Dr Glam was my glam-rock/Ziggy Stardust inspired performative alter ego. An imaginary fantasy escape-figure who bore me through the roughest parts of childhood during the 1970s, I dragged him out of his glittery coffin and brought him back to life decades later in 2008, fleshing him out, and putting him on the stage. Although I initially did so to use him as a teaching tool when working with student performers at Otago University, I found him personally empowering and had illegal amounts of fun playing him. So I kept him alive and gigging until early 2014 when I killed him off in a ‘Death Of Dr Glam Spectacular’ concert. My rationale? Glam rockers should never linger too long. Shoot into the sky like a skyrocket, burst into a gazillion stars, and then disappear. So he’s dead. Well . . . very occasionally I can be tempted to bring him back to life for one-off special-occasion performances, the most recent being the packed-out David Bowie tribute concert at Dunedin’s iconic Sammy’s in 2016.
Photography by Roger Graumeijer