The first encounter between comedian Julian Clary and singer-songwriter Barb Jungr did not go well. It was 1985 and Julian admits he was in typical tease-the-punter mode as he worked the audience at the Bush Fires cabaret club in Shepherd’s Bush, London. He approached Barb, who was wearing a bandana, and inquired if her head was hurting her, much to everyone’s amusement.
“It was a very chic orange-and-white bandana,” Barb huffs in mock outrage. She had been waiting to go on after Julian, and sat in the audience to watch, as performers on the same bill often do. Having started out in a new-wave gospel band called the Three Courgettes, Barb and guitarist Michael Parker were performing as the alternative cabaret duo Jungr and Parker, while Julian was doing standup as the Joan Collins Fan Club with whippet crossbreed, Fanny.
