8 January 2011 Dr Sketchy Set List

/ Happy New Year! /

The first Dr Sketchy of the New Year! This time it was upstairs at The Old Queen's Head in Angel. Annoyingly, I was bedevilled by technical hitches for the first hour or so: the sound was coming out muted no matter how loud I cranked up the volume on the decks, which is frustrating when you’re playing desperate 1950s rhythm and blues and grinding titty shakers that need to be LOUD! At one stage early on our glamorous burlesque performer Sophia St Villier stood in a corner under a speaker across the room to test the audio for me and came back to report “it’s one step above mood music!” Luckily one of the Old Queens Head employees figured out the problem (he just whacked everything up in another room where the controls are!) and the sound quality improved dramatically for the rest of the day. Loud and confrontational – that’s the way I like it!

As previously mentioned, the featured burlesque artiste was Rita Hayworth-style redhead Sophia St Villier, who was great as always. She performed a dazzling routine that ended with her drenching herself, the stage and probably the first row of the audience with silver glitter. The other model was Bomb Voyage, our versatile door girl who occasionally steps in to model. Bomb rocks a punkier look than the average Dr Sketchy model (skintight rubber leggings, tattoos) so if you notice the music turning a bit darker and more aggressive at some points, that’s probably while she was modelling!

Intoxica - The Revels
Last Night - Lula Reed
Loberta - Bobby Marchan & The Clowns
Fool I Am - Pat Ferguson
Strange Love - Slim Harpo
Everywhere I Go - Ted Taylor
Trashcan - Ken Williams
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Don't Do It - April Stevens
Tight Skirt, Tight Sweater - The Versatones
I Was Born To Cry - Johnny Thunders
Salamander - Mamie van Doren
Boss - The Rumblers
Little Ole Wine Drinker Me - Robert Mitchum
St Louis Blues - Eartha Kitt
Vesuvius - The Revels
Baby Let Me Bang Your Box - The Bangers
Don't Fuck Around with Love - The Blenders
Jungle Walk - The Dyna-Sores
Beat Girl - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Rockin' the Joint - Esquerita
Yogi - Bill Black Combo
Poontang - The Treniers
I Need Your Lovin' - Don Gardner & DeeDee Ford
Turquoise - Milt Buckner
Mondo Moodo - The Earls of Suave
I Feel So Mmmm - Diana Dors
The Whip - The Frantics
Fever - Richard Marino & His Orchestra
Sweet Little Pussycat - Andre Williams
8 Ball - The Hustlers
Blue Moon Baby - Dave "Diddle" Day
Caravan - The Dell Trio
The Swinger - Ann-Margret
Black Tarantula - Jody Reynolds
Cherry Wine - Little Esther
One, Two, Let's Rock - Sugar Pie & Pee Wee
Baby, I'm Doin' It - Annisteen Allen
Rip It Up - Little Richard
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Esquerita and The Voola - Esquerita
Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Taki Rari - Yma Sumac
If I Should Lose You - George Shearing
Willow Weep for You - The Whistling Artistry of Muzzy Marcellino
Strip-tease - Juliette Greco (Strip-tease soundtrack)
Street Scene '58 - Lou Busch & His Orchestra
Crazy Horse Swing - Serge Gainsbourg (Strip-tease soundtrack)
Go Slow - Julie London
Give Me Love - Lena Horne
I Put A Spell on You - Nina Simone
You're My Thrill - Dolores Gray
Petite Fleur - Chet Baker
I'm in the Mood for Love - Denise Darcel
Love Me - Marlene Dietrich
Sleep Walk - Henri Renee & His Orchestra
Shangri-la - Spike Jones New Band
Do It Again - April Stevens
Sometimes I Wish I Had a Gun - Mink Stole
Love for Sale - Hildegard Knef
The Whip - The Originals
Gizmo - Jimmy Heap
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
Ain't That Lovin' You Baby - The Earls of Suave
Begin the Beguine - Billy Fury
Hound Dog - Little Esther
Destination Moon - Dinah Washington

A while back I wrote about the doomed jazz vocalist Ann Richards. Another obscure singer I love to play at Dr Sketchy is Denise Darcel, the French actress and singer, whose story luckily isn’t quite so tragic. I discovered Darcel by accident because I wanted to track down Lizabeth Scott’s 1957 album Lizabeth.(The elusive Lizabeth Scott is my all-time favourite film noir actress and merits a whole blog entry of her own). It turned out that when Lizabeth was reissued on CD recently, it came as a package with Denise Darcel’s album Banned in Boston. Which was a real bonus, as Denise Darcel is a blast!

Born Denise Billecard in 1925 in Paris, after suffering a turbulent period during World War II (her father died when the Nazis occupied the family home) she won a beauty contest as a teenager that garnered her publicity as “The Most Beautiful Girl in Paris” and “The Most Photographed Girl in Paris”. Darcel parlayed this notoriety into a successful career as a Parisian nightclub chanteuse before heading to Hollywood in 1947 (with a quickly-dropped American husband in tow) to pursue international stardom. While Darcel’s leading men in Hollywood would include the likes of Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper, Robert Taylor and Glenn Ford, she never achieved A-list success and her filmography reads like a real mixed bag: a few Westerns, a Tarzan film (Tarzan and The Slave Girl, with Lex Barker in 1950), an Esther Williams musical (Dangerous When Wet in 1953).

