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Wednesday, 19 April 2006
I went to London and all I got was ... a DJ gig at Uber, £500 worth of clothes, and a glowing review of the Trannyshack movie
Our trip to London was a glorious whirlwind of gigging, singing, shopping, and schmoozing – four days and four nights – and if we had stayed any longer, there'd be no money left in my bank account. Damn you, exchange rate! The U.K. pound is SOOOOO much stronger than the U.S. dollar right now – and you can tell. London is definitely having its go-go boom right now.
Everywhere you go, you can feel the buzz and energy of a city alive and flush with money – and all the activity, culture, and excitement that goes with it. Construction cranes are everywhere, clubs are packed, things are HAPPENING. Definitely an interesting time to live in London, that's for sure.
We were there to DJ at an electro/bootleg club called Uber, at 93 Feet East, and to see the new edit of the Trannyshack movie, now called Filthy Gorgeous, and screening as part of the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. I also performed that night in the Trannyshack show at the Horse Meat Disco in Vauxhall. Oh yeah, and I did some shopping at Camden Stables Market. Fuck, did I go shopping!
Always fly non-stop
We flew non-stop (after our Paris trip debacle, when we got stuck at Heathrow for 7 hours, I vowed never to fly transatlantic with a layover ever again.) and I slept on the plane, so when we arrived, I was shockingly not jet-lagged. We got there a few hours ahead of Jason and Lynda, who we were sharing a rented flat with. So we took the Piccadilly train into the city and got the keys to our place, which was on Old Compton Street, smack in the heart of Soho. 
I ran down to the Tesco market and picked up some beer, cider, and snacks, and got settled in. Jason and Lynda finally arrived, and we walked over to Marty's hotel, a few blocks away. Turns out Kennedy was staying at the same hotel, so we paid her a visit, before heading off in search of food. Marty and Jason were hell-bent on having traditional English fare – bangers and mash, basically. So we walked around for over an hour, trying to find a suitable restaurant. Soho is like the United Nations of restaurants – we found everything EXCEPT a traditional English restaurant. And when we did, it was, sorry to say, incredibly bland – after all, it's English food.
That evening, we went to the Intrepid Fox, a dark rock 'n' roll pub, and had a beer before it closed at 11 pm. Then we hooked up with Kennedy and headed over to Misshapes, at The Ghetto. It's the same venue where Nag Nag Nag happens, the electro club we really wanted check out, but missed by one night. Still, it was a fun party ... lots of girls with fauxhawks, very indie-queer, yet still mixed with some gay boys and straights. The DJs played a fun mix of indie/pop party tunes, and I must say, it's really weird to see an entire club of hipsters singing along to Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani. (American kitzch? Sometimes, it's hard the tell the difference between irony and genuine adoration.)
I went up to the DJ booth to introduce myself and give them an A+D CD. To my shock, the DJ says, "I know who you are!" Then she opens the CD, looks at the track listing, and tell me that she plays "Decepta-Freak-On" and "An Honest M.I.A." along with a few others. WOW. Two songs later, she drops our Le Tigre vs. Missy mashup, and I gotta say, it's awfully gratifying to be halfway around the world at a hip London nightclub, and to hear your mashup spun for a packed dance floor.
Shop til you drop!
Eventually, Lynda and I walked home, but Deidre and Jason stayed out late. Although we were all mysteriously awake by 9 AM the next morning. Jet lag manifests itself in weird ways. So what do we do? We go shopping! We hopped the tube to Camden Town, and walked over the Stables Market, where I ditched everyone. I was power-shopping! I spent two hours at the Cyberdog store, trying on everything that caught my eye. Then I was off to my other favorite clothing boutique, Spank, where I spent another two hours. Finally, I made a quick stop at Punkyfish, and then got the hell out of there, before I broke my self-imposed £600 limit.
But I got fashions I simply cannot get anywhere else. Hell, I still wear the Cyberdog and Spank clothes I bought there five years ago. It's not like these things will ever go out of fashion, because they were never IN fashion, at least not here. But it's just the sort of cybergoth shit that I love. Cybergoth – not so much into the music ... but I LOVE the clothes!
That night was our gig at Uber, which is at 93 Feet East, way out in the East End. We got a little lost trying to get there, but it's on Brick Lane, a hip block of clubs and Indian restaurants. We walked in, and five minutes later, I'm singing "Sweet Dreams" with faux queen Holestar, as we had to sound check for our duet later that evening. Oh. My. God. It sounded fucking great. We had never met before in real life, and immediately, we're singing like we've been doing this number together for years. Brilliant.
Several bootleggers from GYBO were there, and it was SUCH a pleasure to meet them all! Holestar, Starsky, Churchill, Ian Fondue, The Doctor from Boom Selection, his girlfriend Harry ... we all went out for Indian food, which was so damn good. There were leftovers, and there was no way I was leaving it. So I got a doggy bag, which apparently no one does in the U.K., but fuck it. There's nothing I love more than coming home drunk and eating leftovers.
