Alannah Currie

Alannah Currie
Alannah Currie, Bristol, February 1984
Background information
Birth name	Alannah Joy Currie
Born	(1957-09-20) 20 September 1957
Origin	Auckland, New Zealand
Genres	Pop, rock, dance, new wave, synthpop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Marimba Percussion Vocals
Years active	1979–1997
Labels	Arista Records, Warner Bros. Records
Associated acts	Thompson Twins

Alannah Joy Currie (born 20 September 1957, in Auckland, New Zealand^[1]) is a musician and artist, best known as a former member of the UK pop group Thompson Twins.

Career

Born in New Zealand and trained as a journalist, Currie emigrated to the UK in 1977. Currie squatted in various places in South West London, ending up in Lillieshall Road, Clapham Old Town. In 1979, with her across-the-road neighbour, Trace Newton-Ingham (Traci Newton), she co-founded the dread-punk-improvising group, The Unfuckables. The Unfuckables performed one "gig" at an Anti-Psychiatry Conference in early 1980, held in the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London. For this particular gig the group comprised the two co-founders, plus an array of musicians from London's "underground" music scene — Viv Albertine (The Slits), Gareth Sager (The Pop Group), Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward (This Heat), Tom Bailey (of Thompson Twins, whom she would later marry), Jimmy Cauty (later of The KLF, and her current husband) and improviser Steve Beresford, amongst others.

In 1981 Currie joined Tom Bailey and Joe Leeway and formed the three piece pop synth band the Thompson Twins and had two major record contracts with Arista Records, then later Warner Bros. Records. Currie was the lyricist, percussionist, visual stylist and singer in the band and wrote and recorded 6 albums which included gold and platinum records and the hits Doctor! Doctor!, Hold Me Now, and You Take Me Up.^[2] The band performed at the JFK Stadium, Philadelphia for the 1985 Live Aid concert and worked with artists including Nile Rodgers, Madonna, Grace Jones, Alex Sadkin and Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads amongst others.

In 1984 the band participated in the "first international satellite installation" by Nam June Paik, Good Morning, Mr. Orwell.^[3]

Her songwriting credits also include "I Want That Man", an international hit for Deborah Harry in 1989.

By 1992, Currie and her husband, fellow Thompson Twins band member Tom Bailey, had grown tired of being expected to chase chart success with new Thompson Twins material. After touring India collecting inspiration and audio samples, they elected to form Babble, featuring Currie as lyricist, percussionist and visual artist, as a means of creating music without the commercial expectations that were placed on the Thompson Twins. By 1994 Babble had released their first album. Currie later returned to New Zealand working primarily as a glass artist and environmental activist. She was founder of the women's anti-genetic engineering movement Mothers Against Genetic Engineering in Food and the Environment (MAdGE).^[4] In 2004 she designed a series of protest billboards that caused controversy in New Zealand but won several international art / science awards.^[5]

In 2004 she returned to London where she now works under the name Miss Pokeno and continues to make protest art and build chairs that "tell dark tales".^[6] She is also a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Resistance, who make "militant feminist art", and the Armchair Destructivists.^[7]

See also

• Thompson Twins

References

External links

• The Guardian interview (April 2008)
• Investigate.com
• Songwriting credits @ Allmusic.com
• Miss Pokeno