Our pick of the month is Brian Lobel’s Cruising for Art, a suspiciously non-Xmas event. If you’re feeling festive try BAC, BGWMC, Duckie’s Copyright Christmas, Drink Shop & Do and much more…read on Scrooge, read on…

…

…

Christmas Cook Up Season @ Battersea Arts Centre | 1st-31stDecember | Various Times | £Various

 BAC presents a delightful festive festival packed with emerging theatre developed on site, including theatre, music, words, food & drink. Our pick of the pops includes: “Bluebeard“ - a dark cabaret fairytale about a nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives; and renegade theatre troupe Little Bulb’s “The Mother of All Goose Parties” – a musical journey/party.

Christmas Open Studios @ Cockpit Arts | 2nd-4th December | Free

  Don’t Argos it! Buy something truly unique from Cockpit Arts’ supremely talented bunch of crafty creatives. Choose from fashion accessories, homewares and much more as you enjoy some lovely food courtesy of Handmade Food, or enter the prize draw to win handmade Christmas decorations made by CA’s talented designers. 

Bethnal Green Working Mens Club Xmas Season @ BGWMC | 3rd-17th December | Various Times | £Various

 Come to the venue where it’s so camp, it’s Christmas all year round! Highlights of their awesome Christmas parties include: Coney Island Christmas Party (inspired by the kookiest car-crash beach resort that is Coney Island N.Y.) on the 3rd December; Dirty Fan Male (based on real letters sent to porn stars) on the 14th December; and the Cream Revue Christmas Party.

Canadian Blast vs Oui Love @ Rich Mix | 5th December | 19:30 | Free

Oui fell in love with ‘Oui Love’ at the Institut Francais, where we bopped insanely to their latest compilation of French future mega-hits. We can’t wait to hear Zooey at RichMix.

Amateur Transplants @ Lyric Theatre | 5th December | 20:00 | £22.50

Ok we admit it, we are totally obsessed with musical comedy – we write about it more than anything else on the site. See some cream-of-the-crop musical comedy at the luscious Lyric Theatre, full of witty puns and laugh out loud mayhem from YouTube stars, Amateur Transplants.

Robyn Hood @ The RVT | 7th & 28th-30th December | Various Times | £8.50

We went to the RVT Panto last year and saw stripping, beautiful rhyming song with Marcus Reeves and trannies. This year we expect nothing less.

Brian Lobel’s Cruising for Art @ Vogue Fabrics | 9th December | 20:00-22:00 | £5

 Unbelievably brilliant and irreverently sleazy event where audience members have to cruise an audacious array of artists in order to gain access to intimate, one on one performances – all over 4 floors of the Vogue Fabrics mansion. The line up for this round includes Bryony Kimmings, Tui’s Nail Bar (Tui is an emerging artist – just 10 years old!), Eirini Kartsaki, Mamoru Iriguchi, Rachel Gomme, Catherine Long, The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein, Timberlina (as Tim Redfern), GraceLes and Owen Parry.

Duckie Copyright Christmas and Duckie Christmas Market @ The Barbican | 10th-30th December | Various Times | £19.99

We are very impressed to see that those fabulous Duckie people have infiltrated the usually-clean Barbican website with falling snow. Pretty! In their latest interactive charade, featuring Scottee & Harrold Offeh, the collective express their dissatisfaction with the commercialism of Christmas. We feel the same! Then, after you’ve got all ruffled by the performance, explore the Duckie Christmas Market for offbeat treats from independent sellers who love a chat.

The Joy of Sketch @ Lyric Theatre | 12th December | 19:30 | £17.50-£38.50

 Sketch comedy is a Loserville favourite genre, and we are happy that Time Out got its thinking cap on and put on this festive frollic with some of the best troupes around. Including Late Night Gimp Fight, Idiots of Ants, The Pajama Men and Two Episodes of Mash.

Bourgeois & Maurice: Fa La La La La @ Soho Theatre | 14th December – 7th January | 21:45 | £10-£15

Christmas cheer not quite grabbed you? Perfect! Come and join LV faves Bourgeois and Maurice for their festive (?) Christmas spectacular. Expect: hilarity, doom mongering and costume changes (we hope!).

