Winston Tong | |
---|---|
Birth name | Winston Tong |
Born | 1951 |
Origin | San Francisco, California |
Occupation(s) | Singer/songwriter, puppeteer, actor/playwright, visual artist |
Instrument(s) | Vocals (Baritone) |
Years active | 1977–present |
Labels | LTM, Crammed Discs |
Website | winstontong |
Winston Tong (born 1951 in San Francisco, California) is an actor, playwright, visual artist, puppeteer, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for his vocals in Tuxedomoon and for winning an Obie award in puppetry for Bound Feet in 1978.
Tong was born in the United States to Chinese parents exiled by the Communist revolution. He graduated with a degree in theatre from the California Institute of Arts in 1973. [1] While at CalArts, he studied classical vocals with Marni Nixon. [2] In 1969, Tong was commissioned to illustrate The Dinosaur Coloring Book by Malcolm Whyte, which was first published by Troubador Press and later by Price Stern Sloan. [3]
After graduating from California Institute of the Arts, Tong established his reputation in the Bay Area with a string of charismatic, left-field performance pieces such as Wild Boys, Eliminations, Frankie and Johnnie and the award-winning Bound Feet, which was loosely based on traditional Chinese puppet theater. [1]
Tong performed three of his solo pieces at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in April/May 1978. The Wild Boys, identified on the show's program as a work in progress, incorporated work by William Burroughs, Brian Eno, George Olsen, Kawahara, Victoria Lowe, and Tuxedomoon. Bound Feet incorporated music by Erik Satie. À Rimbaud incorporated work by Arthur Rimbaud and Heitor Villa-Lobos. [4] He returned to La MaMa with Tuxedomoon bandmate Bruce Geduldig in 1978 to perform two pieces, Nijinsky (Fragments) from the diary of Vaslav Nijinsky with music by Frederic Chopin and Bound Feet (Reformed). [5]
Frankie and Johnnie [6] appeared in the 1981 documentary film Theater in Trance by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who shot the film at the Theaters of the World Festival in June 1981 in Cologne. [7] Geduldig directed himself and Tong in a production of Frankie and Johnnie at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in 1982. [8]
Tong joined Tuxedomoon in 1977. He sporadically recorded and performed live with the group, and also recorded solo material including the electropop dance album Theoretically Chinese in 1985, a 9-song album produced by Alan Rankine featuring guests such as Stephen Morris of New Order, Dave Formula, and Jah Wobble, as well as many other familiar musicians from Tong's past. The album and its subsequent singles, "Theoretical China" and "Reports From The Heart", were released on Les Disques du Crepuscule.
His composition "In a Manner of Speaking" from 1985's Holy Wars was later covered by Martin Gore, Nouvelle Vague, and Amanda Palmer, and remains his best known song. Tong left Tuxedomoon in 1985.
In March 2005, Tong reunited with Tuxedomoon for two performances in San Francisco, the first time they had performed together in over twenty years.
Tong's career, including his solo work, is detailed in Isabelle Corbisier's 2008 book on Tuxedomoon, Music for Vagabonds – the Tuxedomoon Chronicles.
Josef K were a Scottish post-punk band, active between 1979 and 1982, who released singles on the Postcard Records label. The band was named after the protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial. Although they released just one album while together and achieved only moderate success, they have since proved influential on many bands that followed.
Tuxedomoon is an experimental, post-punk, new wave band from San Francisco, California, United States. The band formed in the late 1970s at the beginning of the punk rock movement. Pulling influence from punk and electronic music, the group, originally consisting of Steven Brown and Blaine L. Reininger, used electronic violins, guitars, screaming vocals and synthesizers to develop a unique "cabaret no-wave" sound. Bassist Peter Principle joined the band and in 1979 they released the single "No Tears", which remains a post-punk cult classic. That year they also signed to Ralph Records and released their debut album, Half-Mute, in 1980. That year they signed to Ralph Records and released their first album, Half-Mute. Eventually, Reininger left the group, and Tuxedomoon relocated to Europe, signing to Crammed Discs and releasing Holy Wars in 1985. The band separated in the early 1990s, only to reunite later that decade. They all have remained together since releasing the album Cabin in the Sky in 2004.
