16 March 2011 Dr Sketchy Set List

/ Early sixties Ike and Tina Turner: I love Ike's mighty processed conk and sleazy little pencil-line mustache. Tina's painted-on eyebrows are worthy of Divine /

This night (at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern) represents one of my angrier and tenser sets that definitely required more alcohol than usual to endure (tense, angry tittyshakers – maybe that’s my new forte?). It all relates to still-raw agonising, mortifying romantic disappointment, but this isn’t that kind of blog so don’t worry, I’ll stop there.

I guess the set list is a bit of a glimpse into a DJ’s inner torment, though: especially the first few songs of desperate rhythm and blues awash in heartache (Little Richard, Lula Reed drowning in her own tears). The two Ike and Tina Turner songs are particular favourites. The lyrics to “You Got What You Wanted” really nails my mindset at the moment. The song (surely Ike and Tina’s finest moment?) has slayed me since I first heard it as a teenager on crackling vinyl: two minutes and 26 seconds of simmering, contained tension that keeps escalating. Tina initially delivers the words of heartbroken lament in a pained snarl, as if through clenched teeth (with the Ikettes cooing their support) until finally lashing out in a full desperate wail. Forget everything you think you know about her admittedly awful post-1980s comeback stadium rock: in the 1960s, Tina truly was the tigress of R&B!

/ Below: cruelly brief fragment of Tina on blistering form, singing "You Got What You Wanted" in 1968. I'd kill to see the entire performance /



The great irony of the Turners' music is that Ike himself wrote for Tina these incredible despairing lyrics to sing - and yet he was the cause of her despair, the reason she can sing them with such turbulent, wrenching conviction. One of the best analyses I’ve ever read of the tortured psychology that makes Ike and Tina’s best music so riveting is in Jimmy McDonough’s biography of sexploitation auteur Russ Meyer (Big Bosoms and Square Jaws, 2005). He shrewdly notes that ...

“... the sexual tension in Meyer’s movies is not dissimilar to that within such classic Ike and Tina Turner records as “You Got What You Wanted” or “I’m Gonna Find Me a Substitute.” Ike Turner – another infamous control freak who worried every detail down to the fringe on the Ikettes costumes – crafted tense, tough, tightly constructed songs for Tina, with melodramatic and often masochistic lyrics that portray a mythical dream woman willing to subjugate herself to Her Man at any expense. At times she struggles to stay on top of the number, singing like there’s a gun at her head. The song is a cage, built for Tina to bust loose from. Her desperate, impassioned, angry vocals often seem at odds with words, adding a layer of divine complexity to one very bizarre and moving puzzle.”

/ Ike and (pre-wig?) Tina: the early years /

Otherwise: the great Tricity Vogue made her very assured debut as a Dr Sketchy emcee and she’s always a blast. She accompanied herself on ukulele on a rendition of “Put the Blame on Mame” (the sultry Rita Hayworth striptease song from the film Gilda) – definitely the evening’s highlight. And Bettie Bottom Dollar (who’s becoming a bit of a Dr Sketchy stalwart) made for a scintillating performer and model.

You Got What You Wanted - Ike and Tina Turner
Drown in My Own Tears - Lula Reed
Directly from My Heart - Little Richard
A Mess of Blues - Elvis Presley
A Cheat - The Earls of Suave
Hurt - Timi Yuro
Snow Surfin' Matador - Jan Davis
Camel Walk - The Saxons
Torture - Kris Jensen
Dragon Walk - The Noblemen
Fools Rush In - Ricky Nelson
You Win Again - Bill Black Combo
Blue Kat - Chuck Rio & The Originals
I'm a Bad Girl - Little Esther
Intoxica - The Centurions
Comin' Home - The Delmonas
Stranger in My Own Hometown - The Earls of Suave
Beat Girl - Adam Faith (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Salamander - Mamie van Doren
Caterpillar Crawl - The Strangers
No Good Lover - Mickey & Sylvia
Baby, I'm Doin' It - Annisteen Allen
What is This Thing Called Love? Esquerita
Drums a Go Go - Hollywood Persuaders
Dansero - Don Baker Trio
Train to Nowhere - The Champs
Crawlin' (The Crawl) - The Untouchables
Like a Baby - Wanda Jackson
Womp Womp - Freddy & the Heartaches
Blues in My Heart - John Buzon Trio
Close Your Eyes - Dolores Gray
Willow Weep for Me - The Whistling Artistry of Muzzy Marcellino
Black Coffee - Julie London
Hiccups - The Empallos
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Beaver Shot - The Periscopes
Sweet Little Pussycat - Andre Williams
Peter Gunn Locomotion - The Delmonas
Boss - The Rumblers
Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Revellion - The Revels
Esquerita & The Voola - Esquerita
Black Tarantula - Jody Reynolds
The Beast - Milt Buckner
The Stripper - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Love - Eartha Kitt
I'm a Fool to Want You - Billie Holiday
Love Me or Leave Me - Lena Horne
Shadow Woman - Julie London
Sometimes I Wish I Had a Gun - Mink Stole
You've Got That Look That Leaves Me Weak - Marlene Dietrich
Let's Get Lost - Chet Baker
I Put A Spell on You - Nina Simone
If I Should Lose You - George Shearing
Misirlou - Laurindo Almeida
Strip-tease - Nico (Strip-tease soundtrack)
The Good Life - Ann-Margret
Begin the Beguine - Billy Fury

And finally ... perhaps the mother of all tittyshakers. This song ("Crawlin'" by The Untouchables) had become an obsession and it was proving impossible to find until Jorge (aka DJ Zorch) from Los Angeles came to the rescue. I'll be buying him plenty of cerveza when I see him at Viva Las Vegas in April!

