Billy Childish (born Steven John Hamper; 1 December 1959) is an English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. Since the late 1970s, Childish has been prolific in creating music, writing and visual art. He has led and played in bands including the Thee Milkshakes, Thee Headcoats, and the Musicians of the British Empire, primarily working in the genres of garage rock, punk and surf and releasing more than 100 albums.
He is a consistent advocate for amateurism and free emotional expression. Childish co-founded the Stuckismart movement with Charles Thomson in 1999, which he left in 2001. Since then a new evaluation of Childish's standing in the art world has been under way, culminating with the publication of a critical study of Childish's working practice by the artist and writer Neal Brown, with an introduction by Peter Doig, which describes Childish as "one of the most outstanding, and often misunderstood, figures on the British art scene".[1] He is a visiting lecturer at Rochester Independent College.[2] In July 2014 Childish was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts Degree from the University of Kent.[3]
He is known for his explicit and prolific work – he has detailed his love life and childhood sexual abuse, notably in his early poetry and the novels My Fault (1996), Notebooks of a Naked Youth (1997), Sex Crimes of the Futcher (2004) – The Idiocy of Idears (2007), and in several of his songs, notably in the instrumental "Paedophile" (1992) (featuring a photograph of the man who sexually abused him on the front cover) and "Every Bit of Me" (1993). From 1981 until 1987 Childish had a relationship with artist Tracey Emin.[4]
Thirty years after Childish's first musical releases with Thee Milkshakes and Thee Mighty Caesars, a crop of lo-fi, surf rock and punk groups with psychedelic subtexts has surfaced referencing the aesthetic established by Childish in both their band names and in various aspects of their sonic aesthetic:[5]Thee Oh Sees, Thee Open Sex,[6] Thee Tsunamis,[7] Thee Dang Dangs, and many others.
Background
Billy Childish. The Drinker, oil painting, 1996.
Billy Childish was born, lives and works in Chatham, Kent. He has described his father, John Hamper, as a "complex, sociopathic narcissist": Hamper was jailed during Childish's teenage years for drug smuggling.[8] Although he had an early and close association with many of the artists who became known as "YBA" artists he has resolutely asserted his independent status. He was sexually abused when he was aged nine by a male family friend: "We were on holiday. I had to share a bed with him. It happened for several nights, then I refused to go near him. I didn't tell anyone".[9]
He left secondary school at 16, an undiagnosed dyslexic. Refused an interview at the local art college, he entered Chatham Dockyard, Kent, as an apprentice stonemason. During the next six months (the artist’s only prolonged period of conventional employment), he produced some 600 drawings in "the tea huts of hell". On the basis of this work he was accepted into Saint Martin's School of Art, where he was friends with the artist Peter Doig, to study painting. However, his acceptance was short-lived and he was expelled in 1982 before completing the course. He then lived on the dole for 15 years. In 2006 Childish turned down the offer to appear on Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother. Childish has practised yoga and meditation since the early 1990s.[10]
Painting
As a prospective student lacking the necessary entry qualifications, Childish was accepted into art school four times on the strength of his paintings and drawings. He did a foundation year at Medway College of Design (now the University for the Creative Arts) in 1977–78, and was then accepted onto the painting department of Saint Martin's School of Art in 1978, before quitting a month later. He was re-accepted at St Martin's in 1980, but was expelled in 1982 for refusing to paint in the art school and other unruly behaviour. At Saint Martin's, Childish became friends with Peter Doig with whom he shared an appreciation of Munch, Van Gogh and blues music. Doig later co-curated Childish's first London show at the Cubit Street Gallery. In the early/mid 1980s Childish was a "major influence" on the artist Tracey Emin,[11] whom he met after his expulsion from Saint Martin's when she was a fashion student at Medway College of Design. Childish has been cited as the influence for Emin's later confessional art. Childish has exhibited extensively since the 1980s, and was featured in the British Art Show in 2000. In 2010, a major exhibition of Childish's paintings, writing and music was held at The ICA London, with a concurrent painting show running at White Columns Gallery in New York. In October 2012, alongside Art Below, Childish presented his work at the exhibition 'Art Below Regents Park' in Regent's Park Tube station to coincide with Frieze Art Fair, one of the most important international contemporary art fairs that takes place each October in London.[citation needed]
