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Bear-Patrol raise £808.24 for Rainbow Fund

Bear-Patrol, the social networking group, raised £808.24 for the Rainbow Fund at their annual Christmas dinner at the Camelford Arms on Sunday, December 9.

Danny Dwyer, Mayor of Brighton & Hove, and Christmas jumper winner Michael Greenbeard
Danny Dwyer, Mayor of Brighton & Hove, and winner of Christmas jumper competition Michael Greenbeard

SIXTY Two supporters of Bear Patrol sat down for a traditional Christmas dinner served over three sittings. Numbers in the bar swelled to over one hundred for the Christmas Jumper competition, won by Michael Greenbeard which was judged by Cllr Lynda Hyde and Cllr Denise Cobb both former Mayors of Brighton and Hove.

The current Mayor Cllr Dee Simson popped in during the afternoon to help sell the raffle tickets.

The raffle raised £808.24 for the Rainbow Fund who give grants to local LGBT/HIV organisations who deliver effective front line services to LGBT+ people in the city.

Organiser, Danny Dwyer said: “The Christmas Party has always been my favourite event from our yearly calendar to organise. It’s always such a fun and enjoyable afternoon attracting a great community crowd.

“I would like to thank our Christmas Jumper Judges Councillors Lynda Hyde and Denise Cobb, Jennie Castell for the use of her sound equipment, everyone who attended the party and supporters who donated wonderful prizes for our Christmas Raffle on behalf of The Rainbow Fund.

“Next years event will be our 10th Christmas Party and in turn will kick-start our 10th Anniversary Year of Fundraising. I must also without a shadow of a doubt thank The Camelford Arms for their continued support for The Bear-Patrol over the last nine years.”

Chris Gull
Chris Gull

Chris Gull, Chair of Rainbow Fund said: “What a fantastic end to this year of Bear-Patrol fundraising for The Rainbow Fund. Three sittings for Christmas Lunch making this a real Christmas with purpose. These funds will make an enormous difference to the lives of so many of our local LGBT+ and HIV communities. Thank you all for your support throughout this year.”

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LIVE REVIEW: Tis the season to be Mary @ Brighton Dome

The girls from RuPaul’s Drag Race welcome us into a winter wonderland, with a performance that’s “Gayer then a but plug snowglobe,” at the Brighton Dome.

 

THIS is gonna be Gayer then a but plug snowglobe,” laughs the cheeky Bob the drag queen, as the campest Christmas show around transforms the Brighton Dome into a winter wonderland.

Just before the clan of O’Haras, season 4 sisters and silent but deadly Kameron Michaels, take to the stage for an on key kiki, the comedy queen’s sharp wit and wonderfully terrible rendition of a Brightonian accent warms us up like kick of cinnamon in a hot chocolate, making us as excited as kids on Christmas eve for the show that is about to take place.

Bob’s new to this hosting game, replacing the tour’s usual conductor Miss Michelle Visage (she’s away performing in the West end musical Everybody’s taking about Jamie at the moment), but she proves she was most certainly born for this gig, with jokes flying here there everywhere and she introduces us to the gay Christmas of our dreams. Don’t worry, they’re all landing well too.

Speaking of here there and everywhere, season 4’s favourite showgirl Phiphi O’Hara just can’t seem to get any of the steps down throughout the group dance number that swiftly follows Bob’s cheeky introduction. Red in the face, but taking her blunder with good humour, the queen’s expressions are following suit of her legs, contorting themselves into all kinds of hilarious positions as she fails to hit each step in time with the other perfectly coordinated queens. Season 8’s Bob, season 4’s winner Sharon Needles, fellow season 4 sister Jiggly Caliente, and season 10’s first, second, and third alternates Eureka O’Hara, Asia O’Hara, and Kameron Michaels, may not be known for their dancing skills, but with this performance they should be. In all fairness, the queen wasn’t on the original bill for Brighton’s lineup – both her and miss Jiggly Caliente were called in as replacements for Manilla Luzon (she’s away due to prior commitments to the upcoming All Stars 4 series), and Blair St Claire (who was also missing in action from her scheduled appearance at Drag World UK back in August). But that little hiccup is soon thrown out of the window, never to be remembered again, when the spotlight hits and she opens her mouth to sing. And boy can she sing.

Out of this beautiful little queen bursts the voice of a true Mariah Carey level diva songstress, as she perfectly strings the sounds of the classic festive track The Christmas song (chestnuts roasting on an open fire), with a stripped back sort of soul feeling. Hitting all the right notes and more, the queen is shining like a golden star guiding us to the very peak of festivity’s joy.

And from one season 4 queen to another, the ooky spooky Sharon Needles takes Christmas and flips it on its head, as she begins to sing her own festive tune from way back in 2016. “We’re gonna pump it this party all night,” the campy queen belts to the concerto of white confetti that clouds the stage around her, tongue (firmly) in cheek for the festive club bop Snow machine. And who would have thought that the crazy queen from way back in season 4 would be singing LIVE at a Christmas show? But Sharon keeps things Sharon, with innuendo here and double entendre there, wrapping up snow and… other types of white powder into one light and delightful performance.

