At age 3 years old, her father walked out of their lives and little Megan became withdrawn, and sickly – a sad-faced caricature of her former self – a sad-eyed princess lost in Merseyside’s Neon Catacomb of hoodies and vagabonds. Betty Curse grew stronger within.
At school she remained without friends to lean on. At home, Megan was a recluse. Some people jokingly say that she slashed her wrists for the first time at six months old - just because of her sad, sad life – a testament to Betty Curse’s existence within the girl.
Her grandmother saw potential in Megan when at age eleven, she sent Megan to a drama class - apparently to help the little girl battle her crippling grief.
At drama classes, she was seen to truly have potential and Megan was sent to see some important bigwigs in the London movie industry.
She was auditioned and was cast in a film called "Liam". With this greater exposure she was sent to the Venice Film festival to be given a best actress award. Because of this, she caught the attention of Danny Boyle and he gave her a part in his big important horror and thriller film, "28 Days".
With this film gaining international renown, Megan became a full-fledged star.
However, Megan’s viler alter-ego – that of the vampiric Betty Curse – was ripe for release. It was Betty Curse whose pop-influenced childhood topped with new metal influenced adolescence and was mixed with influences from The Cure, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, The Vaselines, Sex Pistols, Cyndi Lauper, Nick Cave, The Cribs, Velvet Underground, The Jesus and Mary Chain, PJ Harvey, The Lemonheads, Bettie Page, Edgar Allan Poe, Donnie Darko, Edward Scissorhands and the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari gave birth to the goth rock band act of Betty Curse.
Together with Steve Ludwin they have embarked on a mission to create music that they will use to contaminate the world with their poisonous grief, Kafkaesque despair and macabre leanings.
Or so, they would want us to believe in their press releases. The other side of the fence however – as embodied by Stephen Graham has this to say of the Betty Curse band:
Weirdly brash it might be, but the music of Betty Curse is disappointingly far from being as exciting and as original as that of those who have inspired them and is more a case of pop imitating rock.
The opening lines of Met on the Internet suggest this is going to be an aggressive rant stemming from and Betty Curse’s lead singer co-writer's Megan Burns' troubled childhood. Indeed such is consistently inherent in the rest of the tracks here but, to be honest, the uninspiring negativity does little to render appeal in the music, unless you're of a similar frame of mind of course. Yet, behind the anger and the pain, Burns' voice actually has a girly kind of joviality which makes wild-child alias Betty Curse even harder for her to pull off as convincing.
Burns scores points at least in succeeding to find a healthy medium in which to vent years of pent up anger but immediately has some taken back off her in reverting to such juvenility in her lyrical style, such as her attempt in using sexually-orientated imagery in Rot In Heaven. But if you want to succeed in the world of grown-up rock, you're going to have start thinking like a grown-up rocker! The attempt at shock-tactics however is sadly no more impressive (or shocking) than something you would expect from Pink, whose similar life experiences and musical traits have earned her worldwide success on a more commercial scale. Perhaps therefore Betty Curse should think about marketing themselves towards a teenage-orientated pop audience as there would seem more of a niche there for this type of music.
A bit harsh as the author of this article agrees, however upon further investigation of Betty Curse, one can see that the brand of music that they carry can be more of a teen pop artist than a gothic rock band. The Betty Curse band’s themes and music is a startling contrast however to their lyrics as line after line of “emo” hurt and pain lace the songs.
The song-writing style of Betty Curse can put most readers a little off because of its sing-song and juvenile quality. Lyrics like:
God This Hurttssss
It really couldn't get much worse
the love we had
won't come baaaacccckk
God This Sucks
I really really want your blood
make you pay for all my pain
can make you wonder if Edgar Allan Poe indeed influenced this band at all.
All in all, the Betty Curse band is a sure winner. However, they may have missed their genre of calling a bit as their music, despite their gothic getup and “emo” lyrics, is sure to give Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and Avril Lavigne a good run for their money.
Betty Curse – gothic punk rock band, you be the judge.
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Betty Curse Biography:
