Cult Hero: Jonathan Donohue

Cult Hero: Jonathan Donohue
Associated Acts: The Flaming Lips (1989-91), Mercury Rev (1989-present)
Born: 1966 (Kingston, New York)

Mercury Rev’s chief weirdo is an inspiration to The Chapman Family’s Kingsley Hall…

“I first happened upon Mercury Rev when I was working as a bell boy in a hotel. They were staying there and looked like the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I chanced my arm and blagged a guestlist place after claiming to know all their hits and offering them a cigarette as payment. They – and more importantly, the elf-voiced, spindly shadow of a frontman – blew my mind. It wasn’t just the unique voice or weird lyrics that grabbed me, it was his whole presence – he dominated the stage like a rake-thin colossus, pushing back wave after wave of feedback with his hands and arms as if he was parting some imaginary distortion-soaked Red Sea. It was high drama to someone who was only used to seeing bands in Converse pissing about in stripy shirts. He might as well have come from another planet as far as I was concerned and, by fuck, from that point onwards I wanted to come from there too.”