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Artist
Kate Garner
12+ albums
quirky
about
In late 1981 Kate Garner and her musician boyfriend Paul Caplin (an alumnus of EMI act Animal Magnet) teamed up with 19 year old Jeremy Healy to create a fashion/dance sensation called Haysi Fantayzee. Kate and Jeremy were the focal points, dressed in His and Hers matching Hillbilly/white Rasta/circus ringmaster fashions (complete with waist-length dreadlocks) and singing along to bouncy tunes and slinky rhythmns. When they were ready to do the record company circuit, they did it with their trademark innovative thinking: instead of mass-mailing demo tapes, they cashed in on their visual impact and sent out copies of a low budget video ("Shiny Shiny") and a huge stack of publicity photos. The ruse worked, making them one of the first artists to get a record deal largely on the strength of their image. Two songs- 'Shiny Shiny' and 'John Wayne is Big Leggy' became hits. Recalling the group's formation and its halcyon days, Garner recalled, "Our first record went top 10 in England and Europe and we became very famous, very quickly. After performing for about two years, we were really not enjoying being in the public eye. We disbanded and gradually I began to take pictures professionally." Kate launched a successful photographic career. She photographed many celebrities: Dr Dre, Leigh Bowery, JT Leroy, Angelina Jolie, David Bowie, Cameron Diaz, PJ Harvey, John Galliano, Björk, and Kate Moss. Her work appeared in the American and British versions of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.