/ Gracias, Jorge /

/ Jiggle jiggle: the dancer is the great Cherry Knight  /

12 March 2011 Dr Sketchy Set List

Dorothy Malone demonstrating the Fifties bullet bra’d sweater girl look. Malone is one of the great unsung actresses from the fifties and should be immortal if only for her courageously lurid performance as the alcoholic nymphomaniac sexpot sister in Douglas Sirk’s irresistable 1956 melodrama Written on the Wind. Check out the scene where she unwittingly causes her own father’s death by dancing to frantic mambo music in lingerie in her bedroom. Death by Mambo! It's one of the greatest scenes in any film ever made! They don’t make ‘em like that anymore! (And when I say that, I mean films and actresses).

I don’t know if it’s because they’re held in the daytime (and therefore I wind up drinking beer in the daytime), or because it's on the weekend and I don't have to worry about being tired or hungover the next day, but the Saturday afternoon Dr Sketchy’s at The Old Queen’s Head tend to feel more mellow and laid-back. And the music I tend to play is probably more raucous and rockabilly-ish (punkier? Messier? Certainly louder) as a result.

For this Dr Sketchy the emcee was the vivacious hourglass-contoured Ophelia Bitz (always a blast to work with) and the sole model and performer was platinum blonde showgirl deluxe Slinky Sparkles (who I got to know years ago when I used to work with her at the What Katie Did boutique in Portobello). A burlesque starlet on the rise, Slinky recently got a great break: she’s made it into the finalists and will be participating in the burlesque competition at the annual Viva Las Vegas rockabilly weekender this April. We’re all really proud of her! I’ll be there (trust me, the knowledge am going to Las Vegas in April is one of the few things gluing me together at the moment) so can report back how she does in the competition – am sure the Americans will go berserk for her. Needless to say, when Slinky was posing I went full tilt boogie on sultry sex kitten tunes by the likes of Bardot, Eartha, Julie London, Jayne and Marilyn.

Snow Surfin' Matador - Jan Davis
Vesuvius - The Revels
Beat Generation - Mamie van Doren
Bop Pills - Macy "Skip" Skipper
The Hiccups - The Empallos
A Mess of Blues - Elvis Presley
Ain't That Lovin' You, Baby - The Earls of Suave
Intoxica - The Centurions
Love Potion # 9 - Nancy Sit
Fever - The Delmonas
Beaver Shot - The Periscopes
Your Love is Mine - Ike and Tina Turner
I Love the Life I Live - Esquerita
Directly from My Heart - Little Richard
Last Night - Lula Reed
Torture - Kris Jensen
Torture Rock - The Rockin' Belmarx
Beat Girl - Adam Faith (Beat Girl soundtrack)
L'appareil a sous - Brigitte Bardot
Blockade - The Rumblers
Fool I Am - Pat Ferguson
No Good Lover - Mickey and Sylvia
Bewildered - Shirley and Lee
Teach Me Tonight - Wanda Jackson
Honey's Lovin' Arms - Robert Mitchum
Ole Devil Moon - Chet Baker
Mack the Knife - Ann-Margret
Yogi - Bill Black Combo
Malambo No 1 - Yma Sumac
Laisse-moi tranquille - Serge Gainsbourg
Dansero - Don Baker Trio
Turquoise - Milt Buckner
Close Your Eyes - Dolores Gray
The Beast - Milt Buckner
Harlem Nocturne - The Viscounts
Whatever Lola Wants - Eartha Kitt
Blues in My Heart - The John Buzon Trio
Honeysuckle Rose - Marlene Dietrich
Do It Again - April Stevens
Give Me Love - Lena Horne
Shangri-la - Spike Jones New Band
Groovy - The Groovers
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
8-Ball - The Hustlers
That's a Pretty Good Love - Big Maybelle
You Can't Stop Her - Bobby Marchan
Sweet Little Pussycat - Andre Williams
Fujiyama Mama - Annisteen Allen
Save It - Mel Robbins
Tall Cool One - The Wailers
One, Two, Let's Rock - Sugar Pie and Pee Wee
Killer - Sparkle Moore
Accentuate the Positive - Bill Black Combo
Go Slow - Julie London
Kiss - Marilyn Monroe
Mondo Moodo - Earls of Suave
Bubble Gum - Brigitte Bardot
The Stripper - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
13 Men - Ann-Margret
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
Hound Dog - Little Esther
Jim Dandy - LaVerne Baker
Begin the Beguine - Billy Fury
Mack the Knife - Hildegard Knef
La Javanaise - Juliette Greco
Machins Choses - Serge Gainsbourg
Caravan - The Dell Trio
Czterdziesci Kasztanów (Forty Chestnuts) - Violetta Villas
Lover - Peggy Lee

I realise I haven't posted any samples of the dark art of the titty shaker recently. Let's remedy this right away with this ultra sleazy gem by Andre Williams.

