Danielle Dax

Born in Southend, England, Danielle Dax created music shaped by biblical mysticism alongside Middle Eastern musical textures. Her first appearance came in 1979 as keyboardist for the seven-piece Amy Turtle & the Crossroads, whose sole performance nevertheless caught the ear of Karl Blake; he promptly commissioned her to illustrate an EP sleeve for his Lemon Kittens, a band based at Surrey University. Within days she had joined the lineup, and although neither Dax nor Blake contributed instrumental parts, the pair issued two boldly experimental albums—We Buy a Hammer for Daddy in 1980 and The Big Dentist in 1982—while earning notoriety for their often unclothed stage shows.

Following the Lemon Kittens’ dissolution in 1982, Blake launched the Shock-Headed Peters and Dax pursued a solo path. Her debut arrived the next year with Pop-Eyes, an entirely self-contained release on which she composed, performed, mixed, and produced every track before issuing it through her own Awesome imprint. Despite the Batcave scene’s affinity for her dramatic cosmetics and towering hairstyles, she refused categorization and crossed into cinema, appearing in Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves as well as Chimera, a project by photographer Holly Woodlawn whose imagery later graced several of Dax’s covers. Rejoining Blake, she delivered the 1984 EP Jesus Egg That Wept, which introduced guitarist and keyboardist David Knight, thereafter a recurring collaborator.

Assembling a touring band, Dax quickly became a sought-after live act. Successive singles—“Yummer Yummer Man” in 1985, “Where the Flies Are” in 1986, “Cat-House” in 1988, and “White Knuckle Ride” in 1989—each edged closer to mainstream appeal and secured independent-chart traction; after the 1987 album Inky Bloaters she moved to Sire. The 1988 compilation Dark Adapted Eye preceded 1990’s Blast the Human Flower, whose lead single, a cover of the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows,” failed to resonate. The commercial disappointment ended her Sire tenure, prompting years of withdrawal until 1995, when she resurfaced on the Biter of Thorpe label with the Timber Tongue EP.