Darcel, though, proved to be a pragmatic and durable tough cookie: when the acting stint in Hollywood fizzled out (her last film was the intriguingly-titled Seven Women from Hell in 1961), she returned to night club and cabaret singing. When singing, too, stopped being lucrative, Darcel – by then in her 40s – showed true grit by turning to stripping. (The attached photo of her as burlesque artiste was taken in 1967). “Zat is where ze money is,” she reportedly explained to a reporter.

/ Shake it! Denise Darcel in her striptease years/

As a burlesque artist she performed in Las Vegas. When Darcel presumably became too old to strip, she eventually returned to Vegas and worked as a casino dealer. Darcel is now 86 and although in the few photos I’ve seen of her online she appears to be wheelchair-bound, she otherwise looks good. Someone should track Denise Darcel down and interview her before it’s too late: I bet she has a few stories to tell!

Her album Banned in Boston was recorded sometime in the 1950s (the details seem vague: The original release date is not even listed in the liner notes of the CD!) and heard today is incredibly enjoyable. It’s a risqué collection of sexy songs, heavy on the Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart, which in theory represents what Darcel’s nightclub act would have been like. On the comedic songs she works a thick French ‘Allo! ‘Allo! accent pitched somewhere between Pepe le Pew and a female Maurice Chevalier. On the more serious and sensual songs like “Love for Sale”, “I’m in the Mood for Love” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, Darcel emerges as a genuinely talented and emotive torch singer. All of the songs she delivers with real verve and individuality. The best track is the strangest: the album is predominantly tinkly cocktail lounge music, but it ends with a driving quasi-rockabilly rendition of “Chattanooga-Choo-Choo”, propelled by wonderfully sleazy blurting saxophone. Sounding like a French Marlene Dietrich, a pissed-off Darcel snarls the lyrics as if she’s simmering with anger. The results are strikingly weird – and sexy as hell. I have to admit I play this a lot, and people almost always ask, “What was that?” That was Denise Darcel!

Keep track of upcoming Dr Sketchy's here.

When John Waters Met Nico

It turns out that cult filmmaker extraordinaire John Waters and I have something in common: we both revere the late, great German chanteuse Nico. I bought his riotous 1981 book Shock Value: A Tasteful Book about Bad Taste in the late 1980s when I was still a university student and it had a profound impact on me. In it he briefly and tantalisingly recalls meeting...

“... Nico, my favourite singer, who was so out of it when I met her that she asked, “Have I ever been here before?” (I had to tell her I really had no idea).”

I wanted to know more about this historic meeting between cinemas’s Sleaze King and the heroin-ravaged Marlene Dietrich of punk. I interviewed Waters (a life-long hero of mine) for Nude magazine in December 2010 when he was in London promoting his excellent new book Role Models, so I was finally able to get him to elaborate on his encounter with Nico. It was the end of the interview and this was only for my own personal interest and never intended for the final article (which you can read here).

So here it is: when John Waters Met Nico...

Graham Russell: Before you go, tell me about the time you met Nico.

John Waters: Nico ... I met her when she played in Baltimore. Well, (before that) I saw her play with The Velvet Underground at The Dom on St Marks Place (in New York) with The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. I have the poster still. But I met her much later when she had her solo career, which I loved. She was a total heroin addict. Did you ever read that book The End? (The 1992 book is a jaundiced and not exactly objective account by her former keyboardist James Young). It’s so hilarious. It was that – although it wasn’t that, that was later when she was touring England. She played at this disco, and I went. And people went, but not a lot, it wasn’t full. And she was heavy and dressed all in black with reddish dark hair, and she did her (makes guttural moaning noise). Afterwards I said, “It’s nice to meet you, I wish you’d play at my funeral”, and she said (mimics doom-laden Germanic voice), “When are you going to die?” I told her, “You should have played at The Peoples Temple; you would’ve been great when everyone was killing themselves!” Then she said, “Where can I get some heroin?” I said, “I don’t know.” I don’t take heroin, so I don’t know. But even if I did, I wasn’t copping for Nico!

“But that was basically it. But I’ll always remember her, and I love Nico. I remember when she died, when she fell off the bicycle (in 1988). Every summer my friend Dennis and I, we play Nico music on the day she died (18 July). I saw that documentary Nico-Icon (Susanne Ofteringer, 1995), which was great. It’s a shame: she was mad about being pretty! She was sick of being pretty, being a model. And I remember her when she was in La Dolce Vita (1960), even before. Nico ... great singer; and even the Velvet Underground hated having her. And her music can really get on your nerves. You have to be in the mood. Sometimes it gets on my nerves. You have to be in the mood to listen to it. To put on a whole day of Nico can be ... my favourite song of Nico ever, and I only have it on a tape that someone made, it’s a bootleg. Did you ever hear her sing “New York, New York”? It’s great! I wish she’d done a whole album of show tunes! Like “Hello Dolly” or “The Sound of Music”! (Mimics Nico singing “Hello Dolly”).



