luring disco dollies to a life of vice…

[i]Stay Beautiful[/i]

http://www.staybeautifulclub.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/staybeautifulclub

WE PLAY: SLEAZY GLAM // HI-VOLTAGE ELECTRO // GLITTER ROCK // SHOUTY GIRL MUSIC // F UCKED UP DISCO // '77 PUNK // NEW WAVE // ALTERNATIVE ANTHEMS // POP TRASH



*IPSO FACTO LIVE AT STAY BEAUTIFUL*
Greetings, citizens. The next Stay Beautiful is on SATURDAY 2nd AUGUST, and our live band is the ice-cool Southend quartet IPSO FACTO ( http://www.myspace.com/ipsofactomyspace ). We're sure you know who they are already, but in case you don't, we'll hand you over to the rock & pop critic from the Independent On Sunday, who knows a thing or two: "Ipso Facto have been hailed, or dismissed (depending on your viewpoint), as a 'female Horrors', largely for social reasons (they’re old friends from Southend), and perhaps for their shared aesthetic (vintage and monochrome), but sonically they have little in common with the garage-goth abandon of their male counterparts. Rosalie Cunningham, Cherish Kaya, Victoria Smith and Samantha Valentine wear immaculate Sixties dresses, elegant geometric bobs, and even their eyebrows are sculpted to precision. Their music echoes this scrupulous attention to detail. These aren’t songs so much as exercises, or - let’s be really pretentious about this - etudes. This is not the art of unregulated expressionism, but of disciplined repression. Ipso Facto’s minimal baroque is typified, in both sound and title, by 'Smoke And Mirrors', a waltz around an empty ballroom haunted by Rosalie’s voice (which is itself stalked by the ghosts of Siouxsie Sioux, Julie Driscoll, Nico and Grace Slick). Ipso Facto will never be massive. But they will be a lot of people’s favourite un-massive band." Prepare to be enchanted...

*CHEAP BOOZE, FREE BOOZE!*
Drinks at the Purple Turtle are, you'll be glad to hear, served at pretty reasonable, pubby prices anyway (certainly compared to one or two of our previous homes). And, to set you on your way towards alcoholic oblivion, the Purple Turtle serves a special JESUS JUICE cocktail exclusively at Stay Beautiful - a delicious and potentially head-fvcking blend of vodka, Archers, cranberry, lemonade and fresh lime - at £8.50 per pitcher ALL NIGHT (a wide variety of other cocktails will be served at a tenner per pitcher). Furthermore, as aficionados of messy vodka-guzzling will be aware, Stay Beautiful has a somewhat notorious tradition called the WATERING CAN SONG...



*LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA...*
...and this month's Watering Can Song, in honour of the Australian pop goddess's glorious residency in Greenwich, is "CAN'T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD" by KYLIE MINOGUE. So, when you hear that immortal la-la-la refrain, and spot Cherry Foxxx preparing to prance around with a litre of vodka in her hand, you know it's time to get wet!

*ADMISSION PRICES*
Regular admission prices are as follows. Standard price is £7 (i.e. if you can‘t even be bothered to pick up a flyer, bring some sort of concessionary ID, or wear an SB badge). However, for very early birds, it's just £4 BEFORE 9.30pm, and if you come with a flyer (printable version: http://www.staybeautifulclub.co.uk/eflyer.htm ), NUS/DSS card or a Stay Beautiful badge, it's now just £5 ALL NIGHT!

*WHERE IT'S AT*
Stay Beautiful's current home is the PURPLE TURTLE ( http://www.purpleturtlebar.com ), 61-65 Crowndale Rd NW1 (for directions and transport information, see our 'Info' page: http://www.staybeautifulclub.co.uk/info.htm), just 1 minute's walk from Mornington Crescent tube (and about 5 minutes from Camden Town.

*OPENING HOURS AND AGE POLICY*
Stay Beautiful opens at 9.00pm and closes at 3.00am. Please note that The Purple Turtle is an over-18s venue and ID MAY BE REQUIRED, so if you think you may look underage, please bring one of the following: an NUS card (with a credit card), a passport, or a driving license.

*FUTURE DATES*
Stay Beautiful happens on the FIRST SATURDAY of the month, so mark your diaries accordingly! (See http://www.staybeautifulclub.co.uk/info.htm for full dates.)

*SIGN UP*
If you haven't done so already, SIGN UP TO THE STAY BEAUTIFUL MAILING LIST: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

See you there… and don’t forget: DRESS UP!

love and poison

Simon, Tony, David and Cherry xxx

P.S. don't forget to check out our POLAROID gallery: www.staybeautifulclub.co.uk/gallery.htm
...and our YOUTUBE page: www.youtube.com/profile?user=staybeautifulclub

[I]luring disco dollies to a life of vice…[/i]

[i]Stay Beautiful[/i]

http://www.staybeautifulclub.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/staybeautifulclub

WE PLAY: SLEAZY GLAM // HI-VOLTAGE ELECTRO // GLITTER ROCK // SHOUTY GIRL MUSIC // F UCKED UP DISCO // '77 PUNK // NEW WAVE // ALTERNATIVE ANTHEMS // POP TRASH

Event: Stay Beautiful
Venue: Purple Turtle, Camden Town
Date: Saturday 2nd August 2008













Well, that was one of the all-time classics. Despite being short-staffed and despite technical difficulties, the show went on - as it must - and did so in style.

For the first couple of hours we mainly kept the music in a dark, downbeat mood to set the tone for our live band. Ipso Facto, who all look so disconcertingly identical that, even though I met a couple of them, I have no idea which ones they were, played a set of elegantly moody doom-rock and attracted a crowd which apparently included the Last Shadow Puppets and Alexa Chung (whoop-dee-doo), but more importantly a scattering of girls who looked like they ought to be members of Ipso Facto, which probably means they’re destined to go a long long way…

Once they were out of the way, we cranked it up to another level, and you were more than ready to party. We had several birthday posses in the house, which always helps (happy birthday to Hazel, Felicity, Cassie and Elena!), and some people had travelled long distances to be there: one couple drove all the way from Northampton to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, and drove back the same night. Another gang came all the way from Leeds dressed as ancient Egyptians. One girl flew in from Paris just to be there. And one Stay Beautiful regular from way back - the legendary Nurse Tim - showed up for the first time in years, having travelled back from Japan (admittedly, we don’t think SB was the sole purpose of his visit)!

What the night lacked in visuals (the Purple Turtle DVD player was broken, so no films), the SB crowd made up for in typically flamboyant and exuberant fashion. One (male) regular made such a convincing job of dressing up in drag that we completely failed to recognise him… Some rampant serial snogging taking place on the dancefloor, by the way. A spree of almost military precision.

The absence of Mr Ryder Prangley meant we had to call upon Wasim Khan to step heroically into the meet-and-greet clipboard role (a million thanks to him), and it meant that our own Cherry Foxxx got to play her first headline set since adopting that new name…

It’s funny how certain music needs a cooling-off period before it feels fresh again. Whenever we played some old-skool 2001-era Electroclash (eg Fischerspooner, Avenue D and Peaches), everyone went nuts. On the other hand, looks like everyone’s sick of Alphabeat now. Oh well. Other tracks that took off big-time: “Another One Bites The Dust” by Queen (dedicated to Barry George aka Barry Bulsara), “Your Disco Needs You” by Kylie, “Umbrella” by the Manics, and “Candyman” by Xtina (refreshed after a couple of months’ break) completely brought out the show-off in you. Admittedly, this wasn’t difficult.

It was one of those nights where nearly every song was greeted with a scream as soon as everyone recognised the intro, one of those nights where the stage invasion never ceases, one of those nights where it’s so busy that we’re already doing one-in one-out at half past midnight, and one of those nights that ends in a mutual we’re-not-worthy round of applause. Amazing stuff. Big thanks to you all for making it such a memorable one.

