"Frivolous Tonight" is a song by Colin Moulding. It appeared on the 1999 album Apple Venus Volume 1.
The demo appeared on Apple Venus Volume 1's companion demo album, Homespun.
An instrumental version appeared on the Apple Venus Volume 1 instrumental album, Instruvenus.
Quotes[]
Colin (on the demo): “Our ex-manager thought it reminded him of the theme from Steptoe and Son, a dangerous thing to say for a manager whose contract is coming up for renewal, but Steptoe's Theme is alright by me and I sort of see what he meant, Music Hall always lurking in my writing. Perhaps it's too many nights spent in working men's clubs watching my parents dance the gay Gordons, where usually at the end of the night my father was invited to get up and sing a melancholy ballad with too much vibrato, or just as bewildering, the family ritual of watching ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’ on our 22 inch TV set, for me, usually in my pyjamas, viewed upside down, on the settee. It all sinks in and I am acutely aware of the songs' old fashioned-ness, so much so that I had a dream where I was doing a duet on ‘Michael Barrymore's Big Night Out’ exchanging the occasional line with Barrymore and both of us joining in on the chorus, kicking our legs out and clutching hat and cane. Rhythmically I was anxious to avoid the ‘Flanagan and Allen lope’ in favour of the ‘Good-day Sunshine tromp’ but usually turns out to be the very thing what people like about it, artists being too close to their art so to speak. But still Andy hasn't accused me of writing ‘Granny Music’ yet, at least not to my face and I won't ask him to put on the ‘Penguin Suit’ for our ‘routine’ in some future promotional film or video, but you never know it might simply be a case of ‘Gracie Fields Forever’.”
Lyrics[]
Let us talk about some trivial things we like
A bit of this and that
Let's chew the fat
Pour ourselves a glass of stout
And let our Rael Brook shirts hang out
Nothing makes us more content
To let us wallow in a bit of nonsense
We're all so frivolous tonight, tonight
Let's reveal our childlike nature
And leave our stocks and invoices to rot
Let's go to pot
Tell our jokes about mothers in law
But watch him jump when she comes through the door
Oh the party goes with a swing
When we talk about the trivial things
We're all so frivolous tonight
But there's always one
Who wants to talk shop
We'll drive him through the door
With a broom or a mop
Let us tell our favourite story
About some poor chap who put it on display
Hip hooray
And let the girls gather in their slacks
To talk about husbands hairy backs
Some might think we're a bit of a shower
But this could be our finest hour
We're all so frivolous tonight, tonight
We're all so ridiculous tonight