jimmy & the boys

When I was about fourteen I went through a stage where I was checking out pretty much any punk band whose cassettes I could get my hands on. Enter my brief dalliance with a shock pop punk band called Jimmy and the Boys. Singer Ignatius Jones went on to various musical theatre projects and even planned the opening ceremony for the Sydney Olympics, but for a few dark years he and keyboard-playing trannie Joylene Hairmouth (Billy O'Riordan) scared the crap out of the Australian public. I really only knew their music and had little idea of the stuff they got up to at live shows, but for about three months I was a devoted fan. Hey, you can only go so long on two albums, all right?

The thing is, in later years I have asked at least twenty people if they remember a punk pop band from the late 70s/early 80s called Jimmy and the Boys that had one member who was a transvestite with long red hair (often in a very tall beehive). And no-one ever did. I started to think that I must have dreamed it until one night I saw an interview with Jones, who I think was wishing it was all a dream when the interviewer brought up the subject of the band. Still, I had no tapes or even pictures from back then to show anyone who I was talking about.

Well, last night's trawling on Youtube has borne fruit. Here, NOT in all their glory thank goodness (because you couldn't show things like that on TV in the 80s) are Jimmy and the Boys with their biggest hit, 'They Won't Let My Girlfriend Talk to Me'. And if that doesn't scare you off, here are another two songs, 'Products of Your Mind' and 'I'm Not Like Everybody Else'. No kidding you aren't.

It's amazing what turns up on Youtube. I'm beginning to realise that the fact that I hadn't been to church (I went back at 14) since I was a little kid really shows up in my musical tastes around that time. Anyone else remember this band's other song? Me, too. Every word, scarily. =)