Which with no further ado, apart from reminding you that you can see photos at http://www.staybeautifulclub.co.uk/gallery.htm and video clips at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=staybeautifulclub, and that the next Stay Beautiful is on SATURDAY 6th SEPTEMBER, brings us to what we actually played:

SIMON PRICE 9.00-9.30
Marlene Dietrich - “Falling In Love Again”
The Passions - “I’m In Love With A German Film Star”
Public Image Limited - “The Flowers Of Romance”
X-Ray Spex - “Germ-Free Adolescents”
Blondie - “Shayla”
The New Sins - “It Doesn’t Work Like That”
David Bowie - “Speed Of Life”
----------------------------
CHERRY FOXXX 9.30-10.15
Shivaree - “Goodnight Moon”
Kylie Minogue - “Confide In Me”
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - “Red Right Hand”
The Creatures - “Right Now”
Kate Bush - “Babooshka”
Golden Boy feat. Miss Kittin - “Rippin Kittin”
Tubeway Army - “Me, I Disconnect From You”
Strawberry Switchblade - “Since Yesterday”
Blondie - “Rip Her To Shreds”
Danielle Dax - “Big Hollow Man”
CSS - “Left Behind”
Ladytron - “Seventeen”
Heloise And The Savoir Faire - “Odyle”
----------------------------
SIMON PRICE 10.15-11.00
Nancy Sinatra - “Bang Bang”
Velvet Underground & Nico - “Femme Fatale”
Jefferson Airplane - “White Rabbit”
Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger Trinity - “This Wheel’s On Fire”
The Animals - “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”
The Raveonettes - “Love In A Trashcan”
Adam And The Ants - “Zerox”
The Knife - “You Take My Breath Away”
Marianne Faithfull - “Broken English”
The Cure - “Lullaby”
Manic Street Preachers - “Comfort Comes”
Queen Adreena - “FM Doll”
Goldfrapp - “Train”
David Bowie - “Heroes”
Kenickie - “Come Out 2 Nite”
The Dresden Dolls - “Coin Operated Boy”
Robots In Disguise - “The Sex Has Made Me Stupid”
Siouxsie And The Banshees - “Happy House”
----------------------------
IPSO FACTO 11.00-11.30
(live onstage)
----------------------------
SIMON PRICE 11.30-12.30
Peggy Lee vs. Iggy Pop - “Passenger Fever (Go Home Productions)“
Public Image Ltd - “Public Image”
The Horrors - “Count In Fives”
The Long Blondes - “Weekend Without Make-Up”
Altered Images - “Happy Birthday”
Avenue D - “Do I Look Like A Slut?”
Peaches - “AA XXX”
Depeche Mode - “Never Let Me Down Again”
Kylie Minogue - “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” (Watering Can Song)
Fischerspooner - “Emerge”
Nine Inch Nails - “Head Like A Hole”
Placebo - “Slave To The Wage”
Black Kids - “I’m Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend…”
Manic Street Preachers - “Umbrella”
Queen - “Another One Bites The Dust”
Rod Stewart - “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?”
----------------------------
CHERRY FOXXX 12.30-1.30
Blondie - “Heart Of Glass”
Suede - “Animal Nitrate”
Animotion - “Obsession”
Flying Lizards - “Money”
Bow Wow Wow - “I Want Candy”
Le Tigre - “Deceptacon”
David Bowie - “Modern Love”
No Doubt - “Hella Good”
Robots In Disguise - “Turn It Up”
The Cure - “Close To Me”
Kylie Minogue - “Your Disco Needs You”
Courtney Love - “Mono”
Peaches - “Boys Wanna Be Her”
IAMX - “Nightlife”
Queen Adreena - “Pretty Like Drugs”
Manic Street Preachers - “PCP”
Marilyn Manson - “The Fight Song”
Iggy Pop - “Real Wild Child (Wild One)”
----------------------------
SIMON PRICE 1.30-3.00
T. Rex - “20th Century Boy”
Christina Aguilera - “Candyman”
Patrick Wolf - “The Magic Position”
Duran Duran - “Hungry Like The Wolf”
Pulp - “Razzmatazz”
Alphabeat - “Fascination”
Billy Idol - “Dancing With Myself”
Guns N’ Roses - “Welcome To The Jungle”
Mansun - “Take It Easy Chicken”
Rachel Stevens - “Some Girls”
Ladytron - “Playgirl”
Placebo - “Nancy Boy (Sex Mix)“
Joy Division - “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
Suede - “New Generation”
Ramones - “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker”
Mudhoney - “Touch Me I’m Sick”
New York Dolls - “Personality Crisis”
The Pipettes - “Pull Shapes”
Prince - “Raspberry Beret”
Roxy Music - “Virginia Plain”
David Bowie - “John, I’m Only Dancing”
Nancy Sinatra - “These Boots Are Made For Walking”
The Ting Tings - “That’s Not My Name”
Hole - “Celebrity Skin”
Dresden Dolls - “Girl Anachronism”
Manic Street Preachers - “Stay Beautiful”
(The Muppets - “Mah Nah Mah Nah”)

