By the time you see this, dear reader, we should be in a taxi - on our way to assume our positions, centre stage, for this year's Gay Xmas festivities!
Only one more thing to play now - as always, it's our traditional anthem:
Happy Gay Pride, dear reader! Don't do anything I wouldn't do [which isn't a lot, to be honest]...
We had a simply fantabulosa time - as always - at Saturday's Pride in London!
Despite the fact that proceedings were delayed not long after kick-off for an hour by a shiftless gang of yoofs who threw red paint at a float and glued themselves to it, supposedly in support of Palestine - why us? why Pride? arseholes!! - we spent an enjoyable few hours waving and cheering the huge turn-out of assorted groups as they wended their way (slowly) through Piccadilly en route via Trafalgar Square to Whitehall.
Sports fans, fetishists, dykes-on-bikes, queens, trans, old, young, military, drag queens, charities and corporates - just about everyone was represented, with the exception this year of any political parties. Apparently freedom of speech doesn't extend to anyone that the organisers, in their wisdom, don't agree with, in spite of the fact we live in a democracy...
Hey ho!
We were simply gratified that all those bored - and largely boringly-dressed - people marching all took photos of us! And why wouldn't they?
We were even serenaded by the Gay Men's Chorus:
Needless to say, after five hours we were all ready for a drink - so, rather than try and battle our way into the morass of the West End, we "invaded" an unsuspecting (and normally quiet on a Saturday) pub in Mayfair for the evening, which was just perfect!
But possibly the highlight - or certainly one of the most memorable moments - of the day? Having a "photo-shoot" in the flagship Savile Row boutique of top menswear designer Ozwald Boateng!
An utterly splendid Gay Xmas, indeed!
We've had a totally lazy post-Pride [more on that later, no doubt] Sunday ("Gay Boxing Day", perhaps?) - I didn't even surface until 2pm! It's been a bit showery and dank, so I didn't miss much...
Speaking of Pride - this song appeared to be quite a fave among the various groups parading along Piccadilly yesterday - well, maybe not this version, but it damn well should have been!
Faboo!
It's today - Happy Gay Pride!!!
So let's Bring On The Men (as always - it's traditional!)...
There was a time
I don't know when
I didn't have much time for men
But this is now and that was then, I'm learning
A girl alone, all on her own
Must try to have a heart of stone
So I try not to make it known my yearning
I try to show I have no need
I really do, I don't succeed
So let´s bring on the men
And let the fun begin
A little touch of sin
Why wait another minute?
Step this way, its time for us to play
They say we may not pass this way again
So lets waste no more time
Bring on the men
I always knew, I always said
Silk and lace in black and red
Will drive a man right off his head, its easy
So many men, so little time
I want them all, is that a crime (NO!)
I don't know why they say that I'm too easy
They make me laugh, they make me cry
They make me sick, so god knows why
We say bring on the men
And let the fun begin
A little touch of sin
Why wait another minute
Step this way its time for us to play
They say we may not pass this way again
So lets waste no more time
Bring on the men
They break your heart
They steal your soul
Take you apart
And yet they somehow make you whole
So what's their game?
I suppose a rose by any other name
The perfume and the prick's the same
I like to have a man for breakfast each day
I'm very social and I like it that way
By late mid-morning I need something to munch
So I ask over two men for lunch
And men are mad about my afternoon "tease".
They're quite informal I just do it to please
Those triple sandwiches are my favourite ones
I must admit, I'm partial to buns
My healthy appetite gets strongest at night
My at-home dinners are my men friends' delight
When I invite the fellas over to dine
They all come early, in bed by nine!
So lets bring on the men
And let the fun begin
A little touch of sin
Why wait another minute?
Step this way, it's time for us to play
They say we may not pass this way again
So lets waste no more time
Bring on the men!
Enjoy the day, whatever you get up to (or who)!
The countdown's almost over, dear reader - it's Gay Pride tomorrow! We're expecting the boys from Essex this evening, who are staying over for the festivities, so this evening will be a takeaway, loads of booze and a bit of a "dress rehearsal" of our outfits, no doubt.
