KATE GARNER

Kate's self-written bio, from her website at www.kategarner.com.

"I was born in Wigan, a town in the NW of England, near Liverpool & Manchester. I left when I was 16. I ran away to London where I was "captured" by Californian Jesus Freaks. I escaped & travelled overland to India through Europe & Asia where I sayted for 8 months. When I came back to my home town I met someone on the street who said they were going to college to study photography. I thought I'd go there next.

"It was the first time I'd really enjoyed school. I left 2 years later, after getting the highest marks for our end of term show. I took assisting jobs in London & Manchester but mainly with larger advertising studios which were not inspiring, although I learned how to work hard!

I was making music at the same time and met Paul Caplin who had a rehearsal studio above a photographic studio I worked in. At the same time I met Jeremy Healy. Together we formed Haysi Fantayzee & signed to R.C.A. records. Our first record went top 10 in England and Europe and we became very famous, very quickly. After performaing for about 2 years we were really not enjoying being in the public eye. We disbanded and gradually I began to take pictures professionally.

"My first proper photography job was to shoot most of Sinead O'Connor's press and album sleeves. That was about 12 years ago. I live in LA now with my daughter Gracie and boyfriend David Turin who has an internet record label called the peopletree (www.peopletree.com).

"I'm taking photographs and I love it."

Below is a letter Kate sent me in 1985, along with a scan of the autographed photo she enclosed:

KATE'S LETTER
Dear Rose-

Sorry I haven't written for ages. What's happening is- Jeremy's been writing music for commercials (have you seen the one for Levis where they catch a huge fish- that's got great music on- commercials are great, man) and is moving on to film music. He's still DJing and wants to bring out another record.
Meanwhile- my manager's out getting me a new record deal THIS VERY MOMENT so my music will be out soon- but I can't say an exact date cos I've done that before and felt SUCH A FOOL when it doesn't happen. But soon, baby, soon.
I'll write again when I've signed it and send a new address you can write to.
Love,
Kate

In 1983 Kate released a solo single called "Love Me Like A Rocket." To hear a short RealAudio clip, click on the link below. The recording quality was not great, so you might want to turn up your speaker volumes (But remember to turn 'em down again!!)

LOVE ME LIKE A ROCKET (Megamix Version) Produced by "Torch Song" with Paul Caplin.