Electroqueer

Where The EQs Are At...

Hey EQs. Just a little note on this fine Easter Sunday to let you all know that the EQ Facebook Group has officially been launched yesterday! And now I know where you all are spending your free time at you interweb fiends! It's on Facebook!

So if you haven't joined the EQ Facebook Group - make sure you do so right here, right now.

We'll be running our Bulletin Boards/Discussion Topics there from now on and any CD/mp3 Giveaways, swag and competitions will be done through the Facebook Group now, so make sure you run over there right now and say hello to the 60 some odd EQs (and growing) who joined within the last 24 hours! Post your pics, upload your videos and start talking about all things EQ! Invite all your friends to join as well!

Your resident Fairy Blog Mother (Raj ) is off to Bournemouth tonight to see Booty Luv and Sergey shake their thangs and perform at CIRCUS...yes, I'm uber excited!

Inside EQ: The Bitch Is Funny

If you have never heard of Pam Ann before, then you are truly missing out. She's the most famous and most fabulous non-PC air hostess from hell and we love her to death. We always try to fly with her and catch her show whenever it's in Londontown and if feel like laughing your ass off as we head into the Christmas season, then Pam Ann will be the remedy you need. If you can't catch one of her shows - why not buy her DVD? All the info is found at her website and if you don't believe our words, then believe Madonna's, who says Pam Ann is "cruelly funny".

And if you haven't seen Pam Ann's collaboration with British Airways - it's great. At least BA have a sense of humour.

Inside EQ: I Love London

Hello EQs.  Well I am in Washington DC at the moment for work and I'm uber busy, but thought I'd take 5 mins to post you something...you see, I just love London so much and a few weeks ago I posted this on my MySpace blog.  And just today I caught myself singing 'I Love London' by one of my favourite singers, Tommy Page.  So raise your pint high and toast London today wherever you are.  I can honestly say that I am a little homesick being away from Geri and Ronnie...sigh.  It must be love.

From EQ's MySpace blog published 9 July 2007

I totally had a realisation this past weekend that London is just the best city to live in.  I don't think there is another city I could live in.  Barcelona and San Francisco come close but still are no comparison to London.  I dunno why I am writing this, but here are my top 10 reasons why I love London and have for 7 + years now...

10.  It's close to everywhere...jump on a cheap flight and you're instantly transported to another world.  Loving it.

9.  It's a bigger melting pot than New York City.  I never met an Australian until I moved here!  Walk down Oxford Street (if you can bear it) and you'll hear almost every language spoken within 30 minutes.

8. London is constantly transforming.  We are actually very excited about the urban growth and development that is happening in my area of East London due to the Olympics and West London gets better and better every year. 

7.  I can marry my boyfriend if I want to.  The Civil Partnership office is just right at the end of my street.  How romantic.

6.  Whole Foods Market in Kensington and Fresh & Wild in Soho.  Heavenly.

5.  They are going to put air conditioning on the tube...or at least they say.  If it actually happens, this will be a perfect city in my opinion.

4.  The British pound is so valauble, that anywhere you go outside of the UK, you get more for your money.  It's tough cookies for tourists though...ouch.

3.  If you love celeb spotting like me...you can't find a better place than London to see celebs walking down the street - it's silly, but still kinda fun.  I almost died last week when Uma Thurman was standing opposite me near a post office in Holborn!

2.  The music - rocks.  Sure some of the pop music here is sugary sweet but we have the best music in the whole fucking world.

1.  You can be as queer as you want to.  And nobody gives a shit.

Lyrics to Tommy Page's 'I Love London'

A beautiful night, is not a beautiful night
It's another night, without you
I felt that way, on a beautiful day
So far away from you
I was walking sadly, in Hyde Park.
And you were on my mind
I said to myself if you were only here
We'd have the best of time

Chorus:
I love London, you would too
There's nothing in the world
that can lift you up
Like a London night can do
I love London, you would too
There's something in the air
That I'd love to share
A London night with you

A special place, in another world
A place you'd want to be
On a summer night, or on any night
a place you've got to see

On a London night at the stroke of midnight
I could hear old Big Ben chime
If only you, could be here too
We'd have the best of times

Inside EQ: Yesterday's Big Gay Day in Londontown...

