The Crystal Maze comes to Freeview

Good news if you live in the UK and own a TV - the channel 'Challenge' has come to Freeview, and they're showing old episodes of The Crystal Maze, which was of course hosted by the fabulous Richard O'Brien.

If you've never seen The Crystal Maze, it's a gameshow where contestants battle to win time crystals. The more they collect, the more time they have in The Crystal Dome for the final challenge, where they have to catch as many gold tokens as they can while both silver and gold ones fly around madly.

It's always a laugh and definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it, if only for Richard O'Brien!

UK - Rocky Horror Glee Show - E4 Monday

News for UK based Rocky Horror fans (I can't bring myself to say 'good' news).

As you may already know, American musical show Glee did an episode in time for Hallowe'en called 'The Rocky Horror Glee Show' where the Glee club decide to put on Rocky Horror for the school's annual musical, but a bunch of whiny teenage problems get in the way and... Well, let's just say I was unimpressed, for the sake of politeness.

The episode is scheduled to air in Britain on Monday Feb 7th at 9pm on E4.  UK fans - will you be watching?

I've decided to watch the episode again because I was, uh, not very pleasant about it after my first viewing (you can read my review here) and I want to decide whether I was being overly cruel or not. I'll admit, some of the musical numbers are not done badly. But that's as nice as I'm prepared to be about it right now. And don't even get me started on the abysmal lyric changes...

Have a Frank-ly Fabulous Christmas!

As Slade once sang - IT'S CHRIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSTTTTTTMMMMAAAAASSSS!!!!

And so from all of us here at the Rocky Horror Blog, have a Frank-ly fabulous Christmas and a super New Year!

Since I don't have much else to say, here's a little early Christmas present for you...

I'd like to find that package under my tree!

Had to be said!



Have a rose-tinted Christmas!
Love and Rocky,
Harriet and Sam
x

How to be... Columbia

We've decided to try (emphasis on try) a monthly segment called 'How to be..." where we show you cheap and easy ways to compile Rocky Horror costumes for showings, parties, et cetera, mostly because we're bored. For me, dressing up is an integral part of the Rocky experience, and if you're a Rocky virgin and are worried what to wear, I hope this guide can help to at least give you a starting point!

I've seen some of the pre-made costumes in the flesh and I don't like them. They're expensive, poorly made and sometimes look nothing like the picture on the packet! I'm thinking especially of the Columbia pre-packaged costume Click Here, which contains what looks like a floppy gold sunhat, far from the nicer picture on the front. For the same money, you could probably make a better costume yourself by compiling some items and making others.

This month's costume is Columbia!

Columbia's costume for the Time Warp (movie costume, left) is my personal favourite, but it isn't the easiest costume in the world being so fabulously sequined.

If you want to make your costume really accurate, I'd recommend: www.rockyhorrorcostumelist.info/anlcolum.htm

Tailcoat:
Columbia's tailcoat is fully gold sequined with black sequin lapels. I would recommend buying a mirrored-sequin fabric tailcoat. The cheapest I've found is on Amazon for £11.99 Click Here. Alternatively, you could buy a plain tailcoat and cover it with gold sequined material such as this Click Here but this is likely to be more expensive and will require a lot of work and a bit of skill.

Bustier:
Columbia's bustier is made of a complex pattern of different coloured sequins. You can buy PERFECT multi-sequined custom fabric from Larry Viezel Click Here but it costs $50 a yard and you'll probably need two yards so this isn't a cheap option.
How about wearing a sequin bustier in one colour like this one? Click Here. It's nice and cheap, and if you're feeling creative you could sew some sequins in other colours on as well. Or if you're more skilled with a sewing machine you could buy some multicoloured sequin fabric like this Click Here and sew it around a plain bustier.

Shorts:
Columbia's shorts are black satin with stipes of metallic ribbon. I found these Click Here on eBay for £12.99, but you can probably find cheaper pairs, especially if you don't want satin ones. Sew strips of ribbon onto the shorts (you can buy coloured ribbon in a million places).

Top Hat:
The top hat is covered in gold sequins with a black un-sequined hatband. You can buy sequin felt top hats for under £6 on eBay Click Here or you could buy a plain top hat and cover it with sequined fabric as I mentioned for the tailcoat, but this will likely be more costly and time consuming.

Bow Tie:
The bow tie is pink sequined on the front, and is attached on an elastic strap. I found this Click Here on eBay for £2.95. Sorted.
If you don't want to wear a bow tie, Columbia wears a black dog collar with rhinestones on it after the time warp. You could wear a studded choker like this Click Here or buy a plain black choker and glue rhinestones to it.

Hair:
Columbia's hair is short and red, parted on the left. I can't vouch for the pre-packaged wig Click Here but you can get it for under £10 in most places. If you have short hair already, you could use wash in-wash out red hair colour Click Here. I've even seen people with long hair dye it red and hide most of it under the hat.

Fishnets:
Nice and easy, you can buy black fishnets for under £5 Click Here.

