This enterprising bunch have been beavering away in a bar in Vauxhall since the mid-90s, producing haphazard club nights and spawning such inimitable talents as Divine David, Ursula Martinez, Amy Lamé, Marissa Carnesky and Chris Green. Occasionally the mayhem spills beyond the confines of the Vauxhall Tavern and onto the streets. For those lucky enough to have participated in Duckie's first walking tour in 1998 (which included a performance by Bette Bourne specially commissioned from Neil Bartlett), this whirlwind trip round the sights of Soho's rock 'n' roll past was not to be missed.
This is the type of underground performance event which commentators will refer to in decades to come. If you missed the heady days of Warhol's Factory or Leigh Bowery's Mud Club, at least be sure to get yourself down to Duckie to witness history in the making. With the matronly Miss Lamé as tour guide, Duckie's second walking tour weaved down Tin Pan Alley, across Charing Cross Road and into the midst of sleazy Soho. In Falconberg Court there was an encounter with Chris Green which took us back to the early 80s. Resplendent in a zoot suit, Steve Strange hat and stilettos, Chris was on his way to the Blitz Club (the birth place of the New Romantics). On the rain-washed street, theatre and reality collided when a hostile passer-by pelted him with a milkshake.
In St Anne's Court, Marissa Carnesky, drugged-up to her eyeballs, was an aspiring model turned lap-dancing junkie, whilst off Berwick Street Market there was a foray into a hairdressers where swirling psychedelic projections and the smell of patchouli transported us back to the 60s. Ursula Martinez was the limp hippie with the guitar. Later, she transformed herself into a hissing punk princess. In a churchyard off Wardour Street, Carnesky gave the penultimate performance of the tour before the group were ushered into Madame JoJo's to catch up with Chris Green's New Romantic – who, twenty years later on, had metamorphosed into an overweight club promoter spinning 80s sounds in a sad retro club. Fabulous fun.
