Dance You Fuckers Dance (2012)

16th Birthday Party (2011)

Back on the Southbank for 16. We were celebrating, denigrating, and taking the piss out of Britain and Britishness. A cast of thousands performed – a sort of Duckie’s Greatest Hits if the line-up’s anything to go by.

Copyright Christmas (2011)

New Year's Eve Party (2011)

Kim Phaggs “designed” this flyer. It was supposed to be the worst, ugliest flyer you’ve ever seen and it kind of is. All those fonts and mistakes and awful clip-art. We were in hysterics when we saw it but a lot of people didn’t get the joke. It still makes me laugh.

15th Birthday Party (2010)

That’s a beermat, that flyer. I still have quite a few squirreled away somewhere. The shot was from a session for Readers Wifes pop group taken at the RVT by our friend Brian David Stevens. We thought it was boring just having blokes in the session so we invited loads of women we knew, like Hendrix’s ‘Electric Ladyland’. That’s our friend Swedish Anna at the bar.

Duckie in Vienna (2010)

Gross Indecency (2010)

This was a 60s-themed party, themed around being gay in London pre-Wolfenden. It was all very illicit and underground and the music was exclusively 60s pop, soul and northern. Us Wifes dressed up in really scratchy clothes and had our wigs done professionally to look like Sylvie and Rube in ‘Up The Junction’. There was a police raid that felt really real until all the coppers started stripping and doing a sexy dance routine. Amazing.

New Year's Eve Party (2010)

Readers Wifes Fan Club (2010)

This was for a show that Simon produced at the RVT based on Readers Wifes mixtapes. The cream of some our performers lip-synching to old TV clips and pop music elected by us. Oh God it was fantastic. I wish it would come back. The picture on that flyer is of David Bowie fans in 1973.

Saturday's in June (2010)

St Valentine's Ball (2010)

Gay Shame - Femininity (2009)

This was a good one, and a sort of antidote to the previous year’s lairy masculinity-themed Shame. The Wifes were DJing above the stage in a sort of Disney princess castle. Saint Etienne were on – quite a coup – and before we came on we could see Sarah Cracknell below us backstage grooving to T. Rex.

They Shoot Queers Don't They? (2009)

St Valentines Day Ball (2009)

13th Birthday Party (2008)

Off to the seaside again. I remember we went down early and bumped into Lorraine Bowen in a charity shop. Lorraine is, of course, one of the all-time Duckie greats. She says: “I did a couple of slots of my songs at this show! ‘Lemon Disinfectant’ and ‘Bexhill on Sea’ I got a lot of work from them - it was a fabulous opportunity. THANKS!”

Duckie Does De Trop (October 2008)

Duckie in Blackpool (2008)

Off to the Tower Ballroom en masse for this one. Another adventure. The bill’s almost like Duckie’s greatest hits – Ida Barr, Lucifire, Kalki La Hula, Ursula Martinez, Marisa Carnesky... Simon had also tracked down a bunch of local old-school entertainers, like club singer Vince Lorraine (and his wife Joan) and Mark Raffles an 88-year-old magician, who only retired in 2019, aged 97. There was also a working launderette at the edge of the dancefloor. As you do.

Gay Shame - Masculinity (2008) incl programme, money, pill bottle & badge

Loved this night. It was at The Coronet. Simon’s vision was to explore the boorish, grimy aspects of toxic masculinity and so the whole venue felt like, I dunno, a cross between a locker room and an industrial estate. There were installations of burger vans and grubby minicab offices.

Duckie London versus New York (2008)

New Year's Party (2008)