HOT MESS Teaser
All info at www.hotl-laser.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP3bh3M4_4E
RIP Loleatta Holloway
Yesterday, my favourite singer, Loleatta Holloway passed over. Many know her as the sampled voice on that Black Box ditty but to me she was the ultimate disco diva and a massive inspiration.Belting it out on stormers like Love Sensation, Runaway, I May Not Be There When You Want Me and Hit& Run, spitting out dontmesswithmyman warnings in Dreamin' or dripping with emotion on ballads like Two Become A Crown, her voice was real, and full of pure soul. A lot of the over processed pop tartlets of today would do well to listen and learn.
Ride on Time aside, I first discovered her in 1994, giving it attitude on The Queens Anthem. I then did my homework and fell in love.
Possibly the most sampled voice in dance music after James Brown, I now cringe when yet another house track samples her amazing vocals as very little can compare to the original arrangements and lush sounds of her Salsoul Records days.
Rest in peace you wonderful woman. You inspired me to be a belter and proud to be a fierce woman.
x
Respect...Colin Rothbart
I first met Colin when I lived in Vienna. He was directing the BBC's Holiday show (RIP), we were introduced just as I was about to return to the UK and exchanged contact details. You frequently meet people along the way in this business we call show and never expect to hear from them again but just as I'd moved to London, he emailed me, we ended up on a long, lost London weekend and a friendship was formed.He has an amazing ability to bring together a varied bunch of party people and I've performed or DJed for all of Colin's birthday parties since I moved to London, all being truly memorable in terms of dressing up, bad taste and pure hedonism. Colin owns private party venue 'The Shed' where East End creatives, posers and freaks mix and mingle, celebrity DJs pop up unannounced and an off duty performer might do a number. In the future, The Shed will be one of those places people will boast about going to like The Blitz, Taboo, Kinky Gerlinky and Kashpoint.
Colin is a true British eccentric. He doesn't appear extraordinary in an obvious attention seeking way, it's to know him to understand his unclassifiable quirks and that he is a legend in his own lunch time. He's been known to wear some truly criminal outfits in his bid to drag up for a party and his adventures in modern cosmetics is quite something, botched botox and his recent mullet weave being the most memorable.
During a trip to India in 2009, I asked Colin if he would be up for directing my film about the East End alternative scene (more info on www.hot-laser.com), of which he agreed. Nothing quite like a business meeting while floating in the Arabian Sea. We've been filming since Glastonbury 2009 and continue doing so, following fabulous queer freaks from the scene.
Besides being a reputable TV director, Colin has a past in front of the camera and was in one of the UK's first reality shows 'The Living Soap' and presented mid 90s club show 'Trainspotters'.
Colin presenting Trainspotters with Chrissy Darling and Twiggy
The Living Soap. You'd better werrrrk (and drink)
Thank you Colin. Your generosity astounds me as does your diet. Your antics make me smile and I promise to get some funding sorted for the film...eventually.
www.rothbart.co.ukWhy I set up Hot Laser (Queer Arts Community)
Every year for the past four, there has been a tranny exodus to the Glastonbury Festival where we've gone and run amok in the NYC Downlow. After laughing my ass off the first year in 2007 (which continually pissed it down but has been one of my favourite lost weekends) I thought to myself, why is nobody documenting this? The queer American scene has prolific films such as Paris is Burning, Wigstock, The Cockettes, Trannyshack, The Queen, and SqueezeBox! so I decided it was time to document the alternative drag scene that has recently emerged and thrived from east London.
While bobbing around in the Arabian Sea, I asked my friend Colin Rothbart if he'd be interested in making a film about the British queer scene and we started filming at the Downlow in June 2009. Realising we needed to do this properly, we set about becoming a Community Interest Company and received official status this summer.
During this process, my own focus shifted. I wanted to do something that incorporated more than the family of trannies and freaks that the film was documenting and extend it to queer creatives around the UK. For me, queer and gay have become so distant from each other that they're hardly related. Gay has become a commodity, queer is where the others, radicals and creatives live.
Queer is empowering. It's less to do with sexuality or gender, more about being different, other. Queer incorporates gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered, intersex, transvestite, whatever....its less about what you do with your genitals, more about your outlook.
So what are we doing? We're making an amazing documentary about a bunch of queers and misfits, the lives behind the masks and to show mainstream culture being queer isn't confined to the safe asexual, inoffensive and bland generic vision what the BBC or the media perceive it to be.
We aim to link British based queer creatives together. Those working in art, music, writing, dance, design, fashion, anything creative. Britain is full of queer creatives, the aim is to bring everyone together, create links, encourage productivity and help isolated queers through the arts. This will eventually be done in the form of a website (exhibition, events, tour, book, album.. possibilities are endless) but for now we're doing it through fund-raising events where London's finest queers give their time for free to raise money for the group. (Next one
Of course all this will take time and money. I have the passion and ideas but I'm a creative honey and need help with the official side of things. Fund-raising, legal, financial...all the important stuff that needs to be done so the fabulous stuff can blossom.
We need fund-raisers who know how to access people who'd like to invest in this amazing project. Professionals who can give us advice and help. Interns to help get this project off the ground and out there.
I'd like to see things being pushed forward and the extended family come together. People collaborating instead of protecting their own little scraps of land, hooking up with other groups and projects, taking it internationally, having fun and being amazing through the arts in all its glorious forms.
x
More info at www.hot-laser.com
If are interested in helping, please email me at holestar@gmail.com
