The last 12 months for Antony Hegarty have been nothing if not eventful. Malcolm Jack ponders the past, present and future for ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS.
hat band in their right mind would
want to win the Mercury Music Prize?
For previous winners. like Talvin Singh. Pulp and Portishead. it has at best been a mixed blessing. Already Antony and the Johnsons‘ triumph this year for I Am a Bird Nim- has been in part undermined by controversy. Anyone who‘s seen photos of Kaiser Chiefs front man Ricky Wilson‘s face after the ceremony will have a pretty good idea of how generally bitter the feeling about the outcome seemed to be among the nominees. Wilson’s bandmate. drummer Nick Hodgson. grumbled in an interview: ‘He‘s an American. really. It’s a good album. but it‘s daft he‘s got in on a technicality.‘
A quick glance at a couple of numbers and it‘s easy to see that it wasn't all just sour grapes either. {20.000 principally. the amount that goes straight into the artist’s pocket for a Mercury win — not the record company. or the management. but the name on the front of the sleeve — a princely one-off stun for a performer nearer to the beginning than the end of their musical career. Secondly. l 19. the number of places [Am a Bird Nim- shot up the UK album chart (from 135 to lo) in the week immediately following the award. with online store Amazon claiming a nine-fold increase in sales and HMV alone
reporting a whopping 20-fold increase: all part of
the single biggest boom effect the Mercury has yet given a winner. Denied such glory on the basis of what they construed to be small print. it is easy to see why one or two people might have been left with a few gripes. Judges. admitting to ‘heated rows‘ during the decision making process. were in fact forced to defend their choice in public.
Not that they had to. because the fact is that Antony Hegaity is as British as steak and ale pie. Born and raised in Chichester. West Sussex in 1971. he spent six years in the UK before being uprooted to California via Amsterdam. Distanced from peers from his early teens in more ways than one by sexuality and a tall. hulking frame (six foot four at its eventual zenith). settling anywhere was challenge enough in itself until his move to Manhattan in l‘)‘)() brought him to a place which embraces his own vision of life.
Antony was attracted to New York principally by the notion of the city as filtered through the high camp of 80s punk cabaret. rather than anything quintessentially American. It was a subculture. and a deep one at that. buried well below the radar and out of reach of all but the most seeking. which initially nurtured the talent Antony had imagined himself utilising since marvelling at the exuberance of Boy (ieorge and Marc Almond. ‘1 think it would have been impossible for anyone to have gotten through the l98()s without being influenced by Boy Cieorge.‘ Antony recently admitted to Jools Holland. ‘Culture Club were wearing coats with body mapping on. pre-dating the multiculturist era by about ten years. But here we are 25 years later and here are C ocorosie shaking it up with a kind of “fuck you" attitude. Difference is a non-issue: it‘s something to be enjoyed.‘
Fronting Blacklips. a rag tag performance collective of drag queens and thespians. he started
to make waves as an artist. developing the unique vocal chords and gender bending image that would guide him into the spotlight as a solo artist. making late night revellers choke on their glace cherries after hours at the Pyramid Lounge Cocktail Bar. He recruited the Johnsons — a musical collective with enough credentials and high cheekbones to make your teeth hurt — and released an eponymous debut LP in 1998. This was followed by lil’ Fell in Love ll’it/i a Dem] Boy in 200i. and thus started the process of what his label Secretly Canadian has deemed a ‘conspiracy to make Antony a household name‘. All from an outsider culture. to which nationality was a matter of default rather than identity.
As for quality. judges had far less to be sensitive about: [Am (1 Bird New speaks volumes for itself. One listen to the first bars of opener ‘llope There‘s Someone‘ and you‘re immediately transfixed by a voice which. much like Nina Simone. confounds by its bewildering asexuality and otherworldliness. It has soul. Real soul. Otis Redding soul that transmits across the barriers of race. culture and language in its expressiveness. as proven by a tour schedule demonstrating his popularity across the continents. Familiar themes — love. loss and longing — tackled through a gender prism. add an equally fascinating aspect.