To get us in the mood, here's a simply faboo kitschy camp number that's guaranteed to get the party started...
Thank Disco It's Gay Xmas Eve Friday!
Have a fantabulosa Pride weekend, dear reader!
It may be Monday again - but the countdown to this Saturday's Gay Pride in London has begun!
Indeed, it begins on the remarkable - and heartening - note that the embattled Pride celebrations in Budapest, Hungary (under the thumb of that nasty piece of work Viktor Orban, whose regime has brought in draconian anti-gay legislation) went ahead on Saturday just gone... and an estimated 200,000 people joined the throng, many of whom had never turned out before!! [To put things in perspective, last year just 35,000 took part.]
A reminder, indeed, that Pride isn't just a carnival celebration - it is a protest that has real meaning!
Turning full circle, it is a Tacky Music Monday - a day for a song-and-dance "wake-up call" - and this classic number fits the bill perfectly:
Have a good week, dear reader - and keep cool. It's forecast to be up to 34C/93.2F in London today!
A woman has vowed to be a good ally by being bisexual for the entirety of Pride month.
The global celebration of gay, lesbian, transgender and queer lives has prompted Lauren Hewitt, aged 23, to not let her heterosexuality get in the way of joining in.
She said: “Pride Month is the only time of year that I feel free and uninhibited enough to be the person I’ve always wanted to be: a straight woman, but more interesting.
“Despite having a boyfriend and a sexual history consisting exclusively of men, I fully identify with the vibe. I might not be completely bisexual, but I am half-bisexual in that I sleep with one of the two sexes.
“It’s just for the month. After that I’ve no intention to continue this level of engagement with LGBTQ+ culture, following in the footsteps of allies like Marks & Spencer and BrewDog.
“Ladies, watch out. No James, this does not mean you’re getting a threesome.”
A Stonewall spokesman asked about Lauren’s claimed bisexuality said: “We don’t really care. This type of thing mostly bothers other straight people.”
Of course.
Happy Gay Xmas Eve, dear reader!
Our outfits are sorted, the weather looks like it's going to be on our side, the bacon has been purchased for our gang's breakfast baps at Sal's pub tomorrow morning, the boys from Essex will be arriving this evening - and we're definitely in the mood for a Big Gay Party!!
Let's open the celebrations with the best song never to have been played on radio ever ["Yes, Sir!]:
Next - our Great Earth Mother Divine, and her whip...
Sabrina and her dancing twins...
And finally, Our Princess Kylie - with the Gay National Anthem!
Have a glittering weekend, folks - and thank Disco It's Pride Friday!!
The countdown to Gay Pride continues - and among some milestones in gay history this week worth recognition are the fact it is 57 years since the Sexual Offences Act that led to the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK was passed, 46 years (yesterday) since the launch of the first rainbow flag (in San Francisco), 21 years since the US Supreme Court ruled that all state laws that outlawed gay sex were illegal [yes - it took until 2003 for "the Land of the Free" to do this], and a decade since same-sex marriage became legal in the UK...
...oh - and it's sixteen years since I first posted this!
¿Qué importa si el niño sale gay? ¡Fiesta, fiesta!
Tú has nacido gay
Aunque cueste, hay que gritarlo
¡Soy gay!
Y pluma, pluma gay
Pluma, pluma gay
¡Pluma, pluma, pluma gay!
¡Fabulosa!
It may be Monday again - but the countdown to Gay Pride on Saturday has begun!
What better way to kick off on this Tacky Music Monday than with one of our campest Patron Saints [again!] Raffaella Carrà (who would have celebrated her 81st birthday on 18th June), and her Disco Samba medley?
Safety gays in pink tights?
How fantabulosa!
Have a good week, dear reader...
Very many happy returns to the fantabulosa and multi-talented Harvey Fierstein, who blows out 70 candles on his cake today!
