How Placebo made Nancy Boy

Brian Molko said Nancy Boy was about reclaiming the homophobic insults that were hurled at me every time I went out because I had long hair and wore eyeliner and nail polish. I’d walk into a bar and people would react vociferously, or guys would think I was a girl then get really aggressive when they found out my name was Brian.

I thought I could regain some power by writing a celebration of debauchery that was so brazenly sexual it would piss off the people who insulted me even more. Molko remembers living on income support in Deptford when he came up with the chorus but hesitated because the chords felt too catchy or mainstream.

Stefan heard it and said: "Man, that’s such a hook." In the rehearsal room it became this distorted punk thing, and some of the words — "Alcoholic kind of mood, lose my clothes, lose my lube," "Had some help from insect ways" and "Eyeholes in a paper bag, greatest lay I’ve ever had" — were meant to tell a wild night out and to reclaim insults.

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