What a Drag!

"Good afternoon Adrella, and don't you look stunning today?"

--- Royal Vauxhall Tavern, South London, every Sunday afternoon, circa 1992

I spent the most wonderful 2 years of my lifetime while living in and around London. Every Sunday, I would leave my small room in Earl's Court at 11:30am, take the tube to Vauxhall Road Station and walk across the street. I had the timing down so that I would get there when the doors opened at noon - sharp. Being the good, punctual and anal-retentive alcoholic that I am, I was always the first customer of the day. Liz would show up soon after, having made the drive from the countryside to meet me. If we didn't have the chance to meet up during the week, we could always count on these Sunday's to catch up on any important gossip.

Adrella was the star of the show but it did not begin til 2pm. So Liz and I had 2 hours to watch all the queens arrive in their best Sunday fashion and hangovers. By the time Adrella came on stage, the place was always packed! I'm talking about shoulder-to-shoulder packed. The Tavern is a relatively small venue, human capacity being about 150. Adrella regularly packed in over 200 in that place for her hour-and-a-half show. She did original humour with a few songs thrown in for bad luck. Her best was probably Liza (Minelli). Outstanding. Hilarious. Spiteful.

She always spoke not only to the crowd, but involved the crowd. If it was your birthday, your best friend would be sure to point that fact out to Adrella. You would then be roasted and toasted by the crowd. If you were there and claimed to be str8, you were fair game to everything she could come up with to un-str8en you.

Her show would be finished by 3p or maybe 3:30p and the crowd would then head across the way to 9 Elms Lane. The Market Tavern. Beer. Drugs. Poppers. Rock & Roll. Through the night. I rarely made it past about 5pm, by which time I'd be so wasted I just had to do a nap. Getting back to my small room required some deep, intestinal fortitude. I almost always made it back though. Then I'd start all over again about 8pm til the pubs closed at 10:30p.

God, that was fun. The old days.