From Miss Tony and Frank Ski, a classic bitch track from 1992.

“Understand, I’m a man, I’m a man, I’m a man. But you know what y’all? Sometimes I feel just like a woman. And if you don’t believe me…ask your father.”

Both this and “Whores in this House” on the flipside were big Sound Factory tracks.

Tony’s Bitch Track

Written by A. McLaran, T. Boston. Produced by Frank Ski. Vocal performance by Tony Boston. Published by Future Sights & Sounds Music/BMI. Recorded and mixed at High Heels Studio, Baltimore MD. 1992 Deco Records.

From the partnership of John Richmond & Maria Cornejo, which ended in 1987, the 3D (Destroy, Disoriantate, Disorder) label:

John Richmond has of course gone on to fame and fortune and Maria Cornejo now has an expanding business in NYC, with one store on Mott Street and another just opened in the West Village.

And one more throwback to London designers from the 80s, Harvey & Bannister who made a lot of lovely clothes with a propensity for big hoods and tassles. I can’t find any information on the fate of either designer via Google.

Richmond-Cornejo and Harvey & Bannister were among a big, talented group of designers in London at the time; others included Mark Lawrence, John Crancher, BodyMap (David Holah & Stevie Stewart), John Flett, Stephen Linard, Patrick Cox, John Galliano and Joe Casely-Hayford (now apparently master tailor at Gieves & Hawkes).

John Crancher ad from The Face, circa 1985:

“More than 500 people were desperately seeking the latest US import - Ecstasy - at a recent London party (with only 35 examples to be had). Demand is such that foolish thrill-seekers are getting agony the next day for their money.”

From the trivia section of the November 1985 issue of now-defunct UK style magazine, The Face.

Although I don’t know how it came to pass, for a while in the 1980s Jean-Paul Gaultier was an honorary North London queen. After The Bell in Kings Cross closed on a Sunday night, he would often be among the throng running the gauntlet of a dodgy pub (rumored to be a National Front hangout) off York Way on route to another gay club called Traffic that stayed open later. Perhaps inspired by the idea of additional anti-skinhead armor, Gaultier designed these metal shoe plates that he laced onto his multi-hole Doc Marten boots. They inevitably went on to become big with the fashionistas and were available for a while at Stephan Kélian in London.

Some dimly remembered soundtrack selections:

Sunday night @ The Bell
Prince - Kiss, Mountains, Anotherloverholeinyourhead, Girls & Boys
Woodentops - Well, Well, Well
Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls, Opportunities, Love Comes Quickly, Paninaro
Cocteau Twins - Peppermint Pig
SPK - Metal Dance
The Smiths - How Soon is Now?, Bigmouth Strikes Again, There is a Light that Never Goes Out
Paul Simpson - Musical Freedom
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Cities in Dust
Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin - Sisters are Doin’ it for Themselves
James Brown - Living in America
Sunday night @ Traffic
Madonna - Into the Groove, Open Your Heart
Barbara Mason - Another Man
Taffy - I Love My Radio (Midnight Radio)
Steve Silk Hurley - Jack Your Body
Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy, Tell Me Why
Fingers, Inc. - Mystery of Love

As part of an occasional series delving back into clubbing history, I’ll try and dredge up some memories of events that don’t seem to have been written about anywhere on the web. The Scala cinema in London still stands, in a souped up foofier version of the one that drew crowds to occasional gay all night parties in London circa the mid 80s (84/85/86). After paying in the foyer you made your way up into the lobby area which got converted into a dancefloor with DJs playing; there’d be a table near the toilets with someone selling cans of lager (the orange cans of Pils that were ubiquitous at one-offs and warehouse parties at the time). They’d show movies all night in the big old cinema; the first time I remember walking in and being confronted with a monstrous sized David Byrne, they were showing Stop Making Sense and people were dancing in front of the screen with Byrne looming over them. John Waters movies and Cabaret are among the others that got shown, although if you went up to the very back of the cinema, you realized that not everyone was watching…

Went to several of these parties, which I’m pretty sure were called “The Mix” or something like that, wish I could remember who ran them. They drew a lot the same crowd that went to The Bell, a gay pub just around the corner which did a sort of cheap indie night on Sundays that was popular with North London queens. I’ll save more on The Bell for another post. If anyone finds this and knows more about who ran these Scala all-nighters and who DJ’d, post a comment and let me know.