Haysi Fantayzee

19,236 plays (6,391 listeners)
In your library (0 plays)

6 shouts

Add to my Library Share

Haysi Fantayzee were a British new wave band of the early 1980s.

Formed and fronted by white dreadlocked singers Jeremy Healy (also known as Jeremiah) and Kate Garner, and with Kate’s boyfriend songwriter/producer/manager Paul Caplin in the background, the band had several UK hits in 1983 such as the singles “John Wayne Is Big Leggy”, “Shiny Shiny”, and “Sister Friction”. The band never broke through to the same kind of success in the US, although they did have some popularity there. Originally Caplin and Garner had intended to make music with just Garner performing, but then they met Healy (who at 19 was much younger than Garner) and decided to pair them up. The band used their artsy look as a selling point, making a crude video performance and using that instead of a demo tape to sell the band to record companies. Their attention-getting outfits were often designed by Garner herself. The two singers looked like distorted mirror images of each other, with similar hair and makeup. Their glamorous ragamuffin style was frequently compared to Boy George.

The band’s catchy music often had darkly humorous, subversive lyrics. “Shiny, Shiny” is an upbeat dance tune about the apocalypse, while “John Wayne Is Big Leggy” is about John Wayne refusing to remove his holster when he has sex with a squaw.

The band often garnered musical comparisons to such other new wave pop acts as Bow Wow Wow, Bananarama, and Adam and the Ants. Garner appeared alongside Bananarama in the 1983 music video “Who’s That Girl” by the Eurythmics.

Tagged as:

new wave, 80s, pop, british, indie
See more…

1	John Wayne Is Big Leggy	61
2	Shiny Shiny	44
3	I Lost My Dodi	1
3	Sabres Of Paradise	1
3	Sister Friction	1
3	John Wayne Is Big Leggy (Groovy Long Version)	1
3	More Money	1
3	Holy Joe [12" Single Remix]	1
3	Jimmy Jive Jive	1
3	Shiney Shiney	1
3	Shiny Shiny (Dance Mix)	1
3	Chizoola	1