I’m not like everybody else
Trawling through some old music I found some songs by the mid 70’s to early 80’s band, Jimmy and the Boys. This band was from Sydney, enjoyed minor commercial success with the song “They Won’t Let My Girlfriend Talk to Me”, but were better known for their live performances. In the words of Wikipedia,
Their performance, their visual image, their on and offstage behaviour were all carefully designed to elicit the maximum level of shocked outrage from a public long since bored with the standard media fare of moral decadence. Sadomasochism, transvestitism, self-mutilation, drug abuse, inebriation, simulated sex and mock rape all took starring roles in Jimmy And The Boys’ blisteringly paced tribute to cultural degeneracy. The band was known for often causing audience riots in the more homophobic venues they played.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzVmkr6d2Ec]
Having seen Jimmy and the Boys in my younger days, it always amuses me when I see Ignatius Jones’ name mentioned in the context of his subsequent artistic achievements. Now he has grown up and is all respectable, I wonder how he views his time in the band (he is the singer)?
Since finishing with Jimmy and the Boys, Jones has performed with a jazz-swing band, Pardon Me Boys, worked with his sister, singer and former Playschool presenter, Monica Trapaga, worked in theatre, opera and television, but his main claim to fame has been as an events director. Jones directed parts of the Sydney 2000 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, the New Year’s Eve fireworks shows in Sydney for a number of years, the independence ceremonies for East Timor in 2002, The Man from Snowy River Arena Spectacular – which he wrote, produced and directed with David Atkins, the Sydney 2002 Gay Games opening and closing ceremonies and the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. He also wrote and devised The Australian Outback Spectacular, an AUD$23 million arena attraction for Warner-Village Theme Parks on Australia’s Gold Coast.
I don’t know what happened to the other members of Jimmy and The Boys. I must admit to being amused by the name of one of the guitarists, Joe P. Rick (I know, childish, but hey!). And how can we forget the keyboard player, Joylene Thornbird Hairmouth, who actually ran in the Senate election in 1980.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGDakKx4_FY]
Hope you enjoy listening and watching these songs from an interesting Australian band of the 70’s and 80’s.
Oh, this is just great. I LOVED J&TB, saw them onstage a few times, I was such a groupie (heh). There is something so great about this band, the hair, the make up, the style, it embraced the time and era of the late 70s and early 80′s so well. I was also thrilled to see ignatius again in the Countdown spectaular. I found outthen that Tim Finn wrote ‘girlfriend’ – and that made sense.