In 2013, Childish began a painting collaboration with Edgeworth Johnstone[12], later titled Heckel's Horse.[13][14] Since 2013, after Charles Thomson (who co-founded Stuckism with Childish in 1999) introduced Childish to Johnstone's work, Heckel's Horse have made over 150 oil paintings, mostly on six foot Belgian linen canvases in Childish's studio at Chatham Dockyard in Kent.[15][16] In 2024, Childish referred to Heckel's Horse as his "favourite work".[17]
walking in gods buti, Oil and charcoal on linen (274.5 x 183cm), 2013
clamming on maud, Oil and charcoal on linen (183 x 305cm), 2013
In 5 Minits You'll Know Me (sic), oil on canvas, 1997
Thumbprint, oil on canvas, 1997
Man Walking in Snow, oil on canvas, 1999
Hand on Face, oil on canvas, 2000
North Beach, San Francisco, oil on canvas, 2000
St. John's Church, Chatham, oil on canvas, 2000
Tea Drinker, High Atlas, oil on canvas, 2007
John H Amos 2, oil on canvas, 2008
The British Art Resistance
In 2008, Childish formed the "non organisation" The British Art Resistance, and held an exhibition under the title Hero of The British Art Resistance at The Aquarium L-13 gallery in London: A collection of paintings, books, records, pamphlets, poems, prints, letters, film, photographs made in 2008.[18]
Music
Childish made records of punk, garage, rock and roll, blues, folk, classical/experimental, spoken word and nursery rhymes. In a letter to Childish, the musician Ivor Cutler said of Childish: "You are perhaps too subtle and sophisticated for the mass market."[citation needed] Childish's groups include TV21, later known as the Pop Rivets (1977–1980), sometimes spelled the Pop Rivits, with Bruce Brand, Romas Foord (replaced by Russell 'Big Russ' Wilkins) and Russell 'Little Russ' Lax.
Childish at the Shinjuku loft, Japan (early 1990s)
He later formed a garage rock inspired band called Thee Milkshakes (1980–1984) with Mickey Hampshire, Thee Mighty Caesars (1985–1989), The Delmonas then Thee Headcoats (1989–1999). In 2000 he formed Wild Billy Childish & The Friends of the Buff Medways Fanciers Association (2000–2006), named after a type of poultry bred in his home town. The Buff Medways, or The Buffs, as they were sometimes affectionately known, split in 2006, and Wild Billy Childish & the Musicians of the British Empire were born, recording a song about one of Childish's heroes George Mallory titled "Bottomless Pit." In early 2007, Childish formed The Vermin Poets with former Fire Dept singer and guitarist Neil Palmer and A-Lines guitarist and singer Julie Hamper, his wife. Thee Headcoats began their monthly residency at the Wild Western Room in the St John's Tavern, north London, in the early 1990s, and continued after moving to the Dirty Water Club in 1996. The Musicians of the British Empire (MBEs) played at the venue more or less once a month until February 2011.
On 11 September 2009, Damaged Goods Records – Childish's current label – issued a message to subscribers stating that Childish's wife Julie (aka Nurse Julie, bassist in the MBEs) was pregnant. Childish has since been recording as bass player with The Spartan Dreggs, with Neil Palmer on vocals and guitar and Wolf Howard on drums. From 2013 the MBEs reunited under the name Wild Billy Childish [or 'Chyldish'] and CTMF and as of the end of 2014 have released three albums.[19]
In 2014, Childish produced, played on and co-wrote (with Dave Tattersall) most of the songs on The Wave Pictures' album Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon.[20]
Childish is a confessional poet and has published over 40 collections of his work. In 1979, Childish was a founder member of The Medway Poets, a poetry performance group, who read at the Kent Literature Festival and the 1981 international Cambridge Poetry Festival. There were, however, personality clashes in the group, particularly between Childish and Charles Thomson, who said: "There was friction between us, especially when he started heckling my poetry reading and I threatened to ban him from a forthcoming TV documentary."[22]
However, a Television South documentary on the group in 1982 brought them to a wider regional audience, though Childish's poetry was "deemed unbroadcastable". According to Childish: "Me & Charles were at war from 1979 until 1999. He even threatened having bouncers on the doors of Medway Poets' readings to keep me out". Childish has twice won commendations in the National Poetry Prize.[citation needed]
During the 1980s, Childish was an influence on the artist Tracey Emin, whom he met in 1982, after his expulsion from the painting department at Saint Martin's School of Art. Emin was a fashion student at Medway College of Design. Emin and Childish were a couple until 1987,[23] Emin selling his poetry books for his small press Hangman Books. In 1995 she was interviewed in the Minky Manky show catalogue by Carl Freedman, who asked her, "Which person do you think has had the greatest influence on your life?" She replied:
Uhmm... It's not a person really. It was more a time, going to Maidstone College of Art, hanging around with Billy Childish, living by the River Medway.[24]
In 1999 Childish and Thomson co-founded the Stuckistart movement. Thomson coined the group name from Childish's "Poem for a Pissed Off Wife" (Big Hart and Balls 1994), where he had recorded Emin's remark to him:
"Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck! – Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!"
