Propaganda

Here are 27 years of flyers, from our earliest hand-drawn efforts, made with glue and scissors and photocopies, to the more posh ones of recent years. All represent Duckie nights out/club nights, interactive theatre and performance events.

'Gay is Good' Saturday Nights (Jan - Mar 1997)

That’s a good line-up isn’t it? Chris Green, a Bowie night, Bette Bourne, Gay Liberation Front tributes… We were always political but irreverent with it. Was that the first of many Kate Bush tribute nights? I think it was.

1st Birthday Party (1996)

We couldn’t believe we’d made it to one year so Kim Phaggs drew a comic for the party in St Peter’s Church, Vauxhall. It’s a daft story about Amy being kidnapped by the West End clubs. The Divine David was a suitably messianic headliner.

A way of Life (1996)

Another pastiche, this time of the Quadrophenia film poster. Amy, Jay and The Wifes are in it with some of our favourite coolest regulars. That’s Emma Headgirl next to Jay: she was amazing. She also did the door at Viva Apathy for a bit. Wonder what happened to everyone…

Duckie Goes to Brighton (1996)

The double-decker left the RVT on the Sunday morning and dropped us all back in the early hours of Monday. Great fun on the bus – music, drinking and smoking and hanging out the back holding onto that pole. I think we did this one as a collaboration with Boogaloo Stu and his gang who were based in Brighton. Kindred spirits.

Fanny-tastic in April (1996)

Great picture of Amy from, I think, a Time Out shoot. We were always trying to get the crowd to be more 50:50 gays and lesbians and this was one such attempt. I think lesbians got in for free for this run of nights.

Duckie Saturdays (June & July 1996)

Blow-Up film poster pastiche shot by Piers Allardyce who we loved working with so much. We’re all in black. The Wifes’ leather trousers came from Kensington Market. We bought them especially for DJing but they were so hot we ditched them when we realised nobody ever saw our legs anyway.

New Year's Eve Party (1996)

Our first New Year’s Eve bash. The RVT always had their own thing so we took it to The Market. I remember it was freezing in there, really cold. The next big new record everyone was talking about was ‘Your Woman’ by White Town and the Wifes managed to get hold of a promo of it especially for that bash.

Duckie Spring Saturdays (February & March 1996)

Another ‘zine-style flier. Some of those names like Candice Colon and Stacy Makashi take us right back. Interesting to remember that every Saturday was themed for the first few years. School Strictness – what was that all about?

'The Profession of Duckie' Saturdays (May & June 1996)

I suppose this has turned out to be the most iconic picture of the Wifes. It was Simon’s concept, based on that book about The Kray Twins ‘The Profession Of Violence’. Duckie was on a bit of a roll by now: we thought we could do anything and it would work. It usually did!

Viva Apathy at Elephant and Castle Pub (1996)

Another dog-rough south London boozer down on its luck and no longer with us: it’s a Starbucks or something now. David was fantastic presiding over these Sunday night shows. Music was punk, Bowie, glam rock and newer things like Suede and Earl Brutus.

Wig 'N' Casino & Viva Apathy at The Market Tavern (1996)

The Market Tavern is long-gone: demolished. It had a very interesting history and naturally this attracted us. We were all into Northern Soul and The Divine David so we decided to run alternate nights every Friday. Wig ‘N’ Casino nights were strictly 60s: on David’s nights the Wifes played lots of post-punk and glam rock.

Duckie Launch Nights (1995)

Two of Duckie’s earliest obsessions represented right here in our first-ever flier – fanzine culture (Simon) and Fanny Cradock (Amy). Colour photocopying was, believe or not, state-of-the-art in 1995.