The Xmas Starty @ Soho Theatre | 14th-23rd December | Various Times | £15

Soho Theatre says: “The most bizarre office Christmas party you will ever attend.” We say: “Bring it on babycakes!”. Dress up in your frump chic and enjoy the music, passion, laughs, games, dances, prizes and crafting.

Inappropriate Christmas Card Making @ Drink, Shop & Do | 21st December | 20:00ish | Free (well, you have to buy a drink…)

This cute cafe in Kings Cross presents great participatory events including knit-ins, musical bingo and inappropriate Xmas fun. Don’t miss this hidden gem…

EastEnd Cabaret: The Revolution Will Be Sexual

24-26 November 2011 | Arcola Tent

“super-brill, twenty-seven stars” 

Eat Your Heart Out Presents…Violence

17-26 November 2011 | Riverside Studios

“Hair pulling, arm bruising, scream-out-loud-in-pain brilliance” 

Dracula: Sex, Sucking & Stardom

15 November-3 December 2011 | Hen & Chickens Theatre

“a thoroughly chucklesome…cheeky-chappy of a  three-man show” 

Having recovered from our summer tent experiences, Loserville was ready to get back under canvas… so long as that canvas also had under it a promise of fun times (and a bar)…

The Arcola Tent didn’t disappoint and, as we didn’t have to sleep in it (on a slope, blood rushing to head, with rain dripping on our faces), we were all the merrier. Bottle of wine secured, we snaffled a table, ready to enjoy EastEnd Cabaret‘s latest offering – an evening of saucy songs, “too-much-info” tales, gin-soaked musing on sex, love and, erm, communism… and a massage from a (puppet) monkey. Super-brill, twenty-seven stars.

Favourite Song: Danger Wank

Favourite Instrument: Kazoo

**************

We don’t make trips to Hammersmith without good reason (nothing against Hammersmith, it’s just a bit of a trek from Loserville HQ)…

But when it’s to see an Eat Your Heart Out ‘show’, at the swanky Riverside Studios (we’d tell you about the (probably) great food in the restaurant, but we couldn’t get a table grrr), then we can make the effort.

Confrontational, thought-provoking stuff, with amazing performances and great music… well, that sentence just doesn’t do it justice. Violence isn’t really a show at all, it’s an experience. Love it or loathe it, or fall somewhere in between, Violence will make you think. We like thinking.

You won’t find a better cast of cabaret performers: Scottee, Dickie Beau, Miss Annabel Sings, Nando Messias, Masumi Tipsy, Helen Noir, Spencer Wood and Rachel Porter… If you want more than that, you’re a greedy bastard. Just be prepared – it’s not pretty.

Hair pulling, arm bruising, scream-out-loud-in-pain brilliance.

See this if you like: The Care Bears Movie*

**************

Loserville HEARTS the Hen & Chickens Theatre! The bar staff complimented our glasses, which is always a good start… No “good glasses beer discount” mind, they should work on that…

We were in the North (of London) to catch Dracula: Sex, Sucking & Stardom, a thoroughly chucklesome jaunt through Bram Stoker’s classic bloodsucker romp. This is a cheeky-chappy of a  three-man show which shows just enough respect to the original story, whilst dropping in some inspired re-worked songs (a Bublé ‘classic’ stole the show for our audience) and shamelessly meddling with the well-known material (here, Dracula wants to star in an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical!).

Daft and dippy, and comfortingly accessible – perfect for letting your hair down and having a good old guffaw. Oh, but you might need an umbrella. That’s all we’re saying.

*…and need a reality check :p

Remember, remember the month of November

We believe November is shaping up to be slightly wonderful actually. This To Do List of joy includes Wunderbar Festival, Dracula: Sex, Sucking and Stardom, GFEST, Scottee’s ‘Violence’, La Soiree, Paintworks, EastEnd Cabaret and much more.

Wunderbar Festival @ Newcastle | Until 6 November | Various Times | £Various, inc. FREE stuff

 Ok so this is not strictly in London (in the same way that New York isn’t strictly in Mexico), but we believe the Wunderbar festival is totally worth a road/rail/air-trip! This year the odd and quirky performance festival is back with an interactive bang, it’s all about you! Our top picks include Bring a Pet (to make a makeshift zoo), Work-a-thon (the world record for the largest gathering of self-employed people working together) and the Human Library.

