Glam from Elsewhere in the Anglophonosphere

Well, if Canadian hauntology wasn't surprising enough, here's a whole book on Canadian glam

Yes it is an "untold story".

When I was doing my wide-trawling research for S+A, I did come across examples of glam 'n' glitter from Commonwealth territories.... but nothing that really asserted itself as essential to the tale. 

Mostly fairly straightforward Bowie-imitations. 

Sometimes well-done -  e.g. New Zealand outfit Space Waltz, fronted by Alastair Riddell

Canada's main claim seems to be Sweeney Todd, whose emulative pitch involved shoving the word "Roxy" into a song title. 

And it worked - it got to Number 1 in Canada. 

Then the band's Nick Gilder redid it as a solo song in an attempt to have a US hit.

But then Sweeney Todd rerecorded it - with a young Bryan Adams singing - also in an attempt to have a US breakthrough.

What a farrago!

(Gilder did hit on his own with songs like "Hot Child in the City")

It was also, around that time, covered by Suzi Quatro (whose image is rather toned down here - where's the black leather bodysuit?)

Ex-Runaway Cherie Currie covered it later too.

I feel like I came across some other Canadian groups that were a bit glammish but perhaps more proggish.

And then in Australia, the nearest to glam I came across was Skyhooks, who were probably more like 10cc pastiche-rock, or Down Under Buggles, or The Tubes meet Sailor. But who could really play, go head to head with ooh The Doobies maybe.

And then there was the Ziggy-damaged Duffo, who tried to jump on the punk wagon 

Lou Reed damaged too

Glam 'n' glitter from the UK was very popular in Australia - particularly the most lumpen kinds, like Slade - and overlapped with the sharpies subculture as discussed here earlier. 

New Zealand also had Split Enz were somewhere in a zone between glam and prog - a little bit Cockney Rebel, a little bit Genesis. And produced early on by Phil Manzenara. 

Via Down Underman Andrew Parker, some examples of AC/DC looking glammish 

And then Bon Scott in pigtails and schoolgirl frock to match 'n' mirror Angus's schoolboy get-up 

This is less glam and more partaking of that tradition of unpretty rockers dressing up in women’s clothing for a laugh, like local football teams did all around England, in order raise money for charity, or Widow Twankey in panto.  Keith Moon did it...  Fleetwood Mac's English Rose ...  Zappa and the Mothers…  

The Stones started it with "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby (Standing in the Shadows) -  the single cover, the video. 

In this lineage, the dragging is to look ridiculous or grotesque, not alluringly ambiguous and between-genders, as with Bowie wearing a frock and femininely draped over the chaise longue for the cover of The Man Who Sold the World. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Robert Dayton book on Canadian glam is to be published by Feral House.

Who recently published a whole book on glam metal - titled American Hair Metal: Can't Get Enough, it's by Steven Blush (a name I associate with hardcore punk)

I got sent a copy - it's heavily pictorial, full-color glossy!

Another era of men dressing like women and slapping on the make-up - and in this case, very much doing to look gorgeous. To, in fact, attract women in the audience who looked much the same as the men on stage.  

Well, there's exceptions - Twisted Sister played it for grotesquerie 

American Hair Metal is a departure from the old Feral House days of Apocalypse Culture and that kind of thing. 

        

But then I suppose for your edge-walkers, at a certain point only the mainstream at its most gross and vapid becomes truly transgressive,...   authentic Americana... the kind of exoticism / slumming combo that leads brainy people people to get into wrestling or demolition derbies or what-have-you...  

Bit like how the RE:Search people started getting into EZ listening and exotica and the like. 

Jaded palates need new frissons.

It's the ultimate taste-move, in the sense of a 'checkmate' to other edge-chasers, but also "ultimate" as in  there's nothing left, nowhere else to go.... a kind of self-stalemate

Unless, unless, you go round the circle completely and go back to the middlebrow, 'The Beatles are great", type position.

Sharpie dressed men - and women

"Slade Alive! was the biggest selling album in Australia since Sgt. Pepper’s. Here Slade were embraced by an existing Aussie subculture called the sharpies, a Down Under mutant of skinheads.  Sharpies had their own uniquely odd style of dancing and a look that merged skin with glitter plus quirky local variations. High-waist denim trousers, platform boots, a torso-hugging cardigan worn a couple of sizes too tight – the sharpie style was a harder, meaner version of the look that the Bay City Rollers would adopt in a year or two. But the hair style was something else: cropped at the front and on top, but mullet-like with rat-tail wisps straggling over the back collar.  In addition to Slade, Sharpies loved other stompy glitter performers like Suzi Quatro but they also rallied to local acts purveying basic bluesy boogie such Lobby Loyde & the Coloured Balls."  - from S+A

Call it the Bogan Boogie...

