We admit it, we’re bored on Friday nights. 

Work finishes, we’ve done the strip a thousand times before and we want something different. So here it is: welcome to Disgraceland. 

Disgraceland is a brand new weekly party that’s going to be taking over cutting edge new venue Nevermind on Oxford Street every Friday night starting May 1st. Disgraceland is a place where anything goes, the gates are always open and fun pulls up to the bumper every Friday night.

Brought to you by Fag Tag and Courtney Act, Nevermind was first used for a gay event at the Same Same Mardi Bar, and we knew the fun had to continue longer than that. 

Located at 163 Oxford Street, three doors down from Stonewall, it’s a super hot space complete with life-size video screens, three bars, outdoor smoking balcony, a private glass-walled room, friendly staff and everything that’s needed to bring Friday nights back to life again. 

Each week Disgraceland will host a different theme, with fresh DJs like Jason Barry and Zac Hennessey charting a new musical direction for Oxford Street. Disgraceland launches on Friday May 1 from 10pm, and from then on, Fridays will never be the same. 

We’ll see you at the Opening Party.

I have not seen a better reveal of an artist. Lady Gaga started life in my awareness as a manufactured pop tart, created by a record company. Whispers that she wrote her own songs failed to convince me otherwise. Stories she had written for Britney etc… still need to see it to believe. Second single… amazing, but surly still just a construct. The moment of change came when I saw her playing Poker Face on piano and belting it out in a radio studio. The girl’s got talent. The layers continued to be revealed with performances on American Idol and other shows around the world. Poker Face goes number 1 making Gaga the first artist in over 10 years to hit the top of the Billboard charts with her first two singles! More research shows that she could play the piano by ear at the age of 4 and started performing in NY clubs at the age of 14. 

The styling is amazing, creative and different for every performance. You can’t escape the many faces of Gaga that are all so diverse but inexplicably the same person. This is too good to be manufactured, this girl is real. From the NY club scene a kid who proclaims that she would carry a fog machine in her hand bag.

Today I watched this video of Gaga playing Paparazzi live. Another stellar deconstruction.

I saw her interviewed on The View, which didn’t thrill me, but I was content with what is an amazingly talented writer and performer. There is a juxtaposition that at first seems confusing. Quiet, reserved and almost Paris Hilton like in an interview. But then I got caught in a blissful youtube loop of Gaga videos and watched this somewhat awkward by the interviewer, somewhat reserved Gaga sitting in powerful silence and making me squirm. Perhaps it is a technique, perhaps it is just her. But you can’t deny, that although she is not traditionally the best interview, there is something that has you on the edge of your seat. She is poised and in control as she sips her ginger tea:

Then comes the revelation that Poker Face is a song about ‘Poker facing your sexuality! At closer examination of the lyrics… one couldn’t say that conclusively, but I suppose you could construct that now knowing that Gaga herself has decreed it. 

She can write amazing songs, she can sing, she can play the piano, she can dance, she can play an interviewer and make em’ squirm, she has an opinion and she likes to talk about it, she is the creative director of all that you see of her and she even has amazing hand writing… I think I might have a gay crush. How did this girl with so much spunk make it through the record companies apparent beige artist filter. Finally we have someone with colour and excitement. 

Then this special shout out on her website: “And to my gay fans, please know that I’m always thinking about you, and how I can give you and every tour date the absolute best performance of my life.” Just a random special shout out to the gays… 

Even Kanye & Kid Cudi have sampled the acoustic version of Poker Face into a cute little diddy playing on the ‘Poke Her Face’ spin, titled “I Poke Her Face”

And I leave you with a line from her ‘Transmission: Gagavision’ weblog: “Lady Gaga has been sent to Earth to infiltrate human culture one sequin at a time” – I am a believer!