page_title: Tallulah (DJ)
section_title: Return to London
hierarchical_section_title: Tallulah (DJ) / Career / Return to London
caption_attribution_description: English: Colville Terrace, Notting Hill Gate, London street sign
context_page_description: Tallulah was a German-born, London-based, British DJ, recording artist, producer, and club promoter. Tallulah's music career spanned from 1972 until his death in 2008.
  Quick witted and sharp tongued, Tallulah was at the heart of London's club scene for more than 40 years, 35 years of those as a groundbreaking DJ, alternative performer, club and bar promoter, and personality. His lifestyle and career linked him to such iconic figures as playwright Joe Orton and Orton's partner, actor Kenneth Halliwell, actor Kenneth Williams, actress Barbara Windsor, musician Lemmy of, performance artist Leigh Bowery and DJ Kenny Everett. His varied career also included jobs as a restaurateur, and hotel manager.
context_section_description: Upon his return to London, Allam found himself homeless and moved into the Notting Hill apartment of the pop musician Iain Williams, who later became one-half of the pop duo Big Bang. 
   Also living at the apartment was Williams’s friend Granville King who also happened to be Allam’s friend, hence the connection. It was Granville (unbeknown to Williams) that allowed Allam to stay temporarily at the apartment while Williams was away. When Williams returned to the UK after a visit abroad, Allam was still staying at Williams’ apartment. Allam remained as a guest at the apartment for over 10 years. Granville was a hairdresser and owned Tallulah Hairdressing Salon in Coram Street, Bloomsbury, (which was named after Tallulah) and was also an alternative cabaret/drag artiste named Gina King. Gina King went on to win the Porchester Hall Drag Ball one year in the late-70s. Tallulah, Granville and Williams labeled themselves ‘The Colville Set,’ in a nod to the former artistic ‘Bloomsbury Set,’ and after the bohemian district of Colville in Notting Hill in which they resided. 
   Many actors, writers and musicians lived in the area, including the writer Charles Glass, and musician Steven Luscombe of the band Blancmange who had apartments in the same house as Iain Williams, and their next-door neighbour actor Bette Bourne,and further along Colville Terrace the actor Philip Sayer. After returning from America Tallulah found the disco scene in London had really gotten big; 'When I came back from New York the disco scene was peaking and it was easy for me to get work. When I had the residency at Scandals (which meant playing 6 nights a week) they gave me a record allowance of £70 a week, which was a fortune in those days, so I was able to buy all the American and European imports I wanted.’ In the late 1970s, ‘The Embassy was London’s little Studio 54,’ said veteran DJ Tallulah. ‘The gay night, Sunday night, was the nearest to a chic club that London ever got. The music was great, and Greg James was a great DJ.’  Tallulah, also DJ’d at the Embassy Club every Sunday on the gay nights. 
  At the end of the 1970s, Tallulah was involved in the brief roller disco craze where he DJ'ed at the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town on a Tuesday night, which was the gay night. Unfortunately it all turned nasty: 'There was a similar black disco in Shepherds Bush and gangs started coming down to us because we were just frothy. They had to put a cage at the entrance, where people were searched. One night a guy jumped on the stage and held a knife to my neck. Then I had a fire extinguisher thrown at me.'
  On 13 November 1983, Tallulah opened his own club night, Circus Circus, at Studio Valbonne in Kingly Street, Soho, London. Many celebrities attended the opening night including Steve Strange, April Ashley, Yvette the Conqueror, Vikki de Lambray, and Stephen Luscombe of Blancmange.
  In 1990, Tallulah was featured alongside Boy George and Leigh Bowery in the Jesus Loves You 7-minute film short Generations of Love directed by Baillie Walsh. The film was shot in and around Soho, London, and was produced to promote Jesus Loves You’s single of the same name. The short film gives an intriguing snapshot into London’s Soho nightlife during 1990 (still hungover from the late-1980s) by way of capturing the bustling local outdoor streets, and the inside of long-gone amusement arcades and porn cinemas. Tallulah, in a wig, plays the role of a straight office-type punter, looking for a quick trick, who ends up pulling a transvestite hooker. They visit a Soho porn cinema, where business is dealt. Boy George appears in the film briefly both in drag and as himself. The film has a classic early Andy Warholesque feel to it.
  On Millennium Night 2000, Tallulah DJ'ed at Delano South Beach club in Miami, 'Studio 54 by the sea.' Tallulah recalled the club as being 'the best gig in the world.'
  In 2007, photographer Ophelia Wynne  took a set of photographs of Martyn dressed in an ermine robe holding a staff to celebrate his induction into the UK's House of Homosexual Culture's Hall of F
caption: Colville Terrace, Notting Hill Gate
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