Wednesday 19 December 2012

Queer Xmas part 2

Queer Xmas culminated in the final last ever Bad Rep dance party and boy was it an emotional rollercoaster! Unfortunately the super awesome Zomboy couldn't be with us and we were mega sad that we would be celebrating everything awesome about the last 18 months without our core member and co-founder. But he was with us in spirit. He was definitely with me in spirit when I was puking up my irn bru later on.



So we decided to make the final Bad Rep free to our attendees as a thank you. Also it meant that none of us had to be on door duty and we could dance with you all for one last time. And boy those free Bad Rep zines and mix cds went super quick! If you missed out on these then check out this post to see the online version of the zine.






Bad Reppers came out in force and danced super hard!

Our Bad Rep regulars were there!


You guys were amazing



And here's my most favourite part of the night. The last song I played was Bad Reputation by Joan Jett (obvs) and when the song ended the three remaining Bad Rep djs had a bit of emotional hug. Extra sad that Nick couldn't be with us for this. Imagine his sweaty drunk head in that gap next to Monx and Froogs there.



The hug continues while Bad Reppers give themselves a well deserved round of applause. Always looking for group hug opportunities I yelled 'EVERYBODY GROUP HUG!'...


 And we all hugged. That's the ENTIRE DANCEFLOOR having a cuddle. Can you feel the love?




Feelings



So many feelings


Yet more feelings


Sexy feelings


Some hardcore Bad Reppers had even travelled down from Manchester to come dance with us one final time. Here is one of them stealing the amazing Bad Rep posters made by Monx.



At the end of the night and don't we look pretty? The man in the middle is the amazing Garry who runs Resistance Gallery and who asked us to hold Bad Rep at his wonderful venue in the summer of 2011. He has supported us and believed in us and our dancefloor of queer misfits and we couldn't have done this without him. We love you Garry.

Now that Bad Rep is over what do we do now? Well I'm gonna keep this blog open to promote some of the awesome things we do as individuals and also to promote future things we do as a collective cuz you aint seen the last of us yet. There will be no more dance parties that's true, but we are a group of awesome people: we make films, we make music, we dj, we make zines, we make art, we throw parties, and we dance. 

Coming up the new year Bad Rep djs will be playing  riot grrrl records at the amazing Bloody Ice Cream and Zomboy and Supercasio will be playing records at the inaugral queer music night here There will be plenty more to look forward to in 2013 and we will keep you updated on our super fun projects here.

Thank you to everyone that came and danced with us in the last 18 months. I know it's just a disco but you have all contributed to creating a super fun queer trans party and we love you so hard. 

Casio+ Froogs+Monx+Zomboy
xxxxxxx




Queer Xmas part 1

Saturday 8th December was the last ever Bad Rep dance party, or what I'm now going to refer to as Queer Xmas what with Queer Zine Fest London taking place during the day and then partying hard at night with the final ever Bad Rep. The whole day was pretty insane and wonderful and inspiring. Oh my god SO FUCKING INSPIRING!

I tabled at Queer Zine Fest with long time Bad Rep regular Johanna who runs the Riotmade with Love zine project. Here we are selling our zines


We even got seated next to our super awesome friends from the bop who were selling their zines and brand new Unskinny Bop t-shirts!


The day was utterly brilliant and inspiring. It was so great to talk to everyone selling their zines, even if I couldn't afford to buy them all. I especially loved chatting with everyone that came to our table. I wasn't gonna bring my Bruce Springsteen zine with me as I though I probably wouldn't sell any at queer zine fest, but holy crap it sold out super quickly and everyone that bought a copy GOT IT. Queers love Bruce! It's definitely inspired me to write #2 now.

All of the Bad Rep crew were there hanging out and eating amazing food made by Cinnamon Buns zine and attending awesome talks or looking round the two amazing exhibitions in the space. You can still visit the Shape and Situate exhibition and the Music and Liberation exhibitions at Space Station Sixty Five until January and they are well worth visiting. The reason I loved Queer Zine Fest more than other zine fests is that well it's queer for a start, it's amazing to be in a space dedicated to just queer focused zines, it's so exciting and much needed. Also I've been fed up with a lot of zine fairs that seem dedicated to more art based zines where you pay £6 for a zine with a line drawing of a bird on some fancy tracing paper. That's not a zine, well I'm sure it is to other people, but it does absolutely nothing for me. Every zine I picked up on Saturday was exciting and inspiring. Some favourites included Radical Sameness, What I Ate Where, Hard Femme, and Colouring Outside the Lines, these were AMAZING!!

Hi-fives and much love to Charlotte Richardson Andrews who organised the whole event, and roll on QZFL2013!







Bad Rep zine

The first 50 people that arrived at the final Bad Rep will have picked up a copy of our Bad Rep mini zine. For those that didn't manage to grab a copy I've uploaded the zine here on the blog for you so you can read our daft scribbles here. 

And if you missed out on our amazing mix cd given out free on the night then don't dispair, you can listen to our special Bad Rep playlist here

(click on the image to make it bigger)





























Saturday 1 December 2012

All I want for Christmas is you

Fear not, we aren't turning our last ever Bad Rep into a christmas themed special just cuz it's December. BUT here at Bad Rep HQ we bloody love christmas songs! No really, we do! And now it's December it's completely ok to bedroom dance to festive pop songs!

We made a Bad Rep Christmas spoltify playlist for you which you can listen to here

And here's some of our favourite christmas songs for festive bedroom dancing. 



My Chemical Romance - All I want for Christmas is You
I know, the Mariah Carey version is golden, it's a classic for all times but if there was any way you could improve on that hit by even a teeny tiny amount it's to give it to MCR to cover. Emoting to this song with every FEELING my body can produce is what xmas is really all about.






Andrew WK - Silent Night
Christmas is for parties and who parties harder than anyone? Andrew WK, that's who!




No Doubt - Oi to the world
Our favourites No Doubt cover our other favourites The Vandals





Bruce Springsteen - Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus really is coming to town as Bruce announced his European 2013 tour dates and all of Bad Rep HQ is a blur of excitement. Ok so maybe that's just me. BRUUUUUUUUUUUCE!






Harry and the Potters - Xmas Rulez, Voldemort Droolz
Harry Potter is the true meaning of christmas and even if you don't like christmas you can definitely admit that Voldemort droolz. ACCIO CHRISTMAS!




Pansy Division - Homo Christmas
Licking nipples, licking nuts, sticking candy canes up each other's butts! 




Helen Love - Merry Christmas (I don't wanna fight tonight)
I always like a Ramones cover better than I like the actual Ramones, soz. 



Destiny's Child - 8 Days of Christmas
According to the lyrics, Beyonce's getting a belly ring, cropped jacket, and some dirty denim jeans. Loving the 90's gifts B!



East 17 - Stay Another Day
Ok so this song isn't about Christmas, it's about Tony Mortimer's wife's dad dying. And Tony Mortimer once got an Ivor Novello award (remember when people cared about them?). And no I don't like Take That, Gary Barlow is a Tory prick. Playground boyband rivalries die hard. East 17 for LIFE!



Jimmy Eat World - Last Christmas
Just in case you have a lot of FEELINGS and want to have yourself an emo christmas, get this emo cover on and have yourself a little cry, you'll feel much better.




Run DMC - Christmas in Hollis
The true story of how Santa Claus gave Run DMC a million dollars for christmas. 



The Vandals - Hang myself from the tree
Cuz Christmas is a time to celebrate misery.



My Chemical Romance - Every snowflake's different
After all that emo and misery means we need cheering up!