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)

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!

And after the show it's the after party

We are super chuffed to announce that we are the kinda somewhat (un)official after party for this year's Queer Zine Fest London!

The inaugural Queer Zine Fest London will take place on Sat 8th Dec at Space Station Sixty Five, SE11 . Expect talks, workshops and stacks of queerific zines and art from the UK, US and Europe. 

Some of our favourite zinesters and distros are gonna be here and we are so excited. We hope that all attendees will come join us for some dancing in the evening.

If you are attending our last EVER Bad Rep please note that you might wanna get there early. With it being our last one we're expecting it to be a littly busier than usual and we don't want you getting turned away if you rock up late. So come early and dance with us.

See you at Queer Zine Fest London!

The end is nigh

In one month we will be hanging up our party hats for good as we bring this 18 month queer dance party to a close. You can read more about why we are choosing to end Bad Reputation here. 

We hope to make the last ever Bad rep the most fun EVER! We want mosh pits, walls of cuddles, group hugs, dancing with strangers, and pile ons. It feels great to be ending things on our terms and to be going out with a bang. Can you imagine if Bad Rep just fizzled out and became boring and just not that good anymore? Ugh, neither can we. Lets make the last one the most fun party that anyone's ever had ever!

Bad Rep this weekend was already super emotional as we said goodbye to some people, and know that some of our friends can't come dance with us at the last ever Bad Rep in December. There will be tears on the last night for sure as we all feel that Bad Rep is super special.

We hope that some of you who attend Bad Rep start your own club nights and put on your own parties and gigs so we can come dance with you again. You are all such awesome dancers with good hearts and rad record collections, you guys would throw the best parties ever. Do it! No seriously, DO IT! Start your own club night or put on a show right now cuz we're gonna need somewhere to dance!

Details of the last ever Bad Rep can be found here We figure that the world's ending in December anyway, so we might as well go out with a bang!

The penultimate party

The penultimate Bad Rep takes place this Saturday 10th November at Resistance Gallery, Bethnal Green 10pm - 2:30am £3 entry.

Our dancefloor king Will Power will be guest djing with us, and we'll also be playing the usual mix of riot grrrl, indie pop, queerxcore, hip hop, punk pop, diy bedroom dancing hits for the queers and the geeks. 

You only have 2 more chances to dance with us as Bad Rep will be ending in December. We hope to see you on Saturday. 

As a sidenote I've been thinking a lot about the friendships I've made through Bad Rep. The people that I've met on the dancefloor have been amazing. I've made lots of new friends and connections that I otherwise wouldn't have. I feel sad that after December's Bad Rep there might be some people that I don't see again or see as regularly, so I'm hoping in the remaining 2 months to turn those dancefloor friendships into real life friendships. 

The end!

Hello all you awesome people,

I'm afraid we have a big sad announcement to make: Bad Rep in December will be our last ever Bad Rep as we bring this 18 month queer party to a close.

(Dont' cry Gerard, it's all gonna be ok)

We have loved every second of Bad Rep, it's been an absolute blast. We've made so many new friends, created a little space for us and other weirdos, and made something small and special happen. We know it's just a club night, but we are so proud of everything we've done in the last 18 months and we couldn't have done it without you.

So why have we decided to call it a day? It's been a tough decision to make but first and foremost we wanted to end it on a high. So often clubs can go on and on and just fizzle out into nothing. We wanted to end it with the biggest party ever and on our terms. We are all friends and work as a collective, and while we all deeply love Bad Rep, the workload means that there are other projects and activities we have yet to explore.

Bad Rep is a collective. We are made up of film makers, (bad) musicians, zinesters, crafters, and dancers. After Bad Rep we will continue to be a collective and will go on to make lots more things with each other in different forms. This isn't us stopping, this is just closing a door on one project. And if we aren't creating anything for a bit it's because we are having a well deserved rest and playing D+D together. We are a gang and a force to be reckoned with. You haven't seen the last of us.

We have had the pleasure of working with THE BEST venue we have ever known. Garry and everyone at The Resistance Gallery have been incredibly supportive and Bad Rep wouldn't be Bad Rep without them. We see Bad Rep as a truly collaborative project with The Resistance Gallery and it's been amazing to have such a wonderful space just for us weirdos and misfits. Garry has supported us 100% and has offered his enthusiasm and support in a way that venue owners usually don't. We seriously cannot recommend this venue enough. I hope this isn't the last time we work with Garry and Resistance Gallery in some way, I'm sure our paths will cross again soon.

And so there are a bunch of people we need to thank. We'd like to thank everyone that has ever been a guest dj for the night at Bad Rep: Will Power, Hatchetface, C-Man, Skulleena, Sheela-Na-Gig, Johnny, Colette, Len, Helen, Kosminsky, Pierre Evil, Tamsin-Bop We made it a policy not to get experienced djs to come play songs for us, instead we wanted our regulars and stars of the dancefloor to have a go behind the decks and make us dance, and they did a pretty damned amazing job.

Thanks to everyone who has ever been on the Bad Rep door : Mike, Zak, Cat, Tim. You guys did the bit of the job that nobody likes and you were super awesome, friendly, and welcoming and we can't thank you enough!!!

And thank you to every single person who has ever come to Bad Rep. Dancing with you and hanging out with you and making friends with you has been life changing. Our world has grown in the last 18 months and you have shaped our little club night into a fun positive space and inspired us so damned much.

Thanks for dancing and let's make December 8th the biggest Bad Reputation party we can.

Love

Froogs + Zomboy + Monkey + Casio 
xxxx




P.S Guess who loves MCR gifs and aint' afraid to use 'em.

Teen-C (Will) Power!

Coming up this month at Bad Rep we are joined on the decks by our favourite dancefloor superstar Will-Power!

We love Will-Power, he's a super rollerderby star as well as dancefloor king. We always know it's gonna be a good Bad Rep when he walks through the door and starts busting some moves to bis before he's even taken his coat of, such is his commitment to dancing.

DJ name: Will Power

Favourite move on the dancefloor: I like to think its a Manda Rin meets a gay/punk/derby version of Justin Timberlake kinda move. Well, I can dream anyway!

Five favourite songs to dance to:

1. Bis: Monstarr

2. Sleater-Kinney: Rollercoaster

3. Le Tigre: Lets Run

4. Kenickie: In Your Car

5. Gravy Train!!!!: Titties Bounce

It's Halloween!

Pumpkins and ghosts and vampires and zombies and blood and gore and candy and trick or treating, IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! Screw xmas, here at Bad Rep HQ Halloween is all we need.

While Bad Rep doesn't fall during Halloween this year, we've compiled a Halloween bedroom dancing playlist for you.

Zombina and the Skeletones - Zombie Hop

Argh, I love Zombina! They have a brand new 5 track ep that will be released on Halloween night! Get your copy here

My Chemical Romance - Vampires Will Never Hurt You

Vampires may never hurt you but the collective bad hair in this video will. 

Horrorpops - Walk Like a Zombie

Bis - Secret Vampires

Teen-c horror anthem. You've never met us, you won't forget us!

Nerf Herder - Buffy theme

Playing this at Bad Rep is amazing cuz Resistance Gallery kinda feels like the Bronze.



Be Your Own Pet - Zombie Graveyard Party

Life is lame so let me eat yr brain!


Elvira - Haunted House

Misfits - Halloween

Obvs.

The Shaggs - It's Halloween

Ray Parker Jr - Ghostbusters theme

Busting makes me feel good!