C30, C60, C80s! Brilliant Night Out for a good cause. 27th February.-

Eighties is not vintage, anyone who tells you that is after your money. The eighties were fun though and I know what I am talking about having teenaged my way through it. It is probably the last decade to have a distinctive stylistic character which can be applied to fashion, music, architecture and graphic design. As a period it was a real rollercoaster, you can think of Thatcher and yuppies but most of us were poor, unemployed and very pissed off.

On the other hand it was an era when you knew how to have a really good time and to hell with anyone who tried to stop you. Want to waft around Clapham looking like a zombie rag doll, fine.  Feel like dancing to German Industrial music dressed as a 17^th century cardinal? Who was going to stop you.  Also it seems to me to be the last era when people demonstrated against things that didn’t attack their pockets (yes students I am talking about you), like bombs and dismantling entire sections of the economy.  I suspect it might have been one of the last periods that was a really good laugh… even if it was fuelled by gallows humour and very cheap cider.

A very good opportunity to celebrate it, whether you were there or not is presenting itself on the 27^th. The details are below. I can wholeheartedly endorse this event. Not only is it for a very good cause but I know the organisers personally and they put a great deal of thought and effort into everything they do. If helping out the hospice is not enough, the line-up of performers includes the best cabaret around, the venue is atmospheric and has pub prices and there are lots of good prizes.

On the dressing up front there is great fun to be had, your vintage best would be fine, back then the Wag Club was adrift in zoot suits and forties rolls, how about New Romantic excess? Ska boy skin head cool? I seldom need much encouragement to go back to type: Goth. If you weren’t around this may be your chance to see if you would have liked the look and sound of it at least.  Please go. Details below:

Miss Rose Thorne & Beyond The Cabaret

present

for one night only...
...
C30, C60, C80s, GO!

A Charity Night Of 1980's Inspired Burlesque & Cabaret
Hosted by Benjamin Van Louche

Starring many of the UK's top cabaret & burlesque performers!

Sunday 27th February, Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, Pollard Row, E2

Doors 7pm ~ Show 8pm ~ Tickets £10
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/102247


C30, C60, C80s, GO! A pop-a-ramic evening of the best (and worst!) the 1980s had to offer, all squeezed into the skin-tight jeans of a plethora of top-flight and frenetic cabaret & burlesque acts! Think pouting New Romantic chic meets the seething discontent of 3 million unemployed! Think unfeasibly big hair, Rubik's cubes, ZX Spectrums and shoulder pads you could land a plane on!

ALL proceeds from the night are going to The Ayrshire Hospice.

EIGHTIES-TASTIC THROWBACK PERFORMANCES FROM:
Fancy Chance, Mat Fraser, Rod Lightning, Crimson Skye, Kiki Kaboom, Sienna Lately, VJ Spankie, Ginger Blush, Honey Wilde, Kitten von Strumpet, Becky Boobala, Khandie Kisses, Ooh La Lou, Liberty Pink, Tom Baker, Mat Ricardo, Rosy Cheeks,and more!!!


PLUS 80S DISCO TIL LATE, with sounds from the likes of:
Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, The Associates, The Smiths, Adam & The Ants, Visage, The Human League, Japan, The Teardrop Explodes, The Jam, The Psychedelic Furs, Echo & The Bunnymen, Blondie, Spandau Ballet, Bow Wow Wow, Ultravox, Soft Cell, A Flock Of Seagulls, Tears For Fears, The Cure, Talk Talk, OMD, Yazoo, Fad Gadget, ABC...

If you cannot go perhaps donate some sponduliks, by going here:

http://www.justgiving.com/Elisabeth-Hannah

Minn x

Double R Club.

I am a bit tardy reviewing this as I actually went to it last month! This is undoubtably one of the most entertaining cabaret nights taking place in London at the moment. And I am not only saying this because I really like the organisers (even though I do!). Again something to tempt me away from my native South London and much loved Soho to Bethnal Green Working Men's Club.

The Double R Club is, despite it's moniker, nothing directly to do with the Kray Brothers, although they may have known the area and may have enjoyed the evening. Rather the inspiration is taken from the strange twilight world of David Lynch's film ouvre, although arguably the look is more Blue Velvet than Elephant Man. However one of it's co-founders, the entertaining Rose Thorne has a burlesque act featuring the latter character, in a sense. Moreover some of the acts are dark in a music hall sense rather than in that strange American gothic vein seen in films such as Mulholland Drive.

