Hot Cat Hits The Roof

London starts to party again at the revamped Berkeley Square Ball

by Valentine Low, Evening Standard, July 20, 2005

It was probably the moment Lord Coe took to the dance floor to shake his stuff with Cat Deeley. Or possibly when the same delectable Ms. Deeley, obviously running out of Olympic athletes-turned-Tory-peers to dance with, chose to express her oneness with the music by climbing up a rope suspended from the ceiling.

Whenever it was, there was a moment when, in the midst of tragedy and loss, London got back its sense of fun.

The occasion was the revamped Berkeley Square Ball, an event that once epitomised all that was vulgar, loud and tasteless about the fag end of that brash, greedy decade, the Eighties.

Banned by Westminster council since 1989, it is not even called the Berkeley Square Ball anymore, but B Square B. Back then, minor royalty used to attend -- if they could fight their way through the estate agents and drunken Hoorays -- there was even a dress code which stipulated that ladies should be attired in ballgowns, "minimum length below mid-calf."

There was none of that nonsense last night. Even though the event was in aid of the Prince's Trust, the Prince of Wales wisely made sure he was otherwise engaged, while the nearest thing to a dress code was a suggestion that the men should wear summer suits.

As for the women's skirts, possibly they could have been shorter, but -- actually, no they could not have been shorter. Simply not possible.

One lady greeter wore a bra and thong and floaty chiffon nothing: a gaggle of young women described as the Burlesque Girls were in rubber corsets and not much else. Sadie Frost turned up in a dress that was backless and all but sideless as well, which may have explained the explosion of interest among the photographers.

It was that or her personal life, what with her ex-husband Jude Law sleeping with the nanny when he is meant to be getting married to Sienna Miller, who pulled out of last night's performance of As You Like It.

Frost, sensibly, said nothing but smiled a lot: professional Sadie-watchers will be able to judge whether she was rather relishing the discomfort of her libidinous ex and his girlfriend, or just wished the whole thing would go away.

Whether they were dressed in ballgowns or bondage gear, City suits or Regency ruffles, the party-goers seemed intent on rediscovering the joy in London life after all the gloom that has pervaded in the last two weeks.

Vignettes: the two Tamaras -- Beckwith and Mellon -- dancing together at their table; Damian Lewis doing an Elvis Presley karaoke number on stage to huge applause; Jamie Oliver -- who did the food, together with Mark Hix -- bringing one of his sous-chefs on stage to get the crowd to sing him Happy Birthday as he turned 18.

As the party faded away, and the hardcore revellers headed for the after-party at Sketch, the DJ put on a selection of Eighties hits, almost as an hommage to the Berkeley Square Ball of old. Girls Just Want To Have Fun, sang Cyndi Lauper: it was true then, and it is still true now. Should someone get Cat Deeley down off that rope?

Caption: Pole Cat: television presenter Cat Deeley lets her hair down at the renamed B Square B, dancing and twirling with abandon and eventually climbing up a red rope suspended from the ceiling.

Caption: Ball games: Sadie Frost with Jackson Scott; Tamara Beckwith, Amanda Kymes, Lisa B, Yasmin Mills and Tamara Mellon.

Caption: Smouldering: Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis.