Deborah J

Lead Vocalist, Frontwoman of TCoS

**Deborah J** is the lead vocalist and frontwoman of TCoS, as well as an accomplished solo artiste in her own right.

## Early Life

Deborah was born at some point during the 1990s, the exact date being something she has been reluctant to share as "I don't want you lot sending me birthday cards, and anyway, a lady needs to maintain a little mystery." Prior to her time as a popular musician, Deborah lived a comparatively quiet life dabbling in amateur dramatics, graphic design, boom-mic operation, cinematography and somehow bluffing her way through a bachelors degree in some sort of science. She also is the owner of a pet goat - Goatward - who is approximately 30 feet long, and a Blue Peter Badge, which has shown up on a small number of album covers. When asked in interview how she obtained this badge, Deborah has been reluctant to say more than "There was an arts and crafts incident" and leave it at that, useually with a deeply haunted look in her eyes. Given the singer's well established phobia for expanded polystyrene, one can only speculate as to what horrors might have preceded the aquisition of this small pop-culture trophy.

## Musical Career

Deborah began her musical career singing in nightclubs and retirement home Christmas parties, with a goal to make a name for herself and break into the music recording industry. It was at this early stage of her career that Deborah first encountered rising radio host star Daleks Jones at a convention for The Society for People Who Like to Make Noises With Their Mouths, a friendship that would later prove to be beneficial to the careers of both of them when Deborah eventually found success as a pop star. It was also in these early days of Deborah's musical journey that she met future bandmate The Sparrow, an already established guitarist, who was working as a solo artist at the time and was hired to perform as a backing musician during one of Deborah's booked performances at the Silver Sands hotel, Blackpool, with the two becoming good friends and remaining in close contact ever since.

At the time when TCoS were forming, Deborah was just on the cusp of launching her own career as a solo recording artist, with a double album put together and due for almost imminent release - entirely recorded with an expensive photoshoot having been done for the cover art. She was reluctant to join the band, as this would mean putting her solo plans on hold, as the contract stipulated not releasing anything that would overshadow the band's launch and the album she had made was opulent and grand. Eventually, however, she was persuaded, as the studio included a Columbia costume in their offer, with Deborah assuming the role of lead vocalist, putting her plans for a solo career and her unreleased album on hold for the time being. With Deborah's commitment to the TCoS project, the band were able to attract top talent and Deborah's personal friend Sparrow, who was persuaded to join when he learned of Deborah's involvement in the project.

In the early days of TCoS, there was some turbulance and strained relationships within the group, inevitable in a collection of highly artistic individuals, with Deborah finding herself at odds with many of her band mates at varying times, and coming close to leaving the group on more than one occassion within the first year. Firstly there was the loss of her car - a jaunty yellow Ford Capri - which she had used to drive herself from gig to gig in the early days of her career as a musician, and which the band's bassist Danoftardis had set fire to following a disagreement, resulting in Deborah leaving the band for several days mid-tour, with the band's future drummer Doctor Gamer filling in for her as lead vocalist in her absense. Deborah also had a major clash with the band's original drummer Dalekcheese, during which Deborah quite seriously considered departing for good, before the band ultimately decided to part ways with Cheese and hire a new drummer.

Despite putting her immediate plans for solo artist superstardom on the backburner to join TCoS, Deborah has nonetheless been able to release a smattering of relatively low-key solo projects, with a small album just before the launch of the band, a second during a break from the group's first tour, following a fall-out with Danoftardis - the album being largely intended as a clapback to the TCoS bassist - and a series of singles reflecting important moments in her life; eating fancy pizza and rosemary fries on her birthday, taking over a small town and inflicting a reign of terror on its denizens, and the loss of her iconic shoes. She has always remained hopeful to eventually dust off her abandoned pre-TCoS double album "Came Forth Sweetness", telling Daleks Jones in interview on Clom FM in May 2023, "It's not a matter of if I release it but when, the time just needs to be right... Actually, come to think of it, I probably should have done that when the band wasn't really doing anything this past year. Heck. Oh well, next time the time is right for sure."

## Fashion and Style

During her years in the band, Deborah's most noticable change has been her hair, growing in length from extremely short to considerably lengthy over a period of a few years. The reason for her initial short haircut - unknown by most fans - stems from the photoshoot for her unreleased solo album. This photoshoot, taking place a few months before the announcement of the band's formation, involved the singer immersed to varying degrees in a swimming pool filled with golden syrup, an activity which ended up ruining Deborah's hair, necessitating its complete removal, to be regrown from scratch. By the time of the band's earliest press appearances it had regrown to a pixie cut and by the time the band's first album dropped it was getting some length to it, with Deborah keeping details of the loss of her hair a secret to avoid creating fan demand for her unreleased album. There are, however, some notable photos from before the band's official formation that appear to show the singer wearing a wig, as well as one rare image of her without wig, completely bald, which the band explained as being her "shy bald buddhist" phase, something they re-enforced with the release of a Shy Bald Buddhist Deborah action figure.

Deborah with short hairDeborah with long hairsome time before the forming of the band, wearing an unconvincing wigrare shot of a bald Deborah, taken at a party in 2019, later acquired by The Daily Vortex
Furthering her position as band member with the most confusingly inconsistent hair (a position challenged only by Sparrow), Deborah has also caused great confusion among fans for her eyebrows seeming to constantly appear and disappear from photoshoot to photoshoot. This apparently has nothing to do with the aforementioned syrup incident, and is instead down to Deborah's mysterious decision to periodically shave them off. When finally asked about this, in an interview with The Daily Vortex, Deborah explained "Sometimes I like to switch things up. And it's a good look for a party - gladrags on, eyebrows off."

Deborah with eyebrowsDeborah without eyebrows
Deborah is well known for her diverse style and interesting dress sense, having been responsible for the design of the band's initial uniformly suited look - one which was quite rapidly abandoned, with the exception of Avon, in favour of the band members largely wearing clothes and styles of their own choosing. Deborah has worn outfits inspired by some of fashions greatest icons, from Katy Manning to Sarah Sutton, and even from fashion legend Deborah J herself.

## Behind the scenes

Another thing Deborah has become known for during her time with the band is something the other members of TCoS refer to as Goatposting, their name for Deborah to come out with bizarre but extremely quotable aphorisms, these quirky turns-of phrase frequently ending up as song titles when one of them captures the fans imaginations.

Deborah has a long running infatuation with famed actor David Warner, which was curtailed but not ended by the veteran actor's untimely passing in 2022. Deborah is the proud owner of seven restraining orders from Warner, mostly for rummaging through his bins, which she has described as "Collectors items"

 Compilation albums
 Live albums
 EPs
 Singles

 Lüking Güd | *Lüking Güd* (2020) • *Rainbow Dreamers Strike Back* (2021)