/ Nico in the 1980s at New York's Chelsea Hotel singing a punk-y and dramatic version of her classic song "Chelsea Girls" /



/ Nico with Marcello Mastroianni in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) /

/ Rare shot of Nico and Fellini during the filming of La Dolce Vita /

/ John Waters: The Maestro /

/ Hog Princess: The Filthiest Woman in the World -- Divine. RIP /

 / John Waters and I at his book launch party in London in December 2010 /

The Nude website is now defunct, sadly, but you can still read my full interview with John Waters here

Juliette Greco at The Royal Festival Hall

/ Juliette Greco in the 1960s: trademark black dress and black eyeliner /

“When I was a young girl, Juliette Greco was my absolute idol ... If I want to be anybody, I want to be Juliette Greco.” Marianne Faithfull

I last saw Juliette Greco perform in June 2000 at The Barbican – one of the most mesmerising concerts I’ve ever seen. After a decade-long gap, she returned to London to cast another spell, this time at The Royal Festival Hall on 21 November 2010 to conclude the 2010 London Jazz Festival. My initial impression at seeing the now 83-year old grand dame of French chanson take the stage was to note that she looks regal but frail– until she opened her mouth. Greco’s impossibly deep and sensual voice, saturated in a lifetime of Gauloises (or Gitanes?) smoke and vin rouge, is still lacerating. (Someone once described Marlene Dietrich’s voice as sounding like autumn leaves being crunched under leather boots. It equally applies to Greco’s expressive throaty rasp). Then, that she is reassuringly still beautiful and her incredible charisma and sense of drama more potent than ever. Onstage, chanson’s great living exponent remains a torrent of seething emotion and volcanic intensity.

A quick summary for any newcomers to the magic of Juliette Greco: She emerged from the smoky cellar dives of post-war Left Bank Paris like Le Tabou and La Rose Rouge to achieve international stardom as both a chanteuse and an actress. Greco and her family had been active in the French Resistance, and her music and image are steeped in the rebellious, politicised bohemian French intellectual life centred around Saint-Germain-des-Prés. From early on she was encouraged to sing by the likes of by Jean-Paul Sartre and Boris Vian, and besotted leading French poets and philosophers wrote lyrics specially tailored for her (wonderful songs like “"Si tu t'imagines”, her first hit), establishing Greco as the black-clad high priestess of existentialism and a strong, enduring female presence in French popular culture. In the late 1940s she began an interracial affair with visiting American jazz star Miles Davis. Author Lewis MacAdams argues “the offspring of their three-year, long-distance liaison – of the marriage of bebop and existentialism – was the birth of cool.”

/ Beatnik icon: a very young Greco at the beginning of her career in the early fifties /

/ The birth of cool: Miles Davis and Juliette Greco in the fifties /

But hey I’m superficial, so it doesn’t hurt that in the 1950s Greco was lusciously, wantonly beautiful and nailed a timeless, striking almost Morticia Addams-esque look: tousled mane of dark hair, all-black wardrobe, kohl-blackened eyes under a Bettie Page fringe. The liner notes to one of her 1950s albums swoons about “the fascinating child-woman with the wild black hair and the deep-set burning eyes ...” Greco’s magnetic image set the template for female beatniks worldwide, who ironed their hair and donned winged black Cleopatra eyeliner and black polo neck sweaters in emulation. (As a fashion icon Greco belongs up there with countrywoman Brigitte Bardot and Edie Sedgwick. These days, fashion stylists and photographers probably reference the Greco style without realising where it originated).

/ Juliette Greco eyeliner technique /

/ Juliette Greco paper doll: weirdly, there's no black dress in the wardrobe selection! /

/ Various Greco faces over the years (during her fifties Hollywood stint, she had two nose jobs, which dramatically changed her appearance) /

/ Greco in Hollywood: co-starring with Richard Todd in the 1958 film The Naked Earth /

Anyway, it could have been a nostalgic trawl through Greco’s greatest hits, written for her by the likes of Jacques Brel and Serge Gainsbourg – which would still have been spellbinding. Instead it was an evening of stark minimalism: a black stage, Greco in her signature severe black dress (a floor-length bat wing-sleeved velvet shroud worthy of Vampira), and the formidable Greco songbook stripped down to just accordion (accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier) and piano (her husband and long-time accompanist Gérard Jouannest, who composed the music for many of Jacques Brel’s classics).

And while Greco has over 60 years of songs to chose from (she made her singing debut in 1949), she obviously chose the songs that have the greatest personal meaning for her, drawing largely from her majestic late-period work (like 1998’s Un jour d’ete et quelques nuits... and 2006’s Le temps d’une chanson) rather than solely 1950s and 60s crowd-pleasing material (for example, no “Sous les ciels de Paris”, and instead of "Les feuilles mortes", she sang Gainsbourg’s song about “Les feuilles mortes”,” La Chanson de Prevert”), although the set was certainly generously studded with Greco’s classics.

