Vauxhall and I

My big London weekend finished off with an afternoon at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.  After I'd checked out of the hotel me and JC got the tube into town to see a mate I'd arranged to meet up with for lunch.  Over lunch JC turned on a charm offensive and persuaded my mate (continuing the initials theme we shall refer to him as SW) to join us at the RVT for 'a couple of drinks'.  As the Victoria tube line was closed we had to do a bit of London Calculus to figure out the easiest route to Vauxhall and decided on getting the Northern Line to Oval and a 10 minute walk from there.

The RVT itself is a slightly dislocated looking detached pub near to the MI6 building, right next to the Vauxhall tube with a small grassy area (park would be over-egging it) just behind.  As it was a lovely sunny day the crowds congregated on the grassy area after getting their wristbands and a drink.   The draw of the RVT on a Sunday afternoon (apart from, it seems, the drugs - I'll cover my thoughts on this in a separate post) is the drag show with 'Dame Edna' (aka Jonathan Hellyer) followed by a DJ set.  For JC and his friends the Sunday ritual is get there about 3pm, before the queues get too big, have a few drinks (and other stuff) and catch up with friends before the show starts at 5.30.   It was nice to chill out with a few beers, catch up with SW (who I don't see very often), meet JC's friends (a few people assumed I was his new bf - the reason for which became clear when I met his ex, it wasn't quite like looking in a mirror but we certainly were the same 'type') and generally have a nice afternoon.

The show itself was fun enough.  Dame Edna is the usual drag act combination of bitchy jokes at the expense (no pun intended) of celebrity and, unsurprisingly this week given how much they have dominated the news, MPs followed by big musical numbers, often twisting the lyrics to comedic effect.  Where Edna's talent lies is in vocal mimicry - her Karen Carpenter for example was quite spooky.  There's no denying she's a good performer, but there seems to be a bit of a cult built around her which I really didn't get.  Going to the show week in, week out would get tired very quickly for me - especially if it wasn't warm enough to sit outside with a few beers enjoying the weather and the company...  The show had one extra feature this time, a PA from Alison Jiear who performed the über camp I Just Wanna Dance which seems to be a bit of an RVT anthem cause the crowd went wild.  There's no denying she has a great voice, but the song itself is such a hi-NRG gay cliché!  Amusingly I was chatting with one of JCs mates outside after the show and he suddenly completely lost the plot and asked me for a pen.  I looked terribly confused and he pointed out that Alison was having a drink outside and he wanted to get her autograph!

After the show the DJs took over and there was the inevitable dancing and once more I was persuaded to remove my shirt.  I had decided that I had to get the last train home so left the pub at 10ish.  Handily there was a stop nearby where I could get a bus straight to Paddington (which goes via Victoria - which will be useful for future trips by bus) and soon I was on the train home, knackered, but happy...