Marilyn (singer)
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Peter Robinson (born November 3, 1962), better known as Marilyn, is a cross-dressing pop singer who reached fame with his song "Calling Your Name" in the 1980s.
Marilyn was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He grew up in Hertfordshire, England as part of a musical family and was influenced by the songs of Barbra Streisand, Motown and gospel. During his teenage years he began experimenting with his sexuality and image, adopting the blonde hair, makeup and movements of his idol Marilyn Monroe, hence his stage name Marilyn. Coincidentally, Monroe died the same year Robinson was born.
Marilyn was a part of the British New Romantic movement which emerged in the late 1970s and was popularised in the early 1980s. Boy George and Marilyn were regulars at 'The Blitz' (regulars being labelled as Blitz Kids), a highly stylised nightclub in London run by Steve Strange of the musical group Visage, and a place which spawned many early 1980s pop stars such as Spandau Ballet. Essentially, the New Romantics based their image on the avant-garde imagery and music of David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Marc Bolan and post punk New Wave. Marilyn befriended Boy George through mutual friend and former Blitz Kid Philip Sallon. Boy George and Marilyn moved into a squat in Kentish Town a suburb of London. Boy George claims they were later chased out by a neighbour who tried to break down the front door with an axe because the neighbour was attracted to Marilyn, whom he assumed was a woman and later found out he was a man [1]. Also according to George, Marilyn once attempted to seduce David Bowie at a nightclub venue called "Legends", but was rebuffed [2].
While Boy George went on to form Culture Club in 1981 and secure a recording deal with Virgin Records, Marilyn was still scouting for a recording contract and had relocated to Los Angeles for some time with his then partner. He teamed up with songwriter and pop entrepreneur Paul Caplin, with whom he co-wrote "Calling Your Name", "Cry and Be Free", "You Don't Love Me" and several other songs. By this point Culture Club had made a commercial impact with their debut album, and record companies were seriously looking for artists with a similar cross-dressing image.
Following an appearance in the video for Eurythmics hit single, "Who's That Girl?" which garnered him considerable press attention, Marilyn was signed to Phonogram Records and released "Calling Your Name" in November 1983. The song reached #4 on the UK Singles Chart, #12 in the United States, #3 in Australia, and #1 in Japan. The lyrics to the song were reportedly aimed at Boy George, with whom Marilyn was by now having a stormy off-and-on friendship with. He also released "Cry and Be Free" and "You Don't Love Me" in 1984, with varying success. In November 1984, he took part in the Band Aid charity record project "Do They Know It's Christmas?" with various other musicians of the era.
Marilyn's début album Despite Straight Lines was released in June 1985, featuring his three previous hits and a new single, "Baby U Left Me (In The Cold)". The new single and the album were commercial failures in the UK, though found a modest audience in other parts of the world.
Despite the initial collaborations between Boy George and Marilyn, their on-and-off friendship became increasingly strained due to fame and drug-related problems. On 9 July 1986, Marilyn along with Boy George's brother Kevin O'Dowd were sentenced at Marylebone Magistrates Court on a charge of possessing heroin. The resultant media fallout of Marilyn's drug addiction and his publicised disputes with Boy George damaged his public image, and coupled with the changing tastes of the public who had begun to eschew the New Romantic artists as an early 80s fad, Marilyn's music career never recovered. While attempting to record a follow-up album to Despite Straight Lines with the record producer Don Was in Detroit, Michigan, with little record company support, Marilyn's finances were drained to the point of having to work regular jobs outside of music. He then retired from the industry until 2001, when he made a series of club appearances.
The 2002, the stage musical Taboo debuted which was based on the New Romantic movement and featured actors playing Marilyn, Boy George, Steve Strange and various other stars of the early 1980s. The musical, which was written by Mark Davies with music composed partly by Boy George, was a West End smash. American media star Rosie O'Donnell financed a version for Broadway, but this was not as successful.
In 2003, Marilyn appeared (as himself) on the Channel 4 television show The Salon, which was a reality show based at a hairdressing salon where members of the public and several celebrities went for haircuts and beauty treatments.
In October 2005, Marilyn appeared on the Channel 4 documentary Whatever Happened to the Gender Benders?, in which he discussed his current mental health, his struggle with agoraphobia, and his fight against drug abuse. Ravaged by his addiction and looking extremely unwell due to a cancer scare, Marilyn struggled to be coherent in the il-advised interview. In stark contrast to the absolute glamour of the New Romantic era, the documentary highlighted the devastating effect that fame, fortune, excess and illness had taken on him.
Marilyn is recovering well from aforementioned health issues.
[edit] References
- Boy George with Spencer Bright, Take It Like A Man (1995) ISBN 0 330 32362 8
[edit] Discography
- Despite Straight Lines (1985)