With her commanding theatrical gestures, Greco is as much an actress as she is a singer. Certainly she acts as much as she “sings”: melody definitely isn’t one of her priorities. Over the years Greco’s voice has coarsened and darkened, and is noticeably harsher and more guttural than on her old recordings. But it’s something she works to her advantage: Greco belongs to that elite group of female song stylists whose husky ravaged tones were powerful rather than pretty, and ideal for conveying romantic suffering and world weariness: think late-period Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Hildegard Knef, Lotte Lenya, Dietrich, and younger singers like Nico and Marianne Faithfull, who very much followed in Greco’s tradition.

Greco hurled herself into every song, transforming each one into performance art. Her songs evoke a variety of moods: she tore into Brel’s "Bruxelles" with an almost angry glee, whereas Gainsbourg’s “La Javanaise” was spine-tingling, slowed-down and delicate. One thing she demonstrated is that at 83 she still retains her sensuality. Introducing “Deshabillez Moi” (Undress Me) she joked she really shouldn’t be singing it at her age, but it’s such a great song she will anyway – and then became the consummate self-mocking sex kitten, which she maintained for the rousing “Jolie Mome” and “L'Accordeon” (during which she played her own body with her fingertips as if it were an accordeon). Greco still has the erotic confidence of a great beauty (whose admirers included Miles Davis, Marlon Brando, Prince Aly Khan, Serge Gainsbourg, Sacha Distel and the film mogul Darryl F Zanuck, who tried to launch her as a Hollywood star in the 1950s), and clearly doesn’t doubt her allure. (In this regard, she reminded me of another slinky octogenarian chanteuse of the same vintage,Eartha Kitt, who we saw perform in 2007).


JULIETTE GRECO - Déshabillez-moi
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"Jolie Môme" Juliette Greco
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Ultimately, though, Greco is the consummate tragedienne and the most affecting songs were the bleak dirges. The old Edith Piaf standard “Les Amants d’un Jour” told the eerie story of the suicide pact between two doomed lovers. In her intro to “C’Etait un Train de Nuit” she explained that torture, war and death are all encompassed in the song, and then sang it with her eyes squeezed shut as if in horror. In it, she repeatedly gasps, “Je me souviens” (“I remember ...”) and describes scenes of prisoners on a train en route to a concentration camp. Brel’s tender “La chanson des vieux amants” ended with her covering her face in her hands as if in agony. Greco originally recorded another Brel masterpiece, “J’Arrive” in 1970, but the song – in which she confronts death, imploring, “Pourquoi moi? Pourquoi déjà?”(Why me? Why now?) -- obviously has added poignancy and greater intimations of mortality now that she’s singing it towards the end of her own life.

/ Greco performing "La chanson de vieux amants" in 2004 at The Olympia in Paris /

/ Autumn Leaves: Greco photographed by Pierre et Gilles in the eighties /

After seeing one of Marlene Dietrich’s last concerts in the 1970s, the film critic Kevin Thomas reflected, “she regarded her talent as a rare and precious wine that she would pour out drop by drop, and until it was gone it would be the most perfect, most refined of all.” Before Greco’s 2000 Barbican concert, she hadn’t performed in London since 1989 and then she waited a decade before returning. It was bittersweet knowing it was unlikely we’d ever see Greco again. For her Royal Festival Hall finale she sang a devastating “Ne Me Quitte Pas”. Greco’s is the angriest version you’ll ever hear of this Brel standard, shredding the elegant melody until it’s a savage plea (she virtually stamps her foot and shakes her fist when she sings it). Afterwards, drinking at the bar and reflecting on Greco’s artistry, commitment and urgency, we appreciated that we may have been born in the wrong era to have seen Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday or Dietrich perform, but we got to see Juliette Greco – every bit their equal. If this is the defiant but vulnerable Juliette Greco’s last performance in London, it was one none of us who saw it will ever forget.

/ Greco singing "Ne me quitte pas" on Italian TV /



/ Obviously photography was strictly forbidden, but at the very end of the night when La Greco came back out to take her curtain calls (and got a standing ovation), I managed to snatch this shot./

/ And Christian took this one: /

/ Someone shot this surprisingly good video of Greco performing "Avec le temps" at The Royal Festival Hall /



/ Strange, interesting litte clip of Greco filmed in 1966 in which she sings two of the songs she performed at The Royal Festival Hall: "Jolie Mome" and "Un Petit Poisson, Un Petit Oiseau." Most fascinating is the glimpses of her backstage in her dressing room, applying her thick black Cleopatra eyeliner /

A LOOK AT JULIETTE GRECO

The Royal Festival Hall concert didn't get much coverage in the press, but it got reviewed in The Telegraph. Not exactly the hippest publication (!), but you can read it here. To their credit they also interviewed her.

Excellent, very thorough overview of Greco's career here

I wrote this piece about Greco for the American punk website Razorcake way back in the early 2000s. I'd write it very differently now -- but here it is

22 December 2010 Christmas Dr Sketchy Set List

/ Because nothing says "Christmas" like Ann-Margret in a leopard skin catsuit ... /

Another night of Christmas-a-go-go! Much as I love it, by now even I am sick of Christmas music! Obviously on Christmas day I’ll be playing some 1950s Christmas lounge and jazz music while pounding back glasses of snowballs and mulled wine – but after that my Christmas compilations are being put on mothballs for twelve months.

