Loulou Farquhar aka Trixie Bloom escaped this mortal realm suddenly in the early hours of 4th of May 2022 at the age of 55, at home in La Alpujarra, Andalucia, Spain. She died from heart complications arising from the pollen allergies and bronchitis she’d been suffering from for many years.
She will be sorely missed and survived by her partner in crime; Bootz, her staunch and loving Mother Barbara, her brick of a Dad John, her brother Chris and her sisters Deborah and Georgina. Her beloved cats Muffin, Chupita and Sanchez, as well as the feral cats Brutus, Peaches, Susan, Roberto, Millie and Sherman, and her lesbian Blue Leghorn chickens Miss Cracker, Bláithín, Queen Binty, Tofu and Luna.
She was preceded in death by her amazing Grandmother, Grandfather and fabulous cousin Daniel, as well as her beloved cats; Tabitha, Missy, Murdoch and Myrtle, her dancing pig Mrs Pickles and her legendary husky; Ice. All of whom loved her dearly.
Loulou was born a Libran and a Firehorse in 1966 in Streatham, South London, having been conceived with the help of the local stud, who she would always refer to thereafter as her ‘sperm donor.’ Her Mother, Barbara, in an unmarried mother’s home, resisted the pressure to give her up for adoption that was common at that time, and instead, Loulou’s Grandmother (Loulou called her Nan) took her in and cared for her until she was seven years old.
It was while Loulou was being brought up by her Nan in Corfe Castle, Dorset that the foundations were laid for the fiercely feminist, no-nonsense LGBTQ Loulou of the future. While her Grandad was off working and womanising, her Nan would explain at length why men were complete bastards and not to be trusted. One sage quote, often repeated was; “Oh yes, tickle them in the right place and they’ll give you anything.”
Growing up in South London during the seventies and eighties Loulou found her love for dancing, parties and dressing up, as well as having her faith in men restored slightly by her Mum’s husband John, who she considered her real father, since he’d been the most supportive, the most protective and indeed the first decent male role model she’d ever met.
Loulou’s closest childhood friend Debbie, and the high times they shared as they came of age are reflected in the eighties flashback chapter of Trixie Bloom’s Facebook Blues, as is her then emerging rites of passage with boys and love for their motorcycles. Loulou always spoke warmly of that whole crew, even her exes, and was overjoyed when she recently regained contact on Facebook after many years.
Although Loulou trained and worked as a hairdresser when she left school,(back then girls had two choices – hairdresser or secretary) she really wanted to dance above all else, so in her spare time she attended the legendary Dennis Drew Dance Studio in London and passed all her contemporary dance exams with flying colours.
After marrying the guy she thought she was supposed to, Loulou realised that despite being very handsome, he was too straight laced for her, and it quickly became apparent that they were incompatible. It was while she was married that she discovered her love for working out and exercise, training at her husband’s gym and learning from the famous Stan Earle, who trained with Arnold Swarzenegger.
Loulou was the darling of the party/rave scene everywhere she went. Her incredible dancing and infectious energy on the dancefloor/podium was second to none. There she connected in a meaningful way with so many people. In the underground club scene in London she was known as ‘Sexy Lou’ for obvious reasons.
It was in the nineties when I first met Loulou on the dancefloor on New Years eve. (at the legendary Sunny Side Up) I didn’t see her – I felt her amazing energy behind me and turned round to see her dancing and spinning furiously. Loulou said she’d never seen a white boy dance so good! Neither of us wanted a straight relationship (Loulou was pretty much a drag queen in a woman’s body, and I’m a lesbian identified male!) but we were brutally honest with each other from the first moment and we fell deeply in love.
Loulou’s energy fueled the infamous nineties parties at Seven Kings Road, Ilford, where everyone would pull together to make it happen and hundreds of people would come. DJ’s would blow out their sets at major London clubs just to come and play there, and Loulou’s brother Chris used to do legendary seven hour sets. It looked so much like a nightclub in our house that the first time Loulou’s Mum came to visit, she said that she’d never done LSD, but she imagined it was something like that.
