Sunshine and Sighs

Back in 2002, I went to see TABOO, Boy George’s musical about his rise to fame, mirrored by the story of the fall of performance artist Leigh Bowery. I had been an off and on fan of Boy George for some time (the first record I ever bought as a kid was Karma Chameleon). On first hearing about the show I expected to hate it, but once I did actually see it, I was blown away (rather like my first experience of Hedwig and the Angry Inch). With the songs revolving in my head time after time after time, I went back several times, becoming quite obsessed with the show – so obsessed that when I heard it was transferring to Broadway, it convinced me to sign up for the Stonewall New York Equality Walk and kill two birds with one stone.

Fascinated by the peculiar phenomenon of Boy George himself playing Leigh Bowery (I say this because people I know who regularly went to the club Taboo assure me that he and Leigh rarely spoke and certainly were not friends, as he claims) I wrote a song called ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ and roped in some friends to make an accompanying pop video. I was fascinated with the idea of one performer taking on another performer’s persona – Leigh Bowery has such an iconic image that it has almost become a product in itself – and as Boy George made a facsimile of it – was I copying Boy George, or copying Boy George copying Leigh Bowery?

The video was filmed on location in my mum’s house (with original 70s wallpaper), the director’s Italo Ali’s flat in Vauxhall and at the Cambridge Theatre, where we managed to take over Michael Brandon’s dressing room before he came in to play Jerry Springer in Jerry Springer: The Opera.

It gathered dust on Italo’s computer for a long time, not really being shown properly until my one-man retrospective show ‘Three Zero’ in 2009, so I am very pleased to announce that video artist Nathan Evans has included it in Sunshine Night Time, a celebration of Leigh Bowery’s life and work at the ICA on Friday April 1st. It will be such a thrill to have the film shown in such an auspicious setting. In fact – it sort of is a ‘coming full circle’ moment. In the lyrics of the song, when I say ‘I met you once and you were cold, balding fat and looking old’, I am referring to meeting Boy George many years ago in the ICA bar. Spooky!

But before we get to that, Wednesday March 30th is also an auspicious night. I feel very proud to have been a regular attendee to INCITE, a new LGBTQ poetry night held at First Out Café.

Led by Liz Willows of Camden LGBT Forum, Cel West and new addition James Clement de Grandprey-Hodge (yes, it’s his real name) the night is an intimate forum for established and emerging poets alike. I’ve been going since the first one last year and I have found it a really good motivation to write something new each month, plus it's a very diverse crowd which is always inspiring. So much so that after seeing the Allen Ginsberg film ‘Howl’ (which I would definitely recommend), it occurred to me that it was about time I had something to send out to prospective bookers and some ‘product’ to sell at the handful of spoken word gigs that come my way.

So I am very pleased to announce the launch of SIGHS TEN, a small collection of my writings from the last ten years. There are ten in total, with the title piece a new one written for the collection. As it’s not quite a book and the word ‘pamphlet’ sounds a bit throwaway to me, I was worrying about what to call it. Wikipedia brought up the term ‘chapbook’. As all the pieces are about men, I think that’s rather appropriate. So if you are free to come and celebrate the birth of my first chapbook, please do come down to First Out on Wednesday March 30th from 7 pm, where copies will be available after my reading for £3.00. Entry is free and it gets very crowded, so you’ll need to come early to get a seat. I will also be appearing on Out In South London on Resonance 104.4 FM with Rosie Wilby on Tuesday March 29th to talk about it.

Boy George 8 out of 10, David McAlmont 20 out of 10

Last weekend was really exciting as I got to see two of my all-time heroes in concert. After a Friday night watching the pitiful excuse for light entertainment that was BBC’s Children In Need it was exactly what I needed - Fern Cotton gurning away for five hours non stop isn't exactly my idea of fun (BTW – WTF has happened to Stephen Gately’s face?)!

On Saturday night I went to see Boy George at the Shaw Theatre. I was looking forward to it as I saw him play at Bush Hall a few years back and he gives good show. I must say that the Shaw is a very odd venue, as it’s part of a hotel – and certainly feels that way. Chaos reigned and the show started late as people wouldn’t stay in their seats and stood down the front (though I must admit I went down to the aisles after a while too after lots of fat people stood up in front of me).

George was a little sniffly, which he said (and I hope really was) a cold but was otherwise on good form. If there was one criticism it was that he really didn’t hit any of the high notes in much of his material (and there weren’t that many to start with), instead doing that ‘jazzy’ thing that many artists do in rephrasing their melodies at a lower pitch. Apart from that it was a lengthy and amazing set, with lots of Culture Club hits along with some of his more obscure solo material (including my favourites Stranger In This World and Unfinished Business) as well as some spirituals and his most recent single, the upbeat Yes We Can. His backing singers totally stole the show with solo turns and in a handful of duets with him. I think George’s music has become really good in recent years and it’s a shame that press attention on his personal life has eclipsed his talent at times.

Support was from the wonderful Declan Bennett who one day will be my husband (a boy has to have a dream).

On Sunday, my old friend from ushering days Aaron Paterson came round for a lunch and we had a yellow-sticker vegetarian feast, followed by a stroll around the streets of Streatham Hill (which was a lot more interesting than it sounds).

That night I went to the Jazz Café to see David McAlmont, who was performing the whole of his album A Little Communication to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its release. I have been following David’s music since his work with Bernard Butler and was lucky enough to meet him at an event by the House of Homosexual Culture last year. He was at his best with this show, relaxed, confident and telling a lot of funny and candid stories.

Every time I see him live he gets better and better. He had a few guests playing with him, including Martin Sakutu of The Laurel Collective and pianist Jon Regen whose style I totally loved. I really want to check out some of their music.

I am always amazed by the skill of really good musicians, in that they can make a totally different sound from the same instrument and convey their own style and emotions so effortlessly. Something to aspire to there I think!