Linder plays Manchester Academy as special guest of Magazine on Tuesday February 17th 2009. This will be Linder’s first return to a Manchester stage since 1982. Her last performance there was at the Hacienda, where as a lifelong vegetarian, she infamously appeared in her protest dress of raw meat. Linder is known to fans of Magazine as the artist who created the iconic image for the cover of the debut album ‘Real Life’. At a celebrity auction in New York last year, actress Chloe Sevigny, purchased one of the ‘heads’ featured on the album sleeve. For this appearance, Linder will perform extended versions of the four songs first released as ‘The Visit’ in 1980 by legendary Manchester label New Hormones (who also released the infamous Buzzcocks’ ‘Spiral Scratch EP’ in 1976).
She will be accompanied by the guitarist Stuart McCallum (The Cinematic Orchestra), Mykey Wilson on drums (Dust Junkies) and John Ellis (John Squire) on keyboards. Linder will be costumed by British designer Richard Nicoll, whose Autumn/Winter 2009 collection is based on Linder’s art and music and will be premiered as part of London Fashion Week in the days following the Academy concert.
As an artist, Linder has long been cited as muse and seminal designer to Buzzcocks, Magazine and Morrissey. Last year, six of the collages made by Linder in 1977 - one of which was used by Buzzcocks for their debut United Artists single, ‘Orgasm Addict’ - were purchased by the Tate gallery.
Linder’s career as a singer and musician with her own group, Ludus, has always run parallel to her work as a visual artist. Her early recordings have recently been re-issued to international acclaim.
Over recent years many pop historians have charted the configuration of musicians and artists who worked in Manchester during the latter half of the 1970s and early 1980s. Linder’s early relationship with Howard Devoto has been cited as one of punk’s most intriguing couplings, and it is in this spirit that on the last night of Magazine’s current tour, they will share a stage together for the first time.