Billy Childish (far right) with the first Stuckists group at the Real Turner Prize Show, Pure Gallery, Shoreditch, London, in October 2000
The group was strongly pro-figurative painting and anti-conceptual art. Childish wrote a number of manifestos with Thomson, the first of which contained the statement:
"Artists who don't paint aren't artists."
The Stuckists soon achieved considerable press coverage, fuelled by Emin's nomination for the Turner Prize. They then announced the inauguration of a cultural period of Remodernism to bring back spiritual values into art, culture and society. The formation of The Stuckists directly led to Emin severing her 14-year friendship with Childish in 1999. Childish has said: "The Stuckist art group was formed in 1999 at the instigation of Charles Thomson, the title of the group being taken from a poem of mine written and published in 1994. I disagreed with the way Charles presented the group, particularly in the media. For these reasons I left the Stuckists in 2001. I never attended any Stuckist demonstrations and my work was not shown in the large Stuckist exhibition held in the Walker Art Gallery in 2004."[23][dead link]
British artist Stella Vine, who was a member of the Stuckists for a short time in 2001, first joined the group having developed a "crush" on Childish while attending his music events.[25] In June 2000, Vine went to a talk given by Childish and fellow Stuckist co-founder Charles Thomson on Stuckism and Remodernism, promoted by the Institute of Ideas at the Salon des Arts, Kensington.[26] Vine formed The Unstuckists one month after joining, and has since said she did not agree with Stuckism's principles,[27] and described them as bullies.[28]
Kurt Schwitters
As a young man, Childish was highly influenced by Dada, and the work of Kurt Schwitters in particular. Childish has a Kurt Schwitters poem tattooed on his left buttock and made a short film on Schwitters's life, titled The Man with Wheels, (1980, directed by Eugean Doyan).[1]
The Chatham Super 8 Cinema
Childish in 2004
In 2002, along with Wolf Howard, Simon Williams and Julie Hamper, Childish formed The Chatham Super 8 Cinema. The group makes super 8 films on a second-hand camera Wolf Howard bought at a local flea market. In 2004, Childish released a 30-minute documentary titled Brass Monkey, about a march undertaken in Great War uniform commemorating the 90th anniversary of the British retreat from Mons in 1914.
The Smoking Dog Presents An Evening of Medway Blues (2005) (contributes three a cappella tracks "The Bitter Cup", "Black Girl" and "Out on the Western Plains")
Children of Nuggets (2005) (two songs included by Mickey and the Milkshakes – "It's You" and "Please Don't Tell My Baby")
10 No Good Poems of Slavery, Buggery, Boredom and Disrespect (1983)
Noting Can Stop This Man (1983)
The Unknown Stuff (1983)
Poems from the Barrier Block (1984)
Tear Life to Pieces (1985)
Poems Without Rhyme, Without Reason, Without Spelling, Without Words, Without Nothing (1985)
Monks Without God (1986)
Companions in a Death Boat (1987)
To the Quick (1988)
The Girl in the Tree (1988)
Maverick Verse (1988)
Admissions to Strangers (1989)
En Carne Viva (1989) Spanish/English
Death of a Wood (1989)
The Deathly Flight of Angels (1990)
Like a God i Love all Things (1991)
The Hart Rises (1992)
Trembling of Life (1993)
Poems of Laughter and Violence -Selected Poems 1981–1986 (1993)
Hunger at the Moon (1993)
Days with a Hart Like a Dog (1994)
Poems to Break the Harts of Impossible Princesses (1994)
Big Hart and Balls (1995)
This Puerile Thing (1996)
In 5 Minits You’ll Know Me -Selected Poems 1985–1995 (1996)
A Terrible Hunger for Love (1997) Unpublished poems 1982–84
"I’d Rather You Lied" Selected Poems 1980–1998 (1999)
Chatham Town Welcomes Desperate Men (2000)
Evidence Against Myself (2003)
The Boss of All English Riters (2003)
Calling Things by Their Proper Names (2003)
Knite of the Sad Face (2004) Chap Book
The 1st Green Horse God has Ever Made (2004)
The Man with Gallows Eyes – Selected Poetry 1980–2005 (2005)
The River be My Blud: Medway Poems (1980-05)
This is My Shit and it Smells Good to Me (2008)
Old 4 Legs (2008)
Where the Tiger Prowls Stripped and Unseen (2008)
Gods Fantasic Colours (2008) – Hand stamped covers. Note: some copies appear with different titles and different author and publisher: 'Art War, Man Taken from Guts' and 'Insolunce in the Face of Art' being examples.
