Claude Bessy (20 June 1945 – 2 October 1999), also known as Kickboy Face, was a French writer, magazine editor, singer, video producer, and painter. He is noted as an early organizer
in the Los Angeles
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
scene in the mid 1970s and was involved in the British
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...
scene in the 1980s.
Biography
Bessy was born in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
.
Bessy was kicked out of
the Sorbonne after showing up drunk at nine in the morning, brandishing a bottle of brandy, and threatening a teacher.
Bessy moved to the US in 1966 and to Los Angeles in 1967.
Bessy later left for Afghanistan to "deal" hashish.
Bessy later detoxed from methedrine in a French asylum.
In 1970 Bessy returned to Los Angeles, finding work as a busboy in Santa Monica, a waiter, other jobs.
and founded ''Angeleno Dread'', L.A.'s first
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
fanzine.
In May 1977 he helped Steve Samiof launch the monthly punk rock magazine ''
Slash
Slash may refer to:
* Slash (punctuation), the "/" character
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Slash (Marvel Comics)
* Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'')
Music
* Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band
* Nash ...
'', which he edited until it ceased publication in 1980.
[
* https://www.flickr.com/photos/giannimottiassistant/43675873690/
* https://www.flickr.com/photos/verylastexcitingmoment/39482451964/
* https://www.discogs.com/Bessy-Bessy-Talks-Turkey/release/1298968
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S57QF9fCB44
* ]
As Kickboy Face (a pen name adopted from, ''Kick Boy Face'' a song and album by
Prince Jazzbo
Linval Roy Carter (3 September 1951 – 11 September 2013), better known as Prince Jazzbo, was a Jamaican reggae and dancehall deejay and producer.
Career
Born in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica, and raised in Kingston, Linval Roy Carter (who wou ...
), Bessy was the lead singer for the band
Catholic Discipline, the film ''
The Decline of Western Civilization
''The Decline of Western Civilization'' is a 1981 American documentary filmed through 1979 and 1980. The movie is about the Los Angeles punk rock scene and was directed by Penelope Spheeris. In 1981, the LAPD Chief of Police Daryl Gates wrote a ...
'' includes a Bessy interview, and two songs.
[Morris, Chris (23 October 1999)]
"Declarations of Independents: In Memory of 'Kickboy,' the Voice of L.A. Punk Scene"
'' Billboard'' 111 (43): 71.
"The scene was not fun anymore, so I bailed on L.A. and the USA, never to return the day Ronald Reagan was elected." — Claude Bessy
Bessy left California in November 1980. moving with his lifelong partner Philomena Winstanley to the U.K. where he landed a job as a press officer at
Rough Trade record label. There he championed American groups such as
Gun Club
The Gun Club were an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, United States, which existed from 1979 to 1996. It was formed and led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce.
History Early days (1979–1980)
The Gun Club ...
[ and Panther Burns.
In 1982 Bessy was hired as the resident VJ at ]The Haçienda
The Haçienda was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, North West England, which became famous during the Manchester years of the 1980s and early 1990s. It was run by the record label Factory Records.
The club opened in 1982, eventually ...
in Manchester. He went on to produce music videos and films for The Virgin Prunes
Virgin Prunes were an Irish post-punk band formed in 1977 in Dublin, Ireland. They disbanded in 1986 after the departure of singer Gavin Friday. The other members continued under the name The Prunes until they split up in 1991.
History
The Vir ...
, The Fall and William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
,[ and work with ]Factory Records
Factory Records was a Manchester-based British independent record label founded in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus.
The label featured several important acts on its roster, including Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, the Duru ...
' Ikon FCL video label, producing a ''Factory Records
Factory Records was a Manchester-based British independent record label founded in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus.
The label featured several important acts on its roster, including Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, the Duru ...
'' Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
video trailer ''Bessy Talks Turkey''.[
Bessy returned to London] where he worked for Forbidden Planet
''Forbidden Planet'' is a 1956 American science fiction film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Nicholas Nayfack, and directed by Fred M. Wilcox from a script by Cyril Hume that was based on an original film story by Allen Adler and Irvi ...
and wrote record sleeve notes. He contributed vocals to records by Sonic Youth, Howard Devoto, Wire
Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm
A wire is a flexible strand of metal.
Wire is c ...
's Graham Lewis
Graham Lewis (born Edward Graham Lewis, 22 February 1953) is an English musician.
Lewis is the bassist with punk rock/post-punk band Wire, a band formed in 1976.
Biography
On Wire's first studio album Graham Lewis was credited as ''Lewis''; ...
and trumpeter Marc Cunningham.[
In 1987 Bessy moved to Barcelona, Spain where he took to painting and earned a living teaching English. He died of lung cancer in 1999.][
]
Discography
* ''Unanswerable Lust'' (1988), Luxuria
* ''Trying To Make It To The End Of The Century'' (1991)
* '' The First Letter'' (1991) Wire
Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm
A wire is a flexible strand of metal.
Wire is c ...
* "Adios Jupiter" (1994) Raeo
* ''Underground Babylon'' (2004) Catholic Discipline
Filmography
* "Barbee Doll Lust" – ''The Decline of Western Civilization
''The Decline of Western Civilization'' is a 1981 American documentary filmed through 1979 and 1980. The movie is about the Los Angeles punk rock scene and was directed by Penelope Spheeris. In 1981, the LAPD Chief of Police Daryl Gates wrote a ...
'' (January 19, 1980)
* "Underground Babylon" – ''The Decline of Western Civilization'' (January 19, 1980)
Further reading
* Bessy, Claude; Cervenka, Exene; Morris, Chris; Carillo, Sean; Doe, John (1999)
Forming: The Early Days of L.A. Punk
Santa Monica, CA: Smart Art Press, 95 pp., illustrated.
:* Track 16 Gallery exhibition
*
*
*
*
* Mark Vallen
Portrait of Claude Bessy
1979. Acrylic on paper. 22" x 30"
* John Potwora
"Harmony In Disharmony: Spike Jones As A Punk Rock Prototype"
2019
* John Savage, "England’s Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond" New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992
* dissertation, Ph.D., History PDF Open access
See also
* Jenny Lens
References
External links
*
Claude Bessy
at IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bessy, Claude
1945 births
1999 deaths
French magazine editors
French writers about music
Writers from Normandy
French rock singers
French expatriates in the United States
French expatriates in the United Kingdom
French expatriates in Spain
French film producers
French male non-fiction writers
20th-century French male singers
Deaths from lung cancer in Spain
20th-century French male writers