And I'm just not satisfied

It is indeed a shame that the opening gala of the 27th Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (LLGFF) at the British Film Institute on Friday clashed with our cherished Polari.

For, as it says on the festival website:

...it "kicked off in flamboyant style with the gala screening of I Am Divine, a new documentary about the legendary actor and drag queen Divine.

An LLGFF favourite following the screening of his film Vito at last year’s Festival, director Jeffrey Schwarz flew in for this international premiere, four days after the film was unveiled at its world premiere at America’s SXSW festival. Several friends of Divine were among the audience, including sculptor and performance artist Andrew Logan, record producer Pete Waterman and Mark Moore of S’Express.

The after-party was held aboard HMS President, in tribute to Divine’s legendary performance on a paddle steamer on the Thames during the Gay Pride parade in 1985."

Festival programmer Brian Robinson was there on the riverbank in 1985 and recalls Divine’s show:

"It was a very funny day, very busy. There were lots of stalls along Jubilee Gardens. You could hear the sound of Divine singing on the boat before you could actually see Divine. And when the paddle steamer hoved into view, you could see Divine gyrating. It was an extraordinary sight. In the middle of the river, even Divine looked small, but it was a great moment that I’ve never forgotten."

And neither have I - for I too was there!

One of the campest moments of my life...

Native Love (Step by Step)
Dance-ah feel the heat
Rock your body to the native beat

Step by step
Slowly I turn
Step by step
Come on

Well here I am I got the beat
I'm gonna rock to the rhythm of the body heat
Come on now let's have big fun
Rock to the rhythm let's get undone.

I've achieved my teenage dream
Cuz love was on my mind
This native love is restless
And I'm just not satisfied.

And I'll never get enough
Of that native love.

Step by step
Slowly I turn
Step by step
Come on

My car is my Ferrari and my body's Jack LaLanne
My clothes are by Armani and my hair is by Elaine
Tiffany and Cartier are telling me the time
This native love is restless
And I'm just not satisfied.

And I'll never get enough
Of that native love
Dance ride feel the heat
Rock your body to the body heat.

What it looks like
What it is
Say pungra, jungra
Say damn to the thungra

Step by step
Slowly I turn
Step by step
Come on

This native love is restless
And I'm just not satisfied
This native love is restless
And I'm just not satisfied

Hey GQ man, here I stand
For everyone to see
And if I'm not your type, well that's alright
Cuz that don't matter to me.

Got the rhythm and the rhyme
I'm right on time
I'm gonna blow your mind
This native love is restless
And I'm just not satisfied.

The Lesbian and Gay Film Festival continues until 24th March 2013.

I'm like a pie made for hungry guys

It is more than 25 years since that most singular of music styles Hi-NRG first hurtled in its poppers-crazed frenzy into the clubs and the charts across the globe.

In an era of optimism - post-Disco, pre-House and pre-Techno - when AIDS was just "something that happened to someone else", this hyper-charged 125 to 127bpm gay-gay-gay music launched a million fan-dances, made "stars" out of long-lost Northern Soul singers like Evelyn Thomas and Pearly Gates (largely thanks to the "conversion" of DJ Ian Levine from that genre to Hi-NRG at that time), rejuvenated the careers of disco stars such as Sylvester, Martha Wash and (former "Harlette" with Bette Midler) Sharon Redd, and made the ears of soon-to-be pop supremos Stock Aitken & Waterman really prick up.

But it was European music - a type of Disco still fondly referred to as "Italo" to this day - that really made the big difference in the development of Hi-NRG. For despite the effervescent productions of Patrick Cowley and Bobby "O" arising from the San Fransisco and New York gay club scenes, the real inspiration remained that seminal producer Giorgio Moroder, whose I Feel Love for Donna Summer had already changed the face of Disco forever.

Hence the huge underground success of synth-driven Euro-dance (in tandem with the far cooler synth sounds of the New Romantics, and eventually Pet Shop Boys and Erasure) gave birth to what became - in one form or another - the true sound of the 1980s nightclubs.

Alongside such brilliantly tacky European artists as Fun Fun, Modern Talking and Lime one of my personal favourites of that era was the German former monk who went by the name of Fancy. If ever there is a song that can truly sum up a whole era, it is this one...

Fancy - Slice Me Nice

Slice Me Nice - Fancy
My body's burning like a flame that's blue
It's time for action and I want it from you
Slice me nice, slice me nice

My heart is beating to the rhythm of love
I need you baby like cold hands need a glove
Slice me nice, slice me nice

I'm like a cake that wants to be baked
I'm like a pie made for hungry guys
My body's burning like a flame that's blue
It's time for action baby, cut me in two
Slice me nice, slice me nice

S L I C E, slice me nice
S L I C E, slice me nice
S L I C E, slice me nice
S L I C E, slice me nice
(Slice me nice)

Read more about Manfred Alois Perilano aka Fancy

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This article was originally posted back in 2009 - see my daily blog Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle.

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