The dreams that I had ….

I started to write but there was too much going on and then the year was over! I needed a deadline and then I thought New Years Eve is a good one to have!

My highlights and I include some photographs I took was following the Black Madonna Sara out to the sea and hanging out with the gypsies in Southern France…you can read more here by Kerensa Smith whom I met out there in Travellers Times

Sara-la-Kâli in the crypt of the Church of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

Saint Sara being taken into the sea May 24 2023

All the way from Romania …the musicians came…

Music everywhere…in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

The other was sailing in an enormous German built ship with proper sails down the Dardanelles Strait past Gallipoli from the Marmara Sea under the biggest suspension bridge in the world the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge

1915 Çanakkale Bridge July 14 2023

I have barely played the piano this year but I am writing an album half of which I think works and I do hope to record in 2024. I have had some good omens but like many people fitting things around a day job I have found more and more difficult.

I was reminded that I do owe a ghost… I found a photo of me and my brother (dipping into the ocean’s past is a habit of mine this time of year … )

I actually forgot all about it and I fully intend to return their sweets this year.

I really did forget and how terrible I feel about it..

HAPPY NEW YEAR….!

I feel like this on New Years Eve …

Very old and rare unique postcard from Richard Meara Fine Photographs

Diving into the unknown…xxx

May….

May ….May ….May ….May….the shortest month name with no ‘R’ ok to eat oysters and I finally gave myself a Royal deadline…

LEADER MAGAZINE never heard of it but found at Ephemera Fair last weekend under a table Volume 7 No 27: May 6 1950

I begin where I meant to begin in the middle. The night before I went to Mexico in February I watched John Huston’s Under the Volcano which follows the dramas in a single day of the self destructive alcoholic British Consul Alan Bates in a tour de force performance with Jacqueline Bisset and Anthony Andrews.  The opening credits with the dancing calavera puppets and idiosyncratic music is surreal. 

Tiny unmarked photograph found in gallery Tingladography in Oaxaca

It’s as memorable and haunting as the film based on a book by Malcolm Lowry.

MEXICO – EST DE BAJA CALIFORNIA N FOTO 1963 (found in beautiful gallery: Tingladography where I also bought a wonderful old Mexican film poster)

Mexico is all about death. DBC Pierre who was born in Mexico was the first to explain this to me in his excellent Mexican road trip in the BBC series The Last Aztec. I did email him during the lockdown regarding this and got a helpful reply and a small excellent book to read.

Unmarked mid-size photograph found in beautiful gallery: Tingladography in Oaxaca – I love the monkey in the tree as well

As a result of the film I said to my friends “Let’s not go to a mountain bar in some obscure village for a nightcap after a cock fight nor go to a bullfight… “

Unmarked postcard Henry S Beach Importer C Juarez Mexico

Unmarked unknown photograph

So we didn’t. We kept to the path….

When we returned I heard one of my friends saying: “It wasn’t dangerous at all… it felt really safe!”

“But there was a dead man found outside our hotel in Oaxaca don’t you remember? Forcing us to take a detour around the block…”  I said. All I could see was a hat poking out from underneath the body sheet.

A 3D Postcard: CIEMEX TABASCO No 148 Mexico Printed by Toppan Japan: “Ttaloc God of Rain” Mexico City

Band Miltar del Ejerto Mexicano 11 February 1910 Republica Mexicana to Monsieur Bard in Paris

I love the work of Diego Rivera (my favourite was in the National Palace The History of Mexico which is just that – a great visual history of Mexico that proceeds along the stairwell of the Palace painted between 1925-1935) but even he as a socialist and one time communist, ended up in the US with Frida who did not like the gringos to make money.

5 May 1905 something about thanking Monsieur Hemi de Beauvais for the document …

Every time Diego Rivera got a new lover it was said poor Frida Kahlo (who had a near fatal accident when she was a teenager) had another operation (she had 32 surgeries). Anonymous photograph entitled “Hospitalised with a sugar skull” (1950)

Diego Rivera, Man, Controller of the Universe, 1934 at Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City

Leon Trotsky who was in exile (as seen on this poster) and very much a WANTED MAN by Stalin ended up in Mexico after travelling from Norway…

On the walls of the Trotsky Museum or Casa de Leon Trotsky February 2023

He was friends with Diego Rivera and had a love affair with Frida Kahlo …the house is very close by to the Blue House the family home where she resided.

On the walls of the Trotsky Museum or Casa de Leon Trotsky February 2023

Museo Casa Leon Trotsky postcard Rio Churubusco No 410 CPO4100 Colonia del Carmen, Coyacan http://www.museoleontrotsky.com

The Trotsky Museum (Photo: Lettie)

He was killed eventually by an ice axe and not by a bullet -but the holes from another assassination attempt punch the corridor walls and can still be seen…I tried to imagine his grandson hiding under the bed next door and how terrified he must have been.

Bullet holes in The Trotsky Museum walls (Photo: Lettie)

The Trotsky Museum or Museo Casa de Leon Trotsky (in his garden)

President Biden visited the Mexican President Obrador in January to try and curb the trafficking of drugs to the US from Mexico.

The sons and grandsons of the original cartel bosses may be more powerful and even more ruthless. They come from wealth not poverty and the drugs such as Fentanyl are fifty times more powerful than heroin.

People seem to disappear a lot and you see this displayed in the mysterious photographs of the many missing people posted on walls outside the Cathedral in Oaxaca.

I was looking for the most powerful drugs lord in the world and head of the Sinaloa Cartel ‘El Mayo’.  A $15 million bounty for his whereabouts but I couldn’t find him.

Leaflet found in Oaxaca

Creepy masks everywhere at a festival in the streets of Oaxaca February 2023

I was intoxicated by the colours and the light in a country of extremes and fascinated by its past and its present with my basic Spanish.

Music in the Zocolo Oaxaca 13 February 2023

The incredible Dominican church and convent Santo Domingo de Guzman begun in 1551 Sunday morning before I left after the service 19 February 2023 the interior was extraordinary full of gold brocade and baroque detail. The Dominicans were known as the Dogs of God and this church is an example of how they tried to convert the local indigenous people to Christianity.

Monte Alban (sixth century BC) of the Zapotecs was the principal Pre-hispanic city of the Oaxaca region. It was then strangely abandoned for Mitla – it took my breath away. I loved the stone reliefs of “The Danzantes”- strange distorted figurines with which may suggest the city was left due to an epidemic (or perhaps drought)
16 February 2023 (Photo: Lettie)

Monte Alban ca 1932 Conaculta – Inah Arqueologia – Dialogos con el Pasado Textos Dra Nelly Robles Garcia Fotographias Archivo INAH y de Ignacio Hernandez Guevara (2002) poster of this foldaway guide found hidden on a dusty shelf in a gift shop

Salon de las Columnas – Hall of Columns Mitla Oax Mexico Postal Mexfotocolor Foto Alfonso Sanchez Duenas Distribuidora “Lumy” Tel- 530 10 Oaxaca Oax

Hall of Columns Mitla February 2023 (Photo: Lettie)

I loved the purple Jaracanda trees that bring so much colour to Mexico City. I had no idea they were imported by a Japanese gardener in the 1930s.

The Tule Tree (El Arbol Tule) outside Oaxaca in Santa Maria El Tule is possibly thousands of years old.

The Tule Tree is the stoutest tree in the world circa 1500 years old perhaps older but there is anxiety that it may be dying. (Photo: Lettie)

Children demonstrate the size of the Tule Tree bought last time I was in Mexico: Foto Kipi Turok Ediciones Tuluk Lago Silverio 224 Mexico 11320

I had been before to Mexico City and Oaxaca in 1999 – fin de siècle post University sojourn with my brother and a group of friends before I moved to London and at that time I was there for about a month. 

