Miranda Sex Garden
Widely tagged with the terms ‘classical’ and ‘pretentious’ by UK critics, Miranda Sex Garden have faced sterner tests than that, including facing 20,000 unimpressed Depeche Mode fans on tour. The group comprise singer/songwriter Katharine Blake, and her cohorts, Ben Golomstock (keyboards), Donna McKevitt (violin) and Trevor Sharpe (percussion), having dropped original member Kelly McClusker, who formed the band with Blake after graduating from music college (Purcell School Of Music). All are accomplished musicians, and the three women each have strong falsetto voices. They spent their early days busking sixteenth century madrigals on London's underground, with an impressed Barry Adamson catching one performance on Portobello Road. Later they would contribute to his Delusion soundtrack. Their debut release comprised two versions of the madrigal Gush Forth My Tears, an a cappela treatment on one side, and a dance version on the other. Their talents won them a reception which was roughly equal in incredulity and wonder, and their voices soon appeared on Derek Jarman's soundtrack to Blue (on an unlikely song entitled Muff Diving Size Queen). FAIRYTALES, meanwhile, concerned sado-masochism, and they have actually played gigs under the title of Waltzing Maggots at fetish clubs, which included Blake performing half naked in Nazi regalia (finally destroying utterly their early press reputation for Victorian-esque primness).