Loulou decided back then that she wanted to eventually write books, and we agreed that if we travelled round the world, we’d have a lot more experience of things to write about. So we both worked our asses off and saved up, before giving up all our jobs and the house and heading firstly for Australia – Mission Mardi Gras! From the first moment, wherever we went, we headed for the gay clubs/bars/community and got completely looked after everywhere we went. Loulou was always a kind of honorary drag queen on the gay scene as soon as we walked in the club. A massive piece of our hearts was left there because of all the love we felt from so many gorgeous open people. We both worked as dancers/strippers for almost three years there, but it was Loulou who really shone like a star there. Men would pay her NOT to take off her clothes, and just dance instead. She would earn thousands some nights and come back to our camper-van and throw the money all over the bed. She seduced that year’s Penthouse Pet and always broke a lot of hearts when we had to move on to the next place. In Darwin, she singlehandedly turned all thirty odd girls working in a club lesbian or at the very least, bi-sexual, much to the chagrin of the owner. We wrote a diary, and although half of it would be unpublishable, her sequel: Trixie Bloom’s Twitter Me Pink is largely set in Australia and many bits in that are loosely based on real events, except the names have been changed to protect the guilty!
From the nightclubs of Bali, to the full moon parties in Thailand, (as far as we were concerned, that’s where we got married – by having matching tattoos) Loulou made friends dancing all the way round the globe, and after a short spell back in London, we moved to Amsterdam where the work was. While there we appeared on Dutch and British television a few times, once in an infamous and otherwise thought-provoking documentary called Amsterdam – City of Sin, where Loulou provided the perfect comic relief and off-screen we became good friends with the director and crew. After six crazy years in Amsterdam, Loulou decided to retire earlier than originally planned and we moved to Andalucia, Spain.
Living high up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Loulou quickly came to the realisation that she was a mountain girl. In the local pueblo, she gave dance classes to the children and taught them English. She gave aerobics classes for the local women and became accepted into the Spanish community, making everyone laugh and carving her place in their hearts. She always said she couldn’t stand children, but the kids adored her energy nevertheless, raising hell if they couldn’t go to her classes.
It was here that Loulou finally found her muse, and after a vivid re-occurring dream she feverishly wrote her first novel Facebook Blues by hand in a stack of notebooks. Once the dam was broken, the comedy just kept coming and she wrote Trixercise – Loving Yourself Hurts, (a diet and exercise parody) Twitter Me Pink, the sequel to Facebook Blues, as well as creating countless videos, memes, podcasts and funny posts on social media. She also leaves a vast trove of half-edited and un-edited writing, videos and audio comedy, including the outline and some text for the penultimate novel in her unfinished trilogy – Misadventures of a Femme Fatale. As her life-partner for twenty-seven years, as well as her editor and tech guy, I feel it is my duty to continue to edit and publish all of this and keep all the social media profiles alive as legacy archives, so that she can continue to brighten peoples days and make them laugh well into the future, as she would have wanted.
Loulou was world-renowned for her lack of patience, not holding back her opinion and a knack for telling it like it is in the most hilarious way. She always told you the truth even if it wasn’t what you wanted to hear.
Her extensive vocabulary was more than highly proficient at knowing more swear words than most people learned in a lifetime. Her favourite was “Bollocks”
She always said she wouldn’t want everyone to cry and be morbid because she was gone; instead she wanted everyone to be happy that she was here, dance to good music and laugh at her comedy. Although she accepted that maybe everyone could cry a little bit. After all, she realised she would have actually passed away at this point.
As a self-confessed witch, she knew that her energy would remain here in one form or another. She was psychically connected to so many people around the world and intended to continue being just as gobby, funny and opinionated from beyond the grave. She fully expected at this point after her demise to be released from her body, exploring the universe, free, happy, dancing and probably naked.
Of course that will probably comfort some while antagonising others, but you know Loulou… it’s what she (and I) always did.
❤ Obituary by Bootz Farquhar
Trixie’s books can be found at the following places
Amazon US
Facebook Blues – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DYYP2VA
Twitter Me Pink – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098P71XNR
Trixercise – Loving Yourself Hurts – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N2JA51A
Amazon UK
Facebook Blues – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DYYP2VA
Twitter Me Pink – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B098P71XNR
Trixercise – Loving Yourself Hurts – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N2JA51A
Smashwords
Facebook Blues – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/629974
Trixercise – Loving Yourself Hurts – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/705345
Apple Books
Facebook Blues – https://books.apple.com/us/book/facebook-blues/id1104390989
Trixercise – Loving Yourself Hurts – https://books.apple.com/us/book/trixercise-part-one-loving-yourself-hurts/id1217554248
Book Depository
Facebook Blues – https://www.bookdepository.com/Facebook-Blues-Trixie-Bloom/9780993552502
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