The Wonder Show of the World

A decade has passed since Half Man Half Biscuit, no minor cult concern themselves, uttered the line: “We’re just sitting, listening to music, drinking tea, talking about the Palace Brothers, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, that kind of thing” on their track, ‘Emerging From Gorse’. Five years on, Jeffrey Lewis released ‘Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror’ in which he pondered Oldham’s place in the artistic firmament before being raped by him in a New York subway. These two examples serve to illustrate both the level of respect Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy has held all this time, and how profligate mythmaking has followed in his wake. From the early years, when he slipped between monikers on a near album-by-album basis (Palace, Palace Music, Palace Songs, Palace Brothers), to the decision to settle on the Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy alter-ego, Will Oldham has been his own mythmaker-in-chief. The policy has enabled him to slyly sidestep the focus on personality and personal life that dogs so many a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter - the brooding, increasingly-bearded Billy holding far more appeal than the few biographical details that can be gleaned about his brilliant creator.