Your host for the evening: Benjamin Louche.

Your host, and the paraffin glue that holds the night together is host Benjamin Louche, effectively channelling Dean Stockwell via Mark Almond with a nice line in obscenity. He introduces, performs and links the cabaret acts with panache, exhorting the audience to sing 'Lollipop, Lollipop', reading creepy poems and enthusiastically promoting the catchphrase 'so f*****g suave'. He works hard as this evening is particularly good value as the cabaret does not consist of a few girls tassel twirling and one singer but enough performances to fill two halves.

H P Lovebox croons..

I was particularly taken by the evening's crooner, Mr H P Lovebox, joining us from the tentacled slimy deeps to sing amongst other tunes, 'I want to do bad things to you' and 'Dance with me' although I am quite sure the latter deviated in lyrics considerably from the original. Great fun for lovers of the old creepy Misogynist demon fiddler himself. Another unique act involved a birdman lip synching in a curiously engaging way. The only time a cabaret act has resulted in having to fish pine nuts from my..ahem..decolletage. Othe acts included a singer, a couple of burlesque performers and a fire eater.

A birdman warbles....

There are a number of arch cabaret evenings in London at the moment. This one is notable for it's unexpected combination of conviviality and gothicism. Rose wanders around dispensing her (delicious) home made mini-doughnuts, Emerald Fontaine mans a booth dispensing coffee cherry cocktails and glittery biscuits to attendees. During the interval those who found a knitted doughnut (Rose can knit literally anything) under their seat were inveigled into climbing the stage to take part in a doughnut- eating contest. The audience are a mix, some are there as Lynch fans (as decent scores in the Lynchian quiz revealed), some as cabaret fans and others just for the atmosphere. The tables were booked largely by regulars even though this club has only taken place for a few months. The next one is the night after this missive, but they happen monthly. Should a night of dark mayhem, camp giggles and sweet things appeal it is a highly recommended way to spend an evening.

http://www.myspace.com/thedoublerclub

Whoopee club

Fleur kindly arranged cheapo tickets for us to get over to Bethnal Green for the farewell party of the Whoopee Club on 11th Dec, an organisation that has been going in it's current form for yonks.  The bearded one and I have several friends whom, over the years have performed at their events which were always thrown with gusto and a ambition. You might find yourself strolling around a totally transformed Great Eastern Hotel or watching synchronised swimming in a period baths (how very bright young people).  The Whoopee Club pride themselves on having been in at the start of the Burlesque Revival but I always felt they were more than tassels, far too innovative and far too wide a range of Cabaret to be pigeonholed in that way.

It was an enjoyable night, I like the working man clubness of the place (its in East London home of the arty fart so that is a relief) and the Japanese themed booth selling sushi and okashi took me back, although I decided not to inflict my Gunma accent on the lady manning it.  The crowd were a good mix, particularly of ages. My old bagness means that I resent being somewhere full of 19 year olds. An unpretentious yet stylish group of people who were more interested in just yapping, watching and drinking than any thing else, which is as it should be.


I wonder why they have thrown in the towel? May just be fatigue, perhaps it is the scene, which seems to have begun to be co-opted by big business and the kind of people it was designed to avoid.  Todays Evening Standard had an article about new supper and cabaret clubs.  As if anything about it is new...I didn't like the sound of the people setting them up, nor their clientele which was a bit too Bungalow 8.  A market for cabaret performers is a good thing, but not if it is going to be tacked onto a dinner (main courses from £25.00 a pop!). Mind you the fine thing is that the kind of dross in the ES magazine get to everything last...
Perhaps another element is the pervasiveness of burlesque in the tassel/cheesecake/dita tradition which has become fairly dull.  The performers I like have a bit of mischief, do a little magic, make you laugh or entertain. As a girly I have seen boobs before. The burlesque at Whoopee included Fancy Chance who I like because there is something subversive about her approach, she blindfolds the spiv who teases her with his nylons and drives him insane.  Audacity Chutzpah ( a name I have never encountered at a bar mitzvah) gave a burlesque history of women, including women's suffrage, the war and the 80's yuppie, the funny historical little run-up justified the reveal, although personally I could have done without it.  Other performers we caught included Bishi (SP?) singing an elegant refined version of Strawberry Fayre and Paloma Faith singing with the help of the charming Joshua.  There was lots on later but alas we left, Cinderella like, at 1am due to the need to grapple with a dissertation the following morn.  But Whoopee Club, we mourn your passing.