Monday 28 December 2009

Club X on Channel 4 - Drag Queen Discusses Victorian Items, Dogs and Bobbing Head to Keyboard Maestro

Regina Fong on Club X Part 1



The title strikes you as weird? Yes, and telling from the number of views of this clip, the largely forgotten 90-minute, late-night "Club X" an infamous arts/music live TV for the "yoof" of the late-80's. Regina Fong is the Drag Queen in question, in this section of the show, in which she is allied with a chubby ally named Fou Fou L. Hunter I believe, who we see at the end of this part. It all feels rather random.

The show was a pre-cursor to Channel 4's, modern, tacky but edgy "The Word" in 1990, and a successor to show's like "Network 7", in which the absolutely "charming" Janet Street-Porter, came to the public eye. Martina Attille, Murray Boland & Joel Colman presented the show, along with TV critic Victor Lewis-Smith as the light relief.

"Club X" was trashed, because of the direction and amateurish feel of the show. The magazine-format focused on certain low-brow art projects like body painting. It was accused of dumbing down the Arts, and it only lasted for 5 months in 1989.

With hindsight, with practically little Arts or Culture shows on mainstream TV, you can say at least they made an effort, however bad it was. Give me this over T4 anyday! However, seriously, on mainstream TV there's only really the BBC's "The Culture Show" for the youth, and ITV's soon-to-be-ending "South Bank Show". That isn't alot, but there is "Sky Arts", and BBC Four, I guess.

Regina Fong, real name Reg Bundy, was a theatrical actor and dancer, well known for his drag routine, beginning the character in 1985, and was a regular host for the London Lesbian and Gay Pride Festival. Reg died of cancer in 2003.

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