This night Dr Sketchy was at probably my favourite of all our venues: the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. It’s long been the home of London’s most cutting edge alternative cabaret club nights (living up to its reputation as a historic music hall venue), and (gratifyingly for a DJ) its sound system is thunderously loud. The RVT was decorated with beautiful Christmas decorations (including big plaster cherubs), with moody atmospheric night club lighting and candles glowing on the tables: think festive but Weimar Republic decadent, as if the seedy nightclub in Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel(1930) was decorated for Christmas. In other words, the perfect locale for Dr Sketchy at Christmas! So I was annoyed when suddenly the houselights were cranked up again just when people were starting to filter in. There also seemed to be a commotion outside, with RVT staff rushing in and out, but I was busy DJ’ing and oblivious. Finally one of the bartenders came over and explained why they’d turned up the lights: there was a bomb scare outside; the surrounding area was taped off while it was being investigated. That’s the kind of news that really jangles your nerves, but we carried on in the British blitz spirit and hoped that we wouldn’t have to cancel, and that people would be able to arrive safely. Mercifully the bomb scare was a false alarm, and the place gradually filled up. We just had to push back the start time from 8:00 pm to 8.30 pm to accommodate late comers.

We had two models: Platinum blonde burlesque starlet Slinky Sparkles (a Dr Sketchy veteran) performed an adorable Christmas-themed striptease number giving new meaning to the concept of “Christmas stocking”. We also had a sinewy male model, Beau Black. The RVT is primarily a LGBT venue, and our shows there tend to get a little raunchier than normal, sometimes featuring full male nudity. At the end of night for the final sketch the two models plus suave emcee Dusty Limits and a member of the audience recreated a kinky, non-traditional (sacrilegious?) nativity scene onstage – for which Beau posed stark naked except for a Santa hat, while I played Wayne Newton belting out “Jingle Bell Rock!” My kind of Christmas!

Doing two sets now of Christmas tunes this month (see my playlist from 6 December 2010) made me realise how many endless versions of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” I’ve played. Great songs that open themselves to infinite interpretations, but considering the lyrics of neither ever make reference to Christmas, it’s funny how they have been embraced as Christmas standards. (For the record, Julie London’s sloooowed down version of “I’ve Got My Love ...” is the sultriest of all time).

As of the next Dr Sketchy on 8 January 2011, normal musical service will be resumed. In the meantime ... Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town / White Christmas - Jimmy McGriff
Winter Wonderland - Chet Baker
Violets for Your Furs - The Continental
Candles Glowing - Marlene Dietrich
Silent Night - Dinah Washington
First Snowfall - The Coctails
Exotic Night - Martin Denny
Let Christmas Ring - The Coolbreezers
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? Nancy Wilson
My Christmas Prayer - Billy Fury
White Christmas - Elvis Presley
Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me - Mae West
Santa Claus is Sometimes Brown - El Vez
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Wayne Newton
Jingle All the Way - Lena Horne
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus / Jingle Bells Bossa Nova - Eddie Dunstedter
Sorry to See You Go - June Christy
Winter Wonderland - Peggy Lee
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Lou Rawls
Let It Snow! Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Eddie Dunstedter
Christmas Time is Coming - Stormy Weather
JIngle Bells - The Vel Mares
Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas - Ruby Wright
Santa! Please Don't Pass Me By - Jimmy Donley
Sleigh Bells, Reindeer and Snow - Rita Faye Wilson
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - Jimmy McGriff
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Al Martino
Jingle Bells / Jingle Bell Rock - The Hollyridge Strings
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town - Lena Horne
Far Away Christmas Blues - Little Esther
Blues for Christmas - John Lee Hooker
I'd Like You for Christmas - Julie London
Christmas Time Is Here - El Vez
Santa Claus is Back in Town - Mae West
Christmas in Jail - The Youngsters
Ole Santa - Dinah Washington
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Mambo - Billy May
Winter Wonderland - Dean Martin
Jingle Bells - Gene Autrey
Fat Daddy - Fat Daddy
Merry Christmas, Baby - Lou Rawls
Nothin' for Christmas - Eartha Kitt
Christmas Kisses - Ray Anthony
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Julie London
Christmas Wish - El Vez
Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt (1960s version)
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Billie Holiday
Warm December - Julie London
Baby It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin
Cha Cha Cha All the Way - Capital Studio Orchestra
The Merriest - June Christy
White Christmas - Peggy Lee
I'll Be Home for Christmas / Baby It's Cold Outside - Jackie Gleason / Jack Marshall
Everybody's Waitin' for the Man with the Bag - Kay Starr
Jingle Bell Rock - Wayne Newton
Christmas Island - Bob Atcher & The Dinning Sisters
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Sammy Davis Jr and Carmen McRae
This Year's Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
Santa Claus is Back in Town - Elvis Presley
Frosty the Snowman - The Ventures


/Haunting Christmas scene: pink flamingos in the snow /

Keep up to date with upcoming Dr Sketchy's in the new year here

6 December 2010 Christmas Dr Sketchy Set List

/ Wishing you a Jayne Mansfield Christmas ... /

For the first of our two Christmas extravaganzas this month (this one was at The Paradise in Kensal Green), Dr Sketchy’s glamorous promoter and stage manager Clare Marie emerged from behind the scenes to emcee the night herself. Marianne Cheesecake (who’s done three Dr Sketchy’s in a row and is starting to feel like Dr Sketchy’s burlesque artiste in residence!) charmed the crowd with a great Santa’s little helper routine in green sequins. Considering it was a Christmas spectacular, we spiced things up with a grand total of four beautiful models: Marianne Cheesecake, Ruka, Violetta and Ellie.

