBOTOMY ROOM
returns to its new home, the subterranean Bamboo Lounge of Art Deco vice palace
Fontaine's! Friday 27 November!
At last - a club night for the hillbilly beau monde! LOBOTOMY ROOM! Where sin
lives! A punkabilly booze party! A spectacle of decadence for the permissive
Continentally-minded! A Mondo Trasho evening of Beat, Beat Beatsville Beatnik
Rock’n’Roll! Rockabilly Psychosis! Wailing Rhythm and Blues! Twisted
Tittyshakers! Punk Cretin Hops! 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! Now with added
vintage erotica projected on the wall 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!
A tawdry good time guaranteed!
I won’t lie. It’s been an
agonising, anxiety-ridden and bumpy recent few months characterised by unemployment
woes. In fact I’ve been a full-on freaked-out casualty since summer 2015. In
September I was made redundant at my then-current job in a painful re-structure.
(I’d been there just under two years so – as human resources gleefully pointed
out – I wasn’t eligible for any kind of redundancy package). I swung hard into frantically
applying for jobs and liaising with recruitment agencies – and within a week of
getting officially made redundant, had scored a new job! Phew! The new job initially
felt like a godsend. But by about the
third or fourth week it quickly became apparent it was not a good fit. In fact
I was filled with overwhelming anxiety and dread on a daily basis. By about the
end of the second month, the worst case scenario happened: I was officially
informed I hadn’t survived the six month probationary period and they wouldn’t
be keeping me on. It was a pretty crushing blow to be plunged into unemployment
and financial uncertainty again.
Since the end of November (in
fact, within days of getting the news) I landed a temp job and I’ve been steadily
temping since. This has been a positive development: it’s kept me afloat and helped
me claw back some confidence. It’s also demonstrated that – much as I dislike
the financial insecurity - I can survive by temping if absolutely necessary. On
Monday 7 December I had a job interview for a new permanent role. By Wednesday
9 December the recruitment agent phoned to inform me I was successful. It looks
like I’ll be starting the new job on 11 January 2016. It’ll be another six
month probationary period and I’ve been burnt before – but it is reason to be
optimistic. Hopefully I’ll be back on
track soon and the past few months will just be a blip in my life.
27 November represented the last
Lobotomy Room of 2015. (Lobotomy Room is the last Friday of every month and the
last Friday of December is 25 December –Santa Claus’ birthday!). Considering
I’d been fired earlier that very week, my nerves were still well and truly shot.
Necking beer and DJ’ing some angry punk and rockabilly tunes in the dimly-lit Bamboo
Room certainly helped – it just needed more people in attendance! If there was
ever a time to show me some support, this was it. Since re-locating Lobotomy
Room to its new permanent home downstairs at Fontaine’s in summer 2015, I’ve
lost every single regular I’d gradually built up over the years. It’s a kick in
the teeth, but the Bamboo Lounge of Fontaine’s is the ideal home for my vision
of Lobotomy Room. Hip boss lady Emerald Fontaine encourages me to crank-up my
most putrid musical selections loud. It’s got Mondo Tiki Polynesian decor. It’s
in Dalston (well, the bit that bleeds into Stoke Newington). And it’s got the
most beautiful big movie screen (bordered by two silver-sprayed palm trees
either side) for me to project grainy vintage erotica (of the boob-tastic Russ
Meyer / Bettie Page-burlesk-Teaserama variety and the Athletic Model Guild baby-oiled
guys-wrestling-in-posing-pouches beefcake homo porn – so something for
everybody!). Difficult as it is, I’m gritting my teeth and soldiering on and
just hoping there is some new hip Beat Generation out there hungry for kicks
and ready to embrace what I’m laying down. Anyway, later on, some loyal friends did turn
up (and earned my eternal gratitude): Mal (fellow DJ and my partner in crime at
Cockabilly) and Chris (potentially better known to some of you under his drag
name – Baby Lame).
