Rocka-silly raving at Madame JoJo's

I am going to be completely honest with you and admit that when my editor asked me to review Lost And Found, a new night at Madame JoJo's, I had no idea what rockabilly was. But it must be very cool, I decided, otherwise we wouldn't be featuring it in the Lite, and not wanting to let on I wasn't trendy enough to know about it, I waited until I was off the phone before slyly logging on to Wikipedia.

There must some mistake, I thought, as I read that rockabilly was a mixture of rock'n'roll and hillbilly music invented in the Fifties. What on Earth was cool about that? But the worst was yet to come. "Male rockabilly fans favoured the 'Greaser' look," the article continued, "while the women wore poodle skirts."

Poodle skirts? I nearly choked as I realised I'd agreed to waste an entire Saturday night, listening to hillbilly music in a librarian costume. Still, something didn't ring true - Madame JoJo's is, after all, a cool Soho nightclub with drag queens and stuff, plus my editor had never sent me to anything nerdy before.

A quick scan down the page revealed a section called Rockabilly In The 2000s that proved me right. "Many of today's female rockabilly fans are inspired by bad girl pin-up models of the Fifties, such as Bettie Page," it said. "They often wear animal prints, fishnet stockings, capris or short shorts. Tattoos are popular among both sexes." This was more like it.

"I've always wanted to look like this!" I cried gleefully to my friend Liana the next night as I flagged down a startled cabbie. Dressed in a denim playsuit with eye-wateringly short shorts, a corset, white-blonde wig and more fake tattoos than there was room for on my body, I set the curtains twitching in my quiet street. "Let's go before somebody calls the cops," said long-suffering Liana.

Arriving in Soho, I paid my £8 entry and slipped into Madame JoJo's as nonchalantly as possible. There were no drag queens, but the venue was as louche as ever with its mix of velvet and mirrors. A DJ booth had been set up on the stage and the intimate club was already full of well-dressed partygoers ready to take to the dance floor.

Embarrassingly, nobody else's costume was as flamboyant as mine, but a large glass of wine and the surprisingly catchy music soon helped me to forget that. The crowd helped to put me at my ease, too. I soon found myself receiving compliments from both girls and boys, most of whom, I'll admit, were under the impression that I worked there.

"Let's dance!" shouted Liana happily over the speakers, dragging me into the middle of the dance floor where she was soon whisked off by a handsome beau. Dancing, we discovered, was where the rockabilly came into its own because although you can happily groove to it by yourself, it's perfect for partner action, meaning you get to mingle with the boys. Even better, it has none of the disadvantages of dances like the salsa, which can be a bit sweaty and grindy and where you also look like an idiot if you don't know what you're doing.

Nobody here, it seemed, had any inkling of the official rockabilly moves, meaning we could all bounce happily around in any way we wanted. It was great fun in a school disco sort of way, and the atmosphere was rich with the innocence of a bygone era - until everyone got drunk and started snogging each other, that is.

"I wanted to create a night everyone could enjoy," explained DJ Kab Darge who started the night with recordspinning friend Andy Smith. "A lot of rockabilly nights are snobby with strict dress codes. I didn't want to turn away kids who'd enjoy the night because they couldn't afford to buy a costume or didn't want to." I like his philosophy - why should we have to wear costume if we want to listen to any other music than house or hip hop?

Not that I minded dressing up - though the next day my tattoos wouldn't budge. "Why did I put one on my neck?" I asked Liana. "I don't know," she said dreamily, remembering all the gorgeous boys she'd danced with, " it was a great night though, wasn't it?"

Lost And Found, Madame JoJo's, 8-10 Brewer St, W1 Saturdays, 10pm-3am, £8