@ Club Bohemia, Buffalo Bar, London, 24 September 2005
Ah, the days of glam rock. Who can forget the inspired lightening-strike makeup, the heartfelt passion of beautiful androgynous creatures stalking the stage on vertiginous platform boots...
Most of the audience for Glam-ou-rama: Night Of A Thousand Ziggys weren't even born in 1973, but that didn't stop them bravely trying to recreate the visual impact of the era - some more successfully than others, it has to be said.
Goths hadn't been invented then so some of the cross-fertilisation between the two styles was more inspired than accurate, but my goodness, there were some glam people in Club Bohemia.
John Howard of course does remember 1973, because that was when he came to London and started playing the clubs, releasing his album Kid In A Big World two years later. Wisely eschewing the more excessive aspects of glam couture he looks elegant as ever in silver and black jacket, long silk scarf and natty Panama as he edges his long legs round the obstacle course of the tiny stage to seat himself at the keyboard. No room for a grand piano here, alas - in fact space is so tight that some of the faux-Ziggys in the audience seem like part of the show.
Opening number Dear Glitterheart really says it all. It's a great song, a wistful look back to those heady days. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be, of course... It's followed by a new song - The Dilemma of The Homosapien - which is one I'll look forward to getting to know, and then the classic Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. This is the song that got him noticed in the first place, and all these years later it's still a delight.
Such A Drag - from the recent collaboration with poet Robert Cochrane The Dangerous Hours - is a perfect choice for Glam-ou-rama, as is John's tribute to David Bowie with his cover of The Bewlay Brothers. "We were gone / real cool traders / we were so turned on / you thought we were fakers..." No, not the last. We believed every word.
A couple of new songs follow, one hopes to be found on forthcoming album As I Was Saying, due out in November. The Exquisites (For Nina Antonia) features the wonderful chorus "All the exquisites held all of my decadent dreams" - I second that - and The Time Of Day, featuring the line "I am young in my heart", sums up what most of us who were sentient beings in 1973 would hope to echo. The rousing Take Up Your Partners - "A night of fandango, black tie, cha-cha and tango" from the previously unreleased follow-up album Technicolour Biography - closes a short but sweet set.
How good to see that today's glam Goths still appreciate the real thing when they hear it.
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