Socks:
Light blue ribbed socks Click Here. I didn't spend too much time looking for these, so you can probably find better ones.

Shoes:
Columbia's shoes are black tap shoes (due to the tap solo she performs during the Time Warp) with blue and silver (I think) sequins stuck on. The strap is fastened with a buckle, not a ribbon. I found some accurate-looking ones on eBay Click Here but they're expensive. You can buy tap shoes for under £20 Click Here and stick sequins or rhinestones on them with glue, but they'll be noisy. I'd recommend getting a pair of black mary jane shoes with a small heel and just stick sequins on. Will stick look great and will probably be cheaper.

Ring:
If you want to be really accurate, Columbia wears a ring on her left ring finger. It's silver with a flat blue band in the middle. A cheap mood ring would look great Click Here - I used to own a mood ring and it was almost always blue: perfect.

Hopefully this will help you to recreate a great Columbia costume. It's such a great costume because there are so many areas which you could add your own creative flair to, so don't be afraid to experiment. Now all you need is a squeaky voice and a lovable delivery boy on your arm, and you're sorted!

More costumes coming soon.

2009/2010 UK Tour - Glasgow Photos

The UK tour of Rocky Horror is almost over, and I've been fortunate enough to see it twice this year in 2 of the 3 Scottish tour dates. I was in Glasgow last night at the Saturday night matinee (was gutted to discover I couldn't get a train home until about 6 in the morning if I went to the late show). It was my first time seeing David Bedella as the scandalous Frank-N-Furter - I saw an understudy when in Edinburgh - and he was incredible. I almost melted on his entrance. Some say he's one of the only Frank's to match Tim Curry's original brilliance; while I don't know if this is true, he was certainly incredible. As my second live Rocky Horror Show, it did not dissapoint.

Unfortunately, the crowd did. I've never been particularly fond of Glasgow anyway, and this confirmed my beliefs. The lack of costumes was astounding and heartbreaking. I had the great enjoyment of being in the front row, but was taken aback when only 1 or 2 other people in the row even made an attempt at dressing up (even a feather boa is appreciated!) The man beside me didn't even do the Time Warp. It was devastating. Thankfully, there were a few good old fashioned Rocky fans like me strutting their stuff in corsets, fishnets and heels - women too! And here are just a few pictures!

Got any photos to add to our blog? Not just from this show - anything Rocky is most appreciated!

You can email us at: rockyhorrorblog@hotmail.co.uk

The Rocky Horror Glee Show - My review

I would just like to admit, before I start, that this review will be biased due to the facts that 1. I don't like Glee and 2. I am a massive Rocky Horror fan who hates to see it ruined, may have affected my judgement a teensy bit. If you're looking for an impartial, completely objective review of The Rocky Horror Glee Show, this isn't for you.

Otherwise, let's dish!

When I first heard that Glee was doing Rocky Horror, I was filled simultaneously with both dread and cautious curiosity. 'If nothing else, it'll introduce Rocky Horror to a new generation' some fans said tentatively both before, and after, the episode aired. Personally, I don't think this is very important - as I've pointed out several times, a show which can last majestically for over 30 years without showing any signs of stopping (all without the help of Glee) must constantly be revealed to new generations anyway. I myself am 17, part of Glee's target audience, and I found Rocky just fine on my own. But I digress. Although it's true that Glee might introduce new fans to Rocky, I personally don't think this should be their first taste. If it was mine, I wouldn't come back for more.

The episode, which aired just before Hallowe'en in America and can be found online for UK fans if you're interested (I was curious, and regret it now), sees the guy who I assume is the teacher deciding to put Rocky Horror on for the school's annual play because an annoying woman (another teacher, I assume) tells him she loves it and so does her boyfriend, and teacher guy wants to win her over even though I don't think he cares much for the show at all. Still awake? Okay, let's get into the nitty gritty. Half the episode is spent dwelling on the love triangle, the other half sees the moaning teens bitch repeatedly about the revealing costumes (which was stupid, really, since the cheerleaders in particular were more covered up when wearing their costumes than their regular clothes...) and about the risque content, and a further half (I know that's three halves but that's what it felt like) dealt with some stupid opinionated woman in a tracksuit also bitching and condemning Rocky Horror (!), which really left very little time for anything else, not that I would have been awake to see it.

And then, after almost an hour of tedious will-they/won't-they, the show gets cancelled because it turns out that it's not okay to be who you want to be and give over to pleasure once in a while. What a wonderful message, Glee. They try to pull themselves out of the gutter by performing the play 'for themselves', ending the episode on an appallingly bad rendition of the Time Warp, and after all that moaning about tax dollars being spent on something like that, what happens? Oh, right - all those tax dollars are in fact wasted because the elaborate set and costumes go to waste since the show is never performed before a paying audience. Logic???

