Mikey Georgeson

Mikey Georgeson (1967-) is an artist, working in various media. He is a painter and illustrator, who regularly exhibits his work at Sartorial Contemporary Art and other galleries. As ‘the Vessel’, he is songwriter and singer of the cult art-rock band, David Devant and his Spirit Wife. Side projects included Carfax, a collaboration with Jyoti Mishra, and Glam Chops, a Glam Rock band formed with Eddie Argos of Art Brut. Georgeson also performs on his own, as Mr Solo, and in This Happy Band.

Illustration

After a childhood in Bexhill-on-Sea and Horsham, Mikey Georgeson attended Worthing College of Art (1985–86) and Chelsea School of Art (1986–1989), where he studied illustration when it was a figurative painting course. In 1989, he moved to Brighton, for a postgraduate illustration degree at Brighton University (1989–91).^[1] As an illustrator, he published a series of quirky screenprinted booklets, which he sold in Brighton gallery shops. A Shady Tale (1993) contained a series of unlikely shadowgraphy images. The Hat He Mistook for His Wife (1993), reversing the title of Oliver Sacks' famous book, showed a fedora hat in various marital situations - covered with confetti, posing for a honeymoon photograph beside the Eiffel Tower, on a caravanning holiday, and being weighed on bathroom scales.

David Devant and his Spirit Wife

In Brighton, in May 1992, Georgeson formed his first band with Foz Foster, the ex-guitarist of the Monochrome Set, Jem Egerton, a classically trained musician, who played bass, and the drummer Graham Carlow. Georgeson found the name for his band in a second-hand copy of My Magic Life, the autobiography of the great English stage magician, David Devant (1868–1941). One of Devant's stage illusions was to produce a floating apparition of his ‘spirit wife’. Georgeson told the Sunday Times, ‘I knew it was lazy just to nick the name, David Devant and His Spirit Wife, so I decided to research the man. I read the book and his nickname at school was the same as mine – Monkey Face… Our motto – like his – is All Done by Kindness.’.^[2]

Georgeson explained the idea behind the band to the Brighton Punter magazine: 'It's quite simple really, as a magician Devant didn't really fulfill himself so he said 'I shall walk down the corridors of contemporary music', so he chose us. I am his vessel.' ^[3]- hence Georgeson's new stage name, The Vessel. The rest of the band also assumed new names: The Colonel (Egerton), Professor Rimschott (Carlow), and Foz? (pronounced 'Foz Questionmark'). The line-up was completed by 'the Lantern', who provided film and light, and two 'Spectral Roadies', known as IceMAN (Nick Curry) and Cocky Young'un (Gary Smith), who accompanied the music with visual jokes and magic using cardboard props.

A Devant show was conceived as an act of invocation, in which the spirit of the late magician would speak through the Vessel, and the songs would summon down the Spirit Wife. Audience members attending early gigs were given paper 'spirit specs' (to enhance magic awareness) and a souvenir programme listing the 'songs of invocation'. There was always a message of welcome from David Devant:

Once more, through the power of song and sorcery, my four apprentices and their spectral roadies will bring me closer to you in your earthly abode. My powers grow ever stronger with each twang on the tremolo arm, my message ever clearer with every contorted balloon...So come let us build a magic rope bridge over the ravine of destiny to the white cliffs of The Beyond. And with HOLY JOY we will once more meet with my Spirit Wife. BELIEVE!^[4]

In concert, the Vessel, who wore a black pompadour Elvis wig and a pencil moustache, might appear flying on a magic carpet, projected as a shadow on a paper screen, or be sawn in half by the roadies. At one Halloween concert, at the Duke of York's Picture House, Brighton, he was fired out of a cannon from the stage, emerging at the far end of the hall in tattered clothes, his face blackened. The climax of every show was the appearance of the Spirit Wife, manifested in the form of a Victorian lace nightgown waved on a pole, while the audience was instructed, 'Don Spirit Specs Now!'

The elaborate stage show created a false impression that the band was a novelty act. But, as a songwriter, Georgeson was easily the equal of any of his Britpop contemporaries. He had a gift for catchy melodies, and wrote about unusual subjects, from the murder mystery game Cluedo ('Ballroom') to ginger hair as a metaphor for the social misfit ('Ginger'). His lyrics looked at the everyday from a fresh, off-kilter, perspective: 'When we woke up, we thought, what's the big deal?/ Then we remembered - this is for real.' ('This is for Real'). They were also playful with language. In the opening lines of the first single, 'Pimlico', for example, the expected rhyme ('Ealing') is subverted: 'Sometimes London don't seem so appealing/ Maybe your lover is living in Deptford'. Georgeson also revived the lost art of the pop song coda, or outro, section. Two typical coda lyrics are 'Back to front left to right/ I could keep this up all night' ('Miscellaneous') and 'From my head right down to my Silver Boots/ I'm going to sell my story to whoever it suits' ('I'm not even going to try').

After the 1997 release of their first album, Work, Lovelife, Miscellaneous, the Radio One Breakfast DJ, Mark Radcliffe, told the Sunday Times, 'Initially I was intrigued by the look of them, by the name, by the image. Then I heard some really good songs. It certainly helps that they sound like early Bowie. Since most people will never see the band play, unless the records themselves work there is no point to all the theatricality. But this lot are messing about with the concept of what makes a pop band. Their act isn't just a gimmick. We need more bands like them.' ^[2]

In 1997, touring Britain in support of the album, the band was accompanied by a Channel 4 film crew from The Other Side series. The documentary, shown in 1999, marked a farewell to the first incarnation of David Devant as, in the final sequence, filmed in 1999, Georgeson symbolically set fire to his wig. As he did so, he joked, 'I feel my power draining!' He added, 'I'm doing that so that, from the flames, the Phoenix will rise.' ^[5]

Shiney on the Inside

On 11 December 1999, at the Falcon in Camden, Georgeson unveiled a new David Devant, stripped of the theatricality of the earlier version. The Spectral roadies and the Vessel's wig had gone, and Foz? had been replaced by John Pope on guitar. The accompanying album, Shiney on the Inside, had a harder-edged sound, with driving glam-inspired anthems, 'Radar' and 'Space Daddy'. Eddie Argos, of another art-rock band, Art Brut, would later describe Shiney on the Inside as 'one of the greatest albums ever made.' ^[6]

Power Words for Better Living

In 2002, the original line-up of David Devant reunited, beginning with a concert at Komedia Brighton, on 8 April. A third album, Power Words for Better Living, in 2004, was filled with more catchy songs with witty lyrics from Georgeson: 'The older you are, the tighter you wear your jeans/ The longer you spend at the back of the queue waiting for cash machines' ('Contact')

The band continues to play two or three times a year. In recent years, there has been a return to theatricality, with audiences invited to take part in mass balloon twisting and Foz? wearing clown make-up or dressing in a gorilla costume. Georgeson now wears white pancake makeup with black eyeliner, and has found a replacement wig. There has even been magic with cardboard again, with Baron Gilvan in the role of a Spectral Roadie.

Carfax

In 2001, while Devant were not performing, Georgeson began to work with Jyoti Mishra of White Town, whom he met at a Devant concert. As Carfax, they released two albums, ''Momento from a Digital Age'' and ''Minky Pauve". According to Georgeson, the band took its name from 'the centre of Horsham where the last public hanging took place'.^[7]

Mr Solo and Live Art

In 2005, Georgeson began to perform as a solo act. Using the stage name Mr Solo, he accompanied his new songs with backing tapes while playing ukulele, keyboards or acoustic guitar. As Mr Solo, he has released two albums, All Will Be Revealed (2006) and Wonders Never Cease (2009). Mr Solo often performs at live art events, as a member of The School of English Dada and Daniel Lehan's This Happy Band, a group of roving musicians, inspired by medieval troubadours. As part of Margate's 'Dead Season Live Art' festival of 2010, This Happy Band paraded 'around the seaside town, commemorating its past, and the themes of Winter Dormancy, and Glorious Resurrection'.^[8] In 2011, in honour of the Royal wedding, he performed with the English School of Dada, at Cabaret Voltaire, the home of Dada, in Zurich. In London, he has appeared at three other live art events: 'Mr Solo' Whitechapel Gallery (2009), 'Return of the Repressed' Portman Gallery (2009) and 'Artist As Scapegoat' Norn Projects (2010).

Glam Chops

In 2008, Georgeson collaborated with Eddie Argos to create Glam Chops, inspired by the stomping rhythms of the The Glitter Band and the image of Sweet. The critic Simon Price described the new band: 'Think Evel Knievel jumpsuits, Red Indian head-dresses and star-shaped warpaint, think lyrics about Bowie vs. Gary rivalry, think parping saxes and stomping stack-heeled beats.' ^[9] The band released a Glam cover of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA, with a video showing Georgeson and Argos singing the song while driving down the M4. The version was a showcase for their different singing styles, with Argos speak-singing the verses, and Georgeson providing a soaring operatic refrain. There was also a Christmas single, Countdown to Christmas, released as a free download.

Paintings

Georgeson lectures in art at the University of East London,^[10] and is a practising painter. He has exhibited his work in the following group exhibitions: 'Wapobaloobop', Transition Gallery London 2008, 'Legends of Circumstance' Whitecross Gallery London 2009, Bargate Gallery Southampton 2010 and the Liverpool Biennial 2010. In London, he has had three solo shows: 'My Magic Life' Sartorial Art 2008, 'Father, Son & Holy Smoke', Bear Gallery 2009, and 'Tragicosmic' at Sartorial Art in 2010^[1][11]

Georgeson describes his paintings, which use thickly applied bright oil colours, as 'a distillation of a desire to capture what I consider to be episodic globules in the glistening, sticky fluid called paint.' ^[1] With My Magic Life, his 2008 exhibition inspired by magic and David Devant, he brought the different strands of his work together. Georgeson explained in the exhibition catalogue:

I believe in magic and the power of following passions to lead to instances of backwards causality. In his autobiography there is an illustration of Devant making a ghost disappear 'in front of a critical audience' which, as a title alone, has parallels to painting pictures if you ask me....About the time Harry Pye first suggested time was right for a Devant themed show, I was sorting through some books I hadn't touched since they had come into my possession via my polymath cousin, Ricky Rhubarb. The first chapter of the first book was a sketch of Augustus John basically saying he was a bit hit or miss but when his work clicked 'one stares at it with amazement as if this were a Maskelyne and Devant trick and one saw a box floating in mid air'. My jaw slackened and I read on to discover the next chapter was a poetical tip toe through the dichotomy of magic and science. Reaching for my lighter I found it gone. Coincidence? No I don't smoke any more.^[12]

Publications

• Georgeson, Mikey (1991). A List of Lives. M Press. ISBN 0951803700. 
• Georgeson, Mikey (1993). A Shady Tale. M Press. ISBN 0716377245. 
• Georgeson, Mikey (1993). From the Heart. M Press. ISBN 0716377245. 
• Georgeson, Mikey (1993). The Hat He Mistook for His Wife. M Press. ISBN 0716377245. 
• Georgeson, Mikey (1994). David Devant and His Spirit Wife. A Magic Egg Comic. 

Discography

Albums

As David Devant

• Don Spirit Specs Now! (1993) [Cassette Only]
• Work, Lovelife, Miscellaneous (1997)
• Shiney On The Inside (1998)
• Power Words For Better Living (2004)
• The Lost World Of David Devant (2006)

As Carfax

• Momento from a Digital Age
• Minky Pauve Corporate Records

As Mr Solo

• All Will Be Revealed Outstanding Records 18 September 2006
• Wonders Never Cease Outstanding Records 7 April 2009

Singles

As David Devant

• "Pimlico" Humbug Records HUM4 1995
• "Cookie"
• "Ginger"
• "This Is For Real"
• "Lie Detector"
• "Radar"
• "Space Daddy"
• "Contact" Outstanding Records OSTRS002 10 May 2004
• "About It" Outstanding Records OSTRS003 8 November 2004

As Mr Solo

• "Number One" * Outstanding Records18 September 2006

Glam Chops

• "Countdown to Christmas/Baby Jesus was the First Glam Rocker" 2008
• "Born in the USA" Where It's At Is Where You Are 10 August 2009

External links

• Mr Solo
• Recent paintings from Sartorial Art
• My Magic Life exhibition, at Sartorial Art
• Georgeson's entry in the John Moore exhibition, at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
• David Devant and his Spirit Wife
• This Happy Band
• Glam Chops
• Carfax's MInky Pauve
• The School of English Dada

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} [1], Artist's biography from the website of the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
2. ^ ^{a b} Robin Eggar, ‘Could it be Magic?’ The Sunday Times, 20 April 1997.
3. ^ AS, ‘Ectoplasmic Fantastic’ The Punter, October 1995.
4. ^ Souvenir Programme of David Devant concert at the Richmond, Brighton, 20 February 1993.
5. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnUXgOVlxBk&feature=related, David Devant and His Spirit Wife (in The Other Side series), Channel 4, 1999.
6. ^ http://the-eddie-argos-resource.blogspot.com/2010/01/david-devant-and-his-spirit-wife.html, The Eddie Argos Resource Page.
7. ^ http://wondersnevercease.webs.com/apps/blog/show/2467762-momento-por-favor/l, Mikey Georgeson blog.
8. ^ [2], Event Info for This Happy Band's performance in Margate, from the ArtRabbit website.
9. ^ [3], Simon Price, Stay Beautiful, quoted on bristolbands.com.
10. ^ http://www.uel.ac.uk/adi/staff/mikeygeorgeson/
11. ^ [4], Dave Evans MA RCA, Review of Tragicosmic, ArtRabbit.
12. ^ Exhibition Catalogue of My Magic Life, 2008.