/ Mal corrupting Pee-Wee Herman /
/ Chris, Elizabeth and Richard /
/ Fierce! Incandescent rhythm and blues queen Tina Turner in the seventies. Did anyone ever look better in zebra print? /
The night before Lobotomy Room
Bold Soul Sister extraordinaire Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock on 26
November 1939) turned 76. I venerate the iconic bewigged rhythm and blues
tigress and Tina’s music (especially her sixties R&B material) is a perennial
Lobotomy Room (and Cockabilly) staple. Needless to say I played some Ike’n’Tina,
but also a track from Turner’s second solo album Acid Queen (1975) - her gender-fucked version of The Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb", to be precise. (Tina’s
actual first solo album is the weird obscurity from 1974 Tina Turns The Country
On! on which she tackles country and western music by the likes of Dolly
Parton, Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson. It’s never been issued on CD). The
record was clearly meant to capitalise on Tina’s wild, hair-tossing appearance
in the role of Acid Queen in the berserk 1975 Ken Russell film Tommy. It’s
billed as a solo album but strictly speaking Tina was still with Ike and The
Ike and Tina Turner Revue at the time (the turbulent royal couple of rhythm and
blues broke up in 1976). Acid Queen sees Turner dabbling with white hard rock cover
versions (she gives songs by The Rolling Stones, The Who and Led Zeppelin a sustained feline attack), anticipating the
musical direction of her later much more commercially successful comeback
career in the eighties. Acid Queen is no lost classic: it’s strange, patchy and
not entirely successful. The production is frequently tacky (there are disco
flourishes here and there) and Tina is backed by jaded generic seventies studio
musicians. (Fun fact: one of the backing singers cooing behind Tina is Kim Carnes of “Bette Davis
Eyes” infamy! Her raspy tones are instantly recognisable on certain tracks. Bring back the Ikettes, I say).
Tina, though, is in ferocious voice, sounding exultant and liberated throughout
Acid Queen. In fact she sings the hell out of it. All hail Tina Turner!
Meanwhile, Turner’s rhythm and blues contemporary
the fabulous Little
Richard turned 83 on 5 December. The Bronze Liberace, Georgia Peach and simultaneous King and
Queen of Rock’n’Roll was born Richard Wayne Penniman on 5 December 1932. I
revere Little Richard as the freakiest, queerest and most flamboyant of rock
music’s early architects. Beloved by John Waters (the inspiration for Waters’
signature sleazy little pencil-line moustache), Richard’s essential masterpiece
“The Girl Can’t Help It” manages to be synonymous with both Jayne Mansfield and
Divine. Little Richard is now enjoying a hard-earned and hopefully serene
retirement from performance but I managed to catch one of his last-ever gigs at
Viva Las Vegas in 2013. It was a deeply odd but memorable experience. Read
about it here.
A few days later came the
announcement of the death of underground actress, cabaret artiste, Warhol muse
and transgender pioneer Holly Woodlawn (born Haroldo Santiago Franceschi Rodriguez
Danhakl , 26 October 1946 - 6 December 2015) aged 69. In the late sixties Holly
Woodlawn, along with Candy Darling and Jackie Curtis, was part of the trio of outrageous
Andy Warhol Superstar drag queens who would inspire and get name-checked – and
thus be immortalised - in Lou Reed's 1972 song “Walk on the Wild Side”. (Woodlawn
outlived her friends Darling and Curtis by decades). The best way to honour
Woodlawn’s memory is to watch her raw, vivacious and funny performance in the
1970 Paul Morrissey-directed film Trash. (I think you can find the whole film
in its entirety on Youtube. Her Trash co-star Joe Dallesandro was by Woodlawn’s
hospice bedside when she died). I only crossed paths with Woodlawn once, when
she was in London in September 2007 to promote an exhibition of portraits
painted of her by the artist Sadie Lee at The Drill Hall Theatre. (See photos from the day here). Author and
raconteur Rupert Smith memorably interviewed Woodlawn onstage about her life
and career. Physically she was already in failing health and virtually
immobile, but Woodlawn gave a master class in charisma, wit and star power that
afternoon. A mature, ravaged but resilient and still defiantly glamorous diva
in a bouffant wig, she reminded me of a character out of a Pedro Almodovar
film. When I was leaving I told her what a pleasure it had been to see her and Woodlawn
vowed, “Oh, you haven't seen the last of me! I'll be back!" Sadly it
wasn’t to be. Kudos in particular to Woodlawn’s long-time friend, New York’s earth mother / she-wolf of performance art Penny Arcade, who launched a
spectacularly successful Gofundme campaign page that raised enough cash to
ensure Holly’s final days were serene and dignified.
/ One less Warhol Superstar: Farewell Holly Woodlawn /
In other news, I’ve branched out
- last month saw the debut of my Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies film club. Fontaine’s already has a free weekly film club
in the Bamboo Lounge on Tuesday nights. I’ve muscled in on their action and
once a month I crash the proceedings and screen a rancid film of my own
selection. Like I asked on Facebook: as winter draws in, how better to break the monotony on a
Tuesday night than watch a free film, drink cocktails and eat snacks
in the plush and intimate environs of Fontaine’s basement Bamboo Lounge?
My emphasis will be on cult, queer, obscure curiosities. So far I’ve shown two
films: on 24 November I inaugurated things with Marlene Dietrich in Seven
Sinners (1940). That was a fun film to screen at Fontaine’s: most of the action in Seven Sinners takes place within a Polynesian-style
bamboo Tiki nightclub – and people were watching it within the Polynesian-style
bamboo Tiki surroundings of the Bamboo Lounge! It was a buzz to see
the dreamy soft-focus close-ups of Dietrich’s veiled face framed between the
silver palm trees.
