With its truculent
DJs and left-leaning flavour, it was a lone voice in the wilderness
of mainstream gay club culture when it opened its doors 16 years
ago. A passionate (but not muscular) declaration of alternative
queer identities; and with its cheap entry price (still under a
tenner) and cutting edge, brave and downright bonkers choice of
'turns,' the Vauxhall club-in-a-pub was brilliant value for money,
too.
Duckie gave a
platform to the likes of the inconoclastic David Hoyle, Ursula
Martinez, Marisa Carnesky and many more who are now household names
in the world of bold and avant garde performance. Over the years
I've seen the likes of Justin Bond, elderly mayors and mayoresses
in all their finery, Kira O'Reilly and Dickie Beau who all
performed before the RVT ditched the spit-n-sawdust for its current
plush decor. Even I have graced the stage on a couple of occasions.
Once, dressed as Marc Bolan, in a sketch about Bonobo monkeys with
then girlfriend and drag king Diane Torr (and which, as leftfield
and brilliant as it was IMHO, went down like a cup of Nancy
Spungen's sick) and once in a performance about homelessness with
my pal Doran George. We were booed off the stage. Punk
rock!
Branching out
beyond their south London backyard, the Duckie Svengalis Simon
Casson, Amy Lame et al have taken the show on the road with
innovative events such as Art School and Wigan Casino, the
legendary Gay Shame nights held annually as a two-fingered salute
to the increasingly commercialised official national Pride event.
The wonderful Valentines' day bash that saw hundreds of queers
descend on the 1930s Bexhill De La Warr pavillion was matched in
its originality by Duckie's occasional series of
variety events aimed at a mixed audience of OAPs and younger folk -
Queers and Old dears - working with older peoples' day
centres.
Friday 26 August will see yet another foray
into the queer underbelly of yesteryear. Hosted by the wonderful
Amy Lame the night promises a range of daring, funny and
thought-provoking performances from the likes of Bird La Bird,
Scottee, Ryan Styles and the Revd Jennie
Hoganand
guests. You are invited to partake in
Duckie's fancy dress code of vintage British tribes: punks, teds,
skins, yuppies, mods, rockers, goths, rude girls, sloane rangers,
crusties, city gents, suburban housewives, new romantics,
streakers, greenham common womyn, natty dreads, honky-tonks and
casuals.
Casson, who will be dressed as an early
noughties chav "To show solidarity with my
working class breadren," explains that he
chose the night's Best of British theme "Because Duckie is
quintessentially British." What's his favourite era of all time?
"Early 60's," he says without hesitation. "Mods were mods, queers
were queers and rockers were greasy."
Friday 26 August
2011
9pm - 2am
The Clore Ballroom at the Royal Festival
Hall
www.duckie.co.uk