So yesterday was London Pride and well, it was one hell of a rainy day!  We had planned on spending most of the afternoon at the Pride mainstage to see Darren Hayes, Unklejam and Dragonette perform.  But as fate would have it, the rain started coming down and we decided that we'd brave it for Darren Hayes but we'd have to duck and cover after that.  After all, we did spend 30 minutes on our hair and for anyone that knows EQ knows that's way too long...and the hair did fall flat in the rain...LOL.

Darren Hayes was his usual brilliant self and it was really nice to see him outside of his shows as people kept asking me 'Who is this guy?  He's brilliant!'  It was just really cool to see the general public get into his music, along with the hardcore fans in the front showing their usual amount of overwhelming support.  Fans from all over Italy and The Netherlands braved the terrorist plots and the crazy airports to see Darren perform 'I Want You', 'On The Verge Of Something Wonderful', 'Me, Myself and (I) and his mashup of Prince's 'Baby I'm A Star/Pop!ular' with his usual blend of energy and enthusiasm while be-bopping around onstage in his white pimp suit.  What was most hilarious was that the guy doing sign-language for the crowd definitley could not keep up with Darren's fast-moving lyrics!  He kinda just gave up after awhile and just did the best job he could.  Bless.

Someone took this rather ok video of the show...

After that, we decided it was time to eat and we tucked into a pizza at La Bruschetta (which I might recommend as I think it's the best Italian restaurant in London) with our mates Richard & Adam and we even found Clare amongst the madness of Old Compton Street which was lined with drag queens and boys in their underwear and umbrellas prancing about on London's special gay day.  However with 5 peeps and 3 umbrellas, we decided to duck into one of EQ's favourite bars - The Friendly Society for a few gin/lemonaides.  We had a nice little chat with bar owner Maria before everyone else got the same idea and crowded us out of the bar, so we then ended up waiting in the queue at Soho Revue Bar for Darren's final performance of Club Delicacy after walking around for a bit.  In the queue were 'the usual suspects' and it seemed every Darren Hayes super fan was there.  It was a family reunion of sorts for all of us who've been supporting Darren on his Club Delicacy mini-tour.  We even finally got to meet Brad from Big Machine Media who asked us if we were 'the world famous Electroqueer'...awww that like totally made our day!

The final night of Club Delicacy was amazing. Temposhark played a hot DJ set which included Madonna's 'Runaway Lover' and Robyn's 'Konicheewa Bitches' and Darren mixed the show up a bit and opened with 'Bombs Up In My Face' which seemed appropriate being that we had some bomb scares that day in London.  He then even treated the London crowd to his latin-themed version of 'Insatiable' that he had only sang in the US along with the usual hour long set list.  However the highlight of the show for us was not Darren Hayes.  It was the fact that Clare took a risk by coming to London without a Club Delicacy ticket and made it into the sold out performance!  When she walked in a few minutes before Darren took to the stage - she was met with cheers from all of us and I even had a tear in my eye because of this (she doesn't know that yet...)  It was just such an amazing thing as the show wouldn't have been the same if Clare didn't make it in.

Afterwards a group of us went to Medi Kitchen for some fishcakes and chips and Ash played for us his demo tape which sounded quite good. Megs and Noemi then headed back for Cardiff and myself and Geri, Richard and Adam went for one final drink at The Village in which Adam kept finding a pole dancer's ass being brushed past his face.  I'm sure Adam didn't mind.  LOL. 

So that was our big gay day.  A lot different than planned, but overall it was pretty fun.  Amidst the madness, Geri bought me the cutest pair of Adidas trainers with HOT ORANGE laces which I love and I bought Geri some multi-coloured underwear at one of the Pride vendor booths.  We ran into SDB from Switch22 who was doing some promo work for British Airways out in the rain as well!

