Lip Sync Archives -

July 18, 2018

BPREVIEW: Opulence Presents: Mother’s Meeting – featuring Virgin Xtravaganzah, Mickey Taylor, Twiggy @ The Nightingale Club 20.07.18

On Friday 20^th July, Opulence Presents: Mother’s Meeting – featuring Virgin Xtravaganzah, Mickey Taylor, and Twiggy at The Nightingale Club in Birmingham. Doors are open from 9pm, and whilst all Early Bird tickets have sold out you can still get advance tickets for £6 – click here for online ticket sales.

N.B. A limited number of tickets will be also available on the door for £7, but these cannot be reserved and are expected to go early. For direct event information visit the Opulence Presents: Mother’s Meeting Facebook Event Page by clicking here.

Opulence are one of Birmingham’s leading drag collectives, who strive to host fun and safe events for Birmingham’s ever growing drag scene. Their debut Mother’s Meeting at Jesters Bar back in April was a rousing success, and this month’s event looks to be even bigger –with Opulence moving the event to the larger Nightingale Club, and three artists schedules to perform as well as Opulence’s resident drag queens.

First up is Virgin Xtravaganzah, a London based queen who has been coined the ‘Mother of Gawd’. Mixing high fashion imagery, comedy and witty song parodies, Xtravaganzah is no stranger to the stage having performed at The Underbelly Festival and can be found hosting London’s infamous Torture Garden fetish parties.

Not exactly where you’d expect to find the Holy Mother, however Xtravaganzah’s interpretation of the Virgin Mary couldn’t be further from what we’re used to – think latex, leather corsets and towering heels as opposed to linen robes and rosary beads.

Next is Mickey Taylor, a singer songwriter who to date has two solo albums and an international tour under his belt. His music is ethereal, dance type tracks – for fans of artists such as Halsey, Lana Del Ray and Troye Sivan.

Taylor has an impressive fan base, having built his reputation through the adult entertainment industry and scooping numerous awards at the British Prowler Porn Awards. His latest album, Midnight Palace, shows a much more refined style in comparison to his gay-pop debut, Puppets Lament, back in 2016.

Finally, Birmingham’s very own lip-sync darling, Twiggy, will also be featured at Mother’s Meeting; Twiggy is one of the Midlands’ best-known drag artists, having honed their craft as a performer back in the 1980s.

Describing their life as “one long fancy dress party”, Twiggy’s signature outrageous club kid style (and headdress) has made them a cult figure of the UK’s drag scene, whilst also becoming the glamorous face of many Birmingham clubs from Miss Moneypenny’s to S.L.A.G. and Sundissential. Having performed at Birmingham’s very first Pride back in 1982, Twiggy is seen as one of the founding mothers of Brum’s gay village and drag scene.

With three headliners plus Opulence’s very own drag entourage, expect to see the likes of Yshee Black, Nora Virus, Elliot Barnicle, and drag duo Cocktail Sausage (Petite and Pork Pie) also grace the stage throughout the night.

Opulence Presents: Mother’s Meeting at The Nightingale Club on Friday 20^th July – featuring Virgin Xtravaganzah, Mickey Taylor, and Twiggy. For direct information, including links to online ticket sales, click here.

For more on Virgin Xtravaganzah, visit www.virginxtravaganzah.com

For more on Mickey Taylor, visit www.misfitarmy.com

For more on Twiggy, visit www.instagram.com/twiggybirmingham

For more on Opulence, visit www.facebook.com/opulencebirmingham

For more from The Nightingale Club, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.nightingaleclub.co.uk

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

July 6, 2018July 6, 2018

BREVIEW: Valley of the Kings @ Quantum Exhibition Centre 29.06.18

Words & pics by Eleanor Sutcliffe

“One sock, or two?”

Nursing a pint of cider, I have found myself advising a drag king on the appropriate amount of stuffing for their underwear. I am no longer a writer, nor a photographer – I am now, in the words of performer Phillip Phallus, a Codpiece Consultant. It’s a title I neither expected to have nor feel that I deserve, but I’m flattered nevertheless. After debating the size different between trainer and football socks, we agree on a single sock. Two seems like overkill.

The venue for Valley of the Kings is the Quantum Exhibition Centre in the middle of Digbeth – a trek, but worth it regardless (and if you lose your way, just keep an eye out for the ‘Thigh Kingdom Comes’ signs that are dotted along Lower Trinity Street). Advertised by a jaunty geometric sign handcrafted by Kali who runs KUCHE at the Ort Café, the small doors lead you into a towering warehouse ran by the charity Nightlife Outreach, who deal with issues from mental health to homelessness to substance abuse. It’s great knowing that tonight not only are you supporting the performers present, but your well-earned money that you spend on the bar is going towards a great cause too.

I’m ushered into a small room off the main warehouse, in which the crowd are dotted across numerous sofas. Soon, the night is in full swing. First up is Abel Valentine, who struts on to a redubbed version of the Shrek fairy tale narrative, depicting their parent’s horror at giving birth to a “f***ing drag king” before launching into a lip sync to the very apt ‘Gay Bar’ by Electric Six. Capering across the room, they sing into the faces of the audience with glee, grabbing their hands and forcing them to dance.