Let's step aside from the ridiculously bad plotting of the episode for a minute to look at where Glee's take on Rocky Horror managed to suck just that little bit more. First of all, there was the casting of a female Frank. Fair enough - she was not the first pick and she only volunteered because she wanted to be empowering, et cetera, et cetera. But it just did not work. For a start, you cannot be a transvestite, let alone a sweet one, if you are a woman wearing women's clothes. That just makes you a woman. Duh. And then the casting of a female Frank led to innevitable lyric alterations ("I'm not much of a man by the light of day..." couldn't exactly work anymore, and so on). This is acceptable. But the further lyric tinkerings were not.

Whoever rewrote the lyrics to "Toucha-toucha" should be slapped. Hard. "I thought there's no use getting into heavy petting, it only leads to trouble and seat wetting" became, tragically, "I thought there's no use getting into heavy sweating (seriously) it only leads to trouble and bad fretting". What does that even mean, apart from being a little disgusting? "Toucha-toucha" was subject to the worst of the alterations - "then if anything grows" became "if anything shows" and so on - but it was not the only song to be dismembered. Immortal hit "Sweet Transvestite was also quite epically ruined when the word "Transexual" was replaced with "sensational". I'd just like to point out to Glee that "Transexual" was the name of the planet that Frank and crew came from, in the galaxy of Transylvania, so that little change not only killed the mood but the entire story. Round of applause.

Not even the appearances of Barry Bostwick and Meat Loaf playing bit parts could redeem this sordid thing. It had a lot of potential, and I'll admit that some of the renditions weren't bad - 'Hot Patootie' and 'Over at the Frankenstein place', for instance, were actually pretty listenable - but the makers of this programme took something wonderful and dragged it through the dirt.

And yes, Glee might introduce a new generation to Rocky Horror, but if I was watching that episode, which seemed to say it isn't acceptable in our society to be Rocky Horror fans and that we should just do it in the privacy of our own homes, or not at all, I don't think I'd be very impressed.

As the episode ended, it was with an enormous relief that I remembered I'm going to a live show in just over a week, before that abomination becomes stuck in my head.

"Don't dream it; be it"? The Rocky Horror Glee Show was more like a nightmare.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Very self-explanatory post - just wanted to wish you a VERY HAPPY HALLOWE'EN from all of us here at The Rocky Horror Blog!


Halloween Glitter Graphics - Glitterlive.com

Any Rocky Horror costumes this year?

Actor Gerard Kelly has died

I was shocked to hear today that Gerard Kelly has died at the age of 51.

Gerard Kelly was the narrator at the Edinburgh and Aberdeen shows of Rocky Horror this year. He was due to revive the role in two weeks at the Glasgow shows.

He died on October 28th after collapsing in his London home with a brain aneurysm.

Kelly appeared in such TV programmes as City Lights, Rab C Nesbitt and Extras, as well as taking part in pantomimes for over 20 years.

I think it's a bit callous to really consider it so soon, but I've heard it said that Kelly's friend and colleague Andy Gray might take his place in the Rocky Horror Show in Glasgow.

Kelly will be sorely missed.

Glee kills the Time Warp

If you haven't heard already, Glee is doing Rocky Horror. I was cautiously optimistic for a while but after seeing this... abomination, all hope is lost.

Here is Glee doing the Time Warp.

I have seen (and done) better Time Warp's whilst waiting at a bus stop. Can someone please explain why there are TWO Magenta's AND TWO Columbia's??? And why Eddie and Rocky are involved in the Time Warp before said characters are even introduced??? Did they even WATCH the film???????

Here is my summary of what this episode will almost certainly be like:

crap singing + crap dancing + crap wannabees who didn't read the script = a headache to any Rocky Horror fan.

See for yourself...

Click here to watch on YouTube

Official Rocky Horror Hallowe'en Party!

Hiya Frankie fans! ScofieldBurrows here. I thought I'd post a quick bit about the Official Rocky Horror Hallowe'en Party because I keep getting Facebook posts about it and the temptation's driving me nuts!

It's being held in the Alexander Theater in Birmingham on Saturday October 30th and I hear it's almost sold out so you better book quick if you want to go! The details are all on the flyer below, but it's also on the tour website rockyhorror.co.uk if you're interested.

I'm severely jealous because not only am I stuck at a writing course in Edinburgh on that day, but my mum also doesn't think it's a good enough excuse to warrant me going to Birmingham (mad woman!). But if you live in or near there, lucky devil, this looks set to be a FAB evening - and for just £25 to boot!

All the cast and crew are invited and I am prepared to bet that most of them will at least show face - you never know, Richard O'Brien himself might make an appearance! Super exciting, can't believe I'm missing it.

The £25 not only gets you in, but also pays for a DJ, a special RHS pass (sure to be collectable one day!) and food and drink. The menu is listed on the flyer, and it sounds pretty yummy.

I am so JEALOUS! This sounds like not only the perfect after party but the greatest Hallowe'en ever!

Will you be in attendance? If anyone is, take some snaps for us! And know that I envy you!