Black Pond @ The Prince Charles Cinema | 11-17 November | 19:00 | £6-10

Micro-budget? Check. Award-winning comedian making film debut? Check. Disgraced TV actor? Check. We’ve all had bad dinner party experiences, but this should reassure most of us that it could be a lot worse… ”The Thompson family is accused of murder when a stranger dies at their dinner table. Six months later, family friend Tim visits freelance therapist Dr Eric Sacks (Simon Amstell) and the story finds its way to the press. The facts are bent and the details spun as the Thompsons become known to the public as ‘The Family of Killers’”. Puts Bridget’s blue soup into perspective, eh?

Future Shorts Film Festival @ Hackney Picturehouse | 14 November | 18:45 | £10

From the creators of Secret Cinema comes the first global film festival where anyone can take part. Find out how to take part here.  Future Shorts’ defining format showcases a single programme of the best short films from around the world often alongside live music, DJs and art.

Dracula: Sex, Sucking and Stardom @ Hen & Chickens Theatre | 15 November – 3 December | 19:30 | £11.50

Divinely silly infusion of  music, naughtiness and slapstick, not forgetting Dracula. The story goes like this: “Jonathan Harker is tempted by the evil Count and a love of all things showbiz. But will he overcome temptation and stop Dracula’s vile plans to marry Lucy, take over the world and star in an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical? The stakes are high, but if they win the day they shall rid the world of a villain and be immortalised in drama by actors in north London…”. We think this will be strangely wonderful.

EastEnd Cabaret: The Revolution Will Be Sexual / Freeze @ Arcola Tent | 13 & 16-25 November | 20:30 | £12

Forget the West End, there’s a lot of great performance mayhem coming from East Laandon of late. The Arcola Tent is the new outdoor comedy & cabaret hub in Dalston, which is going to cause a storm. Our highlights include the fabulous East End Cabaret, whose filthy Weimar charm has warmed our cold winter’s hearts, time and time again (be sure to request LV’s favourite song ‘Dangerwank’, hehe).  Also coming up is Freeze, which pairs two of our favourite oddballs, Tim Key (poet extraordinaire) and Tom Basden (geeky musical raconteur).

GFest @ The Cockpit Theatre | 17 – 19 November | Various Times | £7-15

A great mini festival focussed on the best of LGBT arty turns, GFEST is a platform for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer artists, organisations and venues to promote LGBT and queer arts. GFEST features established alongside fresh or young LGBT artists and queer talent across the arts, including visual arts, theatre, dance and performance, LGBT short films, debates, workshops and parties.

Same Place Different Faces @ Idea Generation Gallery | 17-20 November | FREE

Paintworks presents an exhibition reconnecting with all the people who have worked in the well-known art shop in Dalston. The exhibition will showcase the extraordinary and diverse talents of 45 artists in the Ideas Generation Gallery on Redchurch Street. Our favourites (not that we have favourites) are Marcus Hessenberg, Liam Scully, Tabitha Fedden and Roy Willingham.

Eat Your Heart Out Presents… Violence @ Riverside Studios | 17-26 November | 20:00 | £10

We’re very excited that this whirlwind of a show returns to London. The genre-defying Eat Your Heart Out collective present their examination of the tougher side of life: violent vignettes, disorderly displays and spitting. In a world of gloss this challenging, entertaining and anarchic romp should not be missed.

Handmade & Bound - The Affordable London Book-Art & Zine Fair @ St Bride’s | 20 November | 12:00-18:00 | FREE

We heart zines! Let’s go and buy some together! This event at St Bride’s promises to be a charming festival of artistic DIY talent.

La Soiree @ The Roundhouse | 23 November Onwards | Various Times | From £15

The original cabaret spectacular returns to the Roundhouse for the ultimate Christmas Party with a bang. This year features Chris Iris (boy/girl acrobatics), Le Gateau Chocolat (Black Tranny Opera Star), Katharine Arnold, Hugo Desmarais (aerial performer in a cage), Mario (Queen of the Circus), Nate Cooper, The Skating Willers and Yulia Pykhtina (Hula-hooper Supremo).

