Try saying THAT after a few sherries
Genre bending, gender defying creative concept Lanah P gives us her two cents on the festive period! She’s got a lot of strong views, about all sorts. And she’s got a FAB Christmas single out, called The Ghost Of Christmas. We sat down with her in a celestial boudoir, and talked about consumerism, capitalism, and non-religious spirituality. Natch.
SO LANAH. Tell us about Christmas.
Well, I’m hardly religious, or a fan of anything that uses a lie to tell the truth, regardless of what monotheism or fossilized philosophy nutjob tribes spout. All those of us wide awake enough, know the Christmas story is a fabulous fairytale, stolen from Saturnalia, the pagan winter solstice festival. It was to celebrate the winter solstice, and the pagan Roman holiday of misrule. The masses were positively encouraged – in fact forced – to overindulge. They had tons of illicit sex with all and sundry and worshipped “third sex people” AKA trans folk (don’t mind if you do). Christians stole and adapted the whole CONCEPT. Anyway, better the Devil you know. I REALLY LIKE CHRISTMAS THOUGH.
What inspires you?
I am a proud, non-religious spiritualist. I have experienced things throughout my entire life – not just through hallucination! Life has been very hard at times, and has left me floored, distraught and wide open – in fact traumatized! I’ve always been aware of life being haunted, in spite of what Derren Brown or Richard Dawkins have to say. BUT I do have massive respect for the pair of them. I love them. However, I don’t see them wanting to stay in a haunted house and even as a sentient being by nature, nor do I very often. In fact, I still demand evidence from anybody who says they see stuff, because it all boils down to what you assert without evidence. As we are all energy. Sometimes the entity may return to stardust, but not always. Pete Burns stayed with me in 2015 – he was in a very poor state! He asked me when I thought he would die. I tried to brush it off, but he was very insistent. I stared at him and said “somewhere between 20th and 30th October 2016.” Pete laughed it off. But I didn’t.
What’s your favourite Christmas song?
FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK by The Pogues! They were in the movie Eat The Rich with me all those years ago. Closely followed by Johnny Mathis’s “When A Child Is Born”, as it’s a metaphor for our own deaths and rebirths. It’s not really about Jesus.
What would be your dream Christmas present?
A better world of peace, of love, of proper wealth distribution instead of the one percent eating all the mince pies, the greedy vile bastards! A world where sad, hard-faced, hook nosed cis faghags, sprayed in glitter and rolled in glue are seen for the witches they truly are. I dream of a world where millenials take up cudgels and send a direct message to world leaders. And of course, as a jaded old disco diva, I really want peace and happiness to all living beings. Because even I realize through these rose tinted spectacles, that ultimately love is the only law. A ghost once told me that it was my dad.
Photo by Diana Thompson
Makeup by MAC and Bareminerals
Styling by Federica G.
The Ghost Of Christmas is out now on iTunes
