No more champagne...

... and the fireworks are through. Were there any fireworks? England's a bit crap at New Year.

That said, last night's Duckie special, in the unfamiliar environs of The Eagle (formerly South Central, formerly Dukes), did exactly what it said on the tin. Key ingredient: The London Readers' Wifes, and thank the Lordy lords.

Crowd vibe was a bit office party if one works in an office populated by stocky, hairy men, beardily chic geeks and slightly mumsy secretarial types in their best glittery tops. Something a bit disorientating about hearing the Wifes' Favourite Record Of All Time then having a further hour and a half left to dance. And dance we did. After five minutes, we'd already heard more good tunes than we did last year.

I really need a working mini-camera; the Big Camera is okay but occasionally temperamental with its flash in Duckie-type settings, insisting the mechanism is blocked then working fine the next day. It's also a bit of a pain to dance with, so this time I checked it into the cloakroom after a few shots. Blurry but quite atmospheric, I reckon. Here's a handful:







(Something about that last one reminds me a little of Blake's Ghost of a Flea.)

My head's not too sore, considering; a full English breakfast at the (packed with hungover gayers) Oval Lounge helped. Vague thoughts of detox will have to wait.

Only regret: despite 'phoning four times in quick succession yesterday, Galasheila never left a message. I feel abandoned.

Nothing more than confetti on the floor

Fresh up on the Duckie website is the Autumn/Winter Collection 2008/09, an array of sparkly gems including this:

New Years Eve

Wednesday 31 December 9pm - 3am
Tickets 14.99 in advance from The Retro Bar
Eagle, 349, Kennington Lane, Vauxhall, London SE11

After last years debacle, Duckie thought we better give it another go around the corner from the RVT. The theme is The Leather Boys are having Mental Health Issues as choreographer Russell Harris stages stunning durational performance interventions with 6 Go-Go 'Boys'.

It's a knees-up and the Readers Wifes go mental on pop through time.

I am practically hugging myself to asphyxiation. I love it. I love the theme (I can do leather and Mental Health Issues!), I love the Readers Wifes, I love the fact that the Duckie Six are big enough and honest enough to admit that last year's New Year bash disappointed many, myself included - and do something about it. TSB and I had gushed mightily to our friends about the fabulousness of bidding farewell to 2006 at the Eagle, soundtracked by Kim 'n' Chelsea and several of them had taken us at our word and booked tickets for what they (and we) thought would be a riproaring Duckie event.

It kiiind of was a Duckie event but featured only Jay and Father Cloth plus David Hoyle. I could sort of see what David H was getting at with his excoriation of the idea of picking a completely arbitrary date to (supposedly) wipe one's slate clean, but his delivery seemed fuzzier than usual, lacking in the usual edge. The real stinker was the music, however, which tended to the extremes of techno (too hardcore to dance to) or nursery rhyme (too jarringly twee to dance to - The Teddy Bears' Picnic being one example). I later discovered from Luke Bear that the songs were chosen to be deliberately irritating and unlikeable before midnight and joyous after. Not necessarily a bad concept but a) if one wasn't aware of it, the prospect of an evening of hateful music might well cause one to bugger off home, and b) while there was a noticeable improvement after midnight, it wasn't such an improvement that the distinction was clear.

Although, looking closely at the tickets and flyers, there was no mention of the Readers Wifes, I'd mistakenly assumed that Duckie = Kim 'n' Chelsea, at least musically. I felt embarrassed at having dragged my friends along to a party with crap music (at least initially).

So... I'm utterly utterly delighted at this turn of events. And, come February, there's a double helping of Bexhill-on-Sea! With these parties, messieurs and mesdames, you are really spoiling us.

(PS WTF are "durational performance interventions"?)