28 February 2011 Dr Sketchy Set List

/ Kiki de Montparnasse /

Not one of my better nights! This Dr Sketchy was actually based around the launch of the graphic novel / biography Kiki de Montparnasse, about the bohemian 1920s Parisian nightclub chanteuse, scene maker, Man Ray muse and model (and artist in her own right). I only caught a glimpse of the book, but it looked beautiful. I wasn’t briefed that well about this in advance: it turns out the musical policy for the night was meant to be “1920s” – which is one era am definitely not that knowledgeable about or particularly motivated by (Charleston music? Flapper music? I don’t really feel it!). So I turned up to The Paradise with a grand total of zero 1920s tunes to play!

/ The Queen of Montparnasse, photographed by Man Ray /

/ Below: trippy/surreal video of Kiki in action /



Luckily our featured burlesque performer (the reliably excellent Marianne Cheesecake) had her laptop with her and it was loaded up with twenties music (she uses it in her act a lot. It was mostly songs by Fletcher Henderson) so we hooked it up to the decks and for the first hour or so I played her selection from iTunes. But standing there with my arms folded didn’t really feel like DJ’ing so at a certain point I snapped and wound up playing my usual brand of sleaze from the entirely wrong era! (This also explains why the set list looks so much shorter than usual!). I was kicking myself afterwards because while I don’t have much in the way of 1920s music, what I do have a lot of is French chanson music from roughly the right period if only I’d known to bring it. In particular the first time I went to Paris I snapped up a compilation of French cabaret / music hall songs from the 1930s featuring the likes of Piaf, Josephine Baker, Jean Gabin, Arletty, Frehel, Charles Trenet, Maurice Chevalier, Mistinguett, etc – that would have worked beautifully in this context!

I also drank a bit more than usual (or actually not, but maybe I didn’t eat enough beforehand) and things got a bit sloppy: I played some songs in error (!) and even played one track more than once! Like I said, not one of my better nights. Still, it’s impossible not to have fun when working with Ophelia Bitz (the emcee for this Dr Sketchy), Marianne Cheesecake was amazing (especially her gold Josephine Baker-inspired outfit with the banana skirt) and I managed to pay a little tribute to the late, great Jane Russell: when Bomb Voyage and Cheesecake modelled together, I played the Russell-Monroe duet from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, “Two Little Girls from Little Rock.”


/ Marianne Cheesecake promotional video / showreel /



What a Little Moonlight Can Do - Billie Holiday
Coco and Co - Serge Gainsbourg
Die Herrn ... Hildegard Knef
Crazy She Calls Me - Chet Baker
Champagne Taste - Eartha Kitt
Kiss Me Honey Honey - The Delmonas
You Win Again - Bill Black Combo
Lucky - Lizabeth Scott
What is This Thing Called Love? Lena Horne
Frankie & Johnny / Honky Tonk - Bill Black Combo
Don't You Feel My Leg - Blue Lu Barker
Assez - Marlene Dietrich
(Some Fletcher Henderson tracks)
Sexe - Lene Rinaud
Falling in Love Again - Billie Holiday
Java Partout - Juliette Greco
Some Small Chance - Serge Gainsbourg
Cherry Pink - Bill Black Combo
She's My Witch - The Earls of Suave
Makin' Out - Jody Reynolds
Do It Again - April Stevens
You're My Thrill (instrumental) - Chet Baker
Mondo Moodo - The Earls of Suave
Eight Ball - The Hustlers
That's A Pretty Good Love - Big Maybelle
Hiccups - The Empallos
Vesuvius - The Revels
Maybe Baby - Esquerita
Jim Dandy - LaVerne Baker
My Daddy Rocks Me - Mae West
Tall Cool One - The Wailers
I Would if I Could - Ruth Brown
Under the Bridges of Paris - Eartha Kitt
Jezabel - Edith Piaf
Penthouse Serenade - Dolores Gray
Moi, Je M`ennuie - Marlene Dietrich (meant to play this; played an entirely different track)
Mack the Knife - Ann-Margret
These Foolish Things - Chet Baker (played twice in a row in error!)
Crazy Horse Swing - Serge Gainsbourg (Strip Tease soundtrack)
Two Little Girls from Little Rock - Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe
Shangri-la - Spike Jones New Band
Striptease - Juliette Greco (Strip Tease soundtrack)
Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend - Julie London
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Groovy - The Groovers
Monkey Bird - The Revels

Jane Russell (1921 - 2011): What a woman! Truly amazonian, the definition of "statuesque." (Photo courtesy of the wonderful blog Stirred, Straight Up, with a Twist). This pic is definitely from the film The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), in which Russell was a redhead

Russell's obituaries inevitably cited The Outlaw (1943) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1955), but for me La Russell's best films were the two atmospheric noirs that partnered her with my all-time favourite actor Robert Mitchum: His Kind of Woman (1951) and the even better Josef von Sternberg-directed Macao (1952). Mitchum and Russell smouldered together: so laconic, lazy and good-natured. You never caught either of them acting -- they were like two sleek, beautiful animals that just sauntered up in front of the camera exuding effortless charisma and sex appeal. Russell was also an underrated singer. This is her singing the torch standard "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" in Macao -- a nice way to remember her.



/ Below: Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell /

Only In Archway

I first moved to Archway in North London almost exactly three years ago now (March 2008, I estimate) and used to post the occasional blog about it on Myspace (remember Myspace?). Haven’t written anything about the neighbourhood in ages because either nothing eventful has happened, or I’ve become used to the dysfunctional freakiness of Archway after living here for so long. Until last night ...

