Johanna Pigott


Johanna Paton Pigott is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter and screenwriter. Her best known hit songs are Dragon's "Rain" which peaked at No. 2 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in 1983, and John Farnham's "Age of Reason". "Rain" was co-written with partner Dragon's Todd Hunter and his younger brother, Marc Hunter. When "Age of Reason" reached the top of the charts in July 1988, Pigott became the first Australian woman to have written a No. 1 hit. It was co-written with Todd Hunter.
Scripts by Pigott for TV include Sweet and Sour, Heartbreak High and Mortified. Films include: Broken English and Alex.

Early life

Pigott was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney in Croydon together with schoolmate Angela Webber. Following matriculation from high school in the 1970s, Pigott studied Architecture at the University of Sydney.

Bands

XL Capris

was an indie-punk band formed in 1978 by Johanna Pigott aka 'Alligator Bagg', Tim Gooding aka 'Errol Cruz', Julie Anderson aka 'Nancy Serapax' and Kimble Rendall aka 'Dag Rattler'. Early practice sessions were in the front room of a Birchgrove house where Gooding lived. Their first single was a punk version of Tommy Leonetti's "My City of Sydney", which had a promo video showing the four in bed together. Pigott was lead vocalist and bass guitarist in the video. The single received some radio airplay but was not a commercial success. Second 1979 single "Skylab " was written by Rendall but had even less success.
Their next single, "World War Three", produced by Todd Hunter and was written by Pigott and Hunter. Rendall left to form Le Hoodoo Gurus, became a music video director and then a second unit director for the latter two Matrix series movies. He was replaced by Hunter, Michael Churnside joined, Anderson left to be replaced by Barry Blackler, Michael Farmer also joined.
First album was Where's Hank?. Gooding wrote ten songs including two with Pigott: "Red Bikini Runaway" and "Hi Rise Heart". Pigott also wrote "Evelyn". 'Hank' was a German shepherd owned by Rendall: "Hank went to live on a farm at Nambucca Heads". Based on Rendall's and Pigott's recollections, the album title Where's Hank? is a pun on a 1980s TV ad for a chocolate bar: 'Where's George?' The response is... 'gone for a Tosca!'
For the second album Weeds Pigott and Hunter wrote six songs including the single "Igloos", Pigott wrote "Please Excuse Me" and Gooding also wrote six songs. Hunter returned to Dragon late in 1981 and XL Capris dissolved in 1982.
Street poster art featuring XL Capris include:
Toby Zoates' 1978 screenprint, XL Capris for the B-side of 1981 single "Red Bikini Runaway" called "K-Tel City" and has the band on the bonnet of a car crashing into a TV game show; and Paul Worstead's 1979 screen prints, Settlement Dance - Scarlet, XL-Capris and XL-Capris, Settlement - Beginning of School Holiday Dance.

Sardine v and Scribble

Pigott briefly joined Sardine v on bass guitar. Video for their 1982 single "Sudan" shows Pigott heavily disguised in a burqa-like black costume strumming bass to Stephanie Rilen's plaintive vocals and Ian Rilen's guitar.
Scribble was a post punk synth pop band based around Pigott with session musicians and band members including Hunter, Mark Bell, Lee Borkman, Mike Caen, Bill Heckenberg, Geoff Lungren and Tim Powles. They released Scribble in 1983 including single "Silly Girl" / "Mr Calico". "Silly Girl" video showed a wistful Pigott singing and playing guitar. "Adaptability" aka "Cartoon Connection " was a 1984 single. Two albums were: So Far 1983-1985 and Pop Art, which had ten tracks, including singles: "Sunday School", "Don't Give Your Heart Away" and "Alligator". "Alligator" was later performed by Fleur Beaupert on Heartbreak High episodes No. 133 and No. 145. Pigott's nickname from XL Capris had been 'Alligator Bagg'. The Pop Art cover depicts a stylised version of Pigott. Although achieving some cult interest there was little commercial success for Scribble.