Carl-Einar Hackner: Swedish Meatballs @ Soho Theatre | 28 November – 3 December | 22:00 | £10-17.50

The best bad magician since Tommy Cooper comes to the seedy Soho Theatre for some hilarious high jinks. Featuring his unique brand of endearing buffoonery, magical mayhem, lightning-fast humour, silly songs and very expensive props.

-

10 Things To Do Now The Sun Has Finally Buggered Off

--

Lots of fun stuff to do this month, including: storytelling at the Leicester Square Theatre, films at BFI Southbank, dressing up at Institut Francais, dancing at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, music in Hoxton, exhibitions at The V&A, a premiere at Rich Mix and lots more…!

-

-

London Storytelling Festival @ Leicester Square Theatre | 1-10 October | Various Times | £Various

Loserville loves a great bedtime story with our Ovaltine fix, so thank goodness for the London Storytelling Festival. Our top picks include the Gala night on the 10th October which includes top comedian Phil Kay and Simpsons star Harry Shearer. Also, we’re looking forward to Storytellers Club, where comedienne supremo Sarah Kendall and other comedians provide tales for round the campfire.

Maya Deren: 50 Years On @ BFI Southbank | 4-12 October | Various Times | £Various

To mark the 50th anniversary of  filmmaker Maya Deren, the BFI have put on a rather spiffing selection of events to explore her wonderful work. Through her work, Maya challenged the studio format and fused poetry, dance, visual art and a fascination for Haitian Voodoo. There are too many superb events to list here but a selection includes: a symposium exploring the legacy of Maya Deren (Saturday 8th October) and also 3 themed nights of her films entitled: ‘Chamber Films’, ‘Movement & Ritual’ and ‘Fragments & Outtakes’.

‘Barbarella’ & Cosmic Party @ Institut Francais | 8 October | 20:40-Late | £15/£12

The kookiest film on the planet, featuring a voluptuous, naked, weightless Jane Fonda; a beautiful blind blonde angel called Pygar; and the rather lovingly named ‘Orgasmatron’. We are so proud of the Institut Francais in South Kensington for organising this super spacey shindig. See you there, COSMONAUTS!

Umbabungo @ Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club | 8 October | 21:00-02:00 | £7

UMBABINGO! LIMBO CONTEST! TRIBAL GAMES! TOPLESS DARTS DANCE OFF! TRIBALOKE (PRESENTED BY HOT BREATH KARAOKE) AND MORE! Nuff said one thinks.

Kyla La Grange @ Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen | 13 October | 19:00 | £8.50

Kyla was our Bestival beauty and we can’t wait to see a full gig. Her voice is scratchy silk and reminds us of great heroines like Kate Bush. Catch her now at her ‘Heavy Stone’ single launch before she goes massive. Watch the video for the new single here.

The Colored Museum by Talawa @ The V&A | 15-23 October | Various Times | £9-12

We love the V&A’s efforts to broaden its appeal through its innovative Late nights, performances and super talks. This show by the incredibly talented Talawa company takes a hilarious, satirical and often poignant look at the last 200 years of the African-American experience. It takes place in an imaginary culture museum full of 12 living exhibits, and examines stereotypes including the ever smiling Miss Pat, an airline hostess for ‘Celebrity Slaveship’. Not to be missed!

‘Underwater Love’ UK Premiere @ Rich Mix | 16 October | 18:30 | £15

We already previewed this spectacularly odd porn/kitsch/musical/fairy tale about a girl falling in love with a sea creature. We hope you’ve booked already and watched the trailer (which is in our article here). This event features a live performance of music from the film by multi-lingual musical maestros Stereo Total. We are interviewing them soon so keep your eyes peeled.

Private Eye: The First 50 Years @ The V&A | From 18 October | Free

The  V&A Museum is on fire this month, bursting with amazing exhibitions such as Power of Making and Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990. This event features our fave HIGNFY-er Ian Hislop and cartoonist Nick Newman on the rise of the irreverent and plain cheeky Private Eye. The mag is famed for its ability to juggle hard-hitting  journalism and hilarity.