Friday night around 6pm after work I was cutting down Marlborough Road (off Holloway Road) on way home from work with my iPod cranked up loud. I noticed a teenage boy walking directly ahead of me. He was only noteworthy because he was strikingly scrawny and unwell-looking: hunched little shoulders, pasty complexion, red-haired, wearing an oversized baggy grey tracksuit that hangs off him.

As I overtake him (I walk fast) he glances back at me and makes burning eye contact, which felt strange and made me almost flinch. Marlborough Road forks in two directions: I walk down Hatchard Road, he stays on Marlborough Road.

But the next thing I know, when I’m almost home, he’s caught up with me and is walking fast to keep pace with me. It feels genuinely odd and almost threatening: he’s right next to me, invading my personal space in a way that brings out the primal skin-prickling fight or flight instinct. Even though he’s an emaciated runt I almost expect him to attempt to mug me, or pull out a knife. I immediately think of the dwarf in the red parka in the film Don’t Look Now ... just because someone is small doesn’t mean they’re innocuous.

I’m naturally a fast walker and keep staring straight ahead and he is really struggling to keep up with me. Finally, he reaches out and taps me on the shoulder to get my attention – which makes me shudder. I stop and turn around. By now am really curious what he wants. I turn and take out my headphones.

Boy: Do you live around here?
Me: (Am so stunned, I answer truthfully) Yeah, on Sussex Way (straight ahead).
Boy: Do you live alone?
Me: Yeah.
Boy: Because I have nowhere to go. Can I come over for an hour?
Me: (Putting headphones back in and walking away) No. Sorry, buddy.

He looks disappointed but doesn’t pursue it. What a strange, David Lynch-ian experience: sexually propositioned on the street around the corner from where I live by this creepy, damaged teenaged waif straight out of a Dennis Cooper novel. It actually felt eerie. He seemed doomed: If he keeps up this kind of behaviour his decomposed remains are destined to be found in a tip or wasteland somewhere.

In a way, it was a flashback to another encounter I had on 11 April 2008. Cutting and pasting from Myspace blog ...

Am still getting accustomed to living in Archway after about five years of living in Finsbury Park, which is only a ten minute walk away but feels like a whole other world. Finsbury Park was pretty impoverished but buzzing and multicultural; Archway seems so defeated, so dysfunctional. Walking home from work last night I estimated every other person I passed on Holloway Road seemed to be either a mentalist or some kind of meths drinker. Most notable was an apparently suicidal, haunted-looking black guy wearing one of those hats with ear flaps who kept wandering into oncoming traffic; he'd stand on the curb until a bus was coming towards him, then turn around and cross the street again, testing his luck. A motorcyclist had to honk at him and swerve.

Tonight after work was cutting down Fairbridge Road to get to Sussex Way and noticed two men walking in the opposite direction across the street. I made the major mistake of making the most fleeting of eye contact with one of them. Sure enough he shouts after me, "Hey! Hey!" and runs across the street to catch up with me. He is compact (shorter than me and I am only 5'6) but tough, Irish and obviously a bit nuts. He is smiling as if he is really pleased to see me. "It's me! I saw you at Mary's last week!" I say, "I don't think we know each other …" and he keeps insisting we do. I was thinking, there are always the alcoholic regulars at The Kings Head on Holloway Road, which is the new venue for the monthly Virginia Creepers rockabilly club. Maybe he saw me there?

He tells me his name, as if reminding me. I instantly forget it because all I can concentrate on is that he is standing too close, he's invading my personal space and rousing that "fight or flight" instinct. He's outwardly friendly, even childlike but volatile, mercurial. He suddenly flings his arms around me and hugs me hard. I brace myself in case he tries to pick my pockets. In a rush he admits he's drinking again, I know what it's like, he's just come out of prison after 11 years. He's got to go meet his probation officer and only has £1 (he holds out his hand with the one pound coin to demonstrate, as if I've asked him for proof), he needs another pound to get there. I thought, I knew that was coming, it was inevitable. He was just setting up the context.

I actually only have small change in my wallet (which is true), which I explain to him as I get my wallet out of my back pocket. He suggests, "You can hit me if you like" and he tilts his head, offering me his jaw to punch, as if this is a fair exchange for him asking me for money. I tell him, "That's OK" and give him handful of small change (maybe 50p). While my wallet is out he clocks that I have a wad of pound notes (my What Katie Did wages, which is what I try to budget to live on during the week) and asks, "Can I have ten pounds until next week?" (As if it's a loan between friends and I will see him again next week), I say "No" and mercifully he bounds off, seemingly happy enough with the small change I have given him.

Am still wondering why he singled me out and stopped me: did he genuinely think he knew me and mistook me for someone else? Was it because he assumed I was a fellow Irishman (people assume I am Irish all the time) and would be sympathetic? Do I look like a soft touch? Anyway, let's hope he isn't a neighbour I bump into on a regular basis.

Valentine's Day 2011 Dr Sketchy Set List

/ Slick it back: Chet. Oh, Chet /

For the Valentine’s-themed Dr Sketchy at The Old Queen's Head I’d intended to use Chet Baker as my template and base the whole night around lush, romantic, lingering 1950s Cool Jazz. Even the most cursory glance at my set list shows I didn’t remotely stick to that idea! It would have felt too slow, downbeat and same-y if I had, but in honour of Valentine’s Day there are definite pockets of elegant swirling 50s make-out music amongst the more usual sleaze and kitsch musical selections.

