Iggy

Born

1947-12-14

Died

2017-12-13

Birthplace

Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Biography

Iggy Rose was a model and actress who was immortalized by Mick Rock at Syd Barrett's "The Madcap Laughs," his first solo album after Pink Floyd, released in 1969. She was known as Iggy the Eskimo back then as it was rumored she was part Inuit. She was born Evelyn Laldawngliani Joyce on the 14th of December 1947 in Rawalpindi (Pakistan) to a British father, major Harry Charlton Joyce, an officer in the British army, and a Mizo woman, Chawngpuii (known as Angela in English). Evelyn's parents had met at the end of the Second World War, when he was stationed in Mizoram - then, the the Lushai Hills (northeastern India, then still ruled by the British). Evelyn's middle name, Laldawngliani, means gift of the gods, in mizo, a language Iggy never spoke. Evelyn had two younger siblings, Stephen Lalungmuana, who was born in Dhaka (Bangladesh) in January 1949; and Elizabeth, who was born in Worthing, Sussex, around 1959. For decades there were political and military troubles in Mizoram. One day a mob invaded Iggy's family home and burned it down. The family flew to Aden, Yemen, and later moved to England. For an unknown reason, Evelyn was nicknamed Iggy or Ig. After moving to England Iggy was briefly an art student. She lived in Brighton but she ran away from home in 1961, when she was fourteen. She worked at Granny Takes a Trip, the "first psychedelic boutique in Groovy London of the 1960s," as a shop assistant, and was a regular at the Orchid Ballroom in Purley between 1963 and 1967. She spent a brief part of the 60s living in Croydon. When her mixed-race appearance was exoticised in the London of the 1960s, she gave the name "Eskimo" to an NME photographer as a joke, although she always said she was "from the Himalayas." In 1967 she became involved with film director Anthony Stern, who took many pictures of the model and also made a film of her called "Iggy the Eskimo Girl." Stern said: "Iggy was my muse. [...] She was a lovely inspiration and free spirit. I never knew her real name. We used to hang out together, occasionally dropping acid, staying up all night, going for walks at dawn in Battersea Park. She entirely captures the spirit of the Sixties, living for the moment, completely carefree." The most iconic images of her appear on Syd Barrett's solo album The Madcap Laughs, where she poses naked in the background, and were took by Mick Rock on the spring of 1969. She moved to Brighton soon after and left London in the 1970s. In 1976 she acted in the experimental film "Central Bazaar" by the provocative avant-garde legend Stephen Dwoskin. In the mid-seventies psychedelic tomfoolery was over and Iggy had to look for a job. She worked on a horse-farm and met her husband Andrew there. They relocated to a small village in the Horsham district of West Sussex, where she worked in a local supermarket. While researching for his Pink Floyd biography, author Mark Blake quizzed everyone about Iggy's whereabouts. In September 2008, the Croydon Guardian managed to track her down. She inspired artist Anthony Stern, who took photographs of her, later released in the short documentary "Iggy The Eskimo Girl." Iggy passed away aged 69 in the UK; she was survived by her husband Andrew.