“I’m a very versatile comedian. That means I’m crap at everything.”  -Alexei Sayle

‘Fragments of a Punk Opera’ is a multimedia work which presents exactly that: excerpts of a would-be piece of punk musical theatre entitled ‘Bad Money’. Therein we are introduced to a pair of hapless (and penniless) protagonists, Steff and Jen, who find themselves on the wrong side of Madame Melodie, a lady crime boss who fancies herself as Rita Hayworth (or is it Edith Piaf?). With half a million pounds of the gangster’s money in Steff and Jen's possession, things go badly wrong for all concerned: but what is the outcome? We don’t expect a happy ending in traditional opera, after all.

These ‘Fragments’ celebrate the punk aesthetic of DIY and the awkwardness of ‘shonky’ as a methodology – an embracing of roughness, passion and energy by necessity of a single artist, MB, having composed, played, sung, acted, designed, filmed and edited every part of this work. Versatility, as defined by English comedian and writer Alexei Sayle, and in my case, is an admission of limitation; an acknowledgement that one cannot be great at every element of every endeavour, but to bash on regardless and to “do anything you wanna do”, in the words of Eddie and the Hot Rods. Ambition need not be thwarted by ability. I love traditional opera and musicals and have wanted to create some kind of musical narrative for many years, but with no music training or theory, it always seemed a ridiculous fantasy. However, I do know three chords – possibly even four – and so, a ‘punk opera’ became the medium to express this notion.

The DIY element is also extended to the audience, who is invited to view, listen, read, interact with the works in whichever sequence they choose, and to create their own narrative and resolution from the cut and pasted fragments on offer – to take what they will from the experience.

The body of work also questions the nature and process of curating, and what is deemed 'canon' - existing in multiple forms, as a series of music videos, as a zine/book, and a music album, each format contains some material not present in any of the others (e.g. 'film stills' from scenes that appear in none of the videos, two songs on the album which do not have video counterparts, etc.).

Further thoughts and reflections on this ongoing project are posted over on my research blog here.

'Holiday in the Sun'

'L.H.O.O.Q'

'The Madame Melodie Melody'

'Acne Empire'

'Moonshine Sonata'

'Midnight Showdown'

'Bad Money'

'I Swear'

'Shadow of the Street/Spotlight Queen'

'Midnight Showdown Reprise'