Coming up on EQ next week - Well, we might just have an interview with a certain swedish powerhouse to share with you as well as some new MySpace finds that are reminding us a lot of The Human League.  Until then, check out and download some of the songs in this weeks new EQ Chart, and enjoy some more pics below.  Take it easy EQs!

"How do you like my white pimp suit?"

Justin Shave and his infamous 'protective eyewear'...

This guy clearly was having problems doing sign language to 'Me, Myself and (I)'...bless.

"Gimme me a beat!"

"Stop If You Think You've Heard This One Before"...or "Stop In The Name Of Love"... ???

EQ and Geri - Reporting from under the umbrellas...

And someone took this video of Dragonette...we decided to stay dry instead...

If We Took A Holiday...

Hey EQs...

We are taking a little holiday as of tomorrow so wanted to let you know that I probably won't be posting much between now and Monday.  Geri and I are off to Palermo to primarily attend a wedding, however I also have the joy and pressure of "meeting the family".  Excited and shitting myself all at the same time!  Leave us some fun comments while we are away in this post (we DO expect mucho comments from EQs Megan, Mandy, Nelson and Stephan!!!) and I'll keep you updated on my totally excellent Italian adventure with my little Italian noodle (god I know I am gonna gain like 2 stone from all the good Italian food).  Until then, enjoy The Ultrasonics and Switch22 interviews below and take some time to get to know some of the other fabulous blogs listed in the links section!  If you are free on June 9th too and want to see Darren Hayes at the Soho Revue Bar, see details here.

Update: Check this out too - Popjustice has some new Darren Hayes samples of his new single 'On The Verge Of Something Wonderful' and 'Me, Myself and I' that you should check out.

Hugz and all that shizz - Raj :)

Inside EQ: An Ode To Music and The EQ Fold

So much seems to be going on in music right now, that we just have to post today to say that we are in musical bliss.  Although some may argue that we are the 80's in full effect again, EQ truly thinks that the current music scene is a hybrid of 80s/90s.  We have a plethora of electronic acts like Patrick Wolf, Tracey Thorn, Imogen Heap, Bjork and Client leading the way into the future and decent rock/pop inspired acts like Scissor Sisters, The Feeling, Mika, Kelly Clarkson, Paolo Nutini, James Morrison and Young Love forging onwards and upwards with their musical brigade.  Your teen dreams like Justin Timberlake, McFly, Avril Lavinge and Nelly Furtado aren't doing so bad either and all the while 80's icons like Erasure, Depeche Mode, Madonna, Kim Wilde and The Pet Shop Boys are still turning out new music and paving the way for new and unique artists such as Dangerous Muse, Switch22, Dragonette, Siobhan Donaghy, Antigone, The Electric Dolls, Madison and Simon Curtis.

The power of the Internet is in full force right now with A&R using (and sometimes being replaced) by MySpace, established artists like Darren Hayes and Robyn are taking control of their creative freedom and starting their own independent record labels.  Pop television shows and magazines are being replaced (sometimes begrudgingly) by on-demand video and great music-themed blogs like PopJustice, The Hot Stuff Files, The Zapping and Arjan Writes.  We the people have the power to decide what we like and what we want to listen to - not what Clear Channel Entertainment or Viacom tell us to.

iTunes and the iPod have revolutionized the way we listen to and buy music thus making our digital mp3 players and mobile phones not only a necessary data device, but wearable and fashionable accessories.  We are seeing album prices slowly coming down and services like Napster, Limewire and eMusic are making it easier to actually get our hands on the music we want - when we want it.  No more spending tons of money on expensive imports that were only created for a certain market demographic.

Our upwards digital trend is causing some controversy though - artist royalties aren't being paid at times, people are sharing music illegally and we were rather upset with ourselves when we wandered into an average independent record store yesterday and found ourselves "not bothered" to sift through the dusty cds or the bargain basement deals to find that secret hidden treasure for a few pounds.  It almost seemed like a waste of time - archaic. Sad, but true.

We can hope this trend of music and technology never ever goes away.  Music is life, music is passion, music can be the soundtrack to the days of our lives.  It is the sole reason that Electroqueer is here and why you are reading this right now.  We urge you each and every one of you to embrace your favourite artists and talk about them - start your own blog, tell the world your thoughts and feelings, go see that artist you always wanted to see live - for if we don't, 'the music's no good without you'.