Solo and with Genni Kane

In 1984, Pigott and Hunter wrote Pigott's "Turn It Up" on various artists' album The Nine O'Clock Muse. In 1993, Genni Kane and Johanna Pigott released "Starlight Hotel" as a CD single. In 2005, Pigott sang a verse of "ComeDown" by KingJustice on their album What the World Needs Now.

Songwriter

Dragon

During 1983, Pigott and Hunter wrote Dragon's come back hit single "Rain". Pigott remembers, "I went from a little underground band to finding myself up the back of the Entertainment Centre hearing 10,000 people sing the chorus of my song." The song reached No. 2 but was blocked by Austen Tayshus' No. 1 hit "Australiana". Pigott sang "Rain" with Rockmelons on their album Form 1 Planet with Hunter providing backing vocals. Hunter and Pigott co-wrote other Dragon songs including "Cry" and Pigott was a session musician on Dragon's 1989 album, Bondi Road. Re-formed in 2006, Dragon perform acoustic versions of their earlier work including "Rain".

John Farnham

had asked Hunter and Pigott to write him a song, they provided a number-one hit single, "Age of Reason" also on his Age of Reason album which debuted at number one. The demo version had been recorded with Todd's brother Marc Hunter singing lead. Pigott became the first Australian woman to write an Australian number one hit.

Keith Urban

Hunter and Pigott wrote Keith Urban's first single "Only You", which also appeared on his first album, Keith Urban.

Screenwriter and songwriter

TV series

During 1983-1984 Pigott and Gooding created the ABC TV series Sweet and Sour, they also wrote episodes. Shared experiences in the music industry lent authenticity to their scripts. Pigott also wrote four songs for the two soundtrack albums.
The theme song for TV series, Heartbreak High written by Hunter and Pigott was nominated for the 1994 Australasian Performing Right Association 'Television Theme of the Year' award. Hunter was the composer for the series and, with Pigott, wrote over 20 songs for the series. Pigott also wrote episode scripts. Episode No. 61 featured six songs written by Hunter and Pigott: "Down to the River", "Rest in Peace" and "Second Chance" performed by Tucker and Terry Serio; and "You've Changed", "Only You" and "Whatever I Had with You" by Tucker alone. Hunter and Pigott performed their own songs: "I'll Be There" in episode No. 70, "Gravity and Psyche" No. 92, "Love Is Here to Stay" No. 125.
In 1995 a combined American Broadcasting Company and Australian Broadcasting Corporation production, ABC's World Of Discovery: Australia's Outback: The Vanishing Frontier, featured music by Pigott, Hunter, Stacey Widelitz and Lee Holdridge.
During 2006-2007, TV series, Mortified episodes No. 1.7 Flag Fall and No. 1.12 Being Me were written by Pigott. Her close friend and former schoolmate, Angela Webber, had created the TV series and Gooding also wrote scripts for some episodes.
In 2008, Pigott co-wrote the Title Theme of the new BBC/Southern Star TV Serial Out of the Blue.

Films

The Girl Who Came Late aka Daydream Believer had original music by Hunter and Pigott. Pigott performed "I'll Stand by You" for the soundtrack and, with Hunter, wrote: "The Love Theme", "The Polo Factor" and "Nell Rides Out" for the film score. "Daydream Believer is their first major feature film as composers". End titles song performed by Sam Brown, "With You" involved exchanges of tapes and long-distance phone calls.
Alex aka Alex: The Spirit of a Champion had original music by Hunter and Pigott. "Alex " aka "Aotearoa" written by Hunter and "For The Rest Of My Life'" by Hunter and Pigott. Broken English was co-written by Pigott with director Gregor Nicholas and James Salter. The New Zealand film won six awards and is a Romeo and Juliet for Māori Eddie, and an immigrant Croatian Nina.