/ A young Nico in her fashion model days circa 1964 /

I played three versions of Rodgers and Hart’s “My Funny Valentine”: the 1954 Chet Baker vocal, the 1952 Chet Baker instrumental and German angel of death chanteuse Nico’s striking 1985 interpretation. In 1964 when pre-Velvet Underground Nico was still a fashion model and occasional actress aspiring to be a singer, she scored a residency at The Blue Angel cabaret lounge on 55th Street in New York. Billed as “That Girl from La Dolce Vita!” she sang jazz standards backed by a trio of piano, bass and drums. One of her songs was “My Funny Valentine.” By then the song was already synonymous with the exquisite but corrupt James Dean of jazz Chet Baker: his version, whether sung or played on his trumpet, was so hushed, so brooding and desolate it was almost eerie. To me Baker and Nico (as an impressionable teenager I had crushes on both) always seemed like psychic twins: so beautiful and talented, so heroin-ravaged and doomed. They both exuded tragedy and ruined glamour. In his definitive Nico biography (The Life and Lies of an Icon, 1993) Richard Witts quotes Nico recalling:

“I first heard (My Funny Valentine) played by the jazz man Chet Baker. He played his trumpet and then he sang it. I thought this was very clever, like a beautiful magical trick. Do you know that Chet Baker introduced me to heroin? (Unsurprisingly, the journalist interviewing Nico asked her to clarify what she meant: did she actually shoot up with Baker?) No, no. I mean I first saw heroin. He first showed it to me. I was about 24 or so, in New York when I first started to sing – he was around. Of course everyone thinks I started when I was a baby. They know nothing. Chet Baker was so handsome, such a beauty, but he was in love with drugs too much to be in love with me. “

Young man with a horn: Chet Baker

/ Below: Baker in 1959 /



Fast forward two decades: Chet Baker died on 13 May 1988, falling to his death from a hotel window in Amsterdam; Nico would be dead by 18 July 1988, dying of a cerebral haemorrhage after falling off her bike in Ibiza. On her last album (1985’s Camera Obscura) Nico played homage to Chet Baker and her stint at The Blue Angel by recording a stunningly bleak rendition of “My Funny Valentine.” Witts notes in his biography that Nico sings it in Baker’s key of C minor – the lowest she ever sang. Death, heroin, high cheekbones, doom and gloom: hope everyone had a happy Valentine’s Day!



Das Ich Dich Wiederseh (Taking a Chance on Love) - Marlene Dietrich
Les Amour Perdues - Serge Gainsbourg
The Man I Love - Hildegard Knef
Someone to Watch Over Me - Jimmy Scott
If I Should Lose You - George Shearing
Hurt - Timi Yuro
Life is But a Dream - The Harptones
Sleep Walk - Henri Rene & His Orchestra
Don't Do It - April Stevens
Little Things Mean a Lot - Jayne Mansfield
Directly from My Heart - Little Richard
Stop Cryin' - Little Esther
Your Love is Mine - Ike and Tina Turner
Imagination - The Quotations
Tight Skirt, Tight Sweater - The Versatones
Night Scene - The Rumblers
I Fell in Love - Mamie van Doren
Bewildered - Shirley & Lee
Sea of Love - The Earls of Suave
Love is the Greatest Thing - Mae West
Ebb Tide - Al Anthony
I Fall in Love Too Easily - Angel Torsen
Blues for Beatniks - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Dansero - Don Baker Trio
The Point of No Return - Diana Dors
It's Only Make Believe - Billy Fury
Kiss Me - Dolores Gray
Cherry Pink - Bill Black Combo
Jezabel - Edith Piaf
Makin' Out - Jody Reynolds
Teach Me Tonight - Wanda Jackson
Pop Slop - Bela Sanders
That's What I Like - Ann-Margret
Make Love to Me - June Christy
That's a Pretty Good Love - Big Maybelle
You Can't Stop Her - Bobby Marchan & The Clowns
Crybaby - The Scarlets
Revellion - The Revels
Chattanooga Choo Choo - Denise Darcel
Jungle Drums - Earl Bostick
Beat Girl - Adam Faith (Beat Girl soundtrack)
When Your Lover Has Gone - Chet Baker
Killer - Sparkle Moore (screaming version)
Take It Off - The Genteels
Let's Go Sexin' - James Intveld
Hot Licks - The Rendells
Men - Lizabeth Scott
Last Night - Lula Reed
My Funny Valentine - Chet Baker (vocal)
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Eartha Kitt
My Funny Valentine - Nico
My Funny Valentine - Chet Baker (instrumental)
Cry Me a River - Dinah Washington
I'm Through with Love - Marilyn Monroe
I'm a Fool to Want You - Billie Holiday
I Put a Spell on You - Nina Simone
I've Been in Love Before - Marlene Dietrich
No Good Lover - Mickey & Sylvia
Moi je joue - Brigitte Bardot
Uptown to Harlem - Johnny Thunders & Patti Paladin
Hanky Panky - Nancy Sit
Czterdziesci Kasztanów (Forty Chestnuts) - Violetta Villas

