When I was a little girl I had Sooty, Sweep and Soo glove puppets and gave impromptu performances in a beach hut in Clacton. I also played for hours with a string puppet of a Dutch girl. Could I have grown into a puppeteer, too? Perhaps not: Nathan "was a very serious young man. I didn't really 'do' playing. I've been making up for it since then. Perhaps that's why my own strings get tangled so often. I've now given up trying to untie them."
One look at the puppets he made for Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now, WOW! (his interpretation of Kate Bush's last live gig) and Rock 'n' Roll Suicide (his Bowie promo), and you can see a very clear influence from Jim Henson's shows. Did he watch Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock when he was a nipper? "Watching Fraggle Rock as a child, I recall being inexplicably excited when we descended into a subterranean world at the beginning of each episode. As an adult, I've found descending into a subterranean world can often lead to exciting episodes." And as for Big Bird and his chums, "Sesame Street has been an inspiration for my new show - Atomic, or Blondie the musical."
In Heaven Knows..., we meet 'Morrissey', a troubled puppet who falls in love with a rough punk puppet. Smiths songs such as "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" take us through their story - one which is light-hearted, bringing out Nathan's own feeling that at heart, The Smiths are dripping with humour. And the show itself has surreal aspects, where at one point, "our protagonist climbs a baked-bean stalk to the 'Great Greengrocer's in the Sky' where he defeats an ogress (by the name of Mrs Snatcher) and redistributes her considerable wealth around the estate where he lives." And not only is that rather surreal, but 'Morrissey' has an Estuary accent. Why not a Lancashire one? "I'm a comedian. Not a mimic."
Nathan writes the show, performs it, and makes the puppets. To make them can take "anything from a day to a week depending on the size and complexity of it." The puppets for Heavens Knows... are made from foam and fabric. Morrissey is a caricaturist's dream, with the glasses, quiff and bristling brows. Nathan's show makes me wish that puppet Moz had appeared in Sesame Street, although in 1992, there was a Morrissey on Spitting Image....
As yet, no one has threatened to beat Nathan to death with a bunch of gladioli. "I performed at a big Morrissey tribute night last year and no-one lynched me after." What did he think of Some Girls...? Nathan didn't see it. "I'm afraid I was rather jealous of their press coverage. I turned such a startling shade of green I couldn't leave the house without people staring."
He made the promo for "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" because there never had been one before, and Nathan felt that the song warranted one. It's oddly moving despite being comical. The poor, lonely puppet despondently wanders the London streets, though when we follow the puppet down an Underground escalator, the public look on and giggle. Despite this, though, Londoners are a resilient bunch when it comes to odd things occurring. "You know, I could do my striptease in the middle of a London street and no-one would notice." The puppet promo is fantastic though - would Nathan be tempted to make another one? "They're ever such a lot of work. But I'm open to offers for the right price."
When not sticking his arm up puppet Morrissey's bottom, amongst other things Nathan has done a documentary on Quentin Crisp, and a show called Rather Be Dead Than Gay, about his sexual disasters, which includes a strip and the placing of an ex-boyfriend's genitals (represented by a banana) in a food mixer. He has been blessed with a thoroughly busy imagination.
His current work-in-progress is Atomic, or Blondie the Musical. It's in its early stages, though, but is "a collaboration with Ms Polly Wiseman. It will involve characters both puppet and human - a bit like The Muppets, on which Debbie Harry actually guested...."
Do the subjects of his puppetry know about Nathan's work? Any cease-and-desist orders yet? "Not that I know of. But I think they'd all smile if they did."