Later on there was high drama when a woman in the audience accidentally set her hair on fire! She was leaning back to get a good photo of the performers onstage and leaned right back into the candle on the table behind her! I was DJ’ing and distracted, when I heard a woman scream, there was a puff of smoke and suddenly the air was filled with the stench of scorched hair. What was cartoon-like was the people surrounding her spotted her hair was on fire before she did and started screaming. She was initially oblivious. Horrifying, but mercifully she wasn’t hurt or even lost much hair! Also luckily it happened toward the end of the night. Once we realized she was OK we tried to get on with the rest of the show and pretend nothing had happened, but it was hard to ignore the smell of singed hair. She even said, "I feel like Michael Jackson!" She also said she was wearing lots of hairspray -- it could have been much worse. It was a very John Waters moment, actually! So please remember the hazards of combining long hair and candles this Christmas season, ladies.

Musically, it was a great opportunity to go heavy on the abrasive kitsch Christmas tunes. Things started off quite elegantly, with the focus on 1950s cool jazz (Chet Baker’s Christmas album – think Christmas standards played at sultry junkie tempo) and exotica / lounge (an ethereal Martin Denny track, a bossa nova interpretation of “Jingle Bells”, Marlene Dietrich huskily exhaling Christmas carols while still sounding like she’s straddling a chair backwards and wearing fishnet stockings). Later on I ramped up the campiness and sleaze appeal: Christmas novelty songs,Christmas doo wop, Christmas surf instrumentals, Christmas raunch (Mae West’s 1966 Christmas album),Christmas rockabilly (Elvis Presely, Billy Fury, Jack Scott), Christmas rhythm & blues (Little Esther, Dinah Washington), glitzy Vegas Christmas (Wayne Newton, Dean Martin), sex kitten Christmas (Julie London, Eartha Kitt), plus other oddities and curiousities.

Our next Christmas Dr Sketchy will be at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern on 22 December – I’ll inevitably play the same tracks, but in a different order!

Christmas Song - Chet Baker
That's What I Want for Christms - Nancy Wilson
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus / Jingle Bells Bossa Nova - Eddie Dunstedter
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town - Lena Horne
The First Snowfall - The Coctails
Candles Glowing - Marlene Dietrich
Exotic Night - Martin Denny
Let Christmas Ring - The Coolbreezers
Santa! Don't Pass Me By - Jimmy Donley
Christmas Island - Bob Atcher & The Dinning Sisters
Silent Night - Dinah Washington
My Christmas Prayer - Billy Fury
Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me - Elvis Presley
Merry Christmas Baby - Mae West
Sleighbells, Reindeer and Snow - Rita Faye Wilson
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Mambo - Billy May
Brown Christmas - El Vez
Jingle Bells - The Vel Mares
Jingle Bell Rock - Wayne Newton
I'm Gettin' Nothin' for Christmas - Eartha Kitt
Christmas Wish - El Vez
Far Away Christmas Blues - Little Esther
Warm December - Julie London
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Billie Holiday
Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
Ole Santa - Dinah Washington
There's Trouble Brewin' - Jack Scott
Santa Baby - Mae West
Christmas Time Is Coming - Stormy Weather
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? Nancy Wilson
Happy Holidays - Peggy Lee
Fat Daddy - Fat Daddy
All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth - Nat King Cole
Have a Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas - Ruby Wright
Sleigh Ride / Jingle Bells - Al Caiola & Riz Ortolani / Jimmy McGriff
Jingle Bells - Gene Autrey
Little Drummer Boy - Marlene Dietrich
Snowfall / Snowfall Cha Cha Cha - George Shearing / Billy May
I'd Like You for Christmas - Julie London
Christmas in Jail - The Youngsters
The Christmas Waltz - Nancy Wilson
Blues for Christmas - John Lee Hooker
Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me - Mae West
Christmas Time Is Here - El Vez
Christmas Kisses - Ray Anthony
Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Julie London
Baby It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin
Everybody's Waitin' for the Man with the Bag - Kay Starr
Frosty the Snowman - The Ventures
Jingle Bells / Jingle Bell Rock - Hollyridge Strings
Here Comes Santa Claus - Elvis Presley
I Wish You a Merry Christmas - Big Dee Irwin & Little Eva
Let It Snow - Wayne Newton
This Year's Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt

/ Essential Christmas viewing ... John Waters' 1974 classick "Female Trouble" /



"I hate you, I hate this house and I hate Christmas!"

