Collaborators

Charles Grey (producer of “Mother, The Wardrobe Is Full Of Infantrymen”)
Grey worked with Jim Thirlwell on the You’ve Got Foetus On Your Breath releases, Zeke Manyika (Mastercrime) & Marc Almond (Jacques). Previously a Doctor of Physics.

Christopher Logue (1926 – 2011)
Peter Cook’s Establishment Club’s resident poet and writer for ‘Private Eye’, which was printed in Agnes Bernelle’s dressing room in the early days. Actor.

Desmond Leslie (1921 – 2001)
Married to Agnes, author of several books including the first of its kind ‘Flying Saucers Have Landed’. He began using Musique Concrete in the sixties – a movement leading directly to synthesizers & electronic backing tracks. Long-time collaborator.

Marc Almond (1957 – )
Singer and author, best known for the duo Soft Cell. Work includes experimental project Marc and the Mambas, collaborations with Coil & Current 93, and varied solo recordings.

Micheal Dress (1935 – 1975)
Growing up in Germany and relocating to London, he taught expressionist dance before becoming Agnes’ musical director. He wrote an opera for the BBC, composed for the theatre & scored many films, as well as painting.

Peter Maxwell Davies (1934 – )
English composer and conductor.

Philip Chevron (1957 – 2013)
Producer & lead guitarist of The Pogues, member of The Radiators, musical director of Agnes’ production of ‘Lysistrata’ and backing musician in her shows, he wrote her first single ‘Kitty Ricketts’ and he co-wrote the musical ‘Tha Ha’Penny Place’ in which she starred on stage.

Rudolf Bernauer (1880 – 1953)
Agnes’ father was born in Budapest, and after moving to Berlin he became one of the most prominent theatre producers, owning 4 theatres by the age of 30 & directing plays such as Wedekinds’ Lulu & Strindberg’s Dreamplay.

Stanley Myers (1930 – 1993)
Bernelle met Myers at Peter Cook’s Establishment Club, he would later compose the Cavatina for the Deerhunter.

Tom Waits (1949 – )
Agnes Bernelle complained of ‘a very strange young man’ pestering her to perform his song. He turned out to be Tom Waits. ‘Broken Bicycles’ appeared in ‘One From the Heart’, and he suggested Agnes should sing it - it appears on “Mother, The Wardrobe Is Full Of Infantrymen”.

Frank Wedekind (1864 – 1918)
Considered by many as the Father of Modern Theatre, influential on a young Bertolt Brecht & in opposition to bourgeois hypocrisy & an advocate of sexual liberation.

Joachim Ringelnatz (1883 – 1934)
A sailor at 18, he earned money reciting ballads & playing the mandolin. Opened a tobacco shop which doubled as an impromptu cabaret. After the WW1 he contributed to an important left-wing magazine. From the early twenties he was attacked by the right-wing press & his work was banned by the Nazi’s in 1933.

Klabund (1890 – 1928)
Writer of the first version of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Close friend of Brecht’s.