One of the best things on the internet in recent weeks was Lady Gaga’s Instagram video post of Surgeon and Lady Starlight playing together. "@ladystarlightny and a Surgeon are on stage! #realDjs #playlive THIS SHIT IS SO INCREDIBLE" she tweeted. Now, in an interview preview for next weekend’s Regis and Surgeon gig at Bloc, he’s spilled the beans about how one of the dark lords of making a doofy racket shared a stage with an intergalactically massive pop star. You can read the full interview here. Asked where the connection to Gaga came from, Tony Surgeon said "I’m interested in many different artists and believe that there’s always something to learn from all great performers. In October my wife and I went to the Lady Gaga concert in Birmingham and I was very surprised to hear one of her support acts, Lady Starlight playing a ‘real’ techno live set. She made a real point to tell the slightly confused audience that she was playing techno live using hardware. Then she said, ‘I’m happy to be playing in Birmingham tonight as one of my techno heroes, Surgeon is from here.’ To say I was surprised is a massive understatement!"
Apparently Lady Starlight was surprised that Surgeon was there too, and the pair started communicating. "We realised that we shared many, many core ideas on music, art and performance," Surgeon says. "She’s like the techno sister that I was separated from at birth.
Since their tour was returning to Birmingham in November we had the idea to perform together. It all came together very naturally.
"The gig was the most fun ever, there’s an amazing onstage chemistry between us. Lady Gaga came out to see our set and she could see the energy we created and was very enthusiastic about it. So much so that she asked us to perform together at their last tour date in Paris. Of course we knew it would surprise people. It’s so absurd, I would never have imagined it in a million years before we met, but when the universe holds up such a massive sign, I have to pay attention.
It’s been a chance to really provoke people and force them to assess their ideas on the connections between different styles of music. The context of music and many other ideas. Separation is an illusion."
He added that the reaction to the set had been pretty interesting: "people’s reactions, as always, reveal so much about themselves. It’s like holding up a mirror to themselves because there was so little information about our performance." Regis and Surgeon play Bloc in London on December 6th, tickets here. Check The Quietus next week for a British Murder Boys feature.
