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Thursday, August 3, 2006

The Biter of Thorpe

Hmmm... just back into this time line long enough to talk about....

Danielle Dax was a goth/punk/experimental musician and producer from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. After a brief stint in a band called The Lemon Kittens, Dax broke off and embarked on a solo career, recording and producing "Pop-Eyes"(1982), "Jesus Egg That Wept" (1984), and "Inky Bloaters" (1987) on her own label, Awesome Records. In 1988, she signed with Sire Records, which released her double album "Dark Adapted Eye. “

She made her sole film appearance as "the naked wolfgirl who comes out of the well and slinks around" in Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves. Her last two releases, in 1995, were a compilation appropriately titled Comatose Non Reaction: The Thwarted Pop Career of Danielle Dax, and an EP of new material called Timber Tongue EP. Although officially retired from music she did make a live appearance earlier this year reading poetry over the soundscapes of her longtime partner David Knight.

I first became aware of her through the cover doddle she did for Robert Fripp's "League of Gentlemen" LP (as such things were called back in the 1970's).

A explanation for the name of her record label, "Biter of Thorpe", comes from this interview:

'Ah, Biter of Thorpe' she laughs, 'that was my nick-name at infant school. I went to Thorpe junior school, or Greenways as it was also known as, and I used to fight all the time - I used to feel bad about it; every Monday I would think 'Right, I'm not going to get into any trouble,' and I always got into trouble, I was always going to the Headmistress. `Once a boy called Steven Gandey gave me a Valentine's sticker, which a girl then stole from me, so I bit her on the arm.' she laughs, 'I was only about six or seven at the time, and there was a great big hoo-haa about it, and her mum came to the school and there was a big argument. And after that I was called the Biter of Thorpe!'

A clip of 'Pariah':



Danielle Dax Home Page

She recently released the live DVD, “Bad Miss M