Films shown: none, because the effing DVD player wouldn’t work.

ends

By the way, I think that'll be the last bit of SB reporting/spamming I'll do on here. I don't want you to think I'm going off in a huff or throwing my toys out of the pram or anything, but the SB/OTF-WSC crossover, smallish to begin with, is now non-existent (I haven't seen any of you guys at the club for months), so it's a waste of everyone's time. Of course, you're all still welcome, and you always know where to find us...

Spearmint Rhino wrote:

QUOTE:
By the way, I think that'll be the last bit of SB reporting/spamming I'll do on here. I don't want you to think I'm going off in a huff or throwing my toys out of the pram or anything, but the SB/OTF-WSC crossover, smallish to begin with, is now non-existent (I haven't seen any of you guys at the club for months), so it's a waste of everyone's time. Of course, you're all still welcome, and you always know where to find us...

Oh!

:-(

I'm sorry to hear (all) that. I was always a rare attendee, simply due to the slight distance/logistics thing, but I imagined there were always one or two OTFers there, bemoaning my lightweightness. ;-)

Slightly annoyingly, I could have come along on Saturday, but I had totally lost track of which weekend it was (despite your best efforts, Simon - sorry!). Thus, I just ended up going out in my home town. Oh well. Hopefully, we (ex-SB) OTFers will be able to organise some kind of mass visit sometime soon. I'd like to have a blow-out before the academic year gets under full (depressing, for me) steam.

I'll endeavour to keep up to pace on your antics via your Myspace mailshots, Simon.

(FWIW, I think that your publicity on Myspace (and here) is excellently organised. Keeping your public informed is an important part of generating a 'family vibe', I think. Without that 'being kept informed' element, any club can run the risk of becoming an event that people just stumble across and wander into on the night - not something that keeps a 'look'/'feel' going consistently.)

Cheers Clive. It feels like a bit of a thankless chore, scanning and uploading all the photos and videos and writing up the reports, so it's nice to hear that someone appreciates it.

Saturday was my first Stay Beautiful, and it a beautiful accident it was.

I did my best to ruin the experience, arriving late from a fancy dress do - and looking more The Joker than the intended Robert Smith - with the eyeballs fairly rolling in my head.

But I loved it.

Thanks very much SR.

Ah, I think I saw you, or at least a picture of you afterwards. Although admittedly "bad Robert Smith lookalike" could have described at least five people...

I arrived with Dawn who for some reason was on your guestlist, and who sported a more individual look of flowing ballgown and purple hair.

I do remember a flash but that may have been the first warning of the headache to come.

Anyway, everyone was friendly and fun. You have a good thing going there.

Ah, small world... or tenuous connections... basically Dawn was on the guest list cos Lecia asked for her to be, and Lecia gets on the guest list because she used to go out with the DJ from the Camden Palace who put me on his guest list for years and years so it was payback, and I can't very well stop doing it just cos they've broken up, ha ha. It's a wonder we make any money.

Um, anyway, glad you had fun.

Well now I'm back in central, I'll be hoping to get along a bit more often. The utter awfulness of getting back to Ealing made going out in town seem an awful pain.
Thinking on it, I reckon it may have been Christmas last time I went.

despite never being able to come along to SB due to me being based in the english outback, i genuinely love the write up/pics/playlists etc.
makes me feel sort of connected to the world of glammed up parties and mascara'd up excess.

Yeah, agreed. I enjoyed my visits to SB, but am now a bit too far away to attend. Always nice to see the decadence and work that goes into those posts. Though without them I suppose I don't feel jealous. But they are great to read.