BY JOHN FRAME
BRISBANE — Simon Hunt, formerly known as Pauline Pantsdown, is fighting for his new single "I'm Sorry" (performed by his "Little Johnny" persona) to get airplay. Prime Minister John Howard's (unauthorised) voice, like Pauline Hanson's in Hunt's previous singles "I'm a Back Door Man" and "I Don't Like it", has been arduously edited and mixed to create a sublimely crafted dance track — chock full of apologies.
The stoic conservatism of our "national youth broadcaster", ABC's Triple J, has been reflected in its not-for-public-scrutiny "playlist", which excluded Pantsdown's 1998 "I Don't Like It" even as it was number 10 on their own chart. "I'm Sorry" is being systematically ignored by Triple J and all the commercial radio stations.
Hunt has blown what money he made as Pauline Pantsdown, and also suffered the trauma of listening to Howard's voice for hundreds of hours, in order to produce "I'm Sorry". He is now relying on the good taste and integrity of Australia's independent community broadcasters to recognise a good song for an apology, rather than an apology for a song.
Little Johnny spoke to 4ZZZ on August 8, following the release of "I'm Sorry" (Shock Records CP003):
4ZZZ: Welcome. How are you?
I'm very well, thank you. I'm very sorry to be here!
I like the web site (<http://www.littlejohnny.org>) and it includes a link to "Apology Australia" as well, so people who want to join that petition, can. You've journeyed into the world of pop music with a single?
That's right. It contains apologies for absolutely everything: for the way that John Howard looks, for the way that he acts and his political policies. Yes, I think people will be able to "get down" to it — it's good to have a funky vocalist. And after, you know, being a man wearing women's clothing for two years, it's very good to get out there with a bit of a macho image once again.
Are you doing the work that the prime minister is not prepared to do?
I like to think of it as complementary. He's a very busy man. Mr Howard can't spend time coping with things like social policy, break dancing and apologies to the stolen generations, so I'm just going to look after that side of it for him.
Do you expect Little Johnny to get the celebrity greetings and invitations that Pauline Pantsdown did?
Well you know, it was that short skirt that she used to wear that got her a lot further than she would have otherwise. With "I'm Sorry" there is the ability, perhaps in the way of a cartoon, to show the Australian people an idea of what Mr Howard is really about — even on a macro level in the pop charts — and I think that's a good thing.
[John Frame has presented Queer Radio on Brisbane's community radio station 4ZZZ for the past six years. He can be contacted at <john@4zzzfm.org.au>. Visit Queer Radio's web site at <http://www.geocities.com/queerradio>.]