Lanah P’s 80s pop stonker Pistol in my Pocket has been remixed by Erasure and she’s chuffed!
Lanah P is more than just a performer. She’s a concept, a destination! She’s got a chip shop, a YouTube account and a shoe collection that’d make Sarah Jessica Parker burst into tears and move to Clacton-on-Sea.
In the 80s, while other people were popping to Safeways and watching The Good Life, Lanah was doing things like vomiting moon stones all over opium-infused boudoirs, and ghosthunting along Regents Canal (there are FUCKLOADS of ghosts around Regents Canal y’know – just under the bridge, near the Wetherspoons).
She also released a fab single, PISTOL IN MY POCKET. It was bolschy, it was confrontational, it was punk, it was queer. It epitomised the 80s spirit, something we’re trying and failing to recapture at this very minute. Lanah is unreplicatable! Now, ahead of an Erasure remix release of the iconic bop, Lanah tell us what made it SO genre-defining and gender-defying!
SO Lanah…for people who don’t know, tell us a bit about Pistol In My Pocket.
Pistol In My Pocket is a hi-nrg disco classic, which stormed the dance floors in 1986. I was twenty-five years of age, and I marched into the studios of P.W.L and said to Pete Waterman “I’ve got this song and I’d like you to make it a hit.” I sang him a few bars of it and he pissed himself laughing, I thought “how rude!” Anyway, once he’d composed himself, he said; “you remind me of Mae West.” A couple of weeks later, the writing team had written Pistol In My Pocket.
What do you think about modern music?
I think there will always be a lot of generic pap and too much autotune around, which I find repellent. Give me an authentic voice anytime. I’m extremely eclectic with music and performing arts, art in general. I like a lot of music. I often think about who I’d like to work and collaborate with. I love Anohni, Akala, Stormzy, Macklemore, Erasure…Andy Bell and I will duet again but I just have no idea of exactly when that will be. Beth Ditto, Christeene & The Queens, Patrick Wolf and Marc Almond, who is a dream!
Do you think there’s anyone around right now who does anything like you were doing?
NO, as I’m an epicene autofact. There are those who have plagiarised my style, aped my authenticity and intellectual property, and gotten more mileage out of it by sheer virtue of this thing called cis white privilege – it’s a fact. What kind of things you identify with will vary from person to person according to age, gender, (which is a construct, so get lost daft coprolite Anne Widdiscum). Income, social class, fashion, the surrounding culture and so on. What you identify with is all to do with content. Whereas the unconscious compulsion to identify is structural and is one of the most basic ways in which the egoic mind operates. If only we can all remember that life is not a competition.
Do you think Pistol in my Pocket served as the soundtrack to any orgies?
I don’t know, I’ve never been to any my dear! Not when I can get a hot meat injection from Doctor Vincent Wong.
Tell us about the anniversary release!
It is over thirty years since pistol was a worldwide dance floor chart hit, surpassing even Gloria Gaynor at one time in the disco charts. I actually didn’t realize how popular Pistol or myself were at the time…I didn’t have a very stable view of the world. It was all a very bittersweet time for me in the gender bending capital of the 1980s. I was being misgendered everywhere and dealing with racist abuse from all sides and from all levels. It made me realize rose-tinted spectacles were necessary for survival, and served a very real purpose. Of course these days I live inside my own movie its called “GO FUCK YOUR MENTALIST SELVES VERY MUCH!” The whole purpose and genuine desire is that i want people to dance while they can regardless of what you have in your pocket.
Do you have any future music plans?
The future is not formed yet. It is the media that chooses its stars and victims. I can’t help living with an attitude of positive expectancy. I have to say, for a very long time I have never been that interested in showbusiness, but that’s not to say I can’t be serious about the work. It seems that there is a bit more interest from television and screen coming towards me these days, so let’s see!
The Erasure Mix of Pistol In My Pocket is out on streaming services worldwide from 15th June.