Trunkated @ Blue Elephant Theatre | 25 October | 20:00 | Free

Free fun in the cutest lovely little theatre in London. This night features at least 5 unique and exciting new performances by up-and-coming theatre companies including Hey Ho Ha, Outside Puppets and Scrawny Cat. Book your free ticket now by emailing: info@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk.

Trashing Performance @ Toynbee Studios/Tate Modern/Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club | 25-29 October | Various Times | £10

Loserville is proud to champion entertainment, quirky events and above all trash culture. This awesome mini festival of talks, shows, salons and films explores trash within performance and features some truly awesome events. We will be covering it in more depth later in the month but for now here are our highlights: ‘This is Not a Dream‘ – a film & live event exploring artists use of video to promote freakery; Augusto Corrieri; Shunt; Amy Lame; and Time Out Cabaret writer Ben Walters.

Two more days of Bestival brill bits – and it’s not ALL about topless boys!

So by the time we got to Saturday, we’d already bopped to Blancmange, been scared silly by the Wall of Death, witnessed a stage invasion, and burnt our fingers on some hot German sausage… and we’d only just begun. (if you missed Part One, it’s here innit!)

Day 3

We were lying on the floor of the press tent, listening to Mr Motivator. We think this is irony, or something?  Eventually, photo taking devices charged, we left the safe haven of the backstage area to take in the craziness of the main fancy-dress day of the festival. Lots of Amy Winehouses, a fair few Freddie Mercurys – we bought old lady cardigans from a charity shop… We’re not called Loserville for nothing!

The act we’d been looking forward to the whole weekend was the centrepiece of our day – yep, that’s right, la Village People took to the main stage and the whole crowd had a pretty gay ol’ time! They played all the hits: ‘YMCA’, ‘ Go West’ , ‘In The Navy’ and a camp-as-tits ‘Macho Man’. Loserville was loving it, as were the boys near us who decided the best way to enjoy the Village People was to get naked – woohoo!!

Fresh from the perv-a-thon at the Main Stage, we polished off some cheesy chips and then knocked back a couple of rum ‘n’ ginger beer’s at the Sailor Jerry Stage, got ourselves some sexy lady tattoos, and then it was over to the Knees Up Tent for The Lorraine Bowen Experience. What a show! Lorraine whipped up a storm with her array of novelty organs, had us singing along with her amazing songs including ‘The Crumble Song’ (“Everybody’s good at cooking something, and I’m good at cooking crumble, In fact, I’ve got one in the oven, would you like some?” Amazo-fab!!!), and finished off by joining the crowd (including Marcus Brigstocke) for the Hokey Cokey!

It was a quick sprint next, back over to the Sailor Jerry Stage to catch Wolf Gang (Loserville favourites) play a great set to a packed crowd. Fun times were had by all.

Off we trotted into the Ambient Forrest, where we stumbled upon the Horndog Brass Band playing to about a hundred people in a tiny little clearing – it looked and sounded pretty amazing. And then, through the trees, came the sound of what could only be described asDouble  Mercury Prize Winning PJ Harvey. It was PJ Harvey on the main stage. We caught a bit of her set, but we were feeling jolly, and she was bringing us down a bit, so grabbed a sexy burger and swanned around the Magic Meadow.

And then, The Cure. We waited for an hour before ‘Friday I’m In Love’, but it was worth it, and we danced and sang like idiots. To be honest, we’re ‘Greatest Hits’ kinda fans when it comes to The Cure, so we had to weigh up sticking around for ‘Love Cats’ against heading to the nearest bar.

We had cider I think.

We finished off Saturday in the Cabaret Tent with a spot of Gay Bingo. Unfortunately, we didn’t win AND to make matters worse, we thought we’d found some abandoned bread and peanut butter (all still wrapped/jarred obv!), only for it to be whisked away from us by some pesky Oxfam volunteer. Loser! (But yeah, we were totally going to take the bread we just found in the middle of a tent)

Day 4

We were getting a bit festival-ed out by the time we got to Saturday – we were feeling grubby, we wanted showers, and we were kinda sick of sleeping on a slope so all the blood went to our heads.