/ Below: Mae West's 1966 Christmas album /

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24 November 2010 Dr Sketchy Set List

/ Jazz sex kitten Ann Richards posing for Playboy magazine in 1961 /

It was a night of technical hitches a-go go! Like I’ve said before the decks and controls for the lights, etc in the DJ booth at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern are as complicated as the control panels of a helicopter! When I was setting up the venue's manager was kindly helping and somehow the dry ice machine got accidentally switched on – and then we couldn’t work out how to turn it off again. Dry ice kept billowing out, filling the whole venue with thick smoke. Finally he had to phone someone to instruct him how to switch it off. Mercifully it was all resolved before punters started arriving: I was thinking we’d need to fling open all the doors to air the place out, but by the time people arrived there wasn’t even a hint of grey mist.

Later one of the performers realised she’d brought the wrong CD for her number and she couldn’t dance without it. She had the song on her iPod but try as we might we couldn’t get any audio when we tried to play her iPod through the decks – nightmare. And none of my music was suitable for her act. To her eternal credit, at the last minute she did a whole other routine based around the music she did bring and really saved things – and the audience was none the wiser.

Otherwise: a great night. The crowd was up for it, the two featured burlesque performers (Sophia St Villier and Marianne Cheesecake) were both seasoned Dr Sketchy veterans, and Ophelia Bitz emceed again in her inimitably sassy and casual way.

Early on I eased into things (and calmed my frazzled nerves!) with some lounge, Fifties Cool Jazz and Latin exotica – as the night progressed the music got sleazier and more raucous. I had to play a Juliette Greco track (the classic “La Javanaise”, written for her by Serge Gainsbourg) because some friends and I went to see the legendary Parisian beatnik chanteuse's breathtaking concert at The Royal Festival Hall on 21 November – that merits its own blog, which I'll try do soon.

I’m a sucker for obscure jazz and blues singers with tragic life stories. Sick, I know. Someone who definitely fits that bill (and who I play on a regular basis at Dr Sketchy) is the beautiful and talented but doomed 1950s jazz vocalist and sex kitten Ann Richards. As a rising starlet under the wing of her husband, big band jazz leader Stan Kenton, Richards seemed destined for great things. But while she emerged from the same 1950s cool jazz style of singing as Julie London and June Christy, Richards sadly never quite achieved their level of stardom. After her marriage to Kenton ended her career began to circle the drain: posing for Playboy magazine in 1961 to promote her Ann, Man! album backfired, leading to scandal rather than reviving interest in her career. From there Richards succumbed to depression and alcoholism (although apparently never stopped performing, singing in jazz clubs in Los Angeles) until she died aged 46 in 1982 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Thankfully her music lives on and her reputation has been rehabilitated. Ann Richards deserved a lot better, and I highly recommend her sultry, swinging Ann, Man! album (from which her finger-snapping rendition of the Dinah Washington standard “Evil Gal Blues” comes from). See more pics from Richards's Playboy spread here.

Hurt - Timi Yuro
I Remember You - Chet Baker
Playboy's Theme - Cy Coleman
Life Is But a Dream - The Harptones
One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) - Marlene Dietrich
Exotique Bossa Nova / Quiet Village Bossa Nova - Martin Denny
La Javanaise - Juliette Greco
Requiem pour un Twister - Serge Gainsbourg
Mack the Knife - Hildegard Knef
Blues for Beatniks - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Besame Mucho - Betty Reilly
Eso - Conjunto TNT
Kiss Me Honey Honey - The Delmonas
Tonight You Belong to Me - Patience and Prudence
Honey Rock - Barney Kessel
Somebody Buy Me a Drink - The Earls of Suave
Honey's Lovin' Arms - Robert Mitchum
Little Things Mean a Lot - Jayne Mansfield
I Love the Life I Live - Esquerita
Save It - Mel Robbins
A Week from Tuesday - The Pastels
I Would If I Could - Ruth Brown
Nosey Joe - Bull Moose Jackson
Interlude - Sarah Vaughan
Harlem Nocturne - The Viscounts
Honeysuckle Rose - Lena Horne
Mack the Knife - Bill Black's Combo
Falling in Love Again - Billie Holiday
You're My Thrill - Chet Bake (instrumental version)
Everybody Loves My Baby - Brigitte Bardot
The Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Sam Butera
No Love for Daddy - Serge Gainsbourg
I'm in Love Again - Lizabeth Scott
I Feel So Mmmm - Diana Dors
She Acts Like a Woman Should - Marilyn Monroe
Blondie's Strip - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
The Beast - Milt Buckner
Mack the Knife - Eartha Kitt (you can never play too many versions of Mack the Knife)
Baubles, Bangles and Beads - Marlene Dietrich
Some Small Chance - Serge Gainsbourg (Strip-Tease soundtrack)
Lovin' Spree - Ann-Margret
Begin the Beguine - Billy Fury
Desfinado - Si Zentner
Blockade - The Rumblers
Bacon Fat - Andre Williams
You Can't Stop Her - Bobby Marchan
Cherry Wine - Little Esther
Tuxedo Junction - Bill Black Combo
Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby? Dinah Washington
Evil Gal Blues - Ann Richards
The Stripper - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Night Train - Alvino Rey
Drums A Go Go - The Hollywood Persuaders
Fever - Timi Yuro
Blue Kat - Chuck Rio & The Originals
Summertime - Little Esther
Revelion - The Revels
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
Chattanooga Choo Choo - Denise Darcel
Jungle Drums - Earl Bostick
I Put a Spell on You - Nina Simone
Stop and Listen - Mickey and Ludella
Drive Daddy Drive - Little Sylvia
Bewildered - Shirley & Lee
I'll Upset You Baby - Lula Reed
Stranger in My Own Hometown - The Earls of Suave

