Minty

Minty is a London-based performance and music group active from 1993 to 1997. It forms around performance artist and fashion designer Leigh Bowery, who creates the project with Richard Torry, Nicola Bateman, Matthew Glamorre and other members including Honolulu, Danielle Minns, Matt Fisher, Neil Kaczor, Steady, Nicola Bowery, Trevor Sharpe and Richard Torry.

The group works at the intersection of electronic, dance and rock, and is closely associated with Bowery’s wider performance practice. Its best-known single is Useless Man, which draws attention for its confrontational style and for the group’s stage performances. The Sun describes the band as the “Sickest band in the world”, a label Bowery reportedly takes pride in.

Minty also stages performance pieces during this period, including Fete worse than death in Hoxton Square and the Birth Show, created with Nicola Bateman, later Nicola Bowery. In the Birth Show, Bowery presents a staged birth in a work that pays homage to John Waters’ Desperate Living.