Mexico somewhere I think on the way home 1999

Unmarked postcard

Paseo de la Reforma en Mexico D.F – View of Paseo de la Reforma at Mexico City Cristacolor Lito Juventud S. A 5 De Febrero 246 Mexico bought in Tingladography Oaxaca

Tarjeta Postal unmarked postcard

The Spaniards in Mexico City, which once resembled Venice under the Aztecs, buried its 45 rivers due to disease prevention. The only clues to their existence is in the street names. Due to being built on a lake and bed of clay the ancient ruins are now rising (Temple Mayor was only discovered in 1970s) and the Spanish Colonial architecture and buildings are sinking. The air hangs heavy because the city is polluted like a dust bowl where nothing flows out.

Mexico City is said to have sunk so low (20 inches a year) that it is said that it cannot be saved.  The earthquakes visible in the large hairline cracked pavements and in old photographs may shake these foundations but it’s problems lay far deeper.  This world is falling apart.

Temple Mayor February 2023 (Photo: Lettie)

Ten days felt like weeks and weeks such is that feeling when you travel…..

There have been so many highlights in what was a long winter:

A huge thank you to everyone who came to my gig at The Troubadour in November to celebrate the release of the album Endless Climb with David Baron which was a sell out (even if you can’t actually buy the album on iTunes still and one song is missing altogether I’ve now put it on my Bandcamp page!) Despite all these setbacks I thought all was good until I still had to pay the venue to play £45 to be exact (?) …bunch of cowboys running music venues these days!

So I think I prefer going to gigs than playing them these days and Bob Dylan…was the best ever…

Bob Dylan was unbelievable Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour October 2022 (Photo: Lettie)

Other highlights were John Cooper Clarke …who had to come up quite close in his tinted specs to see who I was: “Johnny …..Remember Me?” I asked. He was brilliant…

The Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha had me in tears as the war rages on and on in their country…

Royal Festival Hall 20 April 2023 DakhaBrakha (Photo: Lettie)

Standing outside and Sitting in The Royal Courts of Justice in support of David Wolfe QC and Stop Sizewell C campaign made me feel more hopeful…

East Anglian Daily Times 23 March 2023 – wearing Save Minsmere t-shirt created by Chris Packham. The plan for Sizewell C (twice the size of Sizewell B) to be built on an area of outstanding beauty in Suffolk, on the heritage coastline which is falling into the sea and on an important bird reserve in a county which is served by one dual carriageway the A12 has gone all the way to The Royal Courts of Justice)

Finally, the Coronation of our King tomorrow (which was my deadline for this post)….

Even though I made the journey which was like a pilgrimage to see the The Queen Lying in State with my friend Emma last year…

September 14 2022 Steve Swallow, Emma and the lovely group I was with for 8 1/2 hours…

(and I had the most enjoyable time hearing the life story of Steve Swallow pictured here who served in the British Army in Ireland barely drawing breath for the entire 9 hours, who was interviewed by news outlets multiple times)

Veteran Steve Swallow being interviewed by French TV…..his answer as to why he had travelled from Nottingham was ” Of course I’ve come to pay my respects….She was my boss…” (Photo: Lettie)

I don’t think I will go to such great lengths this time…..

Anyway, here’s a glimpse of another Coronation …

Postcard of Coronation Day (George V) in Cambridge -This is the procession (it reads) on Coronation day marching from King’s College Chapel….They are now between Emmanuel College and the University arms going out to Parker’s Piece to sing the National Anthem (May 1910)

and another king…

Elvis Monthly Organ of the Official Elvis Presently Organisation Albert Hand Publications 41 Derby Road Heanor Derbyshire DE7 7QH Tel: Langley Mill 2460 TWENTY-THIRD YEAR ISSUE NO 272 (It only stopped in 2000 after 40 years) RIP Lisa Marie who died January 2023

I owe a great deal to a lot of people that gave me support over all those years in my music including David Baron and Anthony Phillips. I write this in the hope of remembering and also in the hope I don’t quietly give up .

Much of the visual material I upload (but not all of it) is original.

For example, this wonderful photograph of Claudia Cardinale below (who sadly died in April of this year) is actually as far as I can tell unique and reminds me of rainy April. There’s another like it out there but not this one!

MAROONED TOLEDO SPAIN BEAUTIFUL ITALIAN MOVIE STAR STAR CLAUDIA CARDINALE HAS EVER REASON TO LOOK DISCONSOLATE. HERE SHE SITS MAROONED ON A TREE SET AFTER WATERS FROM A LOCAL RIVER HERE NOVEMBER 16, FLOODED THE FILM SET OF ‘CIRCUS WORLD’ CURRENTLY BEING SHOT HERE 19 NOVEMBER 1963 UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL PHOTO

I found this photograph below at the weekend. A few years back the picture libraries of all the newspapers got rid of their photographs and I have found some really interesting ones.

From Joe Copps Miami Beach News Service – IN THE SURF OF SUNNY FLORIDA – These girls aren’t afraid of wintry blasts. They’re finding the water is warm at Miami Beach Left to right- Beverley Stark, Boston; Virginia Honolulu; Joan Manley, Houston Tex, Marion Alburn, Nassau and Katherine Gilbert Atlanta GA Ref Dept 12.14.35 NEA

I am honoured to have done vocals for Karl Culley’s new album and I am hoping to do some more collaborations soon.

Such great covers – ‘Death on a High Note’ by Desmond Reid Fleetway Publications Ltd Sexton Blake Library1962

Until next time and I hope it won’t be so long…(but it might be) maybe not as long as the postcards I sent from Mexico! May be Baby I’ll write ya soon.

This was written by ChatGPT

Lettie in Coyacan Mexico February 2023 in my granny’s 1950s towelling lined jacket

God help us xxx

Where are you going my youth where are you going my life (Pier Paolo Pasolini)

It’s been so long and it’s hot.  I love the sun but now I’m starting to worry. I hope it will rain soon. It reminds me of a book when I was a child that I loved. It had graphic illustrations on why the earth is perfect explaining – if the moon was too far away we would be freezing cold – scene of ice covering earth. If the sun was any closer it would be too hot – scene of red hot earth and nothing living and so it goes on but it’s haunting.

David Baron and I are releasing Endless Climb on 11 November 2022 on Here & Now Recordings and this blog post is dedicated mostly to a collection of postcards that I found on the North End Road from the 80s. I just couldn’t resist posting them. They bear no relation to my waffle but the incongruous nature of them was irresistible! Front and back…it seems to be largely a group of young film students corresponding to each other in the 80s…

A plane is leaving on Sunday to Trieste and I’m not going to be on it. It’s almost as if a part of me is going as I’ve done so much research so perhaps half of me will be on that plane while the other half stays behinds and waters the garden (if I’m allowed)! I’ll go in October -off season-when the Bora wind blows into your winter coat like a sail and hopefully you are lifted high above Piazza Unità d’Italia for a great bird’s eye view.

Otherwise winter will be spent like everyone else with a single lamp in the kitchen in the freezing cold not going anywhere. A Zombie Government, a tragic war… A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall…

Nobody reads this, that’s for sure, but I thought I would update this blog and I must promote the music. Not for me but for David and the label. I must and this is my way – too wordy to count as promotion. 

I should be on Instagram and TikTok ….I should Tweet…but I never got the hang of Twitter at least I am still trying the Meta Universe, Facebook whatever. I have to think! How to promote?! So difficult…

I just find it more interesting reading other people’s posts ….or postcards as the case may be…

My boss’s wife died earlier this year. But what a life she had….she was married to Richard Harris (first time round). I found this cutting when he was just starting out in which she is mentioned.

From Picturegoer Week ending October 3 1959

She is buried at Brompton Cemetery which I know well – a place of tranquil beauty, wild flowers, where every season is visible from snowdrops, to bluebells to clouds of cow parsley in the summer as well as some exotic rare trees, ornate gravestones and a hundred life stories.  I used to look up graves but one I never found was Surrounded By The Enemy, the Native American Lakota Warrior who formed part of the extraordinary Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in the 1880s. It has a lovely cafe too.

I went to Prague in March and we followed by accident the footsteps of the famous Czech photographer called Josef Sudak.  We found his studio but no one was there to let us in so we followed his ghost up Petrin Hill. Graham Guy Barratt took these photographs. A stone’s throw from his Sudek’s studio we found an entire book of photographs of him on that hill walking up it as we were. At the top is Strahov Monastery which holds a magnificent Library quite unlike anything I have ever seen (there are 20 monks left that live there).