The titty shaker du jour:



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13 November 2010 Dr Sketchy Set List

I can't imagine DJ'ing at Dr Sketchy and not playing at least one track from John Barry's soundtrack for the ultra kitsch 1960 sexploitation B-movie Beat Girl (aka Wild for Kicks). The moody and atmospheric album cover alone is inspiring: Shirley-Anne Field pouting in front of a vintage jukebox, dreamy young Adam Faith in a black leather jacket brooding over a cappuccino and sex kitten Gillian Hill painstakingly styled to look exactly like Brigitte Bardot.

For some reason DJ'ing at Saturday afternoon Dr Sketchy's at The Old Queen’s Head in Angel always feel more relaxed and laid-back. This time the guest emcee was the vivacious Ophelia Bitz (my first time working with her; it was a real pleasure) and the models / performers were Scarlett Daggers and Marianne Cheesecake. It was a nice day: I drank two pints of lager on a practically empty stomach, which made me very mellow (that’s the problem when you DJ in the middle of the afternoon! Obviously I could have drunk coffee instead of beer, like the sensible and professional Ms Bitz). During the break a cute rockabilly couple were dancing to the music I was playing, which was insanely flattering. I eased into DJ’ing by playing some mambo and Latin exotica. Later on I played more rockabilly than usual in honour of Scarlett Daggers' stage persona, which is inspired by outsider fetish artist Vince Ray's Bettie Page-style bad girl drawings.

Tierra va Temblar - Eartha Kitt
Ou Es-Tu Ma Joie? Caterina Valente
I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me - John Buzon Trio
Yeh, Yeh! - Mongo Santamaria
Pauvre Lola - Serge Gainsbourg
Ich bin leider viel zu faul (Laziest Gal in Town) - Hildegard Knef
You Make Me Feel So Young - Chet Baker
Call Me Irresponsible - Dinah Washington
Topsy - Joe Bucci Trio
A Week from Tuesday - Pastel Six
I Ain't Drunk (I'm Just Drinking) - Jimmy Liggins
I Ain't in the Mood - Helen Humes
Stranger in My Own Home Town - Elvis Presley x-rated version
Wait a Minute, Baby - Esquerita
Beaver Shot - The Periscopes
The Flirt - Shirley & Lee
Revelion - The Revels
That's How It Is - Diana Dors
Red Hot - Billy Lee Riley
Accentuate the Positive - Bill Black Combo
Mondo Moodo - The Earls of Suave
Angel Face - Billy Fury
Uska Dara - Eartha Kitt
Shangri-La - Spike Jones New Band
Lust - Les Baxter
Sexe - Line Renaud
Cherry Pink - Bill Black Combo
Love Me or Leave Me - Lena Horne
Blues for Beatniks - John Barry (Beat Girl Soundtrack)
Don't You Feel My Leg - Blue Lu Barker
Melancholy Serenade - King Curtis
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Eartha Kitt
Basin Street Blues - Julie London
No Good Lover - Mickey & Sylvia
Blue Moon Baby - Dave "Diddle" Day
Lucille - Little Richard
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Cheap Wine - The Earls of Suave
Fool I Am - Pat Ferguson
Hound Dog - Little Esther
Such a Night - Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters
Ooh! Look-A There Ain't She Pretty - Bill Haley & His Comets
Woman Love - Gene Vincent
Salamander - Mamie van Doren(See video below)
Little Girl - John & Jackie
Boss - The Rumblers
Tall Cool One - The Wailers
Give Me Love - Lena Horne
Honeysuckle Rose - Marlene Dietrich
You're My Thrill (instrumental) - Chet Baker
The Immediate Pleasure - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
I'm a Fool to Want You - Billie Holiday
Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Denise Darcel
Anytime - Bill Black Combo
All of Me - Mae West
Begin the Beguine - Ann-Margret
Desfinado - Si Zentner
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Comin' Home - The Delmonas
Rip It Up - Little Richard
One, Two, Let's Rock - Sugar Pie & Pee Wee
Fever - Nancy Sit
Uptown to Harlem - Johnny Thunders & Patti Paladin

For her first pose, Scarlett Daggers wore a harem girl outfit -- a great excuse to play Eartha Kitt's hip-swivelling Turkish delight "Uska Dara."

Eartha singing "Uska Dara" in 1952:



And in a 1967 TV special:



Ultimate 1950s bullet bra'd bad girl Mamie van Doren belting out the song "Salamander" (backed by rockabilly hearthrob Eddie Cochran on guitar -- frustratingly, you get just a few glimpses of him) in the 1957 juvenile delinquent film Untamed Youth.



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