But the best performance, well Eureka I’ve found it. Sharon may be spooky, but there is another queen coming for that title, as season 9 and 10’s Eureka O’Hara brings an element of darkness to the stage for this merry yuletide. Dressed head to toe in the most beautiful potato sackesque oogie boogie cosplay – giving me flashbacks to Batman‘s Scarecrow, the queen who once destroyed her knee by jumping into split is not here to play (she’s here to slay), prancing the stage, and fighting Santa Clause, all the while lipsyncing perfectly to our favourite eerie yet festive class The Nightmare before Christmas. Mixing some spoken word and operatic lipsyncing, she is giving us Christmas with jingle bells on. And just when i thought the queen was at peak brilliance, she takes off her beautiful potato sack dress, dropping it to the ground to reveal a bedazzled body suit and crazy uptempo dancing with a dash of Demi Lovato. It’s safe to say this queen’s gig is the crowd’s favourite so far, as all at once we leap to our feet and stomp the house down, erupting into a giant roar once Eureka leaves the stage.

This roar swiftly turns into a standing ovation, soon after the whole lot of fabulous queens, that are giving us opulence with their dripping in blue jewels lewks, finish their final group number. But, like a wonderful gay angel, Bob returns to quench us of our thirst for more more more. “That was going to be our last song, but we’re going to give you a Brighton exclusive and do one more song,” she laughs, but we all know the queens were always going to come back for one more track.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,” the backing track choruses, whilst the queens’ smiling faces warm us like hot chocolate on a snowy winter day. Circling the stage like a tornado of fabulocity ready to take us away to a gay wonderland, the beauties are giving us the best Christmas present ever, and we’re loving it.

 

Sitting in amongst an overflowing audience of sparkling sequence dresses and optimistic faces, painted lavishly from corner to corner, i can honestly say I’m now looking all the more forward to this Christmas. From the hilarious Bob, with her feeble attempt at a Brightonian accent, to Eureka’s kick ass spooky dance number, and Jiggly’s cheery rendition of her own track Ratchet Christmas, the queen’s had us practically bursting with excitement for this festive season. And, with their perfect, gag worthy performances, I now have a new found appreciation for Phiphi and Eureka O’Hara – they are truly something to behold live. The Queens have most definitely made the yuletide gay, and like Bob herself says at the very end of the show, with this show we will all “Have a happy draggy Christmas.

OPINION: Call Me By That Name

Or – Cheap Lousy Faggots Are Not Just For Christmas by Craig Hanlon-Smith @craigscontinuum

ANOTHER season emerges and another reason to be offended. Radio stations proudly issue statements that having re-listened to the coercive and rape promoting Baby It’s Cold Outside the track is banned.

I can issue no comment on this irrelevant furore other than to shove a mince-pie in my gob and deliver a head aching eye roll. Alas, this is not the only festive drama around our Christmas aural pleasures. Having faced censorship in 2007 which the BBC then quickly revoked, a now 30 year old Fairytale of New York is in trouble again. Yes, that tankard waving Pogues and Kirsty MacColl comforting duvet of a yuletide classic.

The troublesome line is of course “you scumbag you maggot you cheap lousy faggot” and an international community of unhappy windbags is all but sexually assaulted without actually leaving the house. Some of the complainants LGBTQ+ some possibly just bored. Most, unnecessarily enraged.

That the line is issued in character by an “old slut on junk” is a minor detail that has escaped the hysterical and alarmed. One assumes these listeners to have shoved their emotional intelligence up their collective asses along with a box of Mr Kipling’s mince pies and granny’s unopened tin of Quality Street. Hurts doesn’t it?

It is so easy to be offended, it takes time and reflection to understand why. It may not be a comfortable process but in the long term it is worth pausing to do so. Does the song offend or has it sparked off a memory of an unrelated life experience and the easiest solution is to take to twitter. IN CAPITAL LETTERS.

Speaking as someone who has in recent months been spat at and called faggot, I would respectfully ask that we play the hell out of this Christmas classic and sing along to boot. It is not that I relish in the experience of a verbal attack nor that it did not in any way upset me, it did. We have a choice. To ban the use of a word that insults from a separate, creative and cultural context neither helps nor solves the matter.

My response to my spitting faggot incident was to have ‘FAGGOT‘ printed in pink on a t-shirt and wear it at public events. I want the wider world to look at it, read it, have to explain it to their children, and perhaps consider the impact of such abuse on real people. I also ask that listening to Fairy-tale of New York’  we consider the entire dialogue between these two social outcasts portrayed by Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl. To focus in on one word and ignore its whole narrative lacks intelligence and fights a fight that does not exist. The real monster is still out there and feeding whilst we sit and play tiddledywinks with a tune.

Dean Martin did not tell his lady-friend it was cold outside because he wanted to fuck her stupid whilst she was out on rohypnol. Kirsty MacColl, who also recorded tracks for the HIV fundraising Red Hot and Blue series, is not a homophobe, but we can make that the truth IF we want to. This is the age of fake news, post truth and alternative facts, and if you can’t beat em….

I think that particular world is exhausting and as such reactions approach the norm, I would happily inhale the toxins. I want to be unconscious.  Fight the good fight and take your gloves off. It is going to hurt, but the rest is just a fairytale.

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