Photo by Chris Bishop 
Photo by Hans Feurer 
Photo by Hans Feurer 
Photo by Chris Bishop | Moody and the Menstruators (1971-1974) |
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Suzy Adderley, Becky Bailey, Polly Eltes, Rod Melvin, Mary Anne Holliday Annie Sloane First set up in 1971 to perform at an Art School party at Reading University, Moodies explored the ambivalent edges between entertainment and sending up entertainment, between glamour and sending up glamour, between style and sending up style, between pathos and sending up pathos, between eroticism and sending up eroticism, between sincerity and sending up sincerity. I enjoyed the paradox it set up between the very different work I was engaged in at the time: the fact that one could be in several camps at once and be perceived in multitudes of ways They have already received enthusiastic superlatives from critics and public all over Europe, Wherever they appear the critics go home dripping sweat and admiration Bild-Zeitung They take the hit songs feeble wit at its worth and vamp the music so affectionately that the parody ends up better than the original Westdeutche Allegemeine . The precedent of art student turning musicians had been set by stars like John Lennon, Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno and by groups like the MOODIES with their satirical take-off of 50’s moody blues Performance (Thames & Hudson ) Roselee Goldberg Simultaneously glorifying and ridiculing glamour, they are a group to be seen to be believed and appreciated Spare Rib Anne Bean is the powerhouse of the MOODIES. She seemed to be able to change so dramatically, not only visually, but in what I can only describe as ‘essence” that I began to question if there was not more people in the group. She is, in turn, the serene Madonna in Mona Lisa, the cute doll of soft shoe shuffle, the oozing vamp of Too Hot to Handle spotting on her hands to slick back her hair, the peeved adolescent of Big Girls don’t Cry, the piss-elegant pimp of Green Back Dollar Bill and the arrogant virile leather boy of Wild Thing Suddendeutche Zeitung This show puts everything in the shade… it is the greatest sensation since the BEATLES Hamburger Morgenpost Horror Happenings, a shot of sex, a dose of cheap romance, the put on …. Whoever can lay it on the thickest is the winner. Wherever Moodies are – nothing can follow Hamburger Morgenpost Six dead-pan girls assaulted us with an alarming mixture of technical breakdown and excruciating visual and musical jokes…. HOORAY FOR THE MOODIES Financial Times An article appeared in WIRE March 2010: www.thewire.co.uk/articles/web_exclusive/ |
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