I thought about the melancholic writing of Milan Kundera.  This photograph fell out of the pages of The Book of Laughter and Forgetting which I bought second hand.

I thought about the eccentric Rudolph II and as we walked across King Charles’s bridge over and over again named after the King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor for which Prague was it’s capital in 1355 I thought about him also.

We stumbled upon a small museum Werich Villa where Jan Werich a famous Czech actor resided before he went to America in 1955- there were many photographs of him and Jiří Voskovec the famous Czech actor, playwright and writer.

Photograph by Václav Chochola (1923-2005) from ArhviB&M Chochola Jiří Voskovec & Jan Werich Kampa 1963

Meda Mládková (art collector) and Jan Viktor Mládek (economist and governor of IMF) visiting one of the many exhibitions in Paris, late nineteen fifties. (Archives of Meda Mládek)

Multiple portraits of interbred Hapsburgs and their huge chins (as well as a whole room devoted to their dogs!) visible at Lobkowicz Palace the best museum in Prague that nobody goes to is where you will also see two of the most beautiful Canaletto’s of London up so close and alone and Bruegel’s The Hay Harvest.

As a result of Czechoslovakia being handed over to Germany in that terrible move by Chamberlain – the city remains intact unlike poor Poland.  Then came the Communists, The Velvet Revolution and Havel….

I put the words (in English) of the poem called Fairy Tale by Miroslav Holub a relatively unknown Czech poet to David’s music on our record coming out called Endless Climb.  I did a little bit of filming on a cascading slope of cherry trees as seen in the photographs of me above.

Miroslav Holub v karikature Jaroslava Kandla Praha 1 Narodni 9 (caricature of Miroslav Holub – a postcard)

I loved hanging out again (this was my second visit to Prague) at Café Louvre eating goulash, a night cap at our corner bar talking to random strangers and drinking the best cocktail ever at the Hemingway Bar.

I loved seeing the boys now so young they seem, all dressed up as bananas being led by a giant gorilla and the smell that overwhelmed our hotel of cheap aftershave before they set out. By Sunday those tired Stags and Hens on the plane back plugged themselves into their devices and never said a word.

On music, I did some vocals recently for Karl Culley.  I nearly performed with him on a couple of tracks at the Green Note but I couldn’t get there.   The summer of strikes….Royal Mail next.

Instead I have been seeing a lot of music: I heard the brilliant teaches of Peaches at Royal Festival Hall, the hugely talented Oud player Joseph Tawadros at Kings Place then… The Labèque Sisters (out of this world) playing Philip Glass’s Les Enfant Terribles at Snape Maltings was as close to perfection as I can ever recall feeling in a concert. Astonishing.

I even went to see Holst’s The Planets at the Proms performed by the LSO on my own and bumped into Andrew Skeet.  He did not recognise me down in the mosh pit of the Albert Hall (much the best place to be) even though I do his website! I am looking forward to Bauhaus at Brixton Academy next week! August is great in London. It feels so empty and there’s music still on every street.

I went to get close (literally huge at the IMAX) to volcanoes in the excellent film Fire of Love about Katia and Maurice Kraftt and spoke to the cast of Patriots at the Almeida – the best play I have seen in ages and what a great theatre.

Discovering the writing of James Baldwin has made me read again and a magazine called Yours Retro a monthly highlight.  It covers all the old film stars and their lives and many fascinating behind the scene stories behind the big pictures from the golden age of cinema.  I saw it once in the Co-op and knew I’d never see it again so I subscribed!

I am in my own world rummaging around just like Jarvis Cocker going through his attic cupboard in his brilliant autobiography.   

Endless Climb is out on November 11 2022

Escape

Fairy Tale

Endless Climb

Waiting

Shoot The Breeze

Memory

Maysong

Bright Lights

The Kite

Across the River and into the Trees

It has been so long since I wrote. It’s taken me all day also because WordPress is so complicated – they couldn’t make it more difficult if they tried! However, over the past year or so I have been largely unable to relay my thoughts and put pen to paper but the morning I woke up and thought I must, my entire computer system crashed and it’s taken weeks to fix mainly because I lost all my programmes and I cannot reinstall them because they are now largely out of date. Technology changes so fast and I keep going until one day I can’t work my machines any more. The problem is not quite fixed either but I’ve found a solution. Unfortunately it has also been a financial blow especially after my recent trip. Is Mercury retrograde or what?!

Lettie in the garden before the rain in May 2021

Arriving into Venice across the lagoon May 2021

Bridge of Sighs from the Courtroom on the left to the Prison on the right. The convicted Felon walked across the bridge 1962 (from unknown photograph album Lettie bought some years ago)

Hemingway’s sad book is the title of this post and is set in Venice. I wanted to drink and dine in The Gritti and Harry’s Bar and realise all the things I had heard but knew them to be unlike how they were in that book. So I soaked up as best I could the magic of this brave, mysterious city that was once known as the most Serene Republic of Venice or La Serenissima that twists and turns at every corner so that you can never quite remember a maze where some streets lead straight into the water.

Campanile and Palace of Justice Venice Aug 1962 (from unknown photograph album)

Rocco at the Gondelier Ticket Office would be just left of photo above but there has been not much demand

I have always wanted to go and I thought why not? 

Basilica di S.Marco Centro Italia Gros Tel 075/8004833 Visiva

Go before the tourists return, the cruise ships loom in the distance and start advancing across the lagoon and the city turns into Disneyland.  I thought break away and go when it’s amber.  I met a couple of true Venetian vintage dolls who showed me and my companion the sights – Luisa and Rocco.

Luisa on the Rialto Bridge which we walked over every day

Rocco the Gondolier

I have seen my boss very nearly die in March so with his enthusiastic response that I should – I went for the Bank Holiday weekend after the wettest cold May I can ever remember.

I took my camera and told Border Control I was on business.

Before I left I read and watched anything I could from books to films (I must have seen Don’t Look Now at least ten times) to Death in Venice to a Katharine Hepburn’s Summertime.  I had to include a trip to Al Gatto Negro on Burano where the chef Angela Hartnett went.  I said hello to the chef Ruggero Bovo after tasting the risotto which was the best I had ever tasted.  The stock consists of all the small delicate creatures of the lagoon fused to create a flavour distinct, local and extraordinary.  I felt I was immersed in the entire history of the lagoon itself when I tasted it.

Lusia outside the Gatto Negro Burano

The bow of our boat heading to Burano Venice May 2021

The Sunday lunchtime crowd seemed to consist of rich Venetians who get on their fast boats from the mainland and head straight to lunch.  We were on a vintage low powered wooden boat that went at about 10mph at high speed.

Sightings of families and couples collecting clams is common on Sunday – the lagoon is not deep

Our guide kept saying this is ‘Wave Pollution’ as we tossed and turned every time one of these speedy boats passed us by – “Look at the coast of the lagoon there it’s completely worn down by these boats.  People go too fast!”

The particular crowd at lunch I couldn’t stop watching consisted of a group of linen wearing silver haired elderly gentlemen in designer shades who looked like film directors with their wives or girlfriends (of variable ages) who in turn were dressed up to the nines for a sunny lunch.  The whole table was smoking, laughing and drinking.  As they left, the ladies all in heels, the men with cigars perched still on their mouths, the waiters and the Head Chef came out to say goodbye and everyone in the restaurant nodded their heads.  Who were they? Fascinating!

