NWOB – Culture Hacking Arrives
The explosion of sound and video technology in the 1980s swept all before it. The Xchange was an early adopter of video into drag shows and became a renowned breaker and mixer of new music videos with record companies..
But now hotels had TAB screens, rather than the die-hard groups huddled around the bar’s radio, or sometimes, transistor radio. Home VCR units were time shifting peoples favourite shows, but one drag queen had another idea on what to shift, and where.
Using 2 domestic video recorders, Skye Brooks assembled clever musical pieces accompanied by video which was projected on to a screen at 3 Faces nightclub. The drag performers, Skye Brooks, Loco Minx, Caresse, Sianne Tate and Michelle Tozer (ex-Pokeys) played their parts well and high energy dance routines had the audiences screaming.
These shows were inventive, intelligent and very, very popular. I was totally impressed when I saw New Wigs for the first time and I’m still a fan. The use of video, where the characters on screen are mimed by drag queens in the same costumes, coupled with smart choices in music and dialogue lifted the New Wigs above ‘just another drag show’.
This article published in Storm Magazine (an affiliate of ‘The Age’ newspaper), sums up the cultural impact of New Wigs on the Block on the developing drag culture, and also on Fringe Festival artists experimenting in this new artform.
- Download Storm Magazine:
Movement – New Wigs on the Block (PDF)
Such a mainstream mainstream news magazine article discussing the breakout gay culture was rare at the time, and it timed itself with the artistic and creative flood released, after staying silently ‘gay’ was no longer required.
Fortunately, or not, this article drew curious artists and audiences to what was primarily a gay venue. Drag was again luring the straight audience into the dark nightclubs, much to the chagrin of many venue owners. But this was part of the price of being in the mainstream.
Next: Showbags Moving toward the mainstream, and the Australian public’s love of drag shows.
Skye Brooks has continued her love of video, and has assembled a lot of her video work on YouTube.
Visit her channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@skyebrooks
And this is a sample of some of the work that New Wigs produced. The post-production has cleaned up some of the video but in the absence of a time machine to view the show live, enjoy a new perspective on Bette Davis and her relationship with Joan Crawford.