‘DIFFERENCE IS A NON-ISSUE - IT'S SOMETHING TO BE ENJOYED'
The conspicuously American. and specifically New York-based cast aboard the record presents perhaps the biggest sticking point to its eligibility. with luminaries and friends Devendra Banhart. Lou Reed. Laurie Anderson and Rufus Wainwright popping tip to lend a touch that‘s hardly native to these shores. But for the stickler. here‘s a technicality: a New York album's nothing new to the Mercury. In 200] l’.l llarvey won the prize for the brave. confident. gender boundary breaking (the first win by a female solo artist) and brilliant LP Stories From I/I” City. Stories From Illt’ Sm. It was written. formed and born in large part through the experiences of a Brit living in the Big Apple.
Polly‘s probably sits proud and unassuming as one of the few Mercury statuettes awarding truly the best album by a British artist in the IE months preceding; no flash in the pan. but one by an artist tried. tested. built to last. But Antony‘s saving grace may be that he is ruueh more comfortable with his friends from the alternative art scene than he is in the mainstream. In an interview with Drew Daniel ahead of a David Letterman appearance. Daniel reminded Antony that Leigh Bowery would deliberately trip up and fall down while walking to the talk show couch. just to interrupt the smooth flow of events. Maybe that should be Antony's strategy for Letterman. Laughing. Antony replied: ‘lt would be a beautiful homage at the very least.‘
Carling Academy, Glasgow, Wed 30 Nov.
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS
Everybody loves our Tony, and we have the list of names to prove it. Mark Robertson uncovers a Iuvvie-in like no other.
The old guard
The Johnsons were named after Marsha P Johnson. the martyred drag queen who was part of the original Stonewall riots in Creenwrch Village in 1969. It was a scene which also encompassed Candy Darling. the drag queen. actor and Warholian FactOry feature who was the cover star of Antony and the Johnson's second album /Am a Bird Now and the preceeding EP The Lake. Lou Reed (pictured) is among his biggest fans. He interviewed Antony for American magazine Index and added sprinkles of guitar and poetry to "Fistful of Love' on / Am a Bird Now. In return. Antony i.)erformed a version of ‘Candy Says' on Reed's live album Animal Serenade and appeared on his Edgar Allen Poe- inspired concept album The Raven. Keeping it in the family, Reed's partner Laurie Anderson invited Antony to appear in her new film Hidden Inside Mountains. A contemporary of both Anderson and Reed. Patti Smith invrted Antony to be on the bill of her Meltdown Festival in London in 2005.
The avant garde Antony is unafraid of driving his tricycle through the avant garden. He was a founder member of performance collective Blacklips vith Johanna Constantine in the 90s. and Brit musical expt-zrimenter extraordinaire David Tibet of Current 93 released his first musical output. / Fell In Love With a Dead Bey. He collabOrated with Laurie Anderson (again). Phillip Glass and Nico lvluhly at a benefit show for Buddhist magazine Tricycle. He has expressed a fondness for the silver screen. appearing in Sobastien Lifshitz' film Wild Side and Steve Buscemi's The Animal Factory. On the art front he performed at the opening of an exhibition by photographer Wolfgang Tillmans. and collaborated with DaVid Lynch (pictured) and Angelo Badalamenti on ‘Find the Rhythm of your Love". a hymn written for the Bonn Biennale.
“ The right guard Antony has always been an arch musical collaborator. He was among the singers iiiyited to perform at Sydney Opera House as part of Hal Willner's presentation of The Songs of leonard Cohen alongside Nick Cave. Rufus Wainwright and Beth Orton. Wainwright sang lead vocal on ‘What Can I Do’?’ on /Am a Bird Now. while Antony returned the favour by singing on ‘Old Whores Diet' on Wainwright's album Want Two and contributed vocals to the Cocorosie (pictured) album Noah's Ark. He's also collaborated with Bernard Butler on an XFM radio session. recorded (as yet unreleased) tracks Wllll Marc Almond and worked Willi one of his heroes. Boy George, on his new single ‘You Are My Sister'. The pair made a version of John Lennon's 'War is Over" for the Warcliild Day in the life charity album.
1/ Nov t Dix: L’t?():’> THE LIST 21