Ensure that your cocktail party is the talk of the town by going all out for glamour, glitz and pizzazz — think a night at the Oscars. Your hallway is the red carpet, where guests are invited to pose for a photograph when they arrive. A length of red velvet will do the trick, and you can deputise a mate with a half decent camera, a paunch and a bit of a leer to play the role of paparazzo.

Your living room is a sultry cocktail lounge, where impossibly beautiful women and roguish men sip on cocktails reflecting every colour of the rainbow. Go minimal on furnishings, and adorn the walls with posters from old Hollywood classics.

Make sure your bar area reflects the style of the evening — everything should be just so. A trestle table with a couple of bottles of supermarket vodka and some cans of lemonade simply won’t do. Think of it as part of the décor and ensure it sparkles. Use a dark-coloured tablecloth to emphasise the sparkle of your cocktail glasses, and add a touch of class by going for silver cocktail umbrellas and swizzle sticks. Serve mixers in glass jugs or soda fountains rather than in unattractive plastic bottles or cans.

It's glamour all the way, so encourage your guests to dress to impress. You will always get the odd party-pooper who insists on turning up in T-shirt, corduroy slacks and trainers, but the rule of thumb for your party should be that nothing is too over the top. Top hat and tails? Perfect. Full 1920's flapper outfit complete with feather boa and headdress? Couldn't be better.

Take the lead by dressing to the nines yourself. Pretend you're a glamourous Hollywood star for the night, dripping with diamonds — this is your chance to shine, baby!

Stick to the cocktail theme and encourage your guests to get creative. Offer prizes for the brightest, the most delicious, and, of course, the vilest concoction. Money no object? Buy in a vodka luge — a spectacular centrepiece made of ice, and a very glamorous way for your guests to get sozzled.

All the boys love to pretend they're Tom Cruise back in the day, so everyone can have a few laughs as they try out their best cocktail shaking moves. Just be careful you don't end up with your living room walls redecorated in tequila sunrise.

Your guests will be circulating, so keep your food simple and portable. Pitted olives and salty nuts (be adventurous and go for cashews and macadamias rather than plain old peanuts) go well with cocktails, as do crunchy crudités with exotic dips.

Make sure you place a dish of nibbles on every available surface, and ensure they are kept well stocked. And don’t forget cocktail sticks and paper napkins.

As well as a few cocktail basics (vodka, tequila, white rum), go for unusual bottle shapes, lurid colours, or exotic names. Browse a few cocktail recipe books and pick out some of the more unusual mixtures — people can drink gin and tonic anytime, so make the hangovers worthwhile by offering them a rainbow of colours and flavours.

1.	Ice Ice Baby / Vanilla Ice
2.	La Bamba / Ritchie Valens
3.	Livin’ la Vida Loca / Ricky Martin
4.	Endicott / Kid Creole & The Coconuts
5.	Copacabana / Barry Manilow
6.	Club Tropicana / Wham!
7.	American Pie / Don McLean
8.	Whatever Lola Wants / Ella Fitzgerald
9.	I Get a Kick out of You / Frank Sinatra
10.	Bartender and the Thief / Stereophonics

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