So Uber was interesting. In the main room was Poj Masta, spinning an amazing electro set that I'm sad I missed most of. Our room was the Pink Bar, which was actually perfect for us. Phil, of Phil n' Dog fame, said: "Oh, they're gonna love you. Just be American!" At the time, we had no idea what that meant. After DJ Payroll (the promoter and booker of Uber) spun an electro-heavy set, we got off to an unsure start, but then we figured it out. "American" means lots of rap and hip-hop. So we ended up just slipping into "Bootie Greatest Hits" mode, and it went off great. Princess Kennedy and Jordan L'Moore showed up around 10:30 to do their "impromptu" lip-syncs, which actually turned out to be a bit too early in the night. I don't think people were drunk enough yet. But by the end of our set, there were girls dancing on tables – always a good sign.
At 12:30, Holestar and I did our Eurythmics vs. White Stripes mashup duet, which went over quite well. Then I introduced her, and she closed out the night with a live set of indie vs. techno mashups. At 1 AM, it was all over -- which was TOO EARLY! However, just like at Bootie, out on the sidewalk outside the club, everyone was making plans for the afterparty. Starsky was kind enough to offer up his apartment as an afterparty pad, and we all piled in a minicab. TBC interviewed us in the back of the cab for his Radio Clash podcast show -- which you can listen to HERE -- and after making a quick pit stop to procure some off-license liquor (I'm still not sure what that means, exactly) we were there. We hung out until the wee morning hours, drinking, chit-chatting, trading stories ... we were eventually treated to an impromptu DJ set from Josh Console! We didn't get home until 8 AM!
After some pub grub for dinner, we parted ways, and D and I headed off to a club night in Hoxton called Family. There, we met up with Jonty Skrufff, of Skrufff.com fame, and listened to some obscure electro, which was nice, if not a little anonymous sounding. Good crowd, good mix ... a very "in the know" crowd, to be sure. We saw lots of people NOT able to get in. Didn't WE feel special?
Afterwards, we were going to hook up with Kennedy and go to Duckie in the Southbank ... but our minicab driver had absolutely no idea where he was going, and when we ended up crossing the river back into Soho, we just said fuck it. I had to direct him around London in order to get us back to our Soho flat. "How long have you lived in London?" he asked. "Uh ... three days," I replied. Now I see why you shouldn't take minicabs if you don't have to. That cab ride cost us £20, which ended up being like $36.
The new edit of the Trannyshack movie is great!
Filthy Gorgeous is tightly-edited, quick-paced, and utterly fascinating from start-to-finish. Practically all the problems that plagued the first cut have been fixed. Somehow, despite cramming more in, they still managed to cut the running time down by 20 minutes. It's an exhilarating documentary, and really captures the spirit of Trannyshack, not to mention the history and several amusing anecdotes and characters. Everyone in the Trannyshack scene should be really happy with it.
After this plays the festival circuit, I can totally see this getting picked up for distribution. At least I hope so. They're going to major bucks from a distributor in order to clear all the music anyway, which looks like it's going to be a nightmare. Sure, getting someone like Peaches to sign off on "Rock Star" (which, I'm happy to say is still my performance in the opening credits) will be easy and reasonable compared to getting Kiss to let them use "Do You Love Me?" for the closing credits (which I'm sure if they said yes, would still cost an arm-and-a-leg.) And that version of "Star-Spangled Banner" at the beginning that features Deer pulling an American flag out of her ass? Forget about it. Better start booking some people right now to record cover versions to use in the film! (By the way, Smash-Up Derby is totally available and works for cheap.)
Although Deidre brought up an interesting point, in defense of the filmmakers. She says that explaining the sort of drag that happens at Trannyshack already required an 80-minute documentary. But putting faux queens into the mix just confuses the matter even more, and that it's too hard to explain to "normal" people. See, to us, faux queens are just another piece of the puzzle. I was like, "just add a five-minute segment about it!" But Deidre says it's too much to explain. Perhaps she's right. Still, I miss the faux queens, and wish they could have been represented more in the film.
But seriously, other than this minor qualm, everything about the movie is totally brilliant. There's a little bit of nearly everything, and I can't wait to see if and how this elevates our little underground drag scene.
I was in the second show, which was fine, because the crowd was more drunk! I did my Smash-Up Derby medley, which Holestar was going to join me on vocals, but there was only one microphone. So we traded off lines on "Tainted Love" and then I tried to lean back so she could do backups with me on the rest of the number. And then the microphone kept cutting out. Like I said, janky. But it didn't matter, because the crowd was TOTALLY into it. They were singing along to EVERYTHING. Princess Kennedy joined us on stage, and together, the three of us just rocked it out as best we could. The confetti batons didn't go off like they were supposed to, but it didn't matter -- the crowd loved it anyway!
Most of the other Trannyshackers were staying in London a few more days, but we were all leaving in the morning, so we said our goodbyes ... when we left, Holestar, who had just moved to London from Vienna, was chit-chatting with Suppositori Spelling, who also just moved there! (We're going to miss her....)
When we woke up the next day, Jason and Lynda had already left. I miss our little Soho pad... other than the fact that there was no elevator (and we were on the fourth floor) it was a really great place to stay. (And only about $45 a day for each of us) We met up with Kennedy at the tube station and headed off to the airport. It was probably one of the best trips we've had in a long time... and I still never ended up all that jet-lagged!
All of our London photos are here
17:25 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Email this
Comments
Glad you had a good time in London - we loved having you here.
No wonder you couldn't find Duckie on the Southbank - it's in Vauxhall!!
Come back soon
XXX
Posted by: Dawn Right Nasty | Friday, 28 April 2006