/ Speaking of Violetta Villas -- here's another treasure un-earthed by the sublime Polski sex kitten on Youtube (the title translates as "There is No Love without Jealousy"). I love the little Jayne Mansfield-esque coos and squeals she makes at the beginning /

31 January 2011 Dr Sketchy Set List

/ No, It's Not Marlene: Marilyn Monroe photographed by Richard Avedon in 1958, styled to resemble Dietrich as Lola Lola in The Blue Angel /

It was a nicely laidback Dr Sketchy at The Paradise this time. The featured burlesque performer was Bettie Bottomdollar (who did a Charlie Chaplin tribute act). The other model was Mam’ Zelle Celine, who more usually is our resident photographer. Clare Marie (the brains / promoter / stage manager behind London Dr Sketchy) hosted the proceedings herself and is becoming an ever more effortless and sparkling emcee.

Some rhetorical questions: Is it possible to play too many versions of “Fever” or “Mack the Knife” in a single night? (The answer: of course not, don't be silly). How did Kurt Weill’s 1920s Weimar Republic murder ballad about a serial killer become a finger-snapping cocktail lounge standard, anyway? I played The Bill Black Combo’s laid-back and swinging instrumental version and Eartha Kitt’s sublimely alluring and feline interpretation, which should be far better known. Maybe because she actually is German, one of the most authoritative versions of “Mack the Knife” you’ll ever hear, though, is by Dietrich-esque Teutonic diseuse Hildegard Knef. She sings it with a steely demeanour over pattering bongos. It's very dramatic, with a sense of building coiled tension. Check out Die Knef’s wonderfully guttural voice and piercing eyes here...



I also played a few tracks from The Party Ain’t Over, First Lady of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson’s “comeback” CD produced by White Stripe Jack White. She’d performed two songs from it as a tantalising teaser when I saw her at Viva Las Vegas in 2010 (Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” and “Shakin’ All Over” by Johnny Kidd and The Pirates) and it was definitely intriguing. Promisingly, Jackson had been quoted as saying she wanted to be challenged by Jack White, for him to force her to make a real 21st century album and not rest on her laurels – how refreshing and inspiring to hear a 73- year old legend say that?

So I had high expectations for The Party Ain’t Over. I put the CD on pre-order on Amazon to ensure I got it as soon as it was available. And finally getting to hear it, it’s ... strange. One of the first things you notice is that for an album by the Queen of Rockabilly – there’s virtually no rockabilly songs. It’s perhaps to his credit that White takes such a provocative and unpredictable musical approach (he did a similar collaboration with Country and Western royalty Loretta Lynn on the 2004 CD Van Lear Rose, but don’t know enough about that CD to comment on it), but then you hear opening song “Shakin’ All Over”. The arrangement seems to be striving for a sleazy punk/soul/lounge revue vibe (think of Jackson’s ex-boyfriend Elvis Presley in his dissolute, baroque 1970s Vegas phase) but its shrill horns and weird stop-start tempo are jarring, and from there the album only occasionally seems to gel. Perversely, White’s production cranks up the abrasive irritation value, seemingly intended to deliberately annoy: the songs are submerged in noise and distortion (even Jackson’s still warm and powerful rasping, caterwauling voice is filtered for a weird echoed effect). In particular the overly-dominant and intrusive soul / funk horn section eventually starts to feel like nails on a blackboard and never meshes with Jackson’s voice.

The mature Jackson’s trademark hairstyle is a gravity-defying, teased bouffant which she keeps dyed jet black. Perhaps inspired by her coiffure, the accompanying artwork in the CD case feature some deliberately kitsch glamour shots of Jackson having her nails painted, and rocking a pair of diamante-studded cat’s eye sunglasses. When this camp aesthetic infects the music (i.e. a gimmick-y calypso novelty version of The Andrews’s Sisters “Rum and Coca Cola”) it’s disastrous. And strangely, even the few rockabilly songs (Little Richard’s “Rip It Up”, Eddie Cochrane’s “Nervous Breakdown”), which should be terra firma for Jackson, feel forced and inorganic.

But with people this talented, things are bound to cohere occasionally and sometimes brilliantly. Jackson re-interpreting “You Know I’m No Good” shouldn’t work, but somehow it does. The disconnection between the 70-something born again Christian gospel singer and debauched skank Winehouse seems insurmountable (they both have big hair, though), but both Jackson and White clearly (correctly) recognise the song is a modern torch song standard in waiting. Over the languid beats, Jackson treats Winehouse’s lyrics about infidelity and tough, hurt feelings like they’re a country & western lament; when she rues, “I cheated myself / like I knew I would” it packs a genuine ache, with Jackson emerging as a blue honky tonk angel. “Like A Baby” and “Teach Me Tonight” radiate with Jackson’s uncontrived charm, and on the closing “Blue Yodel #6” she finally gets the stripped-down, roots-y and sympathetic setting Jackson should have had all along.