Jan Morris’s excellent book on Venice began it all.  I had never been aware of this remarkable book but I was hooked after reading it. The masterpieces found in the churches were astounding from this Bellini to Tintoretto to Titian. Rather than posting photos of these which will never do justice I will just include a couple of things that caught my eye. Of course this one is very famous:

Postcard Venezia Chiesa San Zaccaria Giovanni Bellini – Sacra Conversazione (1505)

Postcard of Chiesa San Zaccaria Cripta della chiesa del x secolo

Photograph of Fury in Scuola Grande di San Rocco (Patron Saint of plague) allegorical sculptures in walnut by Francesco Pianta – these were extraordinary and were on the wooden benches around the fantastic Tintoretto panels

Hercules in La Scuola Grande Sala Terrena May 2021

A more recent book Venice, an Odyssey: Hope and Anger in the Iconic City: Hope, Anger and the Future of Cities by Neal E Robbins is extensive (he interviewed 500 people mostly Venetians for the book) and excellent.  My friend and I who had done his research on the food side and dined at the restaurants he mentions in his book mostly frequented by Venetians. Having such a knowledgeable companion and because I studied history we spent hours in very few places. We both agreed to go slowly.  It is so beneficial to have someone who knows every Bible story and Greek myth ever written; his scholarly reading up on architecture was so good he could write a book about it. And the food….oh my goodness…

Osteria da Alberto Venice

Bottega de Masceri since 1984

Postcard Venezia Il Carnevale (c) Edz.Ardo Venezia (Kina Italia Milano)

Luisa in front of Basilica San Marco – no tourists!

Basilica of San Marco San Marco Square Campanile Bell tower at right from photographic album 1962

I sat on the roof of San Marco Basilica for nearly an hour on my own waiting for the Astronomical Clock to chime just beside me.

Piazza San Marco La Torre dell’Orologio (c) 1999 by Storti Edizioni sri

St Mark’s Clock in St Mark’s Square Venice

On the roof high above Piazza San Marco May 2021

On her balcony above St Mark’s Square May 2021

The Horses of St Mark’s probably date back to 2nd or 3rd AD and are beautiful

Inside San Marko’s Basilica May 2021

The roof of Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

Piazetta S Marco with Palazzo Ducale on left and Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana on right. Its considered bad luck to walk between the columns

I went to the square at 7am in the morning and visited the fish market.

Rialto fishmarket Venice

I found lesser known areas where the children play football after school against the walls of the churches and the families congregate and chit chatter. So much magic to be found around every street corner.

Venezia Camp e Chiesa di San Gacomo dell’Orio (c) Storti Edizioni sri

Photograph Campo e Chiesa di San Giacomo dell’Orio today

Chiesa San Giacomo dall’Orio Venezie unmarked

An old fashioned stationary shop. The man inside with his friend said “once he goes there will be no more shops like this”. This is where I bought many of my postcards just off Chiesa San Giacomo dall’Orio

In our hired boat we went to the little known islands, such as a beautiful Franciscan Monastery and a little frequented fort, travelled through Murano back into the lagoon and swam.

Lettie in front of the Byzantine medallion of an emperor one of the trophies the Venetians brought back from Constantinople in 1204 is still visible today (but almost nobody notices it) set into a wall above the doors of the small court of Campiello de Cà Angaran

View from the little visited Napoleonic fort that guards the Lagoon

The Fransiscan Monastery San Francesco Island

San Francesco Island

We did not stop in Murano but sailed through

My last stop before my ferry back was Caffè Florian the oldest cafe in the world and a fitting end and a delicious breakfast. I left Venice and I am aware of the great problems that continue to endanger the city’s future. I saw a poster declaring No Mafia leave us alone Venice is sacred and I saw the anti-cruise ship posters which I am vehemently opposed to. I looked across at the industrial Marghera where many live, I know there are mixed feelings about new nationalities coming in and taking local artisan and business away, that there is corruption and controversy over Moses Dam. I know the city is sinking. It’s that double edged sword of needing tourism for sustaining a living and just having far too many and I came away without a solution. My friend and I felt the only way would be to allow students to come if they were there for educational purposes otherwise tourists should perhaps pay a very much larger city tax which might put many off.

Basilica San Marco 1962 from anon photo album

Caffè Florian the oldest cafe in the world built 1720 has been struggling due to lack of tourists

Aside from Venice I loved the Nest Collective which might just be the laziest festival in the world for spectators. My friend and I lay down with a cider and let the music wash over us. I am non stop playing Sura Susso by Tili Saba now. I couldn’t believe it when I said did he know Seckou Keita and he said that he was his brother! What a small ‘Kora’ world!

At the most relaxing festival I have ever been to ‘Magpie’s Nest’ 5 June 2021 organised by The Nest Collective

I really hope to release my next album on Here & Now Recordings with David Baron on 12.11.21 – a palindrome. It will include Bright Lights, Shoot the Breeze and Waiting among other new tracks and I am very excited.

In 1980 on this date of 12 November, the Voyager 1 spacecraft flew by Saturn and sent footage back to earth.  It is now 14 billion miles away on a mission to the further reaches of interstellar space and is the most distant manmade object from earth.  It’s camera was turned off in 1990 but it still sends transmissions to earth.

The Golden Record aboard Voyager 1 featuring 90 minutes of music along with a record player is intended to be played when it hits a new planetary system (in about 40,000 years) to communicate to extra-terrestrials. The music on this record includes Bach, Beethoven, Chuck Berry, Blind Willie Johnson and music from Georgia, Bulgaria and Peru.

To the hope of unlocking this world and letting the good times roll again….xxx

Iapetus A Satellite of Saturn. Taken by Voyager 1 on 12/11/80 at a distance of 1.9 million miles Universal Pictorial Press photo (Ref ‘ ‘ ) Nov 1980 Universal Picture Press New Bridge Street Real photograph

To The New Year

I have not posted for a while now and everything changed since last time including how to use this WordPress site so I’ve kept it fairly brief.

As the pandemic continues and plans are left aside, my thoughts go out to all those who have lost someone or have suffered in other ways.  I cannot think of a single person who has not been affected by it. I am so sorry.

I continued to work through the crisis in my day job but that did not always go so smoothly.

I tried to write music but I felt numb. 

Instead I planted over 100 bulbs in pots and thought about spring and the future and what that may bring. Even if I leave the garden here I have the pots (about 60 of them)! There are very few flowers in the winter to cheer one up but here are two:

1912 Dear brother and lester just a line sorry to hear you are no better

• 

I don’t even have that many New Year cards…

On 4 December, I released on Cherry Red a song called Let Let Go composed with Anthony Phillips and James Collins.  The film which I made many years ago is a snapshot of memories and fitted in to the song which has a nostalgic feel to it. Here is my brother and I in a Mini Moke…

On December 13, I sang and played the guitar on Ray Jones’s song he composed produced by Malcolm Doherty. Ten Feet Tall is in honour of Hannah Grace Deller who has been on the frontline during these difficult times and all the other nurses.  I was immensely proud to be a part of this and really feel happy that I could convert a song and put the guitar down and do it justice although I really wanted to Ray to sing it but he wouldn’t!

Vocals and Guitar – Lettie London Music production – Malcolm Doherty Lyrics – Ray Jones Nurse and Frontline Workers photography- Hannah Grace Deller Photo Thanks to the Frontline Workers, Keith Allen, Kevin Allen, Piers and Tanya Thompson, Anthony and Anna Easton, Annabel Mullion, Julian Firth, The Deller Family, The Brentford Cider Boys, and everyone who contributed! Producer – Ray Jones Edited & Directed by Gavin Sanctis

Normally I post three or four times a year but this year I have only posted this once.  There were so many things I was going to write about such as Buffalo Bill and his enormous Wild West show in Earls Court but I decided it wasn’t perhaps that interesting to anyone else but me! All the things I had watched such as the Sopranos 20 years late but you know what the only thing I’ll mention is…

The Black Taxi Tour of London with Stuart and my nephews because there were not a lot of things to do during this time and I felt like it was something during the dire economic standstill that was thoughtful.  I am therefore so glad in between lockdown tiers we managed a late November trip.

An avid autograph collector, Stuart, with a few tales to tell of his celebrity encounters: “Oh Sean Connery I thought he was gonna punch me when I asked him for his autograph: Daggers” showed us the sites:

Well he didn’t show us this one but I went to this a few days ago finally after all these years…

His highlight and ours was the oldest hat shop in London!  Quirky!  And the best Christmas decorated wine shop where you can’t buy a bottle for under £60!

