The Glory’s epic drag contest LIPSYNC1000 is back for another season. See below for our report on the first heat and images from the night.
Last Wednesday saw Heat 1 of LIPSYNC1000 at The Glory, their flagship annual contest in which drag queens, kings and scenesters battle it out onstage, all craving a place in the prestigious final and a chance to win £1000 pounds.
Keeping it “in the family” this week, the pub kicked off their rotating judging panel gently. Greek drag star A Man To Pet was joined by music industry PR mogul Amanda Freeman, The Hackney Gazette’s Emma Bartholomew and Chris Godfrey and Dylan B Jones from QX magazine.
LIPSYNC1000’s host John Sizzle touched down with a fantastic opening number. His take on the theme to 1960s sci-fi flick Barbarella saw him appear from behind a giant paper moonscape dressed head-to-toe in basic bitch Space chic. The outfit – which included a mop bucket helmet and freakish gloves fashioned from masking tape – was designed by The Glory’s very own bartender-come-fashion design student Josh Cryne.
The opening act was lapsed-Muslim agnostic drag queen The Night Bus, who went through four costume changes and a Korean-flecked mash-up. She was followed by Karina Totti, a notorious character in the East London’s underbelly; with her assistant Britney, the pair performed a Shakespears Sister-style rendition of Rihanna’s S&M and turned it into a quasi-commentary on the domestic violence that transvestites suffer.
Third up was Annie Pics, who used her unfair advantage of a giant mouth to channel an Americana saloon slut to give a wondrous performance of Kirsty MacColl’s timeless 2000 classic In This Shoes.
John Sizzle’s opening number for the second half was Beautiful by Christina Aguilera, made effortlessly comical by an outfit which made Sizzle look Lady Gaga, if Lady Gaga was a box of after dinner mints. And then a duo came on: Miss Craig (who hosts The Glory’s pub quiz Pub Queerz) and Polly Amorous (from popular drag cluster The House Of Devore) performed crowd favourite I Know Him So Well. The pair’s appearance was enhanced massively by the homemade shoulder pads and Miss Craig’s bizarre and unexplained clawing at the sides of The Glory in a cat mask.
Attired in a terrifying Texas Chainsaw Massacre style mask, Diana Might left little to the imagination in a rocky Liv Tyleresque number. Last up was Basic Witches, an assemblage headed by Baby Lame, styled like the leading cast of Hocus Pocus, who performed Little Mix’s Black Magic. They co-ordinated the pop tune with a fully realised dance routine and a stage-diving “twink gimp” who was literally thrown around the pub in a jock strap.
With no small controversy, the Basic Witches were announced the winners of this first heat. On the one hand, Lipsync1000 co-producer Jonny Woo’s word-of-mouth rulebook apparently states that “anyone can enter” and therefore entrants can be professional (as Baby Lame now is). On the other, entrants should not use a number that has already appeared in a booked show (this Black Magic routine was already performed by Baby Lame in her popular Glory revue night The Shit Show).
As it stands, the Basic Witches will go through to the final.John Sizzle will announce any changes if they are decided upon. In the meantime Heat 2 is on tonight. What will the Glory faithful see? Will there be fresh controversies? And who will win? Only one way to find out…
Rumoured judges to appear in the LIPSYNC1000 contest this year include Gail Porter, Aisleyne Horgan, Dan Gillespie-Sells and Christopher Kane. Panti Bliss has already confirmed on Twitter that she will be joining John Sizzle for the final.
Words: Jack Cullen/Franco Milazzo
Pictures: Peter Fingleton
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