Elysium gallery @ Chapter Arts Centre Art Car Bootique
Fluggulssohn Fest 2017
When: Sunday 28th May 11-6pm
Details: As part of the Russia 17 Festival across Cardiff & the Chapter Arts Centre Art Car Bootique – the loose theme for this year is ‘Revolution’
As a response to this Elysium gallery have decided to hold a low-fi, folk festival, hero worshipping at the altar of a fictional 1960’s Scandinavian pop star called Torn Fluggulssohn. We are holding a day of moustache, mullet wig wearing, dancing, nose flute playing and performances.
Taking inspiration from the underground Beatles fan club that grew in soviet era Russia that acted as a counter culture to the strict regime. So we are looking at celebrity hero worship to an ‘icon’ who is anything but. If you go to our Facebook page and join the Fluggulssohn Fest 2017 event you will find a full made up biography on him and what we are doing.
A group of us from Swansea will be turning up as the Torn Fluggulssohn appreciation society and figure heading this. We are looking for artists to get involved by performing in some way or just rounding up troops to join us in a day of moustache wearing and silliness. We are looking at splitting up the day with 5/6 performances/events linked together with music and strangeness.
Email us with your ideas
The Art Car Bootique will run from 11am-6pm and will be followed by music and dancing in the building afterwards – so keep the evening free
Information
The Torn Fluggulssohn Appreciation society welcomes you to Fluggulssohn Fest!
We invite you to participate and worship at the altar of a 21st century enigma, a man who changed the world with his music, deeds and moustache.
His musical career spanned 72 years and 115 albums ranging from experimental Folk/Seagull beak fusion to hard-house grime, culminating with the release of his greatest masterpiece BLACKSQUARE shortly before his mysterious disappearance in 2012.
We are looking for people to don handle bar moustaches/mullet wigs combo & Scandinavian folk costume to join us for a day of song, dance & devotion.
read below for the full story on Torn Fluggulssohn and if you would like to participate in the way of song, dance, performance or just plain celebrity adoration, email us your ideas at info@elysiumgallery.com
To begin at the beginning….
Torn Fluggulssohnn
Torn Flugulson
Torn Flugulsonn
Thorn Floogalson
Torn FFlugullson
All the above are the accepted versions of spelling of the name
It is a name that has been used by many throughout history collectively. The stories and songs of the ancient clan Fluggulssohnn now span a thousand years, but it is the music, musings and moustache of Torn Fluggulssohnn (B. 1933 Fluggenstadt, Sweden – D. 2012 Swansea, Wales) which helped shape 21st century European music, broke a thousand teenage girl hearts, offered inspiration to anti- fascist freedom fighters across the world and gave a voice to the masses of disaffected, affected and disinterested across Wales.
Fluggulssohnn, born Torn AP Fluggulssohn is a somewhat enigmatic character that is not defined by time or place, but by his moustache. Fluggulssohnn is associated with a ride range of historical events throughout the world, but his biggest following is as a revolutionary folk legend and a hard house and grime guru ‘crooner/musician’, a Swansea cult hero and a moustache that would make inanimate objects pant lustily.
Fluggulssohn is also mentioned in many oral accounts of great Swansea happenings
– Local Welsh history references quotes Fluggulssohn as linked to the chinning of legendary boxer Rocky Marciano at the Mackworth Hotel, High St, Swansea during a squabble over fish fingers
– Number one suspect in the poisoning of local hero Dog ‘Swansea Jack’
– Unintentionally guiding the Luftwaffe to bomb Swansea during World War II by holding the worlds first Rock concert combined with state of the art pyrotechnics during a blackout period.
– Got thrown out of the Kardomah Gang by burning 3 years of Dylan Thomas’s work during a drug and drink fuelled binge with the future manager of Swansea Oxford Street Poundland store, Bonnie Tyler.
– Invented the spray on moustache which was the pre-cursor to the spray tan
Coincidentally the Fluggulssohn name also appears at the origins of Swansea history, the Son Of Fluggul was one of the Viking founders of the city in the 9th century and straight away applied for European capital of culture.
Torn Fluggulssohn is a northern European revolutionary folk singer that has at least 3 phases of work – his first creative epoch is grounded in the nose flute culture of the northern folk tradition – this involved a mixture of Yodeling, Flueggul playing (an instrument which was a mx of a flute and harpsichord made out of Seagull beak) whilst expressive dancing across the mountains of Fluggenstadt.
The second trench of songs was influenced by the sounds whilst growing up in Fluggenstadt but also plagiarized from Russ Abbot’s seminal album ‘I love a Party’. – His town had been closed to the rest of the world as it had been the scene of a bitterly contested on going pitch battle between several warring countries all with spurious historical claims – Fluggulssohnn was instrumental in penning the theme tune to the eventual ousting of the government and was asked to form the fledgling states politburo – Fluggulssohnn disappeared.
Fluggulssohn fled his country under an assumed name and whilst travelling south settled in his mothers ancestral home in Rhyl, North Wales before leaving after 2 days due to an unspecified altercation with Lionel Blair.
