Biography
MC Kinky, aka Feral & Caron Geary, is a rarity in music: white female raggamuffin toaster, though not pigeon-holed as a reggae artist. "I do what comes naturally to me, and it usually has a combination of influences", she says.
She grew up in North London, on a diet of reggae, David Essex, Marc Bolan and Kate Bush. After being expelled from sixth-form college she worked in children's play centres by day and in nightclubs after dark. Although her initial foray into music was as a drummer, her love of Bob Marley inspired her to try "chatting" over music.
She did a demo called "Kinky Reggae" which she gave to Boy George when she met him in a London nightclub. He encouraged her to develop her talent. Shortly after rapping on "Kipsy" a track on George's "High Hat" album, he signed her to More Protein. That led to the appearance of the first E-Zee Possee single "Everything Starts With An E" which was the big break for her, reaching the top 20 in the UK and becoming an anthem for the "summer of love" generation. The song was written as an instrumental by Jeremy Healy, a long time friend of Boy George. George thought it needed some vocals and thought of Kinky right away. When delivered to the record company they tried to get rid of the rap, saying it wasn't working, but George stood firm and said that without MC Kinky there was no record left. Virgin didn't want to put money into an "E" record so George financed the first pressing himself, which were sold out in no time at all. Dj's started to play the record in the clubs. DJ Paul Oakenfold heard the record and asked George why even he wasn't able to get a copy; George replied with "why don't you ask your girlfriend?". His own girlfriend was working at Virgin and was blocking the release of the record!! Then Virgin started to notice it and probably smelled money as they suddenly were keen to release it. But with no radio promotion (except for the illegal dance channels) it was destined to fail. However demand was still very high, so Virgin re-re-released it again. This time with even more DJ support it finally went on to become a success, taking Kinky all over the world promoting the song.
Virgin finally saw the potential of Kinky and sent her into the studio to record solo singles "Get Over It" and "Inna We Kingdom". But although Virgin put a lot of money into studio time, re-mixers etc, they didn't do a good job at promoting the records. They all failed to chart. She did make an appearance on "Generations of Love" by Jesus Loves You (Kinky sung lead vocals at some live performances!!) which again took her well into the top 20 world wide and on Erasure's ABBA EP which took her even higher even to number 1 in the UK (and many other countries!!). But after a big row with George she thought it was time to leave. Virgin was not keen to let her go and she did have a contract so she released some white labels with disguised names (Minnie the Minx for example), but Virgin soon saw there was no way Kinky would work for them again and let her go.
She was soon snapped up by EMI and released a single called "Everybody" under the name of Kinky but even with a multiple of mixes it didn't gain the interest Kinky and the record company hoped it would gain and she left EMI right after the single. Since then she has done many collaborations with different artists with just as many different kinds of musical styles: for example she did vocals on Jam & Spoon's mix of "The Chase" by Giorgio Moroder and for Jah Wobble and Natacha Atlas. She also did some demos, some under different names, and Dj-ed and performed at various places (Twilo, New York, Love Parade 98, Berlin and many more places)
Then in 1999 she teamed up with Wayward Soul for a track called "Real Wild Child". When remixed and re-released in 2001 it was a massive club hit. Also in 2001 she teamed up with Storm (who are Jam & Spoon under another name and have had hits with "Storm" and "Time to Burn") on a remix of a track called "We Love", first released in Germany but soon picked up by different labels worldwide.
Caron is a photographer these days. But don't think she has stopped doing music, she's still doing various projects - mainly wearing a balaclava and a Celtic jacket fronting Cantankerous, so Kinky is still going as strong as ever!!! http://FeralIsKinky.com
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