Checking out the competition 2

So, last Thursday night me and my friend Dan went for a drink and decided to enliven the evening with some Modern Comedy, in the shape of Club le Strange at Lowdown at the Albany. This is of course the club/cabaret/variety night of 2003’s Perrier Newcomer Gary le Strange, a blonde, berouged and vinyl-trousered living tribute to All That Is 80s. If Spandau Ballet had a test-tube baby with Annie Lennox and asked the Pet Shop Boys to be the godfathers, Gary is what would result.

Don’t be scared. He’s actually rather funny. As Dan whispered in the interlude between “Modern Disguise” and the chaotic reappearance of Gary’s former bandmates Far Kinell, “This man may be my God”. Gary, crushed like velvet under the weight of his own electropomp, was a winning host, adorable as a kicked puppy as he related his riches-to-rags story of bent managers and sleeping on park benches. The other acts were varied: a guitar-strumming cowboy with an unconvincing accent was far outshone by the musical stylings of DJ Danny Robbins. But then the man who co-wrote Paperback Hell and We Are History could never be less than damn entertaining.


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We had an excellent night, the joy of which was only compounded by my totally unexpected win of Gary’s latest CD Face Academy in the competition round (saved me a tenner …) and me getting to touch Gary’s face with my lips. I expect he’ll never wash again …