The can-can dancer laughed, took Adrienne’s hand and escorted her to a table where the noisy dance hall was a little more muted… When writing The Can-Can Girl and the Mysterious Woman in Pink, I knew that I had to draw my readers into the amoral world of the Moulin Rouge. I needed to “paint with words” the ambiance of the dance hall – depicting not only the dancers, but the rowdy men, curious-but-tipsy women, the smell of unwashed bodies, and the musky odor of oil lamps and cigar smoke. The Can-Can Girl The brilliant thing about Buster Bloodvessel was that, like Divine, he completely owned his obesity and made his fatness absolutely fabulous. I think being banned from Top Of The Pops did affect us commercially. We got banned from Italian TV, too, because I mooned (above) and I didn’t know the Pope was watching. All I was doing was making sure Barry White had a hard time on stage after me. At the time, I had this model girlfriend. The paparazzi were following me round trying to get a picture of the man who mooned the Pope. One climbed on the hotel balcony trying to take photos. It was crazy.”

Adrienne recognized the scene—it was the sketch Lautrec had sent to Grandmother—the one without the lady in pink. The one identified by the museum’s x-ray. Bad Manners were always good fun to watch on TV, and one of the main reasons for the band’s notoriety was their outlandish, eccentric frontman Buster Bloodvessel.It remains one of my favourite appearances in the show’s long and rich history. In fact, I don’t recall anything as visually arresting as that on TOTP again until – be still irony – Divine’s headline-grabbing turn three years later with You Think You’re A Man. Author Pamela B Eglinski studied the life and times of the can-can dancers in Paris and has written a fabulous book about it, a time travel romp through Belle Epoque Paris… The Moulin Rouge: Life among the can-can dancers years later, Charles Morton, the inventor of the modern Music-Hall, presented this surprising dance on the Oxford stage. He renamed it the French Cancan because it came from France and caused a stir. Soon after it appeared in Oxford, the socially aware dance was banned for being too daring. Released in June 1981, the kooky cover was Bad Manners’ sixth single and joint biggest hit, matching the number three peak of 1980’s Special Brew, though, unsurprisingly, the later wordless romp was their only record that did anything on the continent.

It was that entertaining don’t give a toss what people think attitude that puts Bad Manners in the Top Of The Pops hall of fame with an utterly hilarious performance of Can Can. What made the dance so tempting? Why did aristocrats and the growing middle class make their way to the Montmartre in what must have been a steady stream of horse-drawn carriages from the center of Paris. They came to the famous cabaret district with the express purpose of witnessing the flamboyant and naughty dancers. Here is the scene, in my time travel novella, The Can-Can girl and the mysterious woman in pink, where the protagonist, Adrienne, first arrives at the Moulin Rouge. The French Cancan dance is an eight-minute performance facing the audience, during which dancers measuring 5’7” tall lead the dance to a piece of music by Offenbach. It’s an art that requires Parisian cabaret dancers to have balance, flexibility, acrobatic ability and rhythm. They have to be able to do the splits and perform impressive moves like the “port d’armes”, the “cathedral” and the “military salute”.This was, lest we forget, the man who went on to open a joyfully outsized hotel “for over-eaters” called Fatty Towers, complete with extra large beds and baths, an annual Belly Of The Year contest, and a restaurant whose specialities included the candidly-named Lard Arse Pudding. Frenetic music, twirling petticoats, surprising acrobatics… the dancers of the Moulin Rouge know the art of the cancan. It’s a true phenomenon, but it hasn’t always been as it is now. It was a famous dancer known as La Goulue who established the definitive rules, which were then passed on orally until Nini Pattes En L’air (Nini Legs in the Air) decided to start a specialist school teaching the explosive quadrille. Paris in 1850 was buzzing with excitement. Theatres, comedy shows and public balls were booming. Some time after the emergence of the chahut, daring Parisian women decided to take up the frenzied dance as an outlet. At these events, one dancer made the news. Celeste Mogador, star of the Bal Mabille, set Parisian hearts aflutter with her unpretentious quadrille. She was an instant hit! So popular that in 1955, Jean Renoir decided to make a film based on those shows. The result was the film French Cancan, with Jean Gabin playing the role of Danglard. The Can-Can dance was raucous and risqué, reaching its height of popularity in 1900 during the Belle Époque. Parisian cabarets promoted the dance and Jane Avril and La Goulue popularized it in the night clubs of Montmartre. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec depicted it in his famous painting, At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance. And, Jacques Offenbach left us with that joyful, if not nagging tune: da, da-da, da-da-da-da-da-da . . .. You know the rest.

After myriad performances that included dressing up in a grass skirt and as Henry VII (not at the same time), Bad Manners became TOTP’s most regular guests after the Welsh wonder Shakin’ Stevens.