However, it was the poignancy of what Stuart said that really struck a chord: “You see those cabbies there all in a line – they’ll be there for four hours until they get a ride; it’s dreadful.  Many won’t be doing this job next year: You see Oxford Street: In five years most of those shops will be gone that Philip Green got a lot to answer for.  Don’t talk to me about Sadiq Khan he’s ruining London.  Do you know how much the new electric black cabs are?  It’s not affordable.  I’m going to have to start doing walking tours.”

We got dropped at Little Venice where I knew there was a ping pong table but when we got there we found out that it had been stolen so off we trudged to the next one on my list of public ping pong tables but all that was left of the table in Portobello Green was a giant concrete slab and then it got dark.  Again.

So I write this just before the New Year starts in the hope that everyone has a better 2021 and that we may see a way out of this long, long tunnel that has eclipsed life as we once knew it. 

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” – Victor Hugo

Lockdown before lockdown before lockdown again sometime this year it’s all a blur

July 31st “Waiting” by Lettie & David Baron is out now!

David Baron & Lettie

How many times I have tried to write a blog post and I just couldn’t.  I started in March.  Now it is August….

Here is the new single “Waiting”.  Click Here to Buy the Track.

I will write more very soon

xxx

‘Bright Lights’ last song of the decade

On December 20 I will be releasing a new song ‘Bright Lights’ on the label Hear & Now Recordings who are putting out the next series of songs to make up an album next year.  I’m so grateful for David Baron and John Cunningham who owns the label for what I hope might be a new chapter.  As I am still very largely in the dark about the Spotify revolution and the way music is consumed it’s helping me enormously to see finally that music can be created on a song by song basis and released in this way.   Like many others, most artists have either other projects or a day job so it’s very difficult to be able to release things in the old fashioned way.  I hope anyone who has found my music will see that it’s really a continuation on from the work I have done with David Baron which began in 2005.  I owe him everything.

Brights Lights is out on 20 December 2019

I will be celebrating this new release at The Roughler Club upstairs at The Italian Job, 45 All Saints Road, London W11 1HE on Friday 13 December 8pm onwards.  And rather than playing a long set I will do 10 minutes along with number of other exciting performers as well as the compere extraordinaire Ray Roughler Jones.  Entry is only £5 and it’s nights like these that remind me of the old days in London when I used to gig at such places like the Kashmir Club long since gone (where Rolan Bolan gratefully lent his tambourine skills to my set).  I will not attempt to play the keyboard with my big toe this time (thankfully Gina from The Raincoats admired my attempt) but I will play the tambourine with my foot since I’m sure Rolan is otherwise engaged.

I have been doing less of my blog lately probably because it’s so time consuming and possibly expensive (!) because I spend far too much time trying to find original material to scan! But I am really becoming a regular at the Ephemera Fairs in London and love talking to the dealers about rare books and other such things.  I guess because I studied history I am interested.

Anyway, it’s my Birthday tomorrow and it’s getting late but I just wanted to say my new found love is the circus and whenever it’s in town I’m there!

Band Wagon Journal of Leisure Vol 7 No 6 Dec 1948

It was before I started listening to Eartha Kitt’s The Day That the Circus Left Town but there’s something so Fellini and dreamlike about it; a microcosm and universal.  I went to a wonderful one in Parsons Green barely anyone there except Bertram Mills Grandson!  It was fantastic and I got this poster framed.  It was Zippo’s Circus and what a treat it was too!  Earlier in the year I went to the Clown Church to celebrate the yearly service there they hold for Grimaldi.

Zippo’s Circus poster that Lettie now has in her kitchen framed

One of my favourite acts at Zippo’s was the budgie act performed by Norman Barrett.  They were so well trained!  It was quite hard to see but their pale blue, pick and yellow colours of their wings were beautiful.  They slid down a slide individually then flew perfectly coordinated and in file back to their perch.  Extraordinary!  Animals have largely been banned from all circuses which is quite right and I am therefore refraining from posting from my ephemera collection any of these black panther acts, Artic Polar Bears and even cricketing elephants as it says on the poster ‘trying to win back the ashes’ which is enough to make you cry.

My highlight of Circus Fantasia were the two Italian clowns.  They also doubled up as the orchestra but all the acts were amazing.  We also enjoyed the man being shot out of a canon not quite as big as the one below!

Circus Fantasia set up on the side of the A12 like a miraculous mirage this was after the sold out show on Saturday 23 November 2019

So here are my favourites from the tiny programmes of Bertram Mills Circus Grand Hall Olympia December 17 1948- February 3 1949 (that I have scanned at a high resolution).  That’s a long run which goes to show how popular they were once.

Bertram Mills Circus Dec 17 1948 2 Ovsaks

Bertram Mills Circus Dec 17 1948 Cavallini’s Crazy Car (apparently it came on stage then fell apart!)

Bertram Mills Circus Dec 17 1948 Cubanoso-Soders & Chalis

Bertram Mills Circus Dec 17 1948 Lasse with his Horses and Ponies

Bertram Mills Circus Dec 17 1948 Leoni the Man who is shot from a Canon

Bertram Mills Circus Dec 17 1948 The Cumberlands

Bertram Mills Circus Dec 17 1948 The Great Magyars

Bertram Mills Circus Dec 17 1948 Wittmack and Smaha High School Horses

Bertram Mills Circus Dec 17 1948 Woolford’s Amazing Pigeons

Bertram Mills Circus Dec 17 1948 Stephenson’s Football Dogs

Bertram Mills Circus Grand Hall Olympia Dec 17 1948

And this one from January 28 (no year) the Gigantic Continental Circus at Aston Hippodrome Birmingham long since gone.

Gigantic Circus Aston Hippodrome 28 January

Gigantic Circus Charivari Clowns & Girls 28 January

Trapeze Acts Gigantic Continental Circus Aston programme 28 January (unknown year)

 

And this from Chipperfields Circus 1970……

From Chipperfields Circus programme 1970 Tommy de Vel and Vera

December is the feeling of what is to come and anticipation.  As my boss says Advent is about Metanoia.

These are just a few things I found last weekend… December issues of the Picturegoer that I haven’t seen before because I love Hollywood vintage glamour and adore films.

Picturegoer December 7 1957 Martha Hyer on the cover

Picturegoer December 29 1957 Vera-Ellen cover

And some postcards….

I don’t forget you beautiful unmarked card

Alfred Stiebal Co London Alpha Series 155 Processed in Bohemia unmarked and undated

BB London Series no 546 printed in Germany unmarked and undated

Carte Postale Dec 22 date unknown to Miss Watts Reddrum Cottage Surrey ‘To Phoebe with love & good wishes’

Davidson Bros ‘Real Photographic’ series Dec 1906 wishing Mrs Harding a merry xmas

Dec 22 1904 To Mrs Pigg 11 Mount Villas Surrey no message

Just to wish you a merry Xmas 23 Dec 15 London NW Miss Young in Lyndhurst Essex

 

Post Card to Mrs Blackiston West Street Sussex no date

Postcard unmarked and undated printed in Saxony

The Philco Publishing Co Holborn Place Series 2329 printed in Germany Dec 24 1912? Miss Pigg

Unique photo turned into post card Photo West & Son Whitstable unmarked and undated ‘Scrooge’

Unmarked and undated Post Card (USA?)

Unmarked and undated Post Card printed in Germany

Unmarked and undated postcard printed in Saxony

Unmarked Postale Postkarte

Valentine’s Series ‘A merry Christmas and a happy new year to you from Auntie to Mr Foster in Surrey (a bit strange this one!)

Wishing you a Happy Christmas Mrs Edwards Saffron Walden Dec 20

So wishing you a very Happy Cbristmas, New Year and New Decade…..

Postkarte -Carte Postale to Mr and Mrs Gent at White Lodge Brixton

Hand woven Carte Postal sent 6.15pm on 31 December to Mrs Campbell in Edinburgh

Post Card for Home and Abroad printed in Berlin unmarked and undated

XXX

Lettie in Suffolk with her Andrew Logan earrings December 2019 which took her over a year to decide to buy!