John-Michael Tebelak was an American playwright and director. He is best known for creating the musical Godspell, based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, with the composer Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the music. Some of the lyrics are original to the show, while others were taken from either the Bible or traditional hymns in the 1940 Episcopal hymnal.
Ludus was a British post-punk band formed in Manchester in 1978, which featured artist, designer and singer Linder Sterling. They played jazz-, avant-garde- and punk- oriented material. The band influenced singer Morrissey, later of The Smiths and a solo artist, who remains one of the group's most vocal fans.
Tristan Murail is a French composer associated with the "spectral" technique of composition. Among his compositions is the large orchestral work Gondwana.
Paul Haig is a Scottish indie musician, singer and songwriter. He was originally a member of post-punk band Josef K, active between 1979 and 1982.
Anna Domino is an American indie rock artist based in New York and Los Angeles who released several albums for Les Disques du Crepuscule and Factory Records in the 1980s and 1990s. Domino has collaborated with musicians such as Matt Johnson of The The, Stephin Merritt in The Sixths, Blaine L. Reininger and Steven Brown of Tuxedomoon, Virginia Astley, Luc van Acker and Ultramarine. She is also one half of the duo Snakefarm.
Linder Sterling, commonly known as Linder, is a British artist known for her photography, radical feminist photomontage and confrontational performance art. She was also the former front-woman of Manchester based post-punk group Ludus. In 2017, Sterling was honored with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award.
Les Disques du Crépuscule is an independent record label founded in Belgium in 1980 by Michel Duval and Annik Honoré. It also had a prominent associated sublabel, Factory Benelux. Both are now run by former employee James Nice.
LTM Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1983, and best known for reissues of artists and music from 1978 to the present day, as well as modern classical and avant-garde composition. The label is based in Norfolk, England, and is curated by James Nice.
The Names are a Belgian post-punk band from Brussels, Belgium, formed in 1978 around bassist, vocalist and songwriter Michel Sordinia.
Isabelle Antena is a French singer and songwriter, and founder of the electro-samba group Antena.
Virginia Astley is an English singer-songwriter most active during the 1980s and 1990s. Her songwriting career started in 1980. Her classical training influenced her, as did a desire to be experimental with her music. Although most popular in Asia, most notably Japan, she remains a cult artist in her native England.
Fabienne Thibeault is a French Canadian singer. She is particularly known for her role in Starmania. Thibeault has released numerous albums over her career. She has been the recipient of two Félix Awards.
Alison Statton is a Welsh singer best known for her work with Young Marble Giants. Fans of the singer have included Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, Stephin Merritt, Belle and Sebastian and Renato Russo.
Zeus B. Held is a German music producer and musician, known for his work in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He was involved with several artists of the krautrock, disco, and new wave era, such as Birth Control, Rockets, Gina X Performance, Dead Or Alive, John Foxx, Fashion, and Men Without Hats on their successful album Pop Goes the World.
Pierre Droulers is a French and Belgian choreographer and dancer.
François Morel was a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and music educator. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 1994 and was awarded the Prix Denise-Pelletier in 1996. He has had his works premiered by the CBC Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Blaine Leslie Reininger is an American post-punk, new-wave and alternative pop singer, songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, writer and performer. He is known for being a member of the group Tuxedomoon since 1977 after co-founding it with Steven Brown and, latterly, for a notable music and theatre career, both as a soloist and contributor to other artists' recordings, including the Durutti Column, Snakefinger, Anna Domino, Savage Republic, Paul Haig, William Lee Self's Montanablue project, Devine & Statton and Brown himself.
Time to Lose is an EP by American post-punk band Tuxedomoon, released in July 1982 by Les Disques du Crépuscule. In 1986 it was compiled with Suite en sous-sol on CD.