Nyuszi
Sophie & Nyuszi
How Purple is your Turtle darling? Tonight's Deadly
Sin, one of the seven celebrated by the gloriously decadent Festival of
Sins, is - Pride? - and turtles (no, not turds), indeed, threatened to
pop their curious little heads out of the tightly moulded rubber,
leather and latex of tonight?s carn-iv-al gathering. At least such
barely concealed - nay, proud protuberances - prevented any
embarrassing gender identity problems.
Pride, of course, demands a certain amount of decorum
even in this hedonistic heaven, and tonight was - it may surprise
detractors to know - a tasteful display of naughtiness. In fact, Nyuszi
and Sophie's balletic pole dancing duet and Sophia's semi-naked
fire-eating act - and not a whiff of burning thigh - were things of
beauty, choreographed with perfect fluidity - and definitely not a
sweaty perv's wank fantasy. For that -- well,
you know where Soho is
darling.
Sophia Landi
Photo credit May LR
Sophia Landi
Photo credit May LR
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And what a tranny treat Blanche Dubois is! A statuesque
creature in full army camouflage fatigues,
a formidable sight! -- and the
alarming realisation that he was to strip to nothing but a purple
g-string raised
a few eyebrows even in these salubrious surroundings!
Blanche Dubois
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Beautiful Deadly Children
-- Paul Steventon-Marks
Beautiful Deadly Children
-- John Douglas-Madison
Amidst all this, Beautiful Deadly Children (from the
most unglamorous Birmingham) played centre-stage in gothically splendid
form, frontperson Paul Steventon-Marks sweeping onstage in a
magnificent red velvet cape, glamorous side-kick Olivia Barnard-Firth
(who admits to having little in the way of her own body parts) wiggling
her vast tail of peacock feathers with remarkable poise, considering
the small stage and variety of onstage obstacles. But, like a couple of
vampires, the two glid
about with supernatural poise.
Beautiful Deadly Children - Paul Steventon-Marks
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Beautiful Deadly Children - Paul Steventon-Marks
Beautiful Deadly Children - Paul Steventon-Marks
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Beautiful Deadly Children - Olivia Barnard-Firth
Beautiful Deadly Children - Olivia Barnard-Firth
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I was, I have to say, a little dubious as to what to
expect musically. The thing about overdressed bands, I find, is they
can be bloody awful musically, relying too much on gay apparel than
music (probably spending band rehearsals comparing fashion notes). But
BDC managed to blend stylistic excellence with some very fine, dark and
menacing goth.
A final note about BDC: I got horribly confused halfway
through their set when Paul introduced one of their
two
keyboard-players as Kurt Vile ('the only heterosexual on the gothic
scene' sic). Kurt Weill,
I asked myself? Didn't he die eons ago?? Go
on, laugh at me if you like?!!
Beautiful Deadly Children - Kurt Vile
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Eyelash - Ru and Flow
And so we come to the wonderful Eyelash. Strange though
it may seem, in this glorious festival of decadence, rubber, titties
(both real and not) and general naughtiness, tonight I realised that
Eyelash should be heard before being seen. They have an extraordinarily
strong musical identity, which has nothing to do with visual image.
Okay, I guess it?s pretty important to know that vivacious vocalist Fe
could ' nay WILL ' give Gwen Stefani and Pink a run for their money,
both in the looks department and vocally. And that both her and bassist
Marina looked bloody gorgeous, curvaceous and dead sexy in their rubber
dresses. Guitarist Ru, incidentally,
is more of a goth, drummer Flow a
long-haired rocker. But their stage gear is irrelevant.
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Eyelash - Fe
Eyelash - Fe
So, it ain't the look that matters. I heard Eyelash
before seeing them, and was pleasantly surprised at their rampantly
infectious rep of spunky (yeah yeah) punk pop songs, attitude blasting
out of every gorgeous pore of blonde Fe. The main strength of the band
is the awesome vocal affinity between Fe and Marina (and here, as I've
so enjoyed mentioning before, there's a touch of ABBA in their
magnificent harmonies!) I also the fact that virtually every song is a
potential hit. Sometimes, this can be a tad annoying, and there were
those who looked a bit bored by the constant onslaught of catchy
punk-pop melodies. From 'What Is It You Need,' through 'Bow To The
People' the bouncing punk of 'I Was Born The Year Punk Died,'
'Overkill" and 'Put Your Faith In Me,' and onwards, it's impossible not
to be affected one way or the other by Eyelash's boundless enthusiasm.
Only criticism with having so many luminous songs is the danger of
overdoing it.
The odd ballad wouldn't go amiss to break the set up a
little.
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Anyway, when 'The Party's Over' runs into set-ender 'Your Man-Fake Smile Fake Tan, I'm Gonna Fuck Your Man,' girls down
front were grabbing their men possessively. Yeah, I'd be worried. What
a bitch of a song!!
And what a Turtley Purple night, boys and girls and boy/girls--
PIPPA LANG
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