A creative genius of a man - among his triumphs, he wrote and directed (and starred in) the original Torch Song Trilogy on stage and the film adaptation, wrote the book and lyrics for Jerry Herman's La Cage Aux Folles, and the book for Cindi Lauper's triumphal Kinky Boots. On stage, he was the original "Edna Turnblad" in Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman's musical Hairspray, "Tevye" in Fiddler On The Roof, and replaced Douglas Hodge as "Albin/Zaza" in La Cage. On screen, he was in Mrs Doubtfire and Independence Day, episodes of Cheers and Murder She Wrote, and has done numerous voiceovers for the likes of The Simpsons and Mulan. Phew!
Needless to say, we adore him.
Here are a few highlights of the man's talents, starting with one of the best monologues of 'em all...
And finally, as Gay Pride is just around the corner, this:
Harvey Forbes Fierstein (born 6th June 1954)
WHAT. A. DAY! More than a million people, of all creeds, colours, ages, sexualities and identities gathered in the centre of London on Saturday for one occasion - the biggest event London has - Gay Pride!
Having started our day in the customary way - assembled at Our Sal's pub The Shaston Arms off Carnaby Street for bacon butties and fizz and final touches to the outfits and gossip and a few photos...
...we yomped down to Piccadilly to bag a prime spot opposite Fortnum & Masons to wait for the procession to arrive, buzzing with excitement and anticipation.
Eventually, with the roar of the Dykes on Bikes up the road, it certainly did arrive! Our gang (Me, Madam Arcati, Hils, Crog, Baby Steve, Houseboy Alex, John-John, Sal, Lou, Carol, Jen, Mark and "official photographer" Bence) stood for five hours, watching a wildly colourful panoply of representatives from community groups and charities, campaign groups, the inevitable corporates, educational bodies, the NHS, the armed forces, sports clubs, politicos, unions and associations, choirs, bands, religious groups, trans groups, the Masons(!) and Morris dancers(!); everything from puppy slaves and furries to drag queens and bull dykes, hunks, twinks, families with toddlers, older gays on double-decker buses, Z-list celebs, even David Furnish - you name it, they were there!
And everyone seemed to want their photo taken with us!
We didn't even see Peter Tatchell, but (of course) he was there:
Understandably, there had to be a point at which a combination of bladder pressure and aching feet was going to encourage us (reluctantly) to leave - and even after all that time, the parade extended as far as the eye could see!
Here's the "official" Pride in London synopsis of the parade:
Utter joy...
I haven't, of course, forgotten that it's a Tacky Music Monday - so let's have something rather appropriate from the irrepressible Miss Pearl Bailey [not that I would ever call her "tacky" - I wouldn't dare - but this particular production is so cheesy and camp, it fits the bill], shall we?!
It's been a jolt to be back in work today, dear reader. Have a good week.
[cick any pic to embiggen]
It's "Gay Xmas Eve", dear reader - and we at Dolores Delargo Towers are definitely going to be in the mood for a party!!
To that end, here are two old faves (both on a similar theme) to get us up and running - and Thank Disco Pride It's Friday!
Enjoy tomorrow - it's our day!
Thank heavens for that! The first gruelling week back [albeit a short one, after (gulp!) the last Bank Holiday Monday until the end of August], following our lovely holiday, is over...
Time to start the party with a bang - or maybe an explosion of pink glitter? - with [an albeit short clip of] one of my fave Bette Midler "forgotten gems":
Somehow what used to be a one-day event called Gay Pride [a march, sometimes followed by a party in a park] has been transmogrified - by various commercial interests in the so-called "pink pound", no doubt - into something called "LGBTQI+ Pride Month", and this is supposedly the start of it. Hey ho. Let's carry on with the flow with another favourite that's sure to please us "gentlemen who are light in their loafers" - and Thank Disco It's Friday!
Have a good weekend, dear reader!
By the time you see this, dear reader, Madam Acarti, Baby Steve, Houseboy Alex and I should already be in an Addison Lee cab on our way to Our Sal's pub The Shaston Arms in the West End for our traditional bacon-butties-and-champagne breakfast, and get our outfits sorted - for it is indeed the first Gay Pride in London for three years today!!