So we spent a lot of the last day of Bestival wandering aimlessly and taking pretty pictures, and lying in the press tent listening to photographers and feature writers prattle on about their hard lives :p

But we di take the time to check out a few acts. Obviously, we caught Bjork on the main stage (well, we saw about half an hour, which was about 10% of her set, or something….) – no “It’s Oh So Quiet”, of course, but still a fun, quirky set from the swan lady.

Spam & Beans entertained us in the Comedy and Cabaret Tent, getting the audience involved in a series of crazy/funny gamess and challenges – our favourite game was ‘Sex Face’, where teams had to use sticky tape and any available props (wigs, shoes, anything!) to transform unlucky volunteers’ faces into sexy messes! Hot stuff!

And we were really, really, REALLY excited about seeing Jacques Lu Cont in the Bollywood tent… Until we realised he wasn’t Marcel Lucont. Bit of a mix up on our part. Mang.

We were going to stay out to see Paloma Faith at the Swamp Shack, but the heavens opened and Hurricane Zebedee swung in, so we headed back to weigh the tent down and spent the rest of the night making sure the roof was still there.
_

Day 5

We woke at 6am on Monday morning to scenes of desolation. A cloud had landed on our field, and empty tents were sailing past on the wind. Luckily, having practiced back at Loserville HQ, we’d mastered the art of popping down the pop-up tent. We lugged our kit up to the bus pick-up, the bright red double deckers suddenly appearing from out of the mist. We felt like the survivors at the end of a horror film.

Our ferry felt like the last boat out of Dunkirk. Well, OK, it was nothing like that. There was no German army approaching. But it was pretty choppy, and rammed to the rafters with smelly festival goers.

And that was it. One incredibly slow train journey later, we were back in London and facing up to the real world once more. No more fancy dress. No more Bestivale. But, perhaps most importantly (for now at least, until we get the rose tinted glasses on in, oh, about a week), no more Chinese water torture-style drip-dripping on our faces as we try to get to sleep. Bliss.

_

Here are all our piccies from Bestival 2011 :)

Loserville swapped the city for the magical Isle of Wight last weekend, for four days of Bestival japery…

Armed with a snazzy tent, a disposable barbecue, a pack of bratwurst and a tin of spaghetti hoops (with sausages in), the press juggernaut that is Loserville rolled into Robin Hill Country Park to a fanfare of… oh, hang on, getting a bit carried away. We went to Bestival 2011. Here’s Part One of our Bestival Festival Round-up! (And here’s Part 2)

Day 1

We arrived. The tent was a pop-up affair. We’d tested it at Loserville HQ earlier in the week, and it had indeed popped up quite rapidly. It took us about two hours to get it to pop down again.

Never mind, that delightful chore was three days away. We cracked open the bratwurst and got the BBQ up and running, before heading out to explore. NOTE: Do not use fingers to move exceedingly hot German sausages from super-hot barbecue to soft bun. So, yeah, our first task was to go find a plaster for a burnt finger!

Finger plastered, we got stuck into the cider and stumbled across Blancmange (of ‘Living On The Ceiling’ fame: “I’m so tall, I’m so tall…” in the Big Top. Good stuff! We were a bit miffed that we missed The La’s earlier in the day (because we misread the times), so we checked out the press tent (with its snazzy chandelier), and snuck into the VIP, with its waving cats. Lucky slebs.

Day 2

We woke up slightly damp – turns out the Loserville Press Office is only 95% waterproof, and it lets in little droplets of moisture just to keep things interesting.

After polishing off the last of the bratwurst for brekkie, we headed for the Ambient Forest in search of some theatre or poetry or some such. We crashed the end of some yoga-ey meditation, only to find that the performers hadn’t turned up for our first show of the day! Pfft, theatre types, you can never trust them!

Next up was Kyla La Grange in the Psychedelic Worm, who were totally on it and gave a great performance – they even managed not to be distracted by the tw@tted guy painted green who stood right at the front and waved manically at Kyla. Festival gold.

