Jeremy Healy

Biography

Perhaps best known as a popular mainstream dance music DJ in England, Jeremy Healy led a varied career that saw him front the ephemeral early-'80s new wave group Haysi Fantayzee, found the mid-'80s dance club Circus, produce the late-'80s acid house hit "Everything Begins with an 'E'" by E-Zee Possee, team with Boy George to launch the late-'80s/early-'90s dance label More Protein, establish himself as one of the most popular British DJs of the 1990s, reposition himself as half of the trance act Bleachin' in 2000, and increasingly channel his abilities into the fashion world, where he worked with top designers, particularly John Galliano.



Born on January 18, 1962, in London, England, Jeremiah Healy got his start in the music industry as a member of the early-'80s British new wave group Haysi Fantayzee. With Kate Garner and Healy as their lead singers, Haysi Fantayzee scored a Top 20 hit with their 1982 debut single, "John Wayne Is Big Leggy." Another Top 20 hit, "Shiny Shiny," followed in 1983, as did a full-length album, Battle Hymns for Children Singing, on Regard Records. Around this time, Healy visited the legendary New York City dance club Danceteria, which -- with its melange of new wave, hip-hop, breakdance, and dance pop cultures -- inspired him to found Circus, a similarly fashioned club of his own in England where he assumed the role of DJ.



Toward the end of the 1980s, Healy began employing himself as an acid house producer. In 1988 he produced a couple tracks ("Blow the House Down," "The Beat, the Rhyme, the Noise") for the British hip-house duo Wee Papa Girl Rappers on Jive Records, and also "No Clause 28" for Boy George on Virgin Records. In 1989 he was among those who contributed to the Baby Ford album "Ooo" The World of Baby Ford, and he also produced a couple tracks (E-Zee Possee's "Everything Begins with an 'E'," Dr. Mouthquake's "Love on Love") for the label More Protein, which he and Boy George co-founded in 1988.



A few more E-Zee Possee singles followed at the dawn of the '90s, namely "The Sun Machine" (1990), "Breathing Is E-Zee" (1991), and "Geddit" (1992), as did a full-length album, The Bone Dance (1992), but none was successful. Besides a one-off co-production as H.W.A. (i.e., Hedgehog with Attitude), "Supersonic" (as in Sonic the Hedgehog, then a popular video game), on Internal Affairs, the E-Zee Possee full-length album marked the end of Healy's dance music production work for the remainder of the decade.



During the 1990s, Healy focused on his DJ career, releasing a couple mix albums (Mixmag Live!, Vol. 14: The Mad Hatters Tea Party, 1995; Ibiza: The Closing Party, 1999) in the process. In 2000 he resurfaced as a producer alongside Amos (aka Amos Pizzey) as the trance duo Bleachin'. Signed to BMG, Bleachin' released a few singles ("Bleachin'," "Peakin'," "Comin' Down") that year as well as a full-length album, Everyone Loves You, Everything's Free.



Meanwhile, Healy also focused on opportunities within the fashion world. He worked closely with designer John Galliano above all, but also did audio work for Dior, Versace, Victoria's Secret, and Katherine Hamnett, among others. In later years, he worked with pop-stars-turned-fashionistas Jennifer Lopez and Gwen Stefani. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide