Wendy Wild (born Wendy Andreiev, August 31, 1956 – October 26, 1996) was an American singer, musician, and artist who in the 1980s was a well-known presence in New York's

downtown music Downtown music is a subdivision of American music, closely related to experimental music, which developed in downtown Manhattan in the 1960s. History The scene the term describes began in 1960, when Yoko Ono, one of the early Fluxus artists, o ...

and performance scenes.

Career

Growing up in

Northport, New York Northport is a historic maritime Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village on the northern shore of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York, United States. Initially designated Great Cow Harbour by 17th-century English colonists, the ...

, Wild moved to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

in the late 1970s, accompanied by John McLoughlin, who would later become known as the performer

John Sex John McLoughlin (April 8, 1956 – October 24, 1990), better known by the stage name John Sex, was an American cabaret singer and performance artist in New York City from the late 1970s until his death in late 1990. Early life Sex was born on ...

.Wendy Wild World
autobiographical blog Throughout the 1980s she performed regularly in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

night clubs and art spaces, including the Lucky Strike, Privates, and Club 57.True Story of the Mad Violets
/ref> She would become a fixture at the legendary Pyramid Club, where she could often be seen

go-go dancing Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was take ...

on the bar.Filmmaker Robert Carrithers on Wendy Wild
/ref> Along with her work as a nightclub performer, Wild performed in several New York-based bands, including the Roll-Ons,

Pulsallama Pulsallama was an all-woman, no wave band from New York. Described as "13 girls fighting over a cowbell," the post-punk group was primarily a percussion ensemble with two bass guitars and several vocalists. The band was formed in early 1981 fr ...

, the Problem Drinkers, the Wild Hyaenas (with then-boyfriend Keith Streng of

The Fleshtones The Fleshtones are an American garage rock band from Queens, New York, United States, formed in 1976. History 1976–1979 The Fleshtones were formed in 1976 in Whitestone, New York, by Keith Streng (born September 18, 1955, New York City) an ...

), polka-rockers Das Furlines, and most famously the neo-psychedelic Mad Violets. In addition to playing locally in many of Manhattan's rock venues (The Dive,

Irving Plaza Irving Plaza (known through sponsorship as Irving Plaza, powered by Klipsch and formerly known as the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza) is a ballroom-style music venue located within the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. ...

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kri ...

Danceteria Danceteria was a nightclub that operated in New York City from 1979 until 1986 and in the Hamptons until 1995. The club operated in various locations over the years, a total of three in New York City and four in the Hamptons. The most famous locat ...

, Andy Warhol's Underground, and others), she and her bands toured extensively, including US performance dates at Boston's The Rat, Miami's Club Nu, and the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Overseas appearances included London ( The Venue),

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

and

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

(

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 ...

), England with Pulsallama in 1982, and Tokyo in 1988 with John Sex. During her career, Wild appeared on several recordings. Along with releases for Mad Violets (''World of LSD...'' and the posthumously released ''Season of the Mad Violets''), she sang on records for Bronski Beat, The Fleshtones, Peter Zaremba's Love Delegation,

Hoodoo Gurus Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner (songwriter, lead singer and guitarist) and later joined by Richard Grossman (bass), Mark Kingsmill (drums), and Brad Shepherd (guitar, vocals, ha ...

, and John Sex.Fleshtones Hall of Fame
/ref> She also appeared in two music videos with Mr. Sex, "Hustle with My Muscle" and "Rock Your Body",Funtone's Nelson Sullivan Channel
videos featuring Wendy Wild and John Sex as well as the 1988 documentary ''

Mondo New York ''Mondo New York'' is a 1988 Mondo film directed by Harvey Nikolai Keith. The documentary film was inspired by the 1963 movie '' Mondo Cane''. Overview ''Mondo New York'' examines the lives and activities of Manhattan performance artists, and fea ...

''. Wild performed in the stage musicals '' The Sound of Muzak'' at Club 57 in 1981 (revived at NYC's Limelight in 1986), and ''

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...

'' at Danceteria in 1983.Club 57, Where Are You?
/ref> She also staged one-woman shows for her booze-addled sex-kitten character Joey Heatherock and was one of the group of East Village performers who created the first annual

Wigstock Wigstock was an annual outdoor drag festival that began in 1984 in Manhattan's East Village that took place on Labor Day. Continuing, with a few gaps, until 2005, the festival would traditionally act as the unofficial end to the summer for the ...

festival. She performed at Wigstock many times and appeared in ''

Wigstock, The Movie ''Wigstock: The Movie'' is a 1995 documentary film focusing on Wigstock, the annual drag music festival that had been held New York City's East Village through the 1980s and 1990s. The film presents a number of performances from the 1994 festiva ...

'', released in 1994.IMDB entry
/ref> Many of Wild's performances at the

Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

and other New York City venues have been recorded by the late video artist

Nelson Sullivan John Nelson Sullivan (March 15, 1948 – July 4, 1989) was an American videographer who chronicled life in Downtown Manhattan’s arts and club scene from 1983 until his death. His hundreds of videos documented daily life in the city, wild nigh ...

and have been included in exhibitions of his work. Wendy Wild died on October 26, 1996, from breast cancer.

Selected recordings

– ''Ungawa Part II/The Devil Lives in My Husband's Body'' (1981) * Pulsallama – ''Oui Oui (A Canadian in Paris)'' (1983) * Various Artists – ''Train To Disaster'' (1983) *

Richard Mazda Richard Mazda (born 5 May 1955) is a record producer, writer, musician, actor and director. Music career Mazda was one of the co-founders of Poole punk/mod band Tours, singing and playing lead guitar. They signed to Virgin Records in 1979 aft ...

– ''Hands of Fate'' (1983) * Bronski Beat – ''Hundred And Thousands'' (1985) * Mad Violets – ''World Of ...'' (1986) * Peter Zaremba's Love Delegation – ''Spread The Word'' (1986) *

– ''Fleshtones Vs. Reality'' (1987) * Frieda – ''Disco Lover / Plastic Rap'' (1987) * Various Artists – ''Time Bomb: Fleshtones Present The Big Bang Theory'' (1988) *

– ''Rock Your Body'' (1988) * Peter Zaremba's Love Delegation – ''Delegation Time'' (1989) * Various Artists – ''Polka Comes to Your Haus!'' (1990) * Various Artists – ''Battle of the Garages, Vol. 1'' (1994) *

– ''The Mountain'' (1994) * Mad Violets – ''Season of the Mad Violets'' (2004) (Wild also sang the title theme to the 1989 film '' No Such Thing as Gravity'')

References

External links

WendyWildWorld
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wild, Wendy 1956 births 1996 deaths American performance artists Deaths from breast cancer Singers from New York (state) People from Northport, New York 20th-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from New York (state) 20th-century American women singers People from Manhattan 20th-century American women guitarists