We wanted to see a bit of Ghostpoet on the Red Bull Music Academy stage, but he was bumped to a later slot. Instead, we bummed around (perhaps we went to the bar, who can say) until Brian Wilson was wheeled out onto the main stage to crank out a few Beach Boys classics.

There’s only so much 60s surf-pop that Loserville can take on a Friday afternoon, so we took the opportunity to mooch around the Bollywood and Ballroom fields, and caught an amazing Wall of Death show which scared the sh*t out of us!

Back in the Ambient Forest, we caught ‘Proper Night’, a darkly funny, surreal, fab play from OutHouse Collective, in collaboration with director Dominic McHale. Ace stuff, in a great setting, which kept us guessing right to the end.

The winding paths of the Ambient Forest led us out to the Bandstand (solar powered, no led) in time for Brigitte Aphrodite. We HEART Brigitte! It was an amazing set of quirky, catchy choons, including our favourite about there being f*ck-all to do in Bromley, and a brill cover of The Ronettes’ ‘Be My Baby’. It all culminated in a good ol’ stage invasion, and the crowd loved it! We can’t wait to see Brigitte again.

After a bit of grub and a quick gander at Chromeo on the Main Stage, we scampered up to the Knees Up tent for Underbling & Vow’s time-traveling, singalong celebration of old-fashioned crowd-pleasers like ‘Knees Up Mother Brown’ and ‘My Old Man’.

Then we made sure to catch Loserville favourites Bourgeois & Maurice belt out a few classics (‘Dull People’ and ‘Ritalin’) as well as newer stuff (‘Lizard Men’, ‘C.H.A.O.S.’, and ‘Maurice’s Happy Song’). A perfect way to finish off our first full day at Bestival.

Mindful (yeah, Loserville can be mindful!) of the rammed day we had planned on Saturday, we withdrew to the Loserville Press Office to make notes, eat sweets, and attempt some on-the-job waterproofing.

_

Part Two is here, including: the Lorraine Bowen Experience, The Cure, Spam & Beans, Bjork, Village People, PJ Harvey, Wolf Gang, Gay Bingo, and the dawn of the apocalypse (Monday morning!)

 The Bourgeois & Maurice Band

@ Soho Theatre | 1-3 September 2011 | 21:30 | £10

“there’s no better (legal) way to spend an evening in a Soho basement”

We say: Fresh from a summer of festival fun (the fab Apple Cart Festival amongst many), Bourgeois & Maurice have taken the next logical step toward world-conquering, stadium-filling super stardom… they’ve only gone and got themselves a band!

Loserville favourites Bourgeois & Maurice are back for a short one-off series of gigs at the Soho Theatre, with ace new songs and a couple of bandmates thrown in. We were stage-adjacent for the opening night, as Georgeois Bourgeois and Maurice Maurice stormed through a set of new classics and old favourites.

It’s totally worth catching B&M with their band – old songs like Ritalin, Tolerance, and Tax Me Baby are given the rock’n'roll, drums and guitar treatment, and the new songs don’t disappoint (but then, we knew they wouldn’t).

They say: “In the past four years award-winning alt-cabaret duo Bourgeois & Maurice have released two critically-ignored albums, performed at Tiger Tiger in Croydon and been heralded by the Guardian as ‘basically a singing duo’. They return to Soho Theatre to celebrate these astonishing accomplishments with a one-off series of ‘gigs’ in which the ethically-bankrupt siblings are joined onstage by a band.”

Friday 26th August | 21:00-02:00 | £10

Book advance tickets here, call 0844 847 9910,
or pay on the door

We say: Loserville loves Duckie, which has risen from RVT cornerstone to nothing short of a national homo-institution. There just aren’t enough words to explain how much we loved their recent residency at The Barbican for the beautiful Lullaby – although we’ve had a go here! And we’re mega excited about Duckie returning to The Barbican in December for The Duckie Christmas Market and Copyright Christmas… More on that nearer Xmas!

But back to the point, we can’t wait to celebrate Duckie finally reaching the age of consent – we’d like to say we’ll be breaking her in gently, but we know she’s already been getting around a bit…

It really should be an amazing night, with some of Loserville’s favourites back in action at the Royal Festival Hall:

Duckie regulars Amy Lamé and the Readers Wifes continue to flourish despite since our Duckie documentary last year. Amy will once again prove the hostess with the mostest, and the Wifes will be celebrating 60 years of post-war British pop – get your dancing shoes at the ready!