Following Abel is Uffa Fox and Great Britain, who perform a rather bizarre yet hilarious dance and lip sync to ‘Tight Little Island’. Although everyone’s performances are short, it’s still enough to capture their joy and enthusiasm at having a stage on which to perform. Lucius Blac is amazing, performing ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ before dragging a blow up doll clad in lingerie on stage and slow dancing with it to finish.

Wavy Davy drops to their knees while strumming a pink electric guitar along to a Prince track, and I can’t help but marvel at the confidence all the performers seem to have tonight. Phillip Phallus (or One Sock Phillip as they are now known) performs a Clockwork Orange inspired piece, sauntering on stage cloaked in a flasher mac before casting it aside in favour of a pair of comically large white Y-Fronts. No details are spared for the performers, right down to the glass of ‘milk’ which Phillip chugs down at the end of their performance.

Eager for some crowd participation, Valentine takes to the stage again to announce a ‘Manliest Man’ competition. The ensuing chaos is hilarious – participants are forced to dance their ‘manliest’ dance before being told to grab ‘manly’ items from members of the crowd. These include watches, a beer (not a cider as one unlucky competitor learnt mind) and a pair of trainers. After five rounds, Phillip Phallus is crowned the winner and presented with a rather garish tiara which stays glued to their head for the rest of the night.

Johnny Gash wanders on stage to strum along to ‘Personal Jesus’, clad in a black leather jacket and dark sunglasses. Lucius Blac then returns to the stage to perform my favourite act of the night, singing along to Panic at the Disco’s ‘Don’t Threaten Me with a Good Time’. In the final chorus, they produce a bottle of Moët champagne and empty it over their head, dousing themselves in gold glitter. It’s simple, but effective – or maybe I’m just a sucker for theatrics. Who knows. By now, it’s almost 11pm and I start to gather my things. The party is still in full swing however, and the Britalo Kings emerge on stage to perform a 40-minute dance set.

In the dressing room, I strike up a conversation with one of the performers. We begin to discuss the impact of Valley of the Kings on their life, and the night takes a slightly harrowing turn. I’m told how their family views their lifestyle with disgust, and how their sister attempted to force them into a gay conversion therapy. We discuss how they’ve travelled for miles to perform tonight, and how their family are totally unaware of where they are.

It’s heartbreaking – they’re not much older than me, and the thought of them having to travel so far from home in order to explore their gender expression angers me. It serves as a constant, albeit sad, reminder that despite the fun and games, events such as Valley of the Kings serve as key safe spaces for individuals to express themselves with no boundaries.

For more on Valley of the Kings, visit www.facebook.com/ValleyOfTheKingsBirmingham

For from the Quantum Exhibition Centre, visit www.quantumexhibitioncentre.com

June 28, 2018June 28, 2018

BPREVIEW: Valley of the Kings @ Quantum Exhibition Centre 29.06.18

Words by Eleanor Sutcliffe

On Friday 29^th June, Valley of the Kings (VOTK) will be hosting another ‘gender expanding’ open mic night – this time at the Quantum Exhibition Centre, 77 Upper Trinity Street, Digbeth.

As opposed to tickets, the event is being marketed as a ‘pay what you can’ night with the suggested donation between £3 and £6. This latest Valley of the Kings begins at 8pm and is scheduled to run until late – for di rect event info, visit the Facebook Event Page by clicking here.

Scratch below the surface of Birmingham’s drag scene and you’ll find events such as Valley of the Kings. This is open mic night, but not as we know it – as opposed to acoustic renditions of pop rock stalwarts, expect to see ‘gender adventurers’ cavorting across the stage and lip syncing to their songs of choice.

The ‘rules’ of the evening are fairly simple: message the VOTK Facebook Event Page to book a performance slot, decide on your character, turn up, and perform. Or just watch, if you’re an introvert like me. And for those moments of last minute bravery, the VOTK hosts are also offering a ‘newbie nursery’ for people who decide to perform on the night, where they can get to Quantum slightly earlier and request a song to perform once the audience arrives. Performers who pre-book are guaranteed free entry and a changing room (saving you an awkward Uber ride over) with Glittercreep Face & Body Art on hand throughout the night to cover any available skin with, you guessed it, copious amounts of glitter. Wonderful.

For the budding performer, this is a fun and embracing opportunity to dip your toe into Birmingham’s ever growing drag scene; VOTK is one of the few monthly ‘gender expanding’ events that Birmingham currently has to offer, and the open mic setup allows you to trial a character to your heart’s content. With more established personas such as Lucius Blac, Abel Valentine, Dean the Destroyer and (our team’s personal favorite) Johnny Gash performing, it’s clear that there are few boundaries to what’s good to go on stage. And whilst drag queens are a prominent fixture on Birmingham’s event calendar, it’s always refreshing to see a night this inclusive – where individuals of any gender, style, or ability are welcome to perform.

But as the VOTK Facebook Event Page says, this is ‘an exploratory dig into your inner drag demon. Excavate the hidden gems of your pseudo macho womb by miming along to your favorite song in front of fellow gender adventurers.’ Which although sounds slightly terrifying still fills me with excitement. From the safety of my seat, at least.

Valley of the Kings brings its next open mic night to the Quantum Exhibition Centre in Digbeth on Friday 29^th June. For direct event information, visit the Facebook Event Page at www.facebook.com/events/1462982623847192/

For more on Valley of the Kings, visit www.facebook.com/pg/ValleyOfTheKingsBirmingham

For from the Quantum Events Centre, visit www.quantumexhibitioncentre.com