CityLife

Billy lots of mates heads north

UNION CITY BLUES: Billy Childish & The Musicians Of The British Empire

ENDORSEMENTS don’t come much bigger than ones uttered by Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue, and backers don’t come with much more cult appeal than Kurt Cobain.

And should anyone deserve the be officially recognised as a living cult hero by the end of the Noughties, CityLife reckons Kylie and Kurt (via a medium, obviously) would side with us in nominating Billy Childish.

For more than three decades, Childish has lived and worked as an artist, writer, poet and musician, publishing dozens of candid titles of written work and original art and releasing well over 100 albums of his own material. 

But it wasn’t until this decade that he ventured away from his regular musical residencies in his native London to perform two gigs in Manchester at the soon to be resurrected Band On The Wall and the Northern Quarter’s Matt & Phred’s (a gig that literally required a now much-prized golden ticket to get in).

Apart from those celeb endorsements, he has become best known for three things: Stuckism, an art movement he co-pioneered, dating Saatchi Gallery favourite Tracey Emin, and getting into a very public war of words with his one-time great admirer Jack White.

Cover star

But his music has quietly turned him into a cover star.

His primeval blues and raw, juke joint style are quite at odds with his stiff, British appearance – a look he cultivates right down to the preened, handlebar moustache – and his articulate confessionals suggest a level of education he was never actually afforded. 

There is, though, one reason to be cautious; Billy Childish gigs can go either way.

His weekend show is the usual mix of music, art and high pomp (he’s billed alongside Tex-Mex band A bANdA dA plus pun-wielding, wooden underpants-wearing Norman Clayture), and it’s apparently a back-to-front show with headliner Childish, taking to the stage first.

Which sounds like a classically bonkers way to kick off the official opening of the annual 24:7 Theatre Festival, which this event heralds the start of.

Billy Childish is play New Century House/The Hub (behind the CIS Tower) on Sunday, July 19. Mayes St, Manchester. Doors: 9.30pm. £7.50.