******** 

Up & Over It featured in our March To Do List, and then only went and starred in Britain’s Got Talent! Expect amazing dance routines, including THAT table routine (if you haven’t seen it, it’s not as dirty as a table routine might sound…to a pervert).

********

Scottee, last seen on these pages for the RVTs Burger Queen – we don’t know what to expect from Scottee on this occasion, but that’s how we like it! We’ve never been disappointed, and we never will. And no, that’s not because we’re easy to please! Cheeky.

********

Plus many, many more amazing acts… We’ll leave Duckie to explain…

They say: “Come as you are or partake in our fancy dress code of vintage British tribes: punks, teds, skins, mods, rockers, goths, rude girls, Sloane rangers, crusties, city gents, suburban housewives, new romantics, streakers, Greenham Common women, natty dreads, honky-tonks and casuals.

Hostess Mrs Amy Lamé introduces the Best of British bentertainment from Up N Over It, Miss High Leg Kick, The Stylinquents, Lorraine Bowen, The LipSinkers, Bird la Bird, Scottee, Ryan Styles, George Chakravarthi, Mitch & Parry, Oompah Brass, The Revd Jennie Hogan and guests…

Pay homage to the Festival of Britain and rock the Clore Ballroom dancefloor as record players the Readers Wifes salute 60 years of post-war British pop.”

Loserville is stoked to catch up with Australian offbeat drag sensation Drags Aloud. Their uniquely biting show is entitled SHOW GURL and we can’t recommend it enough! It’s on at the Edinburgh Fringe at the “BELLY DANCER” UNDERBELLY, COWGATE – AUGUST 18 – 28 2011, 22:20PM tickets here. We love their definition of showgurl:

showgirl (n). a mythical creature of beauty, talent and poise adorned in feathers and spangles

showgurl (n). what remains when it all goes bollocks up

DRAGS ALOUD: SHOWGURL takes a glittering look into the mystical world of the SHOWGURL in her many manifestations: beauty queen, model, dancer, burlesque star and more.  Over the top sequences are punctuated by poignant, dramatic and comic stories from each artist as they each tell the tales of how they were drawn to the drag stage.

Armed with their trademark stiletto sharp satire, Drags Aloud take a swipe at man-made sex symbols and society’s obsession with body image, beauty and glamour, all presented with their signature over-the-top costumes, irreverent wit and their trademark hilarity; along with the story of the most famous showgirl of them all.

We caught up with the GURLs and here’s what they had to say…

Q:  You haven’t spared us much time.

A:  We have a very short attention span.

Q:  Who are you?

A:  We are Kris del Vayze, Jessica James and Amanda Monroe.  Collectively we are Drags Aloud.

Q:  Where are you from?

A:  Australia.

Q:  How are things Down Under?

A:  That’s getting a bit personal isn’t it?

Q:  What has brought you to Edinburgh?

A:  A British Airways flight, a taxi, and our new Fringe show – Drags Aloud: Showgurl.

Q:  What’s it about?

A:  A satirical, laugh-a-minute, and very tongue in cheek exploration of man-made sex symbols, body culture, beauty and glamour.  And its all wrapped up in feathers, sequins, over-the-top costuming and fabulous music.

Q:  So, it’s a fun show then?  Lot’s of laughs?

A:  Its self-wettingly funny.

Q:  Is there any sauciness to the show?

A:  Plenty of sauce – we strip in this show… doesn’t get much saucier than that.

Q:  How about surprises?  We all love surprises.

A:  If we told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise.  But let’s just say “maybe”.

Q:  Do you get the audience involved in the show?

A:  No.  We’re spotlight whores; we don’t like to share our spotlight with anyone else.

Q:  Where can we see this show?

A:  In the Underbelly in Cowgate.  Every night from Aug 18-28.

Q:  Thank you for your time.

A:  Is that it?  All over?  Right girls, lets get to the off-license before it shuts.