Rocky Horror Show: the closest I came to joining a cult.

The ‘Rocky Horror Show’ is back in Sydney. The film turns 40 this year and the perennial stage show refuses to become middle-aged and sensible. Not just because it’s a rock musical, satirical tribute to science fiction and B-grade movies, nor because it’s a sexy show about an alien transvestite who creates a muscle man, but possibly because it’s a cult many joined for a little while. Me included.

Let me take you on a time warp.

The Rocky Horror Soundtrack was often on in my childhood home; mostly because it was one of the few records we owned and none of us were allowed to touch the record player to remove it from high rotation. One holiday my older sister choreographed a show to pay tribute to the musical our parents loved.

Somehow they convinced my equally flat-chested, stick figure thin, pubescent friend and I to dance in alfoil-covered bikinis while singing ‘I’m just a sweet transvestite, from transsexual, Transylvania’. We had absolutely no idea what we were singing about but we loved the beat.

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The look on the parents’ faces. Priceless.

Perhaps having Rocky Horror as my most humiliating childhood moment meant I needed healing. Perhaps I didn't get out much. Or perhaps I thought it may be a way to meet boys. Whatever the reason, I became part of the Rocky Horror cult a few years later.

It started when a friend took me to see the movie. We were about 12 and we dressed up in our best brown corduroy, parted our hair into side ponytails and caught the bus from the suburbs to George Street in Sydney. We walked into another world. A cinema full of men and women in fishnet stockings, suspender belts, corsets and outrageous costumes. I could hardly hear the film over the shouting, the noisy use of props and the singing along. I could hardly see it due to the teenagers acting the entire flick out in front of the screen. I was shocked and smitten.

We returned the next day, my friend dressed as the tap dancing groupie 'Columbia' and I as the maid 'Magenta', wearing my mother's black silk negligee, a white cap and apron. We threw rice in the wedding scene, shot water pistols in the rain scene and put newspapers over our heads. We yelled back at the characters and sang along raucously. I now knew what a transvestite was! And a transsexual! Hell, some were in the audience and they smiled at me. I was years away from losing my virginity but I watched the characters celebrate sex with genuine thrill. I began to call people who hadn't seen the movie 'virgins'. Me, I was a show whore!

I probably went the next 10 Saturdays or at least until I could recite much of the movie off by heart. I loved the ritual, the belonging, the worship, the church-like communion, the fellowship and the pantomime performance. I loved hanging with people who saw themselves as outcasts; different and outrageous. I liked feeling sexual without having to be sexual. Tim Curry, who played Frank-N-Furter, was my first man crush. Before him there was only sweet, confused Mark Hamill from 'Star Wars', but now I loved a sexy outrageous, beautiful man in make-up and high heels. He had a mouth that twisted and pouted like no other.

It was beyond exciting. I bought the badges and the crazy clothes and I had good, safe, silly but sexy rude fun. But it also felt a bit too much like a cult to me and that’s probably why I left. Besides, my mum wouldn’t let me go to where the cool kids hung – the midnight show.

Alas, there are no photos of this era of my life. All that survives is the knowledge of every single lyric sung and nearly every word uttered as well as an enduring love of Susan Sarandon (who played Janet, the good girl corrupted).

I loved the scene in 'Fame' where the characters go to a midnight show and quiet little Doris gets up and dances. But I thought the Rocky Horror 'Glee' was twee and cheap. Perhaps Rocky Horror is best left left behind in memories of my 12-year-old self doing the time warp beside a red velour cinema seat in Hoyts with my best friend.

So, to all those doing the Time Warp again I wish you well. Just be careful you don't hurt your knees when you pull them in tight, or put your hip out with all the pelvic thrusting.

What age were you when you first saw the Rocky Horrow Show?