Revision as of 11:58, 20 January 2010

Gidget Gein
Gidget Gein attending an art exhibition in 2007.
Background information
Birth name	Bradley Mark Stewart
Born	September 11, 1969 in Hollywood, Florida
Died	October 8, 2008 in Burbank, California (age 39)
Genre(s)	Alternative metal, industrial rock, experimental
Occupation(s)	Artist, musician, songwriter, record producer, bag boy
Instrument(s)	Bass guitar, guitar, vocals
Years active	1990–2007
Label(s)	Transparency, Scorpian Rising, Empire MusicWerks, Use Once and Destroy, Interscope, Nothing, WYNF, Beat Up Your Mom
Associated acts	UNPOP Art, Gidget Gein and the Dali Gaggers, Marilyn Manson, Insanity Assassin
Website	http://www.gidgetgein.com/

Bradley Mark Stewart (born September 11, 1969 and died on October 8, 2008), better known by his stage name Gidget Gein, was a professional musician. Gein played bass in Marilyn Manson from 1989 until he was fired in 1993. His stage name was formed from the names Gidget and Ed Gein.

Biography

Bradley Stewart was born in Hollywood, Florida. He was born to a Catholic school teacher mother and police officer father. As his biological mother and father began to separate, Bradley's early childhood character was molded through an acid-fallout host of 1970s kid shows, AM-radio, and drive-in movies, while learning to play guitar through a Catholic priest.

A bit further on in his life in the mid 80s, he would be seen as a popular clothing model and local band member while enjoying his leisure time as an effective South Florida band heckler. His character, style, and reputation at this point had become the prototype for what young Brian Warner would adapt into a Marilyn Manson ideal. As they became closer friends, Bradley and Brian's personalities expressed themselves through fun ideals in Gidget Gein and Marilyn Manson. The personal stylings, influences, and experiences of each member would showcase as Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids to the south Florida music scene and eventually gain the attention of a newly successful Trent Reznor.

As the band became more infamous after dropping the "Spooky Kids" title in 1992, Gidget's personality was becoming more chaotic through extensive drug use and various debauchery. In October 1993, Reznor agreed to rework the production on Marilyn Manson's album, taking them and their tapes to The Record Plant in Los Angeles. On the Christmas Eve of 1993, when finding himself in a hospital bed after a heroin overdose, Gidget discovered through Federal Express, that his services were "no longer needed" by Marilyn Manson. He was replaced by Jeordie White, now known as Twiggy Ramirez, of Miami death metal band Amboog-a-Lard.

Noticeably, most of Jeordie White's signature early Twiggy Ramirez look, down to the multi colored dreadlocks, was taken directly from White's girlfriend at the time Jessicka (Jack Off Jill) and Gein himself. After writing a great arsenal of music for the band, Gein then saw a substitution of his style and personality inserted into Marilyn Manson albums for years to come. This pattern in his old band would continue and the colorful, spooky-cartoon, and psychedelic elements and ideas that Gidget represented in Marilyn Manson would eventually become more of a gothic revision for audiences.

Gidget's path of indulgence would continue for years after his departure from the band. He moved to New York in 1996, befriending many artists and characters over the next few years. As his own art and ideas began to gather, he formed a group called Gidget Gein and the Dali Gaggers which featured various fun displays of degenerate art, ideas and post-punk styled songwriting. By examining the flyers and lyrics of the Dali Gaggers, it is evident that Gidget was a major influence in the earlier Marilyn Manson newsletters, flyers and songwriting. In 1998 the Dali Gaggers completed the recording Just AdNausem, after which Gein allegedly autographed up to 10,000 booklets for the album's reissue as Confessions of a Spooky Kid. Once Just AdNausem had been readied for this re-release in 2000 however, the group had already disbanded as a result of Gein's heroin addiction.

Returning to Florida, Gidget begun work for the south Florida medical examiner as a "Bag Boy". Over years of retrieving and cleaning up after the deceased, Gidget continued to gather extreme experiences and ideas for more and more art. His experiences at the medical examiner's office have been documented in various international magazines and spurred early production of a motion picture based on this period of his life. Over time his arsenal of art and ideas began to outweigh his position as a Bag Boy and Gidget found a friendship with the freshly announced UNPOP art movement and, surprisingly, a collaboration with Marilyn Manson and Asia Argento in a music video for the song "(s)AINT", which was later banned by Manson's record label Interscope Records.

Leaving Florida behind in 2004 and taking his collection with him, Gidget began to execute art and fashion shows in Hollywood, California under the organised name GOLLYWOOD. His creation of sculpture, bedroom and bathroom suites, clothing, themed music, and books continued to develop in Hollywood in association with his fans, associates and close friends.

On October 9, 2008, Gidget was found dead from a heroin overdose in his Burbank home, shocking close friends and family, who believed he had been drug-free for years. As a result, plans for a tribute event in Gein's memory to be held in 2009 were made, featuring guests such as members of the early Marilyn Manson lineup and members of Gidget Gein and the Dali Gaggers. In the aftermath of Gein's death, a flurry of his belongings and merchandise, which former Dali Gaggers guitarist Al B. Damned asserts are authentic, began being distributed over the Internet. These items included signed copies of Confessions of a Spooky Kid and custom-imprinted guitar picks.

Discography

Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids

• Grist-o-Line (1990)
• Big Black Bus (1990)
• After School Special (1991)
• Lunchbox (1992)
• Lunchboxes & Choklit Cows (2004)

Marilyn Manson

• Portrait of an American Family (1994)

Gidget Gein and the Dali Gaggers

• Just AdNauseam (1998)
• Confessions of a Spooky Kid (2000)

Gidget Gein

• Suspension of Disbelief (2007)
• The Law of Diminishing Returns (2007)

Filmography

• God Is in the T.V. (1999)
• Demystifying the Devil (2000)
• The Devil's Muse (2007)
• In a Spiral State (2009)

Trivia

• A sculpture of Gein's entitled "In Case of Emergency Break Heart" appears in the music video for "(s)AINT". Gein himself makes a cameo appearance in the video as well, playing the blonde transvestite who injects Manson with drugs and makes out with him towards the end. The sculpture is an edition of two, the one in the video being owned by Asia Argento and the other version, being owned by artist and friend Damian Crowley
• Gein appears in the VH1 series special Driven: Marilyn Manson, first shown on February 12, 2002.
• Gein dated actress Asia Argento. Dated International Fetish model Courtney Cruz, they broke up in 2006.
• Gein was known to have experimented with scriptwriting as well as playing music and painting. Bagboy and Junk Bonds are among his known works, the latter being based on his own experiences with heroin addiction.
• Gein was responsible for coining the nickname "Pogo" for Stephen Bier, then known as Madonna Wayne Gacy. He also dubbed Fred Streithorst with the pseudonym Sara Lee Lucas.^[1]

References

1. ↑ Demystifying the Devil. Chris Nicholas. October 17, 2000.

External links

• Official website
• UNPOP ART's official website