Happy New Year everybody – only 4 days into 2018 and DragAdventures already have the first show recap of the year for you: 1/2 of the Team got to spend NYE with our favourite girl group at Heaven (the nightclub in London, although you could say that Heaven was a place on earth this particular night).
Of course you know who we’re talking about: the AAA Girls aka Alaska 5000, Courtney Act and Willam Belli sashayed their way to the UK and not only did they count down the last seconds of the year with us, they also performed some of their most famous hits for the huge crowd that had made their way to Heaven that night.
But let’s start at the beginning and work our way to the firework of a performance that they delivered that night.
Ever since I heard that the AAA Girls would be booked by Heaven for NYE, it was clear that I had to be there to ring in 2018 with some of my favourite performers, and in particular with one of my personal top 3 favourite queens which is Willam herself. Luckily, I’ve made a friend who a) is equally in love with Miss Belli and b) lives in London and didn’t hesitate a second to let me sleep on her couch (because you know, those hotel prices during the NYE period aren’t playing around). So I booked a flight (thank you, Ryanair for being my private Drag Jet) and on the 29th, I finally got to set foot onto UK ground again. It felt like coming home and the excitement took over as soon as I got through passport control and boarded the train to the city center. I spent the day in town, for example, visiting the British Library (recommend 10/10 – it’s free and you get to see cool stuff like some original, handwritten Beatles’ lyrics or Shakespeare’s poems).
At midday, I had to run the most important errand of the day which was getting one of the G-A-Y discount wristbands which basically granted you a entry fee of 10 Pounds before 10 pm (let me repeat: for 10 Pounds, you got to see three of the most famous and fabulous RPDR alumni). After that, I went to my friend’s house and we had a nice Kiki with some wine and got to catch up on a lot of stuff that had happened in our lives.
On Saturday, I got to reunite with Kirsty (my partner in crime when it comes to doing Drag Adventures), who came up to London just to see her crazy German unicorn and we had a very lovely day out in the city, eating sushi and going shopping on Oxford Street (note to self: bad idea during the Christmas season).
When Sunday finally came around, the only subject of our conversations were the upcoming night and so we started getting ready pretty early, while listening to our favourite songs from the latest album Access all Areas and having a few (ok, a lot) cheeky glasses of wine. When we deemed ourselves ready to go (translation: after having doused myself in glitter), we made our way to Heaven and got to be first in line, which only added to our excitement. At this point, I got to hug two of my favourite extended (twitter) drag family members, Amy and Maddie, which I had seen for the last time in October when I ran into them in the front row of Willam’s Nottingham gig.
So when we entered the club at precisely 9 pm, all of us got to grab some pretty good spots, so we knew we would have a pretty good view of our ladies when they finally would come onto the stage. Then, the waiting began, because midnight wasn’t for about 3 hours and so we passed the time dancing, talking to fellow drag fans and making some new friends over our love for these particular queens.
Finally, at a few minutes to midnight, Jeremy Joseph, the owner of G-A-Y, Heaven and single mom to the most adorable dog working in London nightlife (aka Jacob) announced the AAA girls, which then stepped on the stage while beeing loudly cheered on by a very happy and excited crowd. They all wore gorgeous outfits; Courtney Act was a sparkling unicorn princess in a pink iridescent dungaree suit while Alaska rocked her signature blonde bun, black dress and overknee boots and Willam was the crazy fun aunt of the AAA family with a pink and turquoise teased wig with braids in a floor-length fur coat.
Every single person in the audience had the biggest smile on their faces as we got to count down the last seconds of 2017 with these amazing queens (as well as with other queens who appeared behind them on the screen and send us their best wishes for 2018 via video-message – Adore Delano, Katya Zamolodchikova, Mel C only to name a few).
When midnight struck, Heaven staff lit the confetti canons and transformed the venue into every unicorns colourful dream.
Thus, the first part of the AAA Girl appearance was over and we had some time to celebrate the new year and dance on the stage where a few moments ago Courtney, Alaska and Willam had partied into 2018 with us.
One hour later, at 1 am, the triple As sent the crowd into a frenzy again as they re-entered the stage (by that point, we could see that Willam was wearing a beige bodycon jumpsuit with rhinestones on it which showed of her pilates-toned body-ody-ody perfectly). They captured the audience from the start as they went to perform the first song of the night (and the album), appropriately titled “AAA”. After that, we got to witness some banter between the girl group members which showed us that they clearly know how to read each other while still showing their fellow sisters their love.
They went on to perform the American Apparel Ad Girls song, as well as Heather (during that performance they turned around to worship a video-screen Stacey Lane Matthews on their knees) and lastly, Courtney, Alaska and Willam honoured their favourite girl groups in a perfect girlgroup medley (Little Mix – Power, Wannabe – Spice Girls …). Their performance not only showed off every particular queen’s caracter and had them visibly enjoying themselves, it was also very action-filled and took a dramatic turn when Courtney Act channeled her fellow RPDR sister Adore Delano and went crowdsurfing . After Willam and Alaska helped Australia’s sexiest vegan (Courtney got elected by an Australian Newspaper although she has to share the title with Liam Hemsworth) back onto the stage, Miss Act realised she could only find one of her fabulous glitter Louboutin high heels that she had taken off before jumping head-first into the audience. Thankfully, that English-Aussie-coproduction of Cinderella starring Courtney Act came to a Happy End later that night, when one of Heaven’s gatekeepers (aka their security staff) found the missing shoe and delivered it to the hotel.
It ended far too soon for my liking (but of course, I get it was a club gig and not a full-on concert so this is no complaint in any way!). When the last note had died down, the stage was once again filled with colourful confetti raining down on three very happy and excited queens. But the AAA girls didn’t just run for cover, leaving their fans behind – instead, they strut around the stage, interacting with their fans (holding hands, kissing cheeks, taking selfies on fans’ phones and of course, graciously accepting gifts from everyone lucky enough to be close to the stage).
They seemed so happy and excited, full of adrenaline and I think I speak for everyone in that club that night when I say that we all loved to see our favourite girl band that way. After Willam, Alaska and Courtney left the stage and everybody had sort of gotten over the fact there would be no M&G this time (I’m sure there were as many opinions about this fact as people in the club but let me just say for myself that I totally understand that you can’t have a M&G for the amount of people in that club that night, especially with the performance being a club gig and not a full-on concert. I had a great night seeing my favourite queens perform and having fun on a stage and that’s all I wanted for the start of my New Year!), the crowd got to party on for a bit, before Louise Redknapp, another very talented performer entered the stage and performed some of her most famous songs. If you want to read more about that part of the night, you can look up the articles various english media outlets did on that one (as I was already on my way to have some yummy chinese food in Soho at that point.)
If you asked me to describe my start of 2018, I’d say A A A : absolutely amazing and adrenaline-filled. Thanks to everyone at G-A-Y/Heaven and of course to the AAA Girls Willam, Courtney and Alaska for putting on a party I’ll never forget!
For more photos, visit our facebook photo album!
