Wonderland Burlesque's
Down The Rabbit Hole:
Haysi Fantayzee
Down The Rabbit Hole merely places a spotlight on something slightly unusual that's caught my interest. With the help of Wikipedia, YouTube, and other sites, I gather information and learn something new.
Today, we take a look at the brief history and musical output of Blitz Kid's artists Haysi Fantayzee.
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From Wikipedia:
Haysi Fantayzee was an avant-garde, new wave pop project emanating from the Blitz Kids street arts scene in London in the early 1980s. The Blitz Kids were a group of people who frequented the Tuesday club-night at Blitz in Covent Garden, London in 1979–1980. They are credited with launching the New Romantic subcultural movement. Haysi Fantayzee's music combined reggae, country and electro with political and sociological lyrics couched as nursery rhymes.
Formed in 1981, the band consisted of Jeremy Healy, Kate Garner, and Garner's boyfriend songwriter/producer/manager/keyboardist Paul Caplin. Key to their success was their sense of fashion.
Garner and Healy combined their extreme clothes sense - described as a mix of white Rasta, tribal chieftain and Dickensian styles - with a quirky musical sound comparable to, but distinct from, other new wave musical pop acts of the era, such as Bow Wow Wow, early Adam and the Ants and early Bananarama. Their outfits were often designed by Garner, and the two singers looked like distorted mirror images of each other, with similar hair and make-up. In a 1983 interview with David Maples on the Los Angeles-based TV show MV3, Jeremy Healy accused singer Boy George of imitating his unusual look. Boy George later responded: "When Jeremy saw my locks, he was livid. Both he and Kim (Bowen) stopped speaking to me. They thought I had stolen their look. It wasn't their look to steal..."
To attract the attention, the trio sent video performances with their demo tapes to record companies, a highly unusual practice at the time. They released four singles in 1982 and 1983: John Wayne Is Big Leggy, Holy Joe, Shiny Shiny, and Sister Friction - promoting them by appearing on Top of The Pops several times. John Wayne Is Big Leggy hit #11 in the UK, #3 in Germany, #4 in Switzerland, #13 in Austria and #22 in Ireland. Holy Joe stalled at #51 in the UK and failed to chart elsewhere. They fared better with Shiny, Shiny which reached #16 in the UK, #3 in Austria, #11 in Ireland, #22 in Germany, #37 in New Zealand and #74 in the US. However, Sister Friction (#61 in the UK) and a fifth single, Chizoola, failed to generate any heat.
Garner and Healy combined their extreme clothes sense - described as a mix of white Rasta, tribal chieftain and Dickensian styles - with a quirky musical sound comparable to, but distinct from, other new wave musical pop acts of the era, such as Bow Wow Wow, early Adam and the Ants and early Bananarama. Their outfits were often designed by Garner, and the two singers looked like distorted mirror images of each other, with similar hair and make-up. In a 1983 interview with David Maples on the Los Angeles-based TV show MV3, Jeremy Healy accused singer Boy George of imitating his unusual look. Boy George later responded: "When Jeremy saw my locks, he was livid. Both he and Kim (Bowen) stopped speaking to me. They thought I had stolen their look. It wasn't their look to steal..."
To attract the attention, the trio sent video performances with their demo tapes to record companies, a highly unusual practice at the time. They released four singles in 1982 and 1983: John Wayne Is Big Leggy, Holy Joe, Shiny Shiny, and Sister Friction - promoting them by appearing on Top of The Pops several times. John Wayne Is Big Leggy hit #11 in the UK, #3 in Germany, #4 in Switzerland, #13 in Austria and #22 in Ireland. Holy Joe stalled at #51 in the UK and failed to chart elsewhere. They fared better with Shiny, Shiny which reached #16 in the UK, #3 in Austria, #11 in Ireland, #22 in Germany, #37 in New Zealand and #74 in the US. However, Sister Friction (#61 in the UK) and a fifth single, Chizoola, failed to generate any heat.
Theses singles were followed up with an album, Battle Hymns for Children Singing, and then they went their separate ways.
Garner enjoyed a brief solo career after the break-up of Haysi Fantayzee, and then pursued a career in photography in Los Angeles. While Healy released the single When Malindy Sings in 1984, and later became a DJ and album mixer for other artists, including his former schoolfriend/rival Boy George. He was also signed to Boy George's More Protein record label under the name E-Zee Possee.
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Garner enjoyed a brief solo career after the break-up of Haysi Fantayzee, and then pursued a career in photography in Los Angeles. While Healy released the single When Malindy Sings in 1984, and later became a DJ and album mixer for other artists, including his former schoolfriend/rival Boy George. He was also signed to Boy George's More Protein record label under the name E-Zee Possee.
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John Wayne Is Big Leggy - Haysi Fantayzee
Hoy Joe - Haysi Fantayzee
Shiny Shiny - Haysi Fantayzee
Sister Friction - Haysi Fantayzee
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