As the Madam and I do the final whizz around cleaning in preparation for receiving visitors, and I turn my attention to preparing the buffet - I think some musical highlights from 2023 are in order, to get the juices flowing for a party!
And the "Song of the Year":
However, as my 60th year passes into the ether, let's have another outing for my song from my birthday post - this:
Happy New Year, dear reader!
It's all gone a bit murky and mizzly out there, which has put the kibosh on any desire to do some more pottering in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers, so instead let us wallow in another slice of brilliance, courtesy of that mash-up maestro Bill McClintock! As one wag commented: "Wham just wasn't the same after Ozzy left."
Genius!
Heavens. You know you're getting old when you discover...
...that Andrew Ridgeley - the prettier half of Wham! - blows out sixty candles on his cake today!
With our much-needed sojourn to Spain looming (just a week-and-a-bit to go), what's more appropriate to play by way of a tribute than this?
That's Madam Acarti and I in Benalmadena.
We wish.
Many happy returns, Andrew John Ridgeley (born 26 January 1963)
Many happy returns to the self-titled "stately homo of heavy metal" Rob Halford of Judas Priest, 70 years old today.
Now, as any fule kno, I am not the world's greatest heavy rock fan [despite having spent an inordinate amount of time in my teenage years accompanying two childhood friends Carol and Lois, who were, to venues such as "The Cross Keys Miners' Institute Heavy Metal Rock Night"] - but I do love a bit of salacious gossip; and if that happens to involve rock's greatest gayers, well so be it...
"Once we were on [Top of the Pops] with the Osmonds. I had my whip with me and I'd heard Marie wasn't happy about that. So, I went to see her in her dressing room with her curlers in." Did he use the whip on the show? "Of course I did. I'm not going to have any Mormon telling me what I can and can't do with my whip."
Apparently, when Freddie Mercury started wearing leathers, Rob Halford said he'd like to see him get on a bike and do a lap at Donnington; Freddie retorted that he'd like to see Rob Halford don a tutu and dance at Covent Garden.
They weren't enemies, though:
"Freddie [Mercury] is my ultimate hero. The closest I ever got to Freddie was in a gay bar in Athens on the way to Mykonos. We kind of glared at each other across the bar, in a kind of smiling, winking way. When we got to Mykonos I was determined to track him down, but I couldn't because he'd rented this huge yacht. It was festooned in pink balloons and it just kept sailing around the island. He's someone I wish I'd really met."
On coming out:
"The biggest myth about this new stage gear is that I had somehow masterminded the image as a cover and a vent for my homosexuality – that I was getting a thrill from dressing on stage as I’d like to dress in the street, or the bedroom. This is utter bollocks. I had no interest in S&M, domination or the whole queer subcult of leather and chains. It just didn’t do it for me. My sexual preference was for men, sure, but I was – and still am – pretty vanilla. I’ve never used a whip in the boudoir in my life."
"I must admit, I still occasionally look back at Priest photos of that late seventies era, and suspect that they were our Shirley Bassey leather years. But that is probably just me being me."
Here's Rob and the boys in those "Shirley Bassey leather years", with a song I remember my aforementioned friends head-banging to:
...but all this serves as a good enough excuse as any for another of those faboo pop-vs-metal mashups of which I am extremely fond [see here, here and here], featuring Mr Halford and Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and - erm - Wham!
Love it. And, I must admit, I like Rob Halford too.
Yes, Indeed!
John-John, Paul and I are out on the razz tonight for a long-overdue visit to "London's peerless gay literary salon" Polari, once again raising the rafters at (a socially-distanced, table-service-only) Heaven nightclub!
My first evening out in seven months. I can't wait!
All together, now...
Take me to the edge of heaven
Tell me that my soul's forgiven
Hide your baby's eyes and we can
We can, woo
Take me to the edge of heaven
One last time might be forever
Indeed.