OMG - we just quoted Cher.

Agree or disagree?  Discuss in the Comments! 

Today we are on an electro high to the sound of Client's new album 'Heartland', patiently waiting for the new Tiffany song 'Feels Like Love' to go live with it's download and listening to new music and conjuring up a review for Technologic, deciphering the words to 'Pop Messiah' by Simon Curtis and 'Rock Into My World' by Switch22 (of which also have the EQ Number one and a fab new electro mix to 'Back To The Dancefloor'), trying to decide if we like Rhianna's new song 'Umbrella (even though we found a version without the horrid rap bit) and figuring out how we are going to get tickets to see Scissor Sisters at the O2. 

And for all you techno-bitches out there, we put up an RSS feed for you to subscribe to up by the Charts.

Inside EQ : The Pop Blogesphere Can Be A Bitchy Place

Y'know, it just amazes me that at 32 years old, I can still be learning life lessons.  When you think you're emotionally mature enough to handle a relationship, you've been responsible enough to secure you're first mortgage and you finally got rid of all those unnecessary friendships that never should have been made in the first place, along comes something small yet insignificant that cuts you like a knife.

Y'know, I wasn't going to write about this because it is small and insignificant but for some strange reason it has lingered around our brains all week and I kept asking myself "WTF?"  So here goes, life lesson number 1,873 that we've learned in our life - The Pop Blogesphere Can Be A Bitchy Place.

It seems that a select few pop bloggers don't actually like Electroqueer.  Hey that's ok.  We've always been a Veronica rather than a Heather.  We were never one of the Mean Girls.  And we always felt like the little goth girl (played by Winona Ryder as well) who was in love with that hunk of a geek Lucas.  In the beginning we were built up by the pop bloggers who raved about us (which we always thought was weird anyways) and it seemed we felt acceptance from a pop blogger community who kept encouraging us to write more.  That was fantastic - like we scored a number one hit on the radio or our opening night was sold out.  We were singing 'Flashdance' a lot back then. 

But as of lately, the jump-on-the-bandwagon slagfest of 'Let's diss Electroqueer' seems to be underway.  We've been called 'an untalented blogger with no original thoughts or ideas', half a post was written about us insinuating that we lied to an artists management to get a free concert ticket therefore robbing an artist of 8 quid, we've been called a 'drama queen' (hey we all have our moments) and a 'dodgy tool', and even 'Perez Hilton' because we posted a small 'things-that-make-you-hmmm' comment about that person's favourite new band.  Yes, I know there is A LOT of banter in the pop blogesphere and I really don't take any of this personally.  These people don't know me and most likely never will.  Maybe it's my Cancerian nature to hold tiny grudges and I should let this all just roll off my hardened shell, and I will.  It's another life lesson learned that I'm taking on-board.

This week I met up with one of my favourite new artists and we were chatting about this and she helped me put it all into perspective - I learned that if someone doesn't like your work, don't fret about it man!  Let all that negativity roll off you and channel it even further into your work.  In reading Darren Hayes  'Shut Up And Sing' blog post this morning it made me realise that "Yes, I don't blog for the approval of the pop bloggers, I blog for my readers".  All of which have been 10x more supportive than any comment a blogger has ever written about me.

So what's this shizz all about?  Well it's to let all the EQ haters know that your negative comments don't knock me down, they make me want to blog more and push the envelope further.  So in channeling the immortal mantra of Margaret Cho, "I'm gonna stay here and rock the blog until some other electro-loving, skinny wet-latte drinking, soho workin, London loft-livin, Asian-American, comic-book readin, not hiding behind anonymous commentin, shitty web designin and apology deletin, 80's loving, live reviewing queer blogger comes in AND TAKES MY PLACE. 

Electroqueer is here to stay and we will continue to bring you are favourite picks of new pop, electro and retro picks from across the pond and beyond.

God it felt good to get that off our chests.