At 1.12 below you can see sharpies taking over the stage at a Slade concert

More on the sharpies by Bruce Milne at Perfect Sound Forever

"The Sharpie movement was a short-lived youth subculture that seemed to explode out of nowhere, in Melbourne, Australia, in late '72. I can still remember the moment when I first noticed the tougher kids at my school turning up in strange clothes and haircuts. It seemed that within a matter of weeks Sharpies were everywhere.

"My most vivid memory was, as a longhaired 16 year old, going to the Sunbury '74 rock festival in a kaftan... "The festival was not quite the three days of peace, love and music I had been led to believe it would be. It was dust, scorching heat, no toilets to speak of and a lot of drunk, aggressive people.,,, 

"It was the haircuts and clothes that defined Sharpies. Though there were plenty of variations and permutations, the basic look (for boys and girls) was short hair, with longs wisps at the back, flared, high-waisted pants or jeans and a tight-fitted, striped cardigan....

"Largely, Sharpies were just bored, working-class kids from outer suburbs (that had sprung up too quickly, and with too few decent facilities and the needed infrastructure) hanging together and looking for things to do in a rapidly expanding city that was renown for its boring conservatism....

 

:Sharpies were very territorial. They named their gangs after the suburb (Broadmeadows -"The Broady Boys," Jordanville – "The Jordy Boys"), part of the suburb ("The South Blackburn Sharps"), or even the street they came from. Presumably because they were too broke or too young to own cars, they seemed to live half their lives on the trains and train stations around Melbourne. It made for some very scary travelling.

"Bowling alleys and pinball parlors were another place you could always count on running into a contingent.

"Before long, Sharpies could be found in every major city, though Melbourne was always Mecca. You couldn't find the right clothes in other places. The weather probably had a lot to do with it, too. Melbourne is the only major city in the country that isn't warm almost all year long. Walking around any other city in a tight, woollen cardigan would have taken a lot of commitment.

"I've since read that Sharpies evolved out of Sharps – sorta mod dressing kids in the late 60s who didn't go in for the whole cheese-cloth and sandals hippy thing.... 

"The boys' haircuts were short all over with styled (and often bleached) strands ("rat tails") hanging down the back. The girls' haircuts were often similar, though they tended to have their hair a bit longer. Red dye seemed to be very popular, too. Whenever I see the cover of Bowie's Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs or (especially) Pinups, I think of Sharpie girls.

"The most important item of Sharpie clothing was the "Conny," a super tight, ribbed and collared cardigan. They came in a variety of colors, with stripes of a clashing colour, and they usually had a silly little buttoned belt on the back (similar to what you might find on an old waist coat). ...

"Under the connys, a Crestknit short-sleeved shirt, with a small collar and a 3-button neck was go. Or a T-shirt. It was really hard to find T-shirts with cool designs or band logos on them in the early '70's. But almost every shopping mall had a small booth where you could take a t-shirt and have flock (velvety) block letters glued on it. The organised Sharpie gangs always had t-shirts with their gang's name done in these.... 

"Jeans were almost mandatory. For boys, they had to be tight Lees or Levis. If you had the money, or you were really dressing up, ridiculous Staggers jeans were the go. They had a really tight seam up the crotch that split (and highlighted) your balls. They must have been painful to wear. They often had extreme flared legs..../ 

"A lot of guys also wore chequered flared pants that (I'm guessing) were inspired by Noddy Holder's (of Slade) stage wear.

"Girls had more variety but the most popular jeans were really high waisted with wide flared (loon) legs that often covered the tops of their platform shoes. Denim miniskirts were also popular. Worn with colored tights and/or striped socks....

"Big platform boots were standard for boys. They were often two-coloured, in much the same way as a sunburst guitar is. They had a heavy, high heel and an exaggerated rounded toe, or a blunt, squared toe.....

"Girls wore platform shoes that had a solid cork base. As high as possible.

"The height of the shoes meant that Sharpies walked in a sort of Herman Munster-ish way."

"Sharpie guys were the first males I ever saw with earrings, usually just one, small ring. Sharpie girls had heavily plucked eyebrows and exaggerated eye make up in terrible (powder-blue, orange, ugh!) colours."

"The Sharpies loved their music tough, loud and simple. Suzi Quatro, Sweet, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, T-Rex, Gary Glitter and Bowie (as long as it was songs like "Rebel Rebel" or "Jean Genie"). But the most popular overseas group was Slade. They were probably bigger in Australia than anywhere else. "Slade Alive!" was played at every party I went to where there were Sharpies. When Slade toured with Status Quo in early '73, every gig was like a mass meeting of the Sharpie clans.... 

"Looking back, all of the fave Sharpie songs tended to be the simple, call-to-arms anthems – "Can The Can, " "Rebel Rebel, " "Get It On," "Metal Guru," "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am!)," "Rock'n'Roll Pt. 2," "Jean Genie," "Ballroom Blitz," "Liberate Rock," "All The Young Dudes," "Smokin' In The Boysroom," "Speed King," "Teenage Rampage," "Framed," "Get Down and Get With It," "Mama Weer All Crazee Now," "Cum on Feel the Noize."