/ Below: Wanda Jackson and I when she performed in London in 2007. She couldn't have been sweeter /

/ Present-day Wanda Jackson with Jack White /



/ La Jackson in her raucous late 50s / early 60s rockabilly prime /



Heart to Heart - Little Esther
Everywhere I Go - Ted Taylor
Jean and Dinah - Robert Mitchum
Rum & Coca Cola - Wanda Jackson
Go Calypso - Mamie van Doren
Scorpion - The Carnations
Love Potion # 9 - Nancy Sit
Groovy - The Groovers
Hush Your Mouth - Huey "Piano" Smith
Sick and Tired - Lula Reed
I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent - Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers
Skull & Crossbones - Sparkle Moore
A Cheat - The Earls of Suave
Night Scene - The Rumblers
Willow Weep for Me - The Whistling Artistry of Muzzy Marcellino
I Ain't in the Mood - Helen Humes
Don't Be Cruel - Bill Black's Combo
I Was Born to Cry - Dion
Nobody Taught Me - Eartha Kitt
The Beast - Milt Buckner
The Rat - The Ventures
Like a Baby - Wanda Jackson
Fever - Richard Marino & His Orchestra
Go Slow - Julie London
Shangri-La - Spikes Jonez & His New Band
You're My Thrill - Dolores Gray
Les Amours Perdues - Serge Gainsbourg
I'm in Love for the Very First Time - Diana Dors
Slowly - Ann-Margret
Wondrous Place - Billy Fury
The Stripper - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Give Me Love - Lena Horne
Mack the Knife - Eartha Kitt
Blues in My Heart - John Buzon Trio
You Go to My Head - Marlene Dietrich
Jungle Drums - Earl Bostick
Drums-A-Go-Go - Hollywood Persuaders
Esquerita & The Voola - Esquerita
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Peter Gunn Locomotion - The Delmonas
She Wants to Mambo - Johnny Thunders & Patti Paladin
Deep Dark Secret - Lizabeth Scott
Crazy Horse Swing - Serge Gainsbourg (Strip-tease soundtrack)
C'est Si Bon - April Stevens
That Ole Devil Moon - Chet Baker
Black Coffee - Peggy Lee
Fever - Timi Yuro
Lunar Rhapsody - Les Baxter
La Javanaise - Juliette Greco
Mack the Knife - Hildegard Knef
Mack the Knife - Bill Black's Combo
Falling in Love Again - Billie Holiday
Honey Rock - Barney Kessel
Caterpillar Crawl - The Strangers
Bossa Nova Baby - Elvis Presley
Coquette - Dinah Washington
Dancing on the Ceiling - Chet Baker
Work Song - Nina Simone
Tall Cool One - The Wailers
Pink Champagne - The Tyrones

Finally: two public figures close to my heart and who definitely helped shaped my twisted vision died recently. Rest in peace, ace film soundtrack composer John Barry and one of the screen's greatest bad girls / villainesses, Tura Satana.

Obviously Satana will be forever remembered for her vicious performance as homicidal go-go dancer Varla in Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965). But here she is doing a nice striptease routine from the more obscure 1973 film The Doll Squad. If you can tear your eyes off Tura, check out the strange little lounge band combo (with standing female drummer) accompanying her.



I've blogged before about how much I love John Barry's soundtrack for the 1960 sexploitation / juvenile delinquent flick Beat Girl. Funnily enough, I had the DVD on loan from LOVEFiLM when I heard about his death -- watching it again felt like a nice tribute. And the film is every bit as lurid and kitsch as I remembered.


Beat Girl promo from xbbtv on Vimeo.

/ The American trailer (in the US the film was re-titled Wild for Kicks) /

Christopher Lee - Beat Girl aka Wild For Kicks - Trailer @ Yahoo! Video

19 January 2011 Dr Sketchy Set List

/ Sweater Girl: A sultry, hair-hopping young Violetta Villas working the projectile bullet bra look /

The second Dr Sketchy of the New Year: It was great to be back at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern where the sound system is loud and powerful, and I’m finally getting to grips with setting up the decks myself and working the stage lights (seriously, all the buttons in the DJ booth looks like the control panels of a helicopter!). And I didn’t once turn on the dry ice machine by mistake this time, which definitely represents progress. The only screw-up was the wrong music got played for our burlesque performer Annette Betty’s performance. I was told to play track one and I did, but it turned out it was the wrong song (there was more than one song burnt onto the CD). Fortunately, Betty is such a consummate pro that when she realised it was the wrong music, she just did the routine meant for that song, it looked spectacular and no one was any the wiser!

Annette Betty's Showreel:


As per usual, the emphasis musically was on creating a vibe somewhere between desperate vintage sleaze and punk lounge. Midway along the set list you may you notice a glut of sex-wracked female singers like Sparkle Moore, Ann-Margret and Mamie van Doren wailing about how they’re desperate for a man/boy/daddy, etc -- that was background music for our male model Luke’s pose.

