Minty

Minty was formed in 1993 by Leigh Bowery and Richard Torry. In the early 1990s Bowery had been involved in two musical outfits, The Quality Street Wrappers and Raw Sewage (both essentially the same band), but Minty was a much more serious attempt to be taken seriously. Soon the duo had become a group, including amongst others Matthew Glamorre and Nicola Bowery. Minty quickly gained notoriety for their abrasive theatrical performances, the highlight of which was Leigh "giving birth" to Nicola on stage - she would be concealed upside-down underneath his costume and would emerge when Leigh went "into labour". Such was their notoriety a Minty club residency in Soho was deemed indecent by Westminster Council and shut down. In this initial incarnation, Minty recorded one single, Useless Man (a chart hit in the Netherlands), before Leigh's death on 31 December 1994. Minty formed a collective in tribute to Leigh Bowery, known as The Offset. Members included Kinky Roland, Aiden Shaw (pornographic film star), Donald Urquart (poet), Sexton Ming (transvestite recording artist) and Add N To X. The remaining members of Minty chose to continue the group following Leigh's death and released three further singles (Plastic Bag, That's Nice, Nothing) and an album (Open Wide), the album containing material recorded with Leigh. Matthew Glamorre and Richard Torry still collaborate on a number of music and club projects in London, including The Soundstorm, Siren Suite and Kash Point.