There's only our traditional anthem left to play...
Have a great Pride day/weekend!
Among a huge raft of ill-assorted fellow celebrants on this "Gay Xmas Eve" [a very special one - not just the first one in three years, but also the 50th anniversary of the first official Pride March], including Princess Diana, Our Patron Saint Debbie Harry, Estée Lauder, Karen Black, Charles Laughton, Olivia de Havilland, Dave "Darth Vader" Prowse, Jeff Wayne, Trevor Eve, William Wyler, Pamela Anderson [55 today], George Sand, Scotty Bowers, Carl Lewis, Dan Aykroyd [who is 70], Farley Granger, Geneviève Bujold [she's 80], Jean Marsh, Leslie Caron, Amy Johnson, Liv Tyler, Louis Blériot and Missy Elliott...
...it's the faboo Miss Evelyn "Champagne" King's birthday!
To mark the occasion, a classic to get the party started - and Thank Disco It's Friday!
Roll on the festivities tomorrow!
A pair of false eye lashes and a tube of cheap lipstick
A pair of worn out high heel shoes and a dress doesn't fit
These are all my possessions all I have to my name
And a record played in my home town is my only claim to fame
Bless.
“When Peter Tatchell asked if DIVA would support the Reclaim Pride March and explained the concept, there was no hesitation. The idea of taking Pride back to its roots is one that we’re absolutely behind.” - Linda Riley of DIVA magazine and Lesbian Visibility Week.
And so it came to pass that a smattering of members of "our gang" - me, Madam Arcati, John-John, Baby Steve and Houseboy Alex from Essex, Mark, and the Madam's sister Carol and neice Jen all the way from Plymouth (and her friend from Brighton, too) - gathered at Parliament Square for what promised to be an event that took Gay Pride back to where it began, as a protest rather than merely a party.
click any photo to embiggen
Organised and led by our "Patron Saint of Pride", the admirable and unstoppable Peter Tatchell, Reclaim Pride was the first of its kind in the UK [there have been similar protests against the "commercialisation" of Pride events in the US], and its route was planned to follow in the footsteps of the very first Gay Pride march in London in 1972, from Parliament up Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Regent Street and Oxford Street to Marble Arch for a "picnic" in Hyde Park. Unfortunately the scheduled 1pm start was delayed by an hour-and-a-half thanks to a competing anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protest that was coming the other way and being dispersed across Westminster Bridge, so our legs were beginning to ache from standing around even before we actually started marching...
The usual mad assortment of participants were in evidence, as is the case with any such event - butch dykes, camp queens, families with kids, drag queens, veterans of Prides past as well as people who weren't even born when Section 28 was "a thing", the Socialist Workers' Party (of course), BLM supporters, Trans Rights campaigners, earnest student-types and eccentrics alike - but we amused ourselves, being in close proximity to possibly the dullest-voiced chant-caller in the history of protests, by changing the words a little, so "What do we want? Liberation! When do we want it? Now!" became "What do we want? Liberace! When do we want him? Now!" and so on...
We had a blast, even if we didn't do the whole distance. Bladders full after the long delays, we decided to exit the march just before it turned the corner into Oxford Street (around halfway, so not too shoddy an effort, methinks), and "took the Pride march on a new route" - to our mate Sally's pub off Carnaby Street!
The Shaston Arms has traditionally been the "headquarters" for our Pride Days, as it's where we gather on "Gay Xmas" for champagne-and-bacon-butties breakfast and change into our outfits ready to face our adoring public (and we will no doubt be doing so again on the rescheduled "official" Pride London day on 11th September), so it seemed appropriate. We were joined by "non-participants" in the march Hils and Crog, Steve and Sian, Russ and Joe and of course (once she'd finished her stock-take and paperwork) by Sal herself - and didn't leave till our taxi arrived at last orders!
A fabulous day, all round.
To conclude, a classic:
We're off to march through London, blowing whistles - just like the good old days of Gay Pride marches of yore...
Here's an appropriate number to get us in the mood!
Wish us luck...