/ Marlene Dietrich as good time girl nightclub chanteuse Bijou Blanche in Seven Sinners (1949) /
/ Glamorous attendees of
Seven Sinners night: Sarah and Abigail /
/ Glamorous attendees of Seven Sinners night: Vera and Lauren /
On Tuesday 15 December I embraced
the festive spirit with Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special (1988), the
campiest and kitschiest of TV specials. In it, that bow-tied perverse brat
Pee-Wee Herman welcomes a glittering selection of special guest stars
(including Grace Jones, Little Richard, Cher and Joan Rivers) to the Playhouse
and learns the true meaning of Christmas in the process. Attendance figures
have been on the low side so far, but here’s hoping Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies catches on.
/ Grace Jones and Pee-Wee Herman in Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special (1988). If you haven't already, read about my fleeting encounter with Grace Jones last month
here /
I did have some depressing news
to share: After thirteen years at 2 Hackney Road, earlier this month the truly
great epicentre of East London gay bohemia (and home of Cockabilly) The George
& Dragon in Shoreditch permanently padlocked its doors, another victim of
soaring rents. But just as we were all mourning its demise, the management /
brains behind The George & Dragon announced on Facebook this week they’ve
been working hard behind the scenes and are opening a whole new venue – The Queen
Adelaide further up on Hackney Road! This news counts as a genuine Christmas
miracle. I still haven’t clapped eyes on the place, but it’s already my new
favourite pub! Mal and I don’t know at this point whether Cockabilly will
continue at The Queen Adelaide, but our fingers are crossed. (Read about The Queen Adelaide here).
Finally, after a lengthy gap I’m
back behind the decks at Dr Sketchy! The Anti-Art School (where life drawing
meets cabaret) re-launched in the Bamboo Lounge of Fontaine’s on Saturday 12
December for a decadent afternoon of cocktails, art, burlesque - and me
spinning tittyshakers and exotica. It looks like this will be a permanent new
arrangement. A full Dr Sketchy scene report will follow separately!
Sheba - Johnny and The Hurricanes
Night Scene - The Rumblers
The Flirt - Shirley and Lee
Beatnik - The Champs
Teardrops from My Eyes - Ruth Brown
Fever - Edith Massey
Eager Beaver Baby - Johnny Burnette
Drummin' Up A Storm - Sandy Nelson
Boots - Nero and The Gladiators
One Monkey Don't Stop No Show - Big Maybelle
Ain't That Good - George Kelly and Orchestra
I Wish I Were a Princess - Little Peggy March
Point of No Return - Gene McDaniels
Vesuvius - The Revels
Honey Rock - Barney Kessel
Rawhide - Link Wray
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Rock-A-Bop - Sparkle Moore
Booze Party - Three Aces and a Joker
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
Meu Bem Lollipop (My Boy Lollipop) - Wanderlea
Love Potion # 9 - Nancy Sit
Shanghaied - The Fabulous Wailers
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Margaya - The Fender Four
It's A Gas - The Rumblers
I'm a Woman - Peggy Lee
Twist Talk - Jack Hammer
Viens danser le twist - Johnny Halliday
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Peter Gunn Locomotion - The Delmonas
Twistin' the Night Away - Divine
Big Girls Don't Cry - Edith Massey
Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio? The Ramonetures
Viva Las Vegas - Nina Hagen
Under My Thumb - Tina Turner
Gostaria de Saber (River Deep, Mountain High) - Wanderlea
Harley Davidson - Brigitte Bardot
Jukebox Baby - Alan Vega
Atomic Bongos - Lydia Lunch
Cretin Hop - The Ramones
Let's Go, Baby - Billy Eldridge
Fools Rush In - Ricky Nelson
Don't Be Cruel - Bill Black Combo
Where's My Money? Willie Jones
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
I Can't Believe What You Say - Ike and Tina Turner
Your Phone's Off the Hook - The Ramonetures
Devil Doll - X
Esquerita and The Voola - Esquerita
Aphrodisiac - Bow Wow Wow
Ultra Twist - The Cramps
How Much Love Can One Heart Hold? Joe Perkins and The Rookies
I Want Your Love - The Cruisers
You're the One for Me - Wanda Jackson
Twisting with Bad Boy Bubbles - Shuggie Smith and The Cajuns
Dance with Me, Henry - Ann-Margret
I Will Follow Him - Little Peggy March
Big Bad Boss Beat - The Teen Beats
Woo-Hoo - The Rock-A-Teens
Further reading:
Did you know Lobotomy Room now has its own official Facebook page? Like and follow it if you dare!
Read about all the previous antics at Lobotomy Rooms to date here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here , here , here and here.
If you don't already, follow me on tumblr here. Warning - NSFW to the max!