Fluggulssohn was then invited to South Wales in 1977 to perform in the Grand Theatre Xmas Pantomime alongside Britain’s No1 act at the time Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog. But it was whilst in Port Talbot, Torn began to experiment musically a path that would last 35 years & ultimately lead to his final album the acclaimed ‘BlackSquare’.
The first 47 albums (1940 – 1955) were made of traditional folk tunes, his most successful being the 1940 debut ‘See mama, Moustaches do grow on tree’s’ and the seminal ‘No clogs for Janet’ in 1954.
The next 43 albums (1956 – 1977) were departures from his traditional roots and were much criticized by the more conservative orthodox folkists who condemned his forays in to folk rock mix – The 1958 album ‘rock my nose flute’ a rare highlight during this period.
‘Nose flute jive’ (1965) and ‘nose flute replica’ (1970) were of limited critical acclaim. By the time of ‘Nose Flute Variations in C minor’ in 1977 the album only sold 3 copies and his career seemed to be at an all time low.
Fluggulssohnn’s stagnated creativity lead to more introspection and confusion and terrible covers albums…. his triple album of Aled Jones songs were an all time critical low. It was here in this state that he unintentionally wandered into the Swansea Palace Theatre nightclub and invented happy-hardcore garage and grime music.
Another 25 albums followed (1977 – 2012) before Fluggulsshonn wrote Black Square months before his sad demise. It has been noted that acclaimed rock star David Bowie paid tribute to Fluggulssohn with his own final album ‘Blackstar’.
BlackSquare is seen by some as his final say on the scandal around his moustache. There were some unfounded rumors that it was a fake moustache made out of Barry Chuckles pubic hair and that acclaimed hairless Olympic Swimmer Duncan Goodhue was his real father. These unfounded rumours blighted his career at the time and dogged his already flagging reputation with the opposite sex throughout his later years.
The Grime years brought the fluggulssohnn brand and the moustache to a new generation fluggulfanatique – don’t f**k with da nose flute and nose flute hoodz saw duets with major contemporary micro stars
The Rise of the Tache
Very much a trade mark of his early folk career his moustache was a symbol of his cultural background – it became the symbol of defiance for a generation wracked by conflict and spanned the length of his career, the beat often changed but the ‘tache’ remained – and to this day, wherever you see conflict on the news and hear repression on the radio…the moustache and music of Torn Fluggulssohn offers hope and despair to all who need it.
Disappearance/Death
Fluggulsonn was finishing his album BLACKSQUARE in Port Talbot, South Wales shortly before his death. A press conference was organized to launch the new album co-produced by Bonnie Tylor & Phil Spector…But Flugglesohnn never arrived.
Police were called to his burnt out Caravan where remains were found in a local cats mouth and strands of Torn’s DNA on a discarded razor later identified as his mothers infamous razor of shame*. Small pieces of facial hair were found on the blade, which identified the owner as Flugglessohnn’s moustache.
His left leg was later found for sale at a charity shop in Swansea, his right arm and left hand was found 2 weeks later in Cardiff whilst his clothes were found hung out to dry on a washing line in Leeds. The rest of his body was never found nor a motive for his apparent murder.
*Torns mother used to shave him excessively as a baby in a lunatic asylum, which is said to have contributed in later life to his extraordinary moustache growth.
Revolution / Fluggulsshonn
Although never aligned to any political party and never officially made leader – Fluggusshonn was the de facto figurehead of revolutions around the world and at many different times
The tache has always been at the forefront of the revolutionary look the revolt aesthetic – think Uncle Joe, Ernesto , Leon , Lech, Burt Reynolds – think Torn Fluggulsshonn
Gregor Rasputin famously cited the legend of Torn Fluggulssohnn as his major inspiration.
The legend of Torn Fluggulssohn
Throughout the many lands of northern Europe exists legends that describe a freedom-fighting, minstrel travelling in exile – all of the collective stories are contradictory alluding to different times places and people within the legend. The common theme of the collection is the name and the moustache the most recent incarnation of Torn Fluggulssohn is the 20th century’s folk rock hard-core grime artist and revolutionary MC Fluggessonn
A Torn ‘Flugglesonn’ had critics French revolutionary leader Marat for failing to comply to the code of revolts dictum that all revolutionary’s have to sport moustaches in a pamphlet held in the Louvres. The pamphlet contains a ballad accredited to the then Torn Flugglesonne – TornF luggleson –
“When Marat bathes, his shinny upper lip
Casts doubt upon his
Hardness “
The most recent incumbent of the Fugglesonn lineage disappeared some years ago presumed dead but only to resurface as Lionel Ritchie’s gardener.
Sightings
although generally accepted by the Swansea Police Force that Torn Fluggulssohn was dead there have been sightings after his death. Most intriguingly at his funeral over one hundred people witnessed a one-legged, one armed, handless man with razor cuts on his face and smelling of burnt caravan singing to a squirrel.
Whether dead or alive his legacy lives on, and we hope you want to join us to pay homage to one of the human races greatest icons.