Ahead of her much-anticipated run of biographical shows at The Glory, the legendary Jonny Woo tells us how he met the queen of London counterculture.
First met Princess Julia at a shoot for a friend’s pop video, Crazy Girl, at The George and Dragon. ‘Are you Satanica Pandemonia?’ she asked.
It was my drag name at the time, ‘I’ve heard about you’. I was on the Princess Julia radar! I was dressed in a red short playsuit, riding hat and bandaged face. My club wear. I don’t remember what she was wearing.
But it could have been day wear or evening wear, because Princess Julia always dresses up. Mine was a costume. For the show. I used to call it fancy dress to the taxi drivers. Julia on the other hand always dressed fancy.
It’s her own sartorial manifesto of sorts. I knew then I was linking in to the mythical lineage of London’s club land and ‘counterculture’.
From her early foray onto the punk scene in the mid 70’s through to the central role on the ‘New Romantic’ scene and the onset of rave culture, Julia hasn’t so much drifted from one scene to the next as to have actively participated in each one and re-invented her-self with the passing of each trend, style or movement.
But as I have learned, always immaculately turned out with her own unique spin on the style of the day. But that’s only half the story and perhaps why I am the one helping her stage her own ‘Audience with…’ at The Glory.
We are both really passionate about the role of pubs and clubs as the hotbed for the creative cultural underground. Places where like-minded young rebels experiment with dress, music and attitudes. Julia found herself on the early punk scene of the 70’s, which was confrontational, stylish, queer and self-mocking.
She blossomed as a New Romantic, itself a media tag line for the press to describe what the man on the street in 1979 probably saw as beyond words. I’ve learned that Julia is like a moth to a flame when it comes to nightlife. But the rebellious, makeshift, messy kind.
She’s lived through the branding explosion of the 90’s and embraced social media. She’s seen friends become global stars and she’s lost a few along the way. But Julia remains inquisitive and excited about the bright young things of the day creating their own culture on a shoestring.
Unencumbered by the weight of political correctness hers was a multi-cultural, poly-sexual generation who came at each other with brash, obnoxiously glorious ideas. The dance floors were explosively creative.; the apex being the arrival of Leigh Bowery and the club Taboo. Julia is still on the watch for the young renegade who speaks out of turn and gets it wrong. The new queer punk who dresses that bit differently.
Julia knows her music, she knows her fashions, she namedrops people you wish you had the faintest clue about. Julia’s just letting you into her world. If you play your cards right she’ll namedrop you in years to come. Catch her round ours, The Glory, or The George and Dragon perhaps. Buy her a drink. If you are lucky enough you may get your own private Audience with Princess Julia.
• An Audience with Princess Julia is at The Glory (281 Kingsland road E2 8AS) on Monday 16th & 23rd November, 8pm. Tickets £15