"The Sharpies had a particular dance. They'd form small circles and bounce on their legs a bit whilst thumpin' their fists up and down in front of their bodies."

An older post on the Sharpies and Bogan Boogie, with comments from actual Aussies who witnessed the Down Under subculcha in real time. 

"grotesque with gratitude" (RIP Edna / Barry)

Watching a bunch of Dame Edna Everage stuff  - a doc, chat show appearances, those An Audience With Dame Edna specials done in front of an invited congregation of her peers, people in entertainment  and media and arts, where the guests get to ask sycophantic questions.... it struck me what a clever, penetrating parody of the hierarchism of showbiz had been wrought and sustained for decade after decade.  

In the doc, John Lahr notes the way that Dame Edna constantly reminds her audience of the distance between her and them. They are nobodies, grotesque with gratitude (her phrase I think - I scribbled it down on hearing) for the privilege of admission into her presence.  

Or they are nearer to being nobodies, in the case of the celebs invited to An Audience With Dame Edna or appearing on her own various chatshows. She similarly constantly reminds the guests of their lower rank in the pecking order (the humiliation of having a name tag stuck on their breast, should Edna mentally misplace the name of Gina Lollabrigida or Julio Iglesias). Their starpower wattage is so much dimmer than the supernova of the housewife-turned-superstar (in later declensions, gigastar).

Stardom as noblesse oblige is wittily, wickedly lampooned in her theme song "My Public"

Talking of obsequiousness -  hierarchy - fame as a form of non-hereditary royalty - and indeed Australians...  or even dead Australians.... 

..... how remiss of me not to mention the most embarrassing piece of writing I have ever read in my entire life! 

I refer of course to Clive James, expatiating in The New Yorker upon the subject of his "love" for - and his close personal relationship with - Princess Diana. 

The cultural cringe is harrowing to witness.

Such suppurating humility and humble-braggery...  but worse still is the way James tries to balance Diana-adoration with staying on the right side of then-Prince Charles - there's a lot of forelock-tugging about the virtues and admirable qualities of the monarch-to-be.  

Back to Barry Humphries.... you can talk about Bowie and Blackstar and the elegance of the way he stage managed his exit from public life... but maybe this surpasses: the dying entertainer arranges for his comedic creation to compose the "eulogy" for one of the quality newspapers... 

Oh and here's another self-written obituary, for an Australian paper

Clive James is actually in the audience for this sequel to An Audience With Dame Edna and asks her a "probing" question. 

Yet another audience (this time 1988)

The Aussie version 

An early documentary

I think this effort below is the doc I watched - good contributions from Germaine Greer and others, with stuff about the bohemian demimonde of 1950s Melbourne, Humphries as the dandy aesthete flaneur provocateur.

I have actually sat through the whole of this Barry McKenzie movie, I'm not sure if I could say this was an hour-plus well spent... 

Humphries had a great passion for Dada and Surrealism and the whole épater le bourgeois bit. As a teen I was impressed when I read about his pranks e.g. going on an airplane flight and secretly filling the air sickness bag with Heinz Sandwich Spread, then later - during turbulence ideally - pretending to puke copiously into the bag, making so much noise that everyone in the vicinity noticed ... only to immediately, with a flourish, produce a spoon from his pocket and commence to eat his own regurgitate. This exploit had a similar admiration-stirring and aspirational effect on me as reading about Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell's defilement of library books.

Ah here's the story, as kept in an old scrapbook of mine circa the age of 15. A different Heinz product, but otherwise exactly as I remembered - shows the impression it made on teenage me!

One expression of Humphries's antagonism to the conventional was his interest in abject arcana and human peculiarity, which resulted in the compendium Bizarre.

Which I picked up surprisingly cheap a few years ago. But I confess to being somewhat underwhelmed - the contents are not nearly as grotesque and disturbing as e.g. Apocalypse Culture or even things that my old pal Paul Oldfield would assemble out of pages photocopied from Victorian era encyclopedias full of strange antiquities and anthropological curiosities from all around the world, the freakshow appeal masked by a fig-leaf of edification.

Still, in 1965 when it came out - well before Humphries became anything like a household name - Bizarre would probably have been mind-bending stuff.

^^^^^^^^^^^

Looking at that 15-16 years of age scrapbook, I was surprised to see no less than two Dame Edna features cut out and glued in there. Music was creeping in as an interest, but the bulk of the stuff in there is either science fiction / futurology / alternate history, or it's comedy related (the post-Python diaspora). Don't laugh, but at one point, I thought my future would be in comedy... 

Lots of rank-pulling and pecking-order pokes vis-a-vis her fellow thesps in the above!

An early cameo as one of the Seven Deadly Sins - Envy - in Bedazzled, which might be my favorite filmed comedy, although there's a lot of competition. 

via Andrew Parker, the work that Clive James was most proud of -  the series Fame in the 20th Century