Carte Postale made in Germany ‘I hope you are all well’

 

 

 

 

Augustus the eighth and strangest month

It’s been a while since I wrote.  Too long perhaps.  This is my memory after all and my recording down of my encounters, experience and findings; a musical puzzle, an unsolvable maze (did you know if you put your right hand and continue to brush it along the inside hedge of Hampton Court Maze you will reach the middle) made up of intricate and sensitive electrodes that create a language that has been the journey of a life time to try to comprehend.  The fact I have not been successful does not prevent me from trying.

Circus Ring unknown photograph

In May I released a song I wrote with David Baron for his forthcoming album called People of No Concern featuring my 11 year old niece.  Thank you to Hear & Now Recordings for putting it out.  It’s on Spotify and made the playlist.

So much has happened since I moved in the spring. I said goodbye to a flat that was a place of mourning for me.  I tried my best with it.  I didn’t even leave a forwarding address.  I really look back on it as a bridge or intermission.  I planted the terrace.  I worked well in it.  I had very few people round but an incident involving the police and a violent domestic row upstairs resulted in my finally giving in my notice.  Whatever dramas were playing out upstairs I wasn’t going to stay for the ring side seat.  So I ran. It is still empty.  I went to visit it last weekend and took a bamboo plant that was still alive away in the car.  The little terrace is half dead.  I feel so sad about that.

Goodbye Flat and ping pong table….

I found a new flat not far with a large garden and bought all my stuff from the local Red Cross Shop or the gumtree since it was unfurnished. I spend most of my time when I’m here sitting outside waiting for my beautiful sunflowers over 8ft high now and planted from seed (£1 for 10 seeds from Poundland) to come out.  I also walk to work.  I can’t believe the difference.  It feels the closest thing to home I have had in years.

Lettie waiting for her sunflowers August 2019

My gig supporting Sniff n the Tears showcased some new material which went down very well but it seems out of all the music I have written there’s only six ready to go.  So I must try and finish this album for Hear & Now Recordings before the year is out and in order to do that I’m looking into a slightly different approach.  So I went on the search last Friday for a new instrument- something acoustic; something unique and lo and behold I found a very rare Italian guitar which is the most beautiful thing I have ever owned (apart from the microphone of course that David has so kindly given me now).  I found it on the Gumtree.  It’s so rare I can’t find anything about it much at all except it is a Masetti 1960.

From Life Magazine Dec 22 1969 inside half page

So perhaps this will inspire me.  In the meantime I have actually been writing quite a bit of library music.  This still is my only stream of music income so I’m very keen to do more.   Some of the works I wrote with Anthony Phillips have been used by Danish Films, Sky One, Norwegian Films, ITV, Belgian Films.  I got 1p for 58 seconds on Spring Kitchen with Tom Kerridge on BBC! Something even got played on Love Island in Norway. I always said all I wanted was a song on a film.  I guess I have got what I wished for!

Music Box Village 4557 N. Rampart, New Orleans

My trip to New Orleans was impossible to write about.  I saw and heard so many wonderful musicians, tasted so many new tastes, was overwhelmed by the spirit of the place, the humidity in the air, the appreciation for live music, lapping it up, the love for it which I had forgotten about, really loosing oneself in it with every kind playing on every corner.  I learnt much about New Orleans extraordinary history: Creole history, the  Haitians, the French, Spanish Louisiana, indigenous American Indians, the free black slaves a melting pot of different cultural influences.  Then there’s the post hurricane Katrina New Orleans still over 20 years later a feeling .. I just can’t seem to put into words.

Somewhere across the river New Orleans May 2019 near a major levee

I kept wishing I had made notes and chronicled the days but then again I wouldn’t have enjoyed the moment. My friend who lives there showed me secrets.  It was like a mysterious tour one which I didn’t want to reveal.  Some places are like that. I had the best 6 days and nights I have ever had.

Vodoo Queen of New Orleans Marie Catherine Laveau

Under the freeway New Orleans May 2019

Shoplifter of the Month New Orleans May 2019

Robert Randolph and the Family Band at Lafayette International Festival April 28 2019

Petra with Mahelia Jackson New Orleans Jazz Festival 2019

Petra dancing with lovely Mexican in Layfayette Sunday April 29 2019

Petra at the one the best places to eat in New Orleans if you like meat!

Pure Coffee Zodiac Brand reproduction postcard

Mardi Gras Maskers on Canal Street New Orleans, La

Mavis Staples and Trombone Shorty Friday May 3 2019

New Orleans Jazz Festival 26 April – 8 May 2019

New Orleans ruin May 2019 The Luling Mansion owned by a wealthy German cotton merchant. When both his sons drowned in the Bayou and the civil war put and end to his business he left New Orleans to never return again. It was then turned into the Jockey Club until 1905 before being left to ruin.

Lettie outside Daniel Lanois studio Friday 2 May 2019

Extraordinary Marcia Ball Saturday May 2 2019

Fats Domino 1950s Photographer Unidentified

Henry Gray 94 year old blues pianist playing with Kenny Neal New Orleans Jazz Festival 2019

Kermit Ruffins at Mother in Law Lounge Wednesday 1 May 2019 New Orleans

Kermit Ruffins at the Mother in Law Lounge Weds 1 May 2019

Layfayette Sunday April 28

Crawfish Town outside Layfayette

Chilling on Petra’s porch New Orleans May 2019

Bar New Orleans 2019

Carousel Lounge in Hotel Monteleone New Orleans Reproduction postcard

The New Orleans Jazz Festival is one of a kind.  It puts so much new music in the shade particularly because as I have mentioned before the omnipresence of backing tracks with so many major acts at big festivals have but destroyed for me the feeling of what live music is supposed to be.  The gospel choirs in the tent, Mavis Staples and her band, Trombone Shorty and also the Second Line band we saw at Preservation Hall I think from the 7th.  It was some of the more underground things we went to- the folk tunes of the tribes and their ‘dance’ that remain with me like a blues harmonica being played down a reverb in my ear so long and deep it’s like being in some kind of David Lynch movie or in an Alan Lomax dreamland.

I still listen to tapes and Studs Terkel’s 15 minute interviews are so wonderful and from these interviews is one with Wole Soyinka which mentions that the Second Line may  have come from Ghana.  I ate gumbo with a local legend on the gumbo scene, hung out at Kermit (Ruffins) place, went on a tour of the 9^th district saw Fat’s house, heard and learnt about Zydeco in Lafayette, ate Crayfish in Crayfish Town, had the best meat ball sandwich at a butcher, had my tea leaves read which warned me of imminent change again, saw alligators and was told to dial up the magic of this world anytime.

Alligator Louisiana May 2019

Alligator Chorus Down in Louisiana New Orleans

The only place I didn’t dig was the Country Club which wasn’t my friend’s recommendation but on hearing it had a pool I was game.  I was imaging a Club like out of a 1950s Douglas Sirk film or on the other hand like the poolside postcards of Palm Springs, or Burt Lancaster style pool party as in ‘The Swimmer’.

Country Club New Orleans May 2019

It was once a naturist kind of bar/ restaurant with a pool.  It became obligatory to wear something after there was an incident.  There were a lot of complaints about this covering up policy. I was relieved.  I went for a swim (no one else was swimming) everyone was drinking and perched on the side of the pool. I went deep down to the bottom of the pool and could not believe the number of pubic hairs in the filter. I also couldn’t believe that the only person I had hitherto spoken to in New Orleans in some café found me covered up in the shade hiding.  I wasn’t in the mood for talking as I rarely am when I’m feeling fairly undressed.  But he found me and it illustrated to me New Orleans seemed to be a smaller place than I thought!  I certainly wasn’t going in the Jacuzzi which seemed to be full of about 10 people and let’s just say judging by the pound of flesh it was certainly cozy in that hot tub.  I know I don’t have poolside etiquette and I’m a freak.

Without a doubt the food was Um um…I found this great recipe book which I will not reproduce from a great local bookshop- De Simonin Publications. Copyright De Simonin Publications.  I hope they don’t mind me scanning the cover.

