'We’re Gonna Hit You In The Face'

Watching some YouTube footage of Village People’s Hollywood Walk Of Fame ceremony in 2008, this scribe was horrified to discover the ‘M’ action should be performed across one’s chest with elbows lifted not fingertips meeting in the middle of one’s head! “People do that and that’s why, in the show, we teach people how to do it correctly. Or we’ll stop everything and point at you,” Felipe Rose, (aka the Native American) one of the two remaining founding members of the group (the other being military man Alex Briley), says. It turns out the song’s chorus arm gestures came about thanks to the music-performance show, American Bandstand. The show’s host Dick Clark “used to sit with all the dancers in the seats when he would introduce an act,” Rose remembers. “Dick Clark told us that he had a surprise for us and then when the chorus came on they all stood up and they did the arms and we thought, ‘Oh my god, we’re gonna steal that’,” he laughs.

 “I’m a big cry baby, ‘cause when they do their vows I swear I cry more than they do [laughs].”

Rose admits he’s “pretty savvy” on the social media: “I’m the social media – oh, whaddaya call it? – presence.” His birthday was in January and Rose is still trying to answer well-wishers on “the official Village People website”. “I went to my birthday picture and then I went to all the comments and I clicked like, like, like, like, like and then wrote at the bottom, ‘cause people want that. ‘Oh my god, he got back to us!’

Not that age matters. “I feel like I’m 25. I’m constantly going. I’m happiest when I’m working and so I marry people, I’m cooking for charity.” Rose estimates he’s officiated 12 weddings to date. “Heterosexual, gay and lesbians, I love it!” he enthuses. “I’m a big cry baby, ‘cause when they do their vows I swear I cry more than they do [laughs].” In terms of attire, Rose enlightens, “I can either go very traditional – with a suit and a stole and my book and whatever – or I can do a little Village People with a Mohawk and a nice shirt with jewellery, you know what I mean? It depends what they want.” But music remains Rose’s primary focus. “I cannot, as an artist, imagine what the world would be without music,” he gushes.