K25 – it’s been a fab ride!

So the end is nigh – but hasn’t it been the best ride of a year, celebrating Kylie’s twenty five years in the music industry. And for us in Sydney we have her to top and tail the year.  

 

Miss Minogue has the love and admiration of many and not least this old showgirl. For me Kylie is the ultimate showgirl, all class and style. And the way she has chosen to celebrate and mark her great achievement just oozes all of it. 

 

She has after all sold 68 million records starting in 1987 with Locomotion and recorded 11 studio albums and four greatest hits. She has given us some of the best shows we will ever see, with Showgirl and Aphrodite Les Follies being perfect   pop concerts. She has numerous awards including an OBE, a French Knight of Culture, is in the ARIA Hall of Fame – and is the Pop Princess.

 

How lucky were we to have her here in Sydney to celebrate Mardi Gras and her association with the GLBT world community, by appearing as our special guest during the Parade and performing a twenty minute unforgettable thank you show at our celebration party.

 

She has performed her Anti Tour, which featured b-sides, demos and rarities from her music catalogue. She also performed at Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Concert, and BBC Proms in the Park London. Kylie released the single Timebomb in May, the greatest hits compilation album, The Best of Kylie Minogue in June and the singles box-set, K25 Time Capsule in October. 

Carlotta – ‘Life’s still a drag’

Carlotta

Carlotta is Australia’s most famous drag queen with almost fifty years on the stage. Her career started in 1963 when see joined the original cast of Les Girls in Kings Cross and quickly rose to become its star and compere which she mostly did until 1993.

Since then she had a career in TV and film and toured the country first with her big showy production show’s and now with her one woman show Life’s still a drag. 

This highly entertaining cabaret show has been touring Australia for the last year and only last week did she bring it back to her long time stomping ground Kings Cross as part of the Kings Cross Festival. Preforming in a new cabaret space within the Kings Cross Hotel; I was delighted that she invited me along to see the show and generally catch up.

I guess the most charming surprise is this show is 80% sung live and Carlotta has the chops to carry it off and at times belts them out. The songs are mostly showbiz standards and well-chosen to suit her range and theme of this show. A highlight is The Lady is a Tramp, which Carlotta has had rearranged and recently released through iTunes.

 

Basically it’s Carlotta telling the back story of how Les Girls came about, what it was like and even a few tell-tales involving the personalities behind the glamour. Oh yes she certainly lays it all on the line, and tells it like it was warts and all.