Showbags with Linda, Jessica and Amanda and “Mickey” from Show 2.
Showbags with Vivien, Jessica and Amanda and a showcase for potential clients.
Here I’ve listed our shows and linked some images and videos where I can. It starts with the Greyhound shows and finishes with the shows at PINK when Showbags transformed into Drags Aloud. Behind the scenes, GuyDJ and Armen the Lighting Man set the scene for the shows.
Jessica James costuming talent was helped by Roxy Bullwinkle and our dresser, Matthew Roger. Matt was tasked with getting us out of one costume into the next, and he had at most a minute to do so. It’s a challenging job with time constraints and random mishaps. I’m sometimes quoted for my immortal line, in a loud voice: “Matthew. Where’s my fucking pom poms!!!” We met up for lunch with Matt in London where he now lives, and he quoted the line to me (again). As I said, dressing 3 showbags was a challenge.
There’s also a section on our promotions. I started advertising in the gay press for my first solo night at the Greyhound. The opening night crowd was double the host’s from the previous week, and so I was convinced of the need for publicity. From then on I put together posters and advertisements which was great experience for becoming our own publicists when Drags Aloud was formed.
Lights, Music, Action!
Our DJs – Trent E and GuyDJ and Armen the Lighting Man.
Showbags was not the only ingredient that made the Greyhound years so phenomenal. The DJs, Trent Evans and GuyDJ set the tone for the night.
Our DJ when we started out was Trent E and he was joined later by GuyDJ who played with us through to the closing of PINK. Trent had a slightly more aggressive sound which took you to the dance floor to spend energy. In contrast Guy seemed to draw you to the dance floor to celebrate movement.
I found Guy’s music was bright and uplifting, exactly the sound that suited the night. Our shows used ‘the classics’ from the 80’s and 90’s mainly, and Guy ensured he didn’t play our set lists but would prepare the audience for the show with complementary tracks. GuyDJ also mixed some of our Showbags tracks and mixed our Disco Do-Re-Mi from our Sound of Music Drag Show.
GuyDJ joined Showbags in the early days, appearing in the Xmas Shows and later in Red Curtain. Then he invented GirlDJ and joined us for our expanded and corporate shows.
Both Trent and Guy kept an eye on the charts and audiences heard the latest hits, but Showbags avoided “latest hits”. Doing a latest hit meant performing it perhaps 10 weeks later in the new season. By then most hits are forgotten, so we used proven hits that we knew the audience would remember and like.
I must also mention the other essential member of our crew – Armen the Lighting Man.
We met Armen in the very early days where he was introduced to the lighting board at the Greyhound for our early shows. He has a natural talent and before too long our lighting improved noticeably. When we moved to PINK, Armen followed us and set up the lighting rig and lit us as we’d not been lit before. An extra layer supporting the Showbags phenomenon.
Armen was an integral part of Drags Aloud also and as well as lighting our corporate shows around Melbourne, he travelled to the U.K. with us and also did lighting on our tour of Queensland, learning new lighting boards and set-ups at each new venue. His remarkable talent was fate helping us out again.
