Category: Uncategorized

REVIEW: ‘Kiss Me, Kate,’ London Coliseum

‘Kiss Me, Kate,’ Opera North, London Coliseum until June 30th, 2018 *****‘Kiss Me, Kate,’ Cole Porter’s classic 1948 Broadway hit, returns to London for a limited run in this awesome production from Opera North. A play-within-a-play, the story centres around fiery leading-lady Lilli Vanessi (Stephanie Corley), reunited with her old flame Fred Graham (Quirijn De…

Pete Burns: A night to remember…

Pete Burns will be remembered by the majority of people for his cosmetic surgery and his worldwide smash hit ‘You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)’. But for those of us who were misfits in the early `80s Pete Burns was so much more.  As soon as he started to receive coverage in the national…

GAY PRIDE: In the wake of Orlando

Back in the mid-`80s, when I was a New Romantic and used to dress like the bastard offspring of Marie Antoinette and Boy George, I’d get abuse on a daily basis. But it set me up for life. Because when someone – even in 2016 – walks past and calls me a poof – or…

I WISH U HEAVEN: my encounter with Prince

Back in 1999, while I was living in Spain, a hairdresser friend of mine arranged for me to go and do the make-up of one his clients, a woman called Olivia Valere, the grande dame of Marbella nightlife and owner of Marbella’s chicest nightclub. After I’d finished doing Olivia’s make-up she rang a friend of…

WHAT MATTERS MOST

Last year I did the make-up of one of Jimmy Savile’s victims for ‘Best Magazine Women of Courage Awards’. On top of a medical condition which meant she has been in a wheelchair her entire life, she’d had to endure four decades of being called a fantasist until, finally, the story of that man’s horrendous…

NEGATIVE IMAGE

I was booked on a shoot last Saturday. The shoot had been arranged ten days beforehand. Warning bells rang when, last Friday afternoon, I got an email from the client, a designer, saying the photographer wanted a long, straight, white wig. The photographer was insistent apparently. I told the client I didn’t have one, that…

REALITY CHECK

Who’s been watching this year’s ‘Britain’s Next Top Model’? When judge Nicky Johnston tore a strip off the girls in the bottom three during elimination on last week’s episode I was in stitches.  I’m sure several-thousand viewers must have thought Nicky was like the Wicked Witch of the West, and judging by the looks on…

BECAUSE I’M WORTH IT

There I was tossing and turning in bed, half-awake. It was still dark outside. I did try going back to sleep but I couldn’t: blame the birds, there’s a tree within touching distance of my flat which seems to house the noisiest of Stockwell’s avian population, and I have to remind myself when they wake…

THE PRETTIEST STAR

 David Bowie was the first pop star I was aware of. Not a fan of – not at first, anyway – but aware of. ‘Hunky Dory’ was released in ’71 – on December 17th, the day I should’ve been born coincidentally, except that I was two and a half weeks overdue which meant I ended…

PRIME TIME

Just the thought of a trip to the make-up counter can be enough to scare even the most product-savvy women these days, especially when it comes to primers. ‘CC’, ‘BB’, ‘resurfacing’, ‘illuminating’, ‘strobe’ - hearing the claims that such-and-such cream will make you look de-stressed and more radiant is enough to stress you out and…