☆ Scottee ☆
Scottee first cropped up in clubland as part of Yr Mum Ya Dad, flanked by his partner Johnny. It would’ve been impossible to miss this fearless couple as they appeared scantily wrapped in newspapers, loose bits of fabric or carton boxes, as well as displaying ample bare flesh. Not to mention the liberal lashings of war paint they smeared over themselves.
Plying their wares since 2005 as DJs, club promoters (the fun-packed and popular Anti-Social) and performers (here, there and everywhere), they made their favourite pastime – showing off – something resembling an art form and got plenty of media coverage for it. Pure specimens of the burgeoning MySpace generation, they were media-savvy, brash, cocky and you knew that, if they didn’t burn themselves out, their future could only be promising.
However, 2007 witnessed a split of sorts. Johnny, henceforth known as Buster, went his own way to teach DJ-ing. As for Scottee, he initially ran several clubs, the likes of Domestic, Issue and Foreign (all defunct), with varying degrees of success. He also played out at hotspots like Popstarz, Black Balloon, Circus, Caligula and many more.
Clubbing has since taken a back seat in Scottee’s life so that he could devote himself to performing more seriously. He strives for a bewildering, certainly most unconventional and deliberately shocking style of performance.
Beside causing havoc at The Tate, Tate Modern, ICA, The Roundhouse, The Royal Opera House and the Edinburgh festival, he also gigged his “Hamburger Queen” (”a beauty pageant for fat people”, as he described it) and toured “The Worst of Scottee” in 2016, amongst other strangely entertaining and innovative shows.
His “Bravado” UK tour, which ran from the end of September well into Summer 2018, undoubtedly ruffled feathers. As he put it, “it’s my living memoir about growing up in the ’90s amongst aggressive masculine men. It’s all about sexual exploitation and violence.” Needless to say, it surely was an opportunity for Scottee to exorcise his demons, as well as getting his own back on the bullies. In complete contrast, Fat Blokes at Southbank Centre, in November 2018, was a choreographed show featuring four fat blokes and Scottee. It basically celebrated size, while finding comfort and safety in numbers. Feeling safer within a gaggle of fatties in the face of discrimination from the body fascists. Awash with light-hearted dance routines, humour and, Scottee being Scottee, plenty of bare flesh on display.
Scroll down and click if images don’t automatically roll out. Click on any image to enlarge.