Results: Weird Music Wednesday: Haysi Fantayzee-1980's U.K. New Pop Gone Weird?

Haysi Fantayzee were a British pop act comprised of vocailsts Jeremy (also known as Jeremiah) Healy and Kate Garner and litlte-seen musical director/then-boyfriend to-Garner Paul Caplin. Though the group lasted long enough to record only one album, from which came two U.K. top 20 pop singles in 1982-83, their memory persists in an an arguably inordinate amount of material about them online. My first exposuire to them came via seeing parts of a couple of their music videos on MTV (once each) and later reading about them in the British music press. Before reading this question, were you familiar with Haysi Fantayzee?

Haysi Fantayzee arrived toward the end of the movement now known--though not quite so much at its time?-as new pop. As championed and promulgaetd by some writers in the Britsh music press, new pop was a loosely aligned aggregation of bands, etc. who drew upon late 1970's punk rock's do-it-yourself imperative, lagely scuttling rock music as such and incorportating instead disco, soul, hip-hop, reggae ska, synth pop, orchestral sounds , and other, sometimes experimental, elements in the unashamed pursuit of pop appeal and, ideally, stardom. That pusuit of fame, however, didn't preclude new poppers from articulating certain concerns. I've read that Haysi Fantazee's first and biggest U.K. hit (included with the previous question), "John Wayne Is Big Leggy," can be interpreted as a satire of what some Britons perceive as U.S. jingoism, especially that of the song's titular actor. Their second-biggest hit, "Shiny Shiny" is supposed to be a critique of nuclear arms. But Healy's yelpingly rapped delivery of lyrics largely, to my reckonning, consisting of jibberish, negates the impact of whatever sentiments of alleged consequence he and Garner wanted to convey, however tongue-in-cheek. However well or poorly executed, do you appreciate pop muscicians broaching socio-political topics in their work?

There are elements I appreciate, even enjoy, in HF's (the more I type their full name, the sillier it seems to me) artistry. But , per the poll series in which I'm asking about them, their weirdness lies in the wrong or off way they applied new pop aesthetics. I've already remarked on Healy's vocalizing and the band's ridicuous name. The title of their lone album, Battle Hymns For Children Singing, is pretensious, awkward in its grammar, and possibly blasphemous in its presumption. Then there's their warbrobe. Whoever thought Healy's and Garner's semi-Dickensian, post-apocalytric guttersnipe getup was a worthwhile choice could justifiably have been arraigned for fashion crimes (relatedly, was Garner attempting to grow dreadlocks, wearing extensions, or what?!; she's too pretty--to me, anyway-- to have suffered such a hair situation). Of what you may have already known about Haysi Fantayzee or leanred from my observations and the music videos presented here, what's weird to you about them?

The HF song accompanying the previous question, "Holy Joe, " seems to be directed at preachers of dubious moral character, and its kind of Nigerian Afropop apoproach makes it at least as tuneful as their actual U.K. hits. "Sister Friction," their final single, is the kind of number I coud imagine having heard on my favorite AM soul radio station in the 1982-84 era when paler-skinned acts including Tom Tom Club, Thomas Dolby, David Bowie, Yaz(oo), The Human League, Malcolm McLaren, After The Fire, Cyndi Lauper, Van Halen ("Jump," really!), Kraftwerk, Laid Back, and Cuture Club (m o s t l y rather pale, they) were releasing music enjoyed by many African-American listeners. Do I know what this song is about? No clue!; but HF's use of hip-hop rhythmic sensibilities gets me reminiscing about the adventurous sense of possibilty in how soul and pop were in conversation at that time. Have you similar musical memories from the same period?

The screenshot and song title the video for another, non-singled track from Haysi Fantayzee's only long-player, "More Money," kind of encapsulates one of the prime drivers of Great Britain's 1980's new pop movement. I don't think anyone reading this would begrudge a muscican for wanting to make a living by his/her music, but do you find it weird, as I may, that punk would provide the impetus for such a craven, if truly inventive at its best, musical movement?