Just Another Nancy Boy

I first heard of Placebo in 1994. I was at secondary school, and a lad came up to me and said; “All right Brian?” prompting sniggers from his surrounding lackeys. I thought this was another ‘Tosh Lines’ sort of reference. My peers often called me by the names of burly male celebrities in an effort to shame me into being more appropriately feminine. But the Brian thing was different. Numerous people said it to me, and not always unkindly, until eventually one guy informed me, “You look like that Placebo bird.” (I’m not kidding, the concept of a man in make-up was so alien to him he was insistent on Brian Molko being female despite being called Brian and identifying as male.)