By Dov Kornits
It’s very hard to say that he was this unrecognised great artist, because a lot of his art was unrealised and flawed and in his head,”
Richard Lowenstein tells us of Peter Vanessa “Troy” Davies, the subject of the documentary, Ecco Homo, which he co-directed with Lynn-Maree Milburn. “We’re not discovering a Van Gogh here in any way.” He might not have cut off his ear for his art, or left behind a stunning cache of work, but Troy Davies was, in many ways, a work of art himself.
A photographer, stylist, drag performer, fashion designer, painter, actor, music video director, and one-time prostitute, the gender-fluid Davies nearly found legitimate fame in the eighties with two electro-pop-punk singles, which he released under the name of Ecco Homo.
Any proper drive for the big time, however, had the handbrake applied by Davies himself: the record company advance that he’d received to record an entire album was instead plugged into the purchase of drugs and the pursuit of Bacchanalian excess. So instead of being known as a pop star, the late Troy Davies (who passed away in 2007 at the age of just 47) is now largely known for the pop stars that he hung out with. The music video for Davies’ “Motorcycle Baby” starred late INXS frontman, Michael Hutchence, while his second single, “New York, New York”, featured U2’s Bono on lead vocals and The Edge on guitar. Davies swirled into the orbit of both rock groups while in the employ of the aforementioned Richard Lowenstein, who directed many of their video clips.
As with their previous stunning doco portrait, Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard, Lowenstein and Milburn mix talking head interviews, reenactments and archival footage to create something truly haunting and affecting. Along with the late Michael Hutchence, one of the film’s other great presences is U2’s Bono, who offers many insights into the mercurial Davies. “Bono was wonderful,” Lowenstein says. “He came and saw Troy as he was passing away in hospital, which was out of the blue.
They’d always been very close. U2 would often arrive in town, and they would say, ‘Come to dinner and bring Troy.’ I wasn’t enough for those guys unless I brought Troy! Troy thought that people just liked him for this court jester type thing that he had, but it wasn’t just because of that – he was very stimulating company, as a lot of manic depressives are. The ups and downs can come together to make a potent mix.”
Also dealing with Davies’ claims of longstanding sexual abuse at the hands of his now also deceased older brother, Andrew (who appears in the documentary, and vehemently denies the allegations, which are chillingly held up – on camera – by middle brother and fellow abuse victim, Simon), Ecco Homo is a challenging investigation into the life of a man who defied investigation through a strident brand of personal myth-making, with his knack for storytelling constantly blurring the concepts of truth and traditional identity. “People say that Troy’s great work of art was his life,” says Lowenstein. “He had ambitions for fame and success, but he would have been a complete pain in the arse if he achieved any of that. For the fifteen minutes that he did have his Ecco Homo fame with the pop songs, he was a pain in the arse, and he scuppered himself – he was such a nice, pleasant, humble guy, and he suddenly became an arrogant rock star. People stopped working with him.
We tried to look at why he would do that, and my theory is that failure is a certainty: you know that you can fail, and there’s no question that someone can fail if they try hard enough. But putting yourself up there for criticism is so difficult, and I think that he preferred the certainty of failure than the erraticism of success.”
Ecco Homo will screen at The Mardi Gras Film Festival, which runs from February 18-March 3. For all information, head to www.queerscreen.org.au.
