Get your 2023 date books out and make a note that Sunday 15th January has the totally unmissable tribute to Warhol Superstar Jayne Country . It’s hard to believe that this American punk rock trailblazer and underground theater performer, known for her wild stage shows and songs such as “Man Enough to Be a Woman” and “Fuck Off” is now 73 years old.
She has packed more into one lifetime that leaves most of us exhausted (and envious) when we look back at it all. She attended both the Stonewall Riots and Woodstock. She quickly found herself among the queer scene that surrounded Andy Warhol, and at one time lived in a small apartment with Lee Black Childers, Holly Woodlawn, and Jackie Curtis.
In 1970 County made her stage debut in Curtis’s play Femme Fatale (alongside a young Patti Smith), and her role in Andy Warhol’s play Pork took her to London in 1971, where she made a huge impression on a young David Bowie. But County’s true love was rock music and inspired by proto-punks like Iggy Pop, she formed her first band Queen Elizabeth in 1972.
County didn’t find success until she moved to London and formed Wayne County & the Electric Chairs in 1977, just in time for the birth of British punk. County’s performances were shocking even by punk standards and included anything from masturbating with a Virgin Mary statue to eating dog food scooped out of a toilet, in drag that pushed well past the boundaries of acceptable glam rock androgyny. In 1979, she changed her name to Jayne and publicly identified as a woman, making her the first openly trans singer in rock.
Drugs and other tensions caused the band to fall apart by 1980, but County returned to music in the mid-80s, and in 1995 released her autobiography Man Enough to Be a Woman. Today she identifies as gender-fluid, and once again lives in Atlanta where she continues to create spirited and confrontational music and art.
This tribute concert MAN ENOUGH TO BE A WOMEN will be at Red Eye NY (355 West 41st Street) on 1/15 and will be a benefit for https://translifeline.org/ a grassroots hotline and microgrants non-profit organization offering direct emotional and financial support to trans people in crisis – for the trans community, by the trans community.
The performers appearing will include John Cameron Mitchell, Miss Guy, Macy Rodman, Ana Matronic, Michael Musto, Amber Martin, The Royale Minks, Antony Cherrie, GREKO, Glace Chase, Lisa Stephen Friday, and Sharon Needles
Man Enough to Be a Woman A Tribute to Jayne County a benefit for https://translifeline.org Sunday Jan 15th at 9pm https://www.redeyetickets.com/man-enough-to-be-a-woman/
