Clubs

Miss Amber Topaz
Burlesque artist
‘It has been a truly fabulous year that started with me winning my heat at Whoopee presents Hip Hip. Soon after, I had regular appearances at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. Running Ooh La Luscious was another adventure. I put on a handful on sell-out nights in association with the guys from Lady Luck and DJ Sheila Soul. We raised the roof! A favourite was performing at the Ministry of Burlesque’s charming High Tease night at Lost Society. One of the most inspiring events of my year was performing at the closing gala of Miss Exotic World in Las Vegas, and sharing the stage with legends of burlesque past and present. I nearly burst with excitement seeing Tempest Storm still bumping well into her seventies, and Devil’s Angel who blew us all away after dipping her nipple tassels into a cocktail glass of paraffin and then ignited them. She spun tassels of fire! Feature continues

As for 2007, I’ll be putting on a burlesque cabaret event at Rembrandts called After Dinner Nymphs on the last Saturday of the month. I’ve just completed a jazz and swing album under my real name (Sheli Andrew). It’s an exciting time to be me!
‘Burlesque is merging with cabaret. I would love to put on a lavish spectacular but that would need massive investment and that is where I see the bubble bursting and the art going back underground. Hopefully we can ride rhinestone roller coaster a little longer!’

For dates see www.ambertopaz.co.uk or www.myspace.com/sheliandrew

Roy Gurvitz
‘Founder and director’, Lost Vagueness
‘What do we do? We put on vaudevillian events and probably the best parties in the world! Our Halloween party, The Night of the Vaguely Dead, at the Coronet Theatre was my highlight of 2006. The flamboyant effort the public put into their own costumes went beyond all expectations. Still, Kate Moss not asking me to marry her was a bit of a let down.

‘We’ve been busier than ever this year, but it has been challenging as the market seems to be becoming saturated with pretenders who don’t quite cut the mustard when it comes to putting on a show. There are now events like the Mean Fiddler’s new Latitude Festival, they’re doing not entirely dissimilar stuff to what we’re doing. Rather than it be focused on the music stages, they also had a ballroom, chapel, diner. And they’ve got money to throw at it, which we don’t. What we do seems to be ever-more popular, though, especially with Lost Vagueness being highlighted as the area to be in at the Glastonbury Festival. There’s more people doing more creative and more ‘out there’ things. We have ten or 15 bands sending in demo CDs every week, but 30 or 40 performance artists doing the same. It’s colossal! I don’t want to single any out for fear of missing one out. As for 2007, we’ve got some exciting new things at Glastonbury, our own festival in August, plus we continue with our sell-out residency at the Coronet… and, of course, world domination by tea time.’

Lost Vagueness presents The Prince and The Pauper this New Year’s Eve