Unknowable but Certain (2009)
Paraffin Van (2011) (Also published under the title "I Fuckt Frida Kahlo" as a Faber and Faber lookalike.)
the sudden wren or painting lessons for poets and other mediochur cunts (2013)
In the Teeth of Deamons (2015)
1 of the rist (2016)
The Uncorrected (2018
If you fly with the crows... Selected Poetry 2015 – 2019 (2019)
Vipers Tongue Press Poetry Pamphlets (2020) – includes '100 yds of crash barrier' (Pamphlet 001), 'Cancer of the gallows' (Pamphlet 002), 'Poems nobody wants' (Pamphlet 003)
Fiction
Conversations with Dr X (1987)
Cannon-fodder, by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Trans. K. De Coninck and Billy Childish (1988)
The Silence of Words (1989)
9 Stories of the River Medway Recounted in the Language of Idiots for People of Little Discernment (2005)
Novels
My Fault (1996)
Notebooks of a Naked Youth (1997)
Sex Crimes of the Futcher (2004)
the idiocy of idears (2007)
Bombs, Buggery and Buddhism or Diaries of a Mock Human (Part one) (2010)
The Stonemason (2011)
The Ward Porter (2015)
The Student - a novella in 13 parts (2021-2022)[47]
Lyrics
Child's Death Letter (1990)
Gun in My Fathers Hand: Selected Lyrics 1977–2006 (2006)
Art
Hendrix was Not the Only Musician (1998)
Paintings of a Backwater Visionary (2005)
Thoughts of a Hangman – Woodcuts (2006)
Field Trip Kraków/Auschwitz (2008) – under Guy Hamper
Field Trip High Atlas/Marrakech (2008) – under Guy Hamper
i am their damaged megaphone (2010) – neugerriemschneider, Berlin
Field Trip Dockyard/Estuary Dreck (2010) – under Guy Hamper
Love the Art Hate (2010) – L-13 London
The soft ashes of Berlin snowing on Hans Falladas nose (2010) – neugerriemschneider, Berlin
Billy Childish (3 Volume Catalogue Set in Slipcase – details 3 exhibitions at International Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles, Lehmann Maupin, New York and neugerriemschneider, Berlin) – co-published & distributed by all 3 galleries and Koenig Books
walking in god's buti: selected paintings 2013–2014
unbegreiflich aber gewiss – Complete Catalogue of Paintings 2014–2017 (2017)
skulls wolfs nudes rope pullers and a nervous breakdown – neugerriemschneider, Berlin (2020)
Critical
Billy Childish: A Short Study; By Neal Brown (2008)
Levity and Mystery: an introduction to the films of Billy Childish by Neil Palmer in No Focus: Punk on Film (Headpress, 2006)
Photography
Photo Booth (2003)
Dark Chamber- Pinhole Photography from the IGPP – contributor- (2007)
Dark Chamber 2 – Pinhole Photography from the IGPP- contributor- (2008)
Billy Childish has been a regular contributor to Mineshaft magazine from 2003 to the present with his work appearing in issues 10, 13, 14, 18, 20 (front cover art), 28, 31, 33, 34, and 35.[50]
Related Research Articles
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art. By May 2017, the initial group of 13 British artists had expanded to 236 groups in 52 countries.
Charles Thomson is an English artist, poet and photographer. In the early 1980s he was a member of The Medway Poets. In 1999 he named and co-founded the Stuckists art movement with Billy Childish. He has curated Stuckist shows, organised demonstrations against the Turner Prize, run an art gallery, stood for parliament and reported Charles Saatchi to the OFT. He is frequently quoted in the media as an opponent of conceptual art. He was briefly married to artist Stella Vine.
