Claude Bessy

Claude Bessy (20 June 1945 – 2 October 1999), also known as Kickboy Face, was a French writer, magazine editor, singer, video producer, and painter. He is noted as an early organizer and was involved in the British post-punk scene in the 1980s.

Biography Bessy was born in Normandy, France. Bessy was kicked out of the Sorbonne after showing up drunk at nine in the morning, brandishing a bottle of brandy, and threatening a teacher. Bessy moved to the US in 1966 and to Los Angeles in 1967.

In May 1977, he helped Steve Samiof launch the monthly punk rock magazine Slash, which he edited until it ceased publication in 1980.

As Kickboy Face (a pen name adopted from, Kick Boy Face a song and album by Prince Jazzbo), Bessy was the lead singer for the band Catholic Discipline, the film The Decline of Western Civilization includes a Bessy interview, and two songs.

"The scene was not fun anymore, so I bailed on L.A. and the USA, never to return, the day Ronald Reagan was elected." — Claude Bessy

Bessy left California in November 1980. moving with his lifelong partner Philomena Winstanley to the U.K. where he landed a job as a press officer at Rough Trade record label. There he championed American groups such as The Gun Club where he worked for Forbidden Planet and wrote record sleeve notes. He contributed vocals to records by Sonic Youth, Howard Devoto, Wire's Graham Lewis and trumpeter Marc Cunningham.

Mark Vallen. Portrait of Claude Bessy 1979. Acrylic on paper. 22" x 30" John Potwora, "Harmony In Disharmony: Spike Jones As A Punk Rock Prototype" 2019 John Savage, "England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond" New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992 dissertation, Ph.D., History PDF Open access