Beaver Shot - The Periscopes
Baby, Scratch My Back - Slim Harpo
Intoxica - The Centurions
Bikini with No Top on the Top - Mamie van Doren & June Wilkinson
Vesuvius - The Revels
The Deacon Moves In - Little Esther
The Whip - The Originals
Fujiyama Mama - Annisteen Allen
Bewildered - Shirley & Lee
My Daddy Rocks Me - Mae West
Baby Come Back - Esquerita
Where Yo Is? Fat Daddy Holmes
Stop Talking, Start Walking - Annie Laurie
Hot Licks - The Rendells
Unitar Rock - Willie Joe & His Unitar
Honky Tonk - The Bill Black Combo
Harbour Lights - Dinah Washington
A Cheat - The Earls of Suave
Fever - Nancy Sit
Mack the Knife - Ann-Margret
Trash Can - Ken Williams
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Blockade - The Rumblers
Crawfish - Johnny Thunders & Patti Paladin
Tall Cool One - The Wailers
Dansero - The Don Baker Trio
Tuxedo Junction - The Bill Black Combo
Tico Tico Samba - Don Swan & His Orchestra
Tiger - Sparkle Moore
Big Man - Carl Matthews
Jim Dandy - Ann-Margret
Daddy Daddy - Ella Mae Morse
I Need a Man - Barbara Pittman
Oh Honey - Gloria Wood
Seperate the Men from the Boys - Mamie van Doren
I Want a Boy - Connie Russell
Tony's Got Hot Nuts - Faye Richmonde
Her Love Rubbed Off - Carl Perkins
No Good Lover - Mickey & Sylvia
Chicken Grabber - The Nite Hawks
Boss - The Rumblers
Champagne Taste - Eartha Kitt
Lonely Hours - Sarah Vaughan
Harlem Nocturne - Martin Denny
Blondie's Strip - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Do It Again - April Stevens
You're My Thrill - Chet Baker (instrumental)
Love Me or Leave Me - Lena Horne
Blues in My Heart - The John Buzon Trio
The Flirt - Shirley & Lee
Little Girl - John & Jackie
Intoxica - The Revels
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
Don't You Feel My Leg - Blue Lu Barker
Honey Rock - Barney Kessel
Kiss - Marilyn Monroe
Willow Weep for Me - The Whistling Artistry of Muzzy Marcellino
A Guy Who Takes His Time - Marlene Dietrich
Chattanooga Choo Choo - Denise Darcel
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
Torture Rock - Rockin' Belmarx

/ Below: astonishing Polish diva Violetta Villas /

An artist who I didn’t play, but who’s become something of an obsession recently is the demented Polish diva Violetta Villas. I first read about her on the reliably excellent The Homoerratic Radio Show blog, was intrigued and did some Googling – and uncovered a treasure trove! Violetta Villas (nee Violetta Élise Cieślak, born 1938) is a real find and surely a cult figure (and kitsch gay icon?) in waiting. In the 1960s Villas was an international singing sensation, acted in Hollywood films and headlined at casinos like The Dunes in Las Vegas, where she did duets with the key superstars of the era: Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka, Barbra Streisand, Charles Aznavour, Sammy Davis, Jr., Eartha Kitt, Dean Martin. (Please God let there be footage somewhere of Villas and Kitt duetting!) But (outside of Poland) Villas seems almost completely forgotten today. Because of her astonishing operatic vocal range Villas is routinely and understandably described as the Polski Yma Sumac (she’s also been called "the singing toast of the continent", "a voice like French champagne” and my personal favorite, "the voice of the atomic age": Vallas certainly is explosive) – but that only hints at her strange allure. Judging by some of the clips on Youtube, Villas is a berserk outsider artist; a wild low-budget Eastern European hybrid of Jayne Mansfield/Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita / Brigitte Bardot / Charo; a punk (her image and un-hinged performances can suggest Nina Hagen or Jayne County); and a self-parodic possessor of a camp /kitsch drag queen sensibility (is it deliberate or naive? Certainly her persona evokes the films of the Kuchar brothers and John Waters. There’s something wonderfully grotesque about how Villas deliberately buries her own natural beauty under the matted bouffant wigs and thick transvestite/ clown-like make-up).

/ The divine Violetta at her make-up table: "the natural look?" Bollocks to that! /

/ This jaw-dropping video represents Violetta Villas (a vision in red chiffon) in full-throttle sex kitten mode. It’s from a 1971 Polish film called Dzieciol. The song she’s singing is “Oczy czarne”: I’ve been reliably informed it’s Russian, not Polish and it translates as something like “Black Eyes” or “Dark Eyes." Note: this essential video keeps getting deleted from YouTube. I'll replace it as frequently as I can! /


Wait! It gets even better. I work with a Polish woman called Marta and she’s been filling me in on what Violetta Villas is up to today. It turns out Villas actually lives in Marta’s village! According to Marta, Villas lives in a mansion with a menagerie of something like 70 dogs and 40 cats. Villas seems to have taken Brigitte Bardot as a role model: certainly in her youth Villas obviously styled herself to look like Bardot (or a parody of Bardot?), and now she’s an animal rights activist, too. Marta is obviously based in London now but visits Poland frequently; she says she hasn’t seen Villas in several years but every time she does, even when Villas is just going out to buy groceries, she’s always the diva, dolled up with her signature thick showgirl false eye lashes and long tousled bouffant wigs (or extensions or weave, whatever she’s got going on up there: it doesn’t look organic to any human scalp). I imagine the 72-year old Villas now as an Eastern European hybrid of Baby Jane Hudson / Barbara Cartland / Zsa Zsa Gabor – which may sound cruel, but I mean it with affection. Like many a show business diva, apparently over the years Villas has had issues with drugs, alcohol and romantic and career disappointments. Let's hope she's found serenity back in Poland surrounded by her pets.

Viva, Violetta Villas!

/ A tired and emotional Violetta Villas - perhaps after a few too many glasses of Polski Wodka? /

To end with, a lovely softcore clip of burlesque legend Blaze Starr having a bubble bath. I love how she inspects herself in the mirror afterwards, and how straight out of the tub her cotton candy bouffant hair and thick make-up are immaculate .