Worked like a dog all day long, a dog that’s maybe fallen asleep on the porch, dreaming about chasing rabbits, that kind of dog. Then home for more work, this time The Novel. I’m in the middle of writing a complete and utter bitch at the moment who I adore but who’s on her way to a dose of life-changing comeuppance. I want the bitching to continue for a little while longer though. What a cow she is, I shall miss her.
Shower, change, hit the streets, lookin’ for soul food and a place to eat. Or just a cash machine with tenners left in it would be nice, one that isn’t surrounded by the living dead, i.e. paralytic post-exam students and heroin addicts. NatWest in Chinatown fails to meet either criteria but I use it anyway. The drunkest woman ever stands guard by it, she stinks bless her, points at me and shrieks, ‘You cheeky man!’ I am afraid but escape unscathed. By the way, does anybody else sing ‘NatWest Barclays Midlands Lloyds’ whenever they see a NatWest? I still do it! ‘NatWest! NatWest Barclays Midlands Lloyds! Black horse apocalypse! Death sanitised through credit!’ Love it.
I’m headed for the first night of Are Friends Eclectic?, a new monthly hosted by my dearest buddies Kirsty and Keith, late of Danse Macabre fame and general night owls and misfits about town. The venue is the basement of Retro Bar on Sackville Street and as I walk the full length of this queer street that bisects Canal Street I watch it change from tinted-window sleaze at The Thompsons Arms, which always strikes me as chicken-hawk central (could be the young rent sitting on the car park stairs outside), past the tang of chlorine at the sauna, past a gaggle of bears and beards outside The Rembrandt mingling with the drag queens traipsing up and down carrying signs for The View (is that what it’s called? - that nothing bar that used to Prague 5), plus all the other Village uniforms and the endless upfront, funky and uplifting house (gag) …
Down the far end though, in Retro, a genuine little queer event comes together over the course of a sweaty, cidery, punky night in this brilliant little spit and sawdust dive. It’s the same street but a world away and it feels magic and bad and sexy hiding down here getting pissed on a Thursday night with my mates. Vile Vile Creatures play a terrific set with their shit-hot new drummer Julia giving them a new lease of life while Jenny spits love and bile down her megaphone. Rod from Bollox shows up, plus we meet an ace face crowd of people of all sexualities here for the music the shits and the giggles.
The nights will all be themed and tonight’s opening event is Femme Night. Kirsty spins a fantastic mix of stuff. ‘Lazy Line Painter Jane’, a gorgeous track by The Cookies which I’d never heard called ‘Girls Grow Up faster Than Boys’, ‘Gutless’ by Hole, The Slits, The Go-Gos, The Breeders, KD Lang, ‘Bette Davis Eyes’, Althea and Donna, Le Tigre, … More lager, more cider, new friends, love it. Can’t wait for the next one.
Soundtrack: The first Super Furry Animals album which still sounds brilliant as ever to me, plus Morrissey b-sides and 'Eiseger Wind' by LiLiPUT
Shower, change, hit the streets, lookin’ for soul food and a place to eat. Or just a cash machine with tenners left in it would be nice, one that isn’t surrounded by the living dead, i.e. paralytic post-exam students and heroin addicts. NatWest in Chinatown fails to meet either criteria but I use it anyway. The drunkest woman ever stands guard by it, she stinks bless her, points at me and shrieks, ‘You cheeky man!’ I am afraid but escape unscathed. By the way, does anybody else sing ‘NatWest Barclays Midlands Lloyds’ whenever they see a NatWest? I still do it! ‘NatWest! NatWest Barclays Midlands Lloyds! Black horse apocalypse! Death sanitised through credit!’ Love it.
I’m headed for the first night of Are Friends Eclectic?, a new monthly hosted by my dearest buddies Kirsty and Keith, late of Danse Macabre fame and general night owls and misfits about town. The venue is the basement of Retro Bar on Sackville Street and as I walk the full length of this queer street that bisects Canal Street I watch it change from tinted-window sleaze at The Thompsons Arms, which always strikes me as chicken-hawk central (could be the young rent sitting on the car park stairs outside), past the tang of chlorine at the sauna, past a gaggle of bears and beards outside The Rembrandt mingling with the drag queens traipsing up and down carrying signs for The View (is that what it’s called? - that nothing bar that used to Prague 5), plus all the other Village uniforms and the endless upfront, funky and uplifting house (gag) …
Down the far end though, in Retro, a genuine little queer event comes together over the course of a sweaty, cidery, punky night in this brilliant little spit and sawdust dive. It’s the same street but a world away and it feels magic and bad and sexy hiding down here getting pissed on a Thursday night with my mates. Vile Vile Creatures play a terrific set with their shit-hot new drummer Julia giving them a new lease of life while Jenny spits love and bile down her megaphone. Rod from Bollox shows up, plus we meet an ace face crowd of people of all sexualities here for the music the shits and the giggles.
The nights will all be themed and tonight’s opening event is Femme Night. Kirsty spins a fantastic mix of stuff. ‘Lazy Line Painter Jane’, a gorgeous track by The Cookies which I’d never heard called ‘Girls Grow Up faster Than Boys’, ‘Gutless’ by Hole, The Slits, The Go-Gos, The Breeders, KD Lang, ‘Bette Davis Eyes’, Althea and Donna, Le Tigre, … More lager, more cider, new friends, love it. Can’t wait for the next one.
Soundtrack: The first Super Furry Animals album which still sounds brilliant as ever to me, plus Morrissey b-sides and 'Eiseger Wind' by LiLiPUT
1 comment:
Cheers Gregling, I had an amazing night too and Ive gotta say, if I'm not a djing genius I dont know who is!!! Next month you've got The Smears (have a look see and listen, they're in our top friends on myspazz) and we'll be playing punk and definitely Eisiger Wind this time as we have the album, also some raincoats, delta 5, essential logic and stuff like that xxx
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