MARILYN MANSON- GROTESK BURLESK
The Rouge Club, London - April 15 2003

Life can be strange sometimes, but April 15th 2003 was stranger than most... and there was a full moon, which is neither here nor there, but worth mentioning.

The first strange event of the day revolved around the opening of an art exhibition based around ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, scourge of the left, Argentinians, miners and a whole generation of Brits for whom she became an almost iconic hate figure. Rather predictably, most of the work on show reduced Thatcher to a figure of fun to be mocked. It all seemed a tad pointless, all these years later and with Tony Blair carrying on much the same policies, but some on the left still have to have a bĚte noire, it seems...

Another bĚte noire (for right wing redneck types, but also ironically a figure mocked by many) is Marilyn Manson who played a secret Grotesk Burlesk style gig at London's Rouge nightclub the same evening. Arranged as a launch vehicle for Manson's new album The Golden Age of Grotesque I had only heard about it the previous day when the lovely Eileen Daly (Pervirella, Razor Blade Smile) called to let me know that it was on and better still that mischievous Agent Provocateur Ben Westwood was DJ and that he had put me on the guest list. So accompanied by death doll Georgie Girl and doubting that the event would happen, (and that if it did we wouldn't get in) we left last vestiges of Thatcher's Britain for Manson's Hell.

The Rouge club is in London's Charing Cross Road and is spread over four floors. The top floor is a long, narrow room with a bar and a small dance floor measuring no more than twenty feet across at one end over which is a huge, dome. There is a spiral staircase to one side which on normal nights leads up to the VIP area. For tonight's special event, half the dance floor had been converted into a small stage and a huge screen erected behind. Other than that, a few extra lights, and the Manson SS style MM armbands adorning the bar staff, there wasn't really a lot to distinguish the club from any other night.

After about forty minutes, two girls appeared with skulls painted on one half of their faces - exactly as they are in his new video for the track mOBSCENE in which Manson recreates the feel of Twenties Berlin and the dying days of the Weimar Republic in his image. Behind them came Manson decked out in a red suit and looking, well.....real. The night's events would involve listening to the album while projections of Manson's Grotesque art were projected and then watching the video for mOBSCENE and then, maybe, some live songs from the God of Fuck himself. Oo-er.

The wait for Manson was nicely filled by the ample charms of MM girlfriend and top retro fetish model Dita Von Teese, who stripped cabaret style and cavorted in a champagne glass filled with what looked like liquified snot. Then, after a ridiculously long wait, Manson finally took to the stage accompanied this time by two topless girls wearing surgical neck braces and clamps (they they somehow still managed to play the piano!).

Manson, white faced and now resplendent in a black suit, with a black and white pinstripe shirt and black tie, opened with Dope Show and moved incongruously around the tiny stage like a slightly manic mannequin. There is something bizarre about seeing a major star like Manson up so close - he was literally two feet way - and entirely personal. In fact, the tiny audience seemed unsure of themselves, and of how to react to such a situation. There was a kind of awkwardness that, while not marring the proceedings, certainly seemed to inhibit them.

Nevertheless, it was special, and as Manson performed his two last songs and climbed on top of the piano while reaching down and tweaking the pianist's nipples I could only think how privileged I was to witness him in such a performance. Think Marlene Dietrich, Sally Bowles, Cabaret, Swastikas, and the growing threat of global conflict and war, and Manson's Thirties parody may not be such a parody after all. Marvellous.

NIGEL WINGROVE

BUY MARILYN MANSON CD'S