Happy Halloween!

Oh what a night! We danced, we drank, we sang, we were in bed eating pizza by 1am.
Here I am in my zombie killing outfit, ready to defend mankind.

Then I discovered my husband had turned.

What's a girl to do?

He's got life insurance. It'll all be ok.

Chainsaw attack! 

At The Lanes we saw a couple of really good bands. The first group were a sort of pop-punk group who's name I missed, but they were good. Then came the Blonde Vipers, headed by a very sexy cat lady. They played an excellent set of punk style* music, the vocalist had an 80s female punk type of voice. I loved them!

*I know nothing about music, but they made me think a lot of surf punk groups from the late 80s. Their myspace page describes them as Rockabilly. Clearly I know less than I thought.

There were some burlesque dancers, who I couldn't see because of the throngs of men pushing forwards, but the crowd gave them a warm reception, so I assume they were good. I have huge respect for the girl who came on dresses as Edward Scissorhands and danced to the theme music to the movie. She had the hands on so I have no idea how she managed to get her clothes off...

I remember going out for Halloween about 5 years ago, dressed up with a few friends. We were virtually the only people in town in fancy dress and people kept looking at us strangely. What a change a few years makes! Everyone we saw on the streets last night looked awesome. Full makeup, wigs, costumes, and not cheapy joke shop costumes either. A lot of people had mad a real effort and were really original with their costumes. I was impressed!



Shortly after this picture was taken the zombie pirate, blinded by my flash, collided with the girl in the red tie and spilt beer everywhere. Ooops, my bad.

 

One of the bar maids. How cool is that?

Squid?

All in all, an excellent night out and although I feel about 60 today, it was well worth it.

Party like it's 1949

I've recently bought tickets to two fabulous events, both retro themed and both in Bristol in the next couple of months. I'm one happy lady!


The first event I'll be attending is the Halloween night at The Lanes. The plan for Halloween was originally going to London for the incredible Don't Dali with the Devil, but once cost of hotels in central London, plus trains, tickets and drinks had been factored in, we were spending about £200 for one night.



(c) Natty Dread karmadread.co.uk

So, the search began for something as fun in Bristol. While A Sailor's Grave doesn't have the decadent surrealism that originally attracted me to Don't Dali with the Devil, it does have some interesting music, in the shape of alternative, rock and swing based groups, plus burlesque performers, zombies and fire performers. Entry is a snip at £5 and there are prizes of the best costume. As such it fulfils my desire to dress up and be entertained while costing us less than a quarter of London. With the sheer variety of excellent entertainment on offer, plus the fabulous location, it promises to be a brilliant night out.

My favourite idea for a costume at the moment is a zombie hunter. I'm thinking of something along the lines of a cheesecake 50s style army lady (dress and petticoat, heels, tilt hat) with a chainsaw. The best part of this idea is that I already own all the requisite parts of the outfit except for the chainsaw... Cheap and easy!

Event number 2 is a pre-Christmas 1940s dance at The Tunnels. The excellent University of Bristol Big Band will be playing and I have no doubt that it'll be spectacular fun. The last event they ran sold out well before the dance, so I bought my tickets today to avoid missing out! Photos from the last event can be found here. Now all I have to do is think about my outfit!