>From Simon Hunt:
Dear friends -
Just to let you know: Little Johnny releases his new single "I'm Sorry"
tomorrow (Monday). I'm on the Channel 9 "Today" show at 7:50am; Radio
National around 8:15am; and 2DAY FM at 8:15pm. There should be a story in
the Sydney Morning Herald today. I'm filming lots of other interviews that
should pop up over the next week or so, and we should be on Rage on Friday.
The website goes up around 10am or so at http://www.littlejohnny.org
I've attached a story that went out on the AAP wire service last night, so
the other Little Johnny will get to read it by morning. I'll see you all in
hell!
love
SIMON
SYDNEY, Aug 5 AAP - The artist-formerly-known-as Pauline Pantsdown has
returned to centre stage as Little Johnny - the latest in Australian
political satire, complete with comb-over hairstyle.
Pantsdown sent up controversial One Nation leader Pauline Hanson by joining
various recordings of her voice in the top-ten single, I Don't Like It,
which sold 30,000 copies and managed two nominations at last year's ARIA
Awards.
Now Simon Hunt, who digitally invented the Little Johnny (LJ) character has
no less than Prime Minister John Howard in his sights with the debut song,
I'm Sorry.
The song has been digitally compiled by Mr Hunt, using fragments of Mr
Howard's voice, in an effort to find "the apology within".
Mr Hunt, who lectures on sound at the New South Wales College of Fine Arts
and has a background in theatre and film, collected 65 minutes of
"Howard-speak" from television and radio interviews.
He said after about 450 hours manipulating the sound using computer
software, he was left with 7,500 words, parts of words and phrases. "Even
then, I still couldn't get the little guy to say his 'r's properly," Mr Hunt
explains. "It's no wonder he's so unwilling to say the word 'sorry'."
He said he had turned his attention to the Prime Minister because he was
beginning to take on all of Mrs Hanson's ideas.
"He's become her and she's become him," he said.
"I have never seen them in the same room at the same time - so they must be
the same person."
Mr Hunt said it was too early to predict how Mr Howard would react to his
newly created alter-ego.
"I'd expect him to take it on the chin," he said. "But he doesn't have much
of one."
But if the Hanson experience is anything to go by, Mr Howard may now have
every reason to fear for his electoral fortunes.
Pantsdown ran as New South Wales Senate candidate in the 1998 federal
election, confronting Mrs Hanson and her adviser David Oldfield at every
turn, with the brightly-dressed drag character's campaign featured in
domestic and international media coverage.
Liberal MP Cameron Thompson, who successfully defeated Mrs Hanson for the
Queensland federal seat of Blair attributed his success to his focus "on
doing something for the local people, while she (Mrs Hanson) was doing
battle with Pauline Pantsdown."
But Mr Hunt says LJ does not have much work to do to bring about Mr Howard's
political downfall.
"I think he's on the way down anyway," he said. "I'm going to get a
reputation for kicking people while they're down. It's good to hurry things
along anyway."
He thought long and hard about the prospect of introducing the LJ character
after realising he would have to endure hundreds of hours of Mr Howard's
voice in the studio. "I didn't think there was a song in him because he
speaks in such a monotone," Mr Hunt said. "For all her drastic faults,
Pauline had melody."
Mr Hunt says there's even something in the character for the followers of
the latest fashion trends and in particular, hairstyles. "The mullet is
dead, the comb-over is back," he said.
LJ and his debut single will be officially unveiled to the public in Sydney
tomorrow but the character had a successful first trial run on the weekend
at the Newtown Theatre during the inaugural Miss Reconciliation Quest, an
Aboriginal drag contest.
AAP as
Garry C
Black+White+Pink
http://bwp.org.au/
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