The Medway Poets were founded in Medway, Kent, in 1979. They were an English punk based poetry performance group and later formed the core of the first Stuckists Art Group. The members were Miriam Carney, Billy Childish, Robert Earl, Bill Lewis, Sexton Ming, Charles Thomson and Alan Denman. Others associated with the group include Philip Absolon, Sanchia Lewis and Tracey Emin. Most members also practised other art forms including music and painting.
William Lewis is an English artist, story-teller, poet and mythographer. He was a founder-member of The Medway Poets and of the Stuckists art group.
Sexton Ming is a British artist, poet and musician who was a founding member of The Medway Poets (1979) and Stuckism art movement (1999).
Philip Absolon is a British artist and a founder member of the Stuckists art group, exhibiting in the group shows, including The Stuckists Punk Victorian at the Walker Art Gallery in 2004, and taking part in Stuckist demonstrations against the Turner Prize. He has had long-term unemployment problems, depicted in his work with imagery of skeletons; his other main subject is cats, which he studies and depicts in motion.
Joe Machine is an English artist, poet and writer. He is a founding member of the Stuckists art group.
Jesse Beau Richards is a painter, filmmaker and photographer from New Haven, Connecticut and was affiliated with the international movement Stuckism. He has been described as "one of the most provocative names in American underground culture," and "the father of remodernist cinema."
Wolf Howard is an English artist, poet and filmmaker living in Rochester, Kent and was a founder member of the Stuckists art group. He is also a drummer who has played in garage and punk bands, currently as a member of The Musicians of the British Empire (MBE's) with Billy Childish.
The Stuckists Punk Victorian was the first national gallery exhibition of Stuckist art. It was held at the Walker Art Gallery and Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool from 18 September 2004 to 20 February 2005 and was part of the 2004 Liverpool Biennial.
Thee Headcoats is a band formed in Chatham, Kent, England in 1989, that was well known for its garage rock sound, explicitly sticking to this style on almost all of their albums. The band's signature sound as well as their prolific writing has been attributed to Billy Childish's love of simple, direct recording. The band has been on multiple labels including Billy's own Hangman Records, Damaged Goods and Sub Pop.
The Medway scene consists of the bands and related cultural activities of the Medway Towns, north Kent, England. Main towns involved are Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, and Rainham. The Medway scene is typically dated from the punk era of the late 1970s, when the presence of the Medway College of Design influenced a "vibrant art, poetry and music scene."
Stuckism is an art movement that began in London, England, in 1999. In 2000, Melbourne artist Regan Tamanui started the first international branch of the movement. As of 2010, there are seven Australian Stuckist groups, who have held shows—sometimes concurrently with UK activities—received coverage in the Australian press and on TV, and also been represented in UK shows. The Stuckists take a strong pro-painting and anti-conceptual art stance, and were co-founded by Charles Thomson and Billy Childish.
Thee Headcoatees were an all-female garage band formed in Chatham, Kent, England in 1991. They were part of the Medway scene. The members were Holly Golightly, Kyra LaRubia, Ludella Black and "Bongo" Debbie Green.
Mark D, born Mark Randall, is a British punk musician. He is also associated with the Stuckist group of artists. Mark D was born and spent his childhood in Peterborough. He now lives in Nottingham.
The Stuckism art movement was started in London in 1999 to promote figurative painting and oppose conceptual art. This was mentioned in the United States media, but the first Stuckist presence in US was not until the following year, when former installation artist, Susan Constanse, founded a Pittsburgh chapter.
Punk literature is literature related to the punk subculture. The attitude and ideologies of punk rock gave rise to distinctive characteristics in the writing it manifested. It has influenced the transgressional fiction literary genre, the cyberpunk genre and their derivatives.
Damaged Goods is a British independent record label.
Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision is one of the paintings that was made as a part of the Stuckism art movement, and is recognized as a "signature piece" for the movement. It was painted in 2000 by the Stuckism co-founder Charles Thomson, and has been exhibited in a number of shows since, as well as being featured on placards during Stuckist demonstrations against the Turner Prize.
References
1 2 Brown, Neal (2008). Billy Childish: A Short Study. [London]: The Aquarium; ISBN978-1-871894-23-3
1 2 "Billy Childish Profile". Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2016. My relationship with Tracey Emin finished in 1987 – 21 years ago, to be exact. Whilst I like and respect Tracey, and wish her well, the relationship is not significant in respect of my current life, and therefore I choose not to discuss it
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