Chez Helene New Orleans House of Good FOod Cookbook by Austin Leslie de Simonin Publications New Orleans, Louisana 1984 (copyright Simonin Publications)

ANOTHER TIME ANOTHER PLACE I TOOK OFF FOR BELGIUM HOME TO…

Lettie got given a whole load of art gallery openings and leaflets from a lady who had died from Giles at the Worlds End Bookshop. The lady may have been a critic – but what great taste she had and what great art she saw Magritte Hayward Gallery 21 May – 2 August 1992 A Guide

Gent – Graslei Gand – Quai-aux-Herbes Mexichrome France – this is all pedestrianised now with cafes all along and no cars. Great for people watching.

My second visit this year was Ghent ‘Europe’s Best Kept Secret’.  I was intrigued because Jonathan Meads had done a fascinating documentary on Belgium, it’s medieval history (Ghent and Bruges were originally Flanders), it’s gothic churches and extraordinary works of art (The Ghent Altarpiece by Van Eyke the most famous in Ghent) in a sort of contrast to the overt classic Renaissance style and exuberant Rocco artwork found in Italy, it’s Mediterranean light, it’s Roman foundation and Catholic dominated patronage.

Gand Le Parc de Promethee 9 October 1908

Gand Masions Dieu (Ancien Hospice Wenmaer) Ern Thill Bruxelles No 83

Exposition Internationale et Universelle de Grand 1913 Vieliless Flandres Rossel et Fils, Bruxelles

Exposition Internationale et Universeel de Gand 1913 Vielles Flandres

Exposition de Gand Ros Bayard posted 1913

Mme Van Hooren Concierge des Reines de L’Abbaye St Bavo – someone has painted over the top of the postcard

The astonishing Chaire de Verite Gand Cathedral St -Bavon 1695-1778 in St Bavo’s Cathedral

Van Eyck L’Adoration de L’Agneau possibly the single most famous painting in the world postcard posted 16 August 1920 One half of the key panels (far left of this pre- theft postcard) of the Ghent Altarpiece in Bavo Cathedral was stolen in 1934 and to this day has never been recovered and is still being investigated to this day.

Gand Eglise Saint-Bavon L’Adoration de L’Agneau mystique (detail) par Hubert et Jean Van Eyke (no postcard could do this justice and the colours are out of this world)

Dolly outside the umbrella shop in Gent May 2019

Dolly outside Gravensteen Castle of the Counts

Dolly in Gent on boat trip May 2019

Dolly in Graffiti Street Werregarenstraat, 9000 Gent, Belgium before falling through the bars

I fell in love with the place (which has a distinctively different character from the rest of Belgium perhaps not so much from Bruges which I have not visited) because the people of Ghent were rebels and the city was the largest city in Flanders and in Medieval Europe one of the richest most powerful cities in Europe.  One thing I took away with me was the incredible mustard! I also found some old postcards.  What an intriguing and I hear musical city it is (mainly because musicians can afford to live centrally).  Although I didn’t see any gigs I know that I once played there so soon as I arrived because I found the umbrella shop.  I remembered I had been in 2009 with Peter Murphy. How strange and odd to go back and not really realise I had been there before.  Apart from an incident involving Dolly falling into some locked up garden, the trip was full of small adventures. Re-treading old steps; this time actually seeing it afresh.  The food (beef, mussels, chips), the people and the ambience was perfect.  It was a great place to people watch.  I even had this whole story in my mind about the various dogs.  The strangest sight of all though was a father and his two young teenage sons on hoverboards.  At the most unexpected place and time they would silently all three of them appear and then disappear like strange outer world creatures of the future.

Umbrella shop Gent 2009

With Peter Murphy Crew 2009 in some bar I could never find again in Gent

Lettie in Gent doing Peter Murphy Merch Handelsbeurs 2009. Picture first appeared on Myspace blog before Myspace burned taking with it all my memories of that tour.

London feels quiet.  I am thinking about the moon landings.

Life Magazine December 22 1969

From Life Magazine December 22 1969

I’m thinking about God. I’m thinking about the news and I’m thinking about tomorrow.  I’m thinking that I’ve typed approximately 4 million words in my job that I took five years ago, I’m thinking about the weather, dreamhouse in Spain, a man called El Cid in Italy and a dog called Maria I once knew. I’m thinking about John Cooper Clarke’s desert island and Elvis. I’m thinking about Rutger, Dr John, the Aaron Neville and others we’ve lost. I’m thinking about my Dad it’s been so long. I’m drifting, procrastinating, worrying and shaking in my skin, wondering and wandering on earth.  I’m going to get in my car with Bob Dylan bursting out of my speakers and just drive far away until I can’t hear about anything bad anymore.

 

Concerts presented by Harvey Goldsmith and Fritz Rau produced by Brockum International printed and made by Bradmore Press 1977 (original concert promo probably when Lettie’s folks went to see him in the 70s- so large can’t scan the words BOB DYLAN) Watch Scorsese’s new documentary on him Rolling Thunder Review: A Bob Dylan Story and watch the end credits. It will blow your mind. The never ending tour.

Till we meet again…

Bye bye – Chelsea Arts Club Ball a la Mardi Gras June 2019

Happy Christmas and New Year!

Anne Heywood Picturegoer 27 December 1958

As Christmas approaches I am in a contemplative mood as well as a festive one.  I never really stop working but I have had some time away from music since everything grinds to a halt this time of year and I have run out of steam but I always find things that excite me visually.

Picturegoer 1 December 1953 Shelly Winters National Film Weekly No 865 Volume 22

I will be bringing out some music next year.  I found some fantastic footage from Germany which I have transferred which should make a good video for a song I wrote called ‘Bright Lights’ but again it will have to wait till next year.

Film Review December 1968 ‘Mary Christmas Santa’ from Shirley MacLaine to an unrecognisable James Booth in ‘The Bliss of Mrs Blossom’

I will always love music and I am particularly interested in music and memory. I know that Miles Davis’s Lift to the Scaffold will be my soundtrack to the last days at my aunt’s house and was hitherto a discovery as a result of Robert Le Page highlight of my theatrical life Needles and Opium and the film itself with Jean Moreau. I must have played it hundreds of times.  The moaning trumpet more blues than jazz.

Ry Cooder’s Paris Texas my soundtrack to the summer I went to Seville to work as an au pair I must have played that thousands of times.   That time was so lonely in Seville until I met Ian Murray “one of the finest brass band players of his generation” and his wife Janet, their daughter and various members of the Seville Orchestra.  Ian who died when he was only 35 “was celebrated simply as a creator of happiness.”  His funeral was the largest ever to have happened in Aracena.

Unmarked Post Card British Made Jack Hylton in pencil on back

Best Wishes Tommy Veny

Perhaps that’s why I do this blog to remember.

I went with quite a few friends on my Birthday to see Peter Murphy and David J celebrating 40 years of Bauhaus at Brixton Academy.

Peter Murphy and David J at Brixton Academy 9 December 2018

It was nearly 10 years ago that I went round Europe with Peter and saw for myself the back streets of many European towns.  I spoke to so many people and I had the time of my life but the aftermath was hard for me and the life after the road is fraught with danger.  All the adrenalin disappears and it’s a hard crash landing.  Anyway, it was extraordinary.  I couldn’t stay and say hello but I saw the lovely Kirsten Morrison to pass on my best regards.  Peter has about a week and a bit off before he embarks on his American tour that carries on until April of next year.  I don’t know how he does it.

Lettie’s beautiful cake made by Sam on her Birthday before the gig December 9 2018

So I went to the last Ephemera Fair of the year.  It is, I have decided, oddly wonderful.  I feel like I’m encroaching on a secret convention.  I wish I knew more about it all as people come from all over Europe with specialist interests.  One man said to his wife ‘get on it with and stop talking’ as they riffled through hundreds of old tourist brochures, ship menus, theatrical posters and programmes!

My main other preoccupation is my fear of driving and I did make it solo from Suffolk to London and back again one weekend but just as I got confident I got a message on my car in felt tip pen saying:

Then I tried to drive to the local DIY shop 1 mile away and got stuck – twice. It was a Sunday and my local team were playing at home.  I was so close to a car I was sweating.  I couldn’t go back I couldn’t go forward.  I pulled my window down and said ‘I’m really just trying to get past this car’ and a guy in an enormous 4 wheel drive said ‘No worries but just to warn you  you are really really really close to that car.  Just keep your wheel straight and you’ll be ok’.  I was ‘just’ but I didn’t get to the shop.  I went round the block and I haven’t been in the car since.

