I used to play Minty’s 1994 club classic ‘Useless Man’ during my occasional night shifts at the local radio, thus this song is holding some fond memories of mine. Nowadays, the lyrics of Useless Man get stuck in my head once a year for no reason whatsoever. I tend to play this song once every 12 months, lip sync along to the lyrics, and that’s pretty much it. I kind of put this song in a box never to be opened again, but it caught me by surprise that it is now available on Spotify. There’s a good reason for it to be, though.

The icon that was Leigh Bowery was of major influence in gay culture during the 90s. By creating controversial music as well as being an avant-garde performance artist, Bowery left a huge legacy upon popular culture. One that cannot be forgotten, thus I’m happy to see some of Minty’s music is being re-released to mark 25 years since Leigh Bowery’s passing due to AIDS. I can recommend Googling some of Bowery’s work, including some daring yet stunning facial and body art. Minty once got described as ‘The sickest band in the world‘, something that Leigh Bowery was very proud of. And rightly so.

And, to be fair, after attending a 4 day festival in the middle of January, I can’t help but feeling a bit useless today myself. Albeit for different reasons than Leigh Bowery was most likely referring to.