No message Miss Helen Massey Fiskerton Manor Rolleston J Welch & Sons Portsmouth Dec 24 1908

So my theme this month is Christmas and for all its secular manifestations one should always remember what it really is about and with that I always like to remember absent friends.

This Christmas I will be remembering two dear friends Michael Seymour who won a Bafta and was nominated for an Oscar as Best Art Direction on Alien (famous for the John Hurt scene which Michael did) and was a man of many talents.  As an Art Director he was hugely in demand in the 80s not only in the film industry but in advertising when the advertising industry was at the height of its powers and money was abundant.  He once showed me his itinerary for one year and it was all flights!  He was also an exceptional photographer, writer and painter.  He always kept his mind active and I’ll miss him so much.  He photographed my album cover for Good Fortune, Bad Weather.

Michael Seymour pictured here on the left a great loss he passed away on my Birthday

And Bill.  Dear Billy from Buffalo who never stopped smiling.  More than my boss, he was my friend and I miss him madly.

I miss you Bill

Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for New Year!

Au revoir…until we meet again don’t know where don’t know when…

 

 

xxx

 

Happy All Hallows’ Eve…!

Picturegoer November 11 1950 Hedy Lamarr and George Sanders

Here is Hedy Lamarr in November’s issue of Picturegoer  in 1950.

Hugh Cornwell writes a great song about her in The Most Beautiful Girl in Hollywood if not the the brainiest in his excellent new album Monster.  Another great album out this month is The Wanderer by Cat Power.

Here she is with George Sanders who incidentally wrote in his suicide note:

“Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.”

I saw George Sanders recently in the classic 1960s B Movie Village of the Dammed.  He was a one off with a unique turn of phrase.

Luck found me up at the Royal National Hotel in Bloomsbury on Sunday where I found a great assortment of quirky postcards and ephemera.

Love to Jack from Mother undated to Mr Beaumont 56 Cross Lane Primrose Hill

I went round the Ephemera Fair and found very few postcards of Halloween. I feel I am starting to get to know quite a few of the dealers now.  Halloween was never a big thing in this country and it was certainly not so commercial.  In fact the postcards are always American so here’s one I found which I quite like.

Series No 412 Hallowe’en 6 Designs unmarked undated Made in USA

One of the nice dealers said he couldn’t stop staring at my eyes when I mentioned I couldn’t stop staring at his postcards!  I was very touched!  Am I detecting some kind of frisson at this fair!  It was a pulp and paperback day so I found some great covers:

Special Edition – Murder by Arthur Kent Sexton Blake Library No 381

Flight Into Fear by Peter Saxon Sexton Blake Library No 360 (Published by Amalgamated Press Ltd)

Destination Unknown by John Hunter The Sexton Blake Library No 294

Love’s Loneliness by F. Seymour The Glamour Library (no date)

Having not been out to any gigs lately I went to three last week: The mysterious, beautiful and ethereal Erin Lang of Foundling, the extraordinarily underrated and brilliant Sniff ‘n’ Tears with Richard Moore who plays violin with me and the adorable Caitlin Roberts on accordion (check out their band The Lost Revellers too) and the hypnotic and the traversing BCUC which didn’t hit the floor at Camden’s Jazz Café till 1am.  I felt I was in Soweto.   I am continuing my musical escapades to see House of Love in November and Peter Murphy and David J celebrating 40 years of Bauhaus on my Birthday in December in Brixton.

I Married A Star Picturegoer November 26 1955

Istanbul is a city so extraordinary I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Hagia Sophia October 2018 by Lettie

Post Card British Made (of the Hippodrome)

Hagia Sophia at night October 2018 by Lettie

I studied Byzantine History as a student at Glasgow and went to try and discover the Byzantine landmarks such as the obvious ones like Hagia Sophia (above) or even fragments of this history hidden in the most obscure places with my friend who is a doctor in the subject and quite a few others.  Photographs could not do justice to what I saw.

On the ceiling of Hagia Sophia (October 2018) You can probably buy a better postcard! Photography by Lettie

 

A highlight was visiting the Holy Byzantine shrine (one of only three remaining in Istanbul) underneath a carpet shop that was featured on the BBC’s Ancient Invisible Cities which is still available here on the iPlayer.  The carpet shop Kirkit had moved so the building was shut but we found owner Ahmet Diler at his new premises in Mimar Mehmet.  I bought a couple of beautiful carpets from 19th century and 1930 probably my most valued items I have ever bought and he gave us a tour because he still was in possession of a key and so we went underground.  Here is the Virgin Mary – a beautiful mosaic survived hundreds of years – you can just make out her eye (circa 7th century).

The Holy Byzantine Well that was formerly beneath Kirkit carpet shop but which which has now moved to another premises so this building and mosaics left untended to and empty October 2018 (Photograph by Lettie using Nikon and flash)

Even the Grand Hotel de Londres was quite something.  I adored the two parrots one of which was in the habit of wolf whistling! You would put your hand through the bars of the cage and he would tuck his head into it impressing on you to stroke his head.  The other one photographed here liked to somersault on his trapeze to show off.  It had to be the noisiest hotel in Istanbul but also the most interesting.  Here are some photographs of Dolly having a look around…

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So lucky I am to see this Holy well and visit Istanbul. Orhan Pamuk describes it so well in his Istanbul Memories of a City.  I managed to visit his museum The Museum of Innocence.  It’s hard to describe but it benefits from having read the book but having not read that particular book I followed this story that begins in the 70s and spent hours in this museum looking at the beautiful displays set up specifically to tell the story:

From The Museum of Innocence October 2018

Stamboul Golden Horn ‘Leonar’

Unmarked Galata Bridge Istanbul

Constantinople Vue du Babek au Bosphore Pour Monsieur Frank Behun United States 1 Jun 1922

Chora Church (my highlight but outside was covered in scaffolding for restoration) contains some of the earliest most intact Byzantine Mosaics in the world October 2018

Carte Postale unmarked

Edit J Ludwigsohn, Place Karakeny 21 Constantinople

Ruins of the circa fifth century Byzantine Bukoleon Palace October 2018 which would have been on the shore of the Marmara

Orhan talks about huzun all the time in the book.  It’s a trait that’s unique to the city and really I see it visually as a melancholic cloud hanging over the city.    It is a place of saudade.  It is a place of grandeur and tragedy.  It is East and West.  It was Christian and Muslim.  It was Greek, Roman,  a part of it, where we stayed Genoese, Ottoman, and now a place of anxiety from what I hear from our Turkish companion who was travelling with us.

I will never forget our trip up the Bosporus in a boat looking at one side Asia and other side Europe, the perched Yali houses, the boats further up heading towards the Black Sea, the grey lead sky that reflected deep into that disturbing river.

In another Turkish city Smyrna now Izmir I found this picture:

Very rare postcard probably would have been given by sailor to someone to spread the news to Europe -The Great Fire of Smyrna in September 1922 – marked the end of the Greek Turkish War and saw four days of fires resulting in 10,000 to 100,000 Greek and Armenian deaths by the Turks. Many refugees died on the banks and later in Anatolia.

Cartolina Postale Rajar – Very rare postcard showing Armenian massacres in the 1890s

Time….

Yakup 2 (fantastic restaurant in Istanbul) recommended by Mehmet Sander award winning dancer and choreographer who lives in Istanbul

My next album is coming out next year which is exciting and I have done a huge amount of writing lately not always good but I have had a productive year.

Exhausted after two sleepless nights at the Grand Hotel de Londres Istanbul which was right next to a Club which opened at 3am and closed at 6am October 2018

 

 

Another sleepless night at the Grand Hotel de Londres October 2018

I will have more news in December I am hoping I may even see David Baron soon to finish off my next album …xxx

You can spin the wheel round! Another quirky postcard I found – Alfred Stiebel & Co The Alpha Series Dear George did you catch any crabs in Weymouth…

Grace of Bradford unmarked except British Manufacture Throughout