Friday, July 06, 2007





Rest In Peace, George Melly. I was sad to read the obituaries for genial George in today's newspapers. This son of Liverpool deserves much more praise and recognition than current Scouser embarrassments like Paul McCartney. I'll remember him for many things. His three volumes of autobiography, Scouse Mouse, Rum Bum & Concertina and Owning Up. His championing of Surrealism and Outsider Art. His scripts for Trog's comic strip Flook and screenplay for 60s satire Smashing Time.


The one time I saw George Melly in person was suddenly recognising him standing on a London street corner, observing the unfolding scene. He was wearing a lilac fedora and vivid checked suit, just like he might've worn on stage with John Chilton's Feetwarmers. I was deeply impressed that his eccentricities weren't just fabricated for the gaze of the media.


Above llustration of George Melly is by venerable cartoonist Trog (aka Wally Fawkes.)

8 comments:

Boring Being said...

A few years back we were lucky enough to see him give a talk about his life, though he didn't sing, unfortunately. I got my mum his autograph afterwards, and he signed his biography for me. He'd knocked back half a bottle of whisky during the talk, and was pleasingly sozzled. The world's just got a bit more bland.

John Bagnall said...

Yes, BB, the old bohemian guard seem to be dying off. Can't think of any contemporary figures who could cock a snoot quite like George.

Boring Being said...

A few weeks back my brother and me got talking to an old chap in The French House, Soho. He was 91, and claimed never to have eaten meat ("filthy stuff"). He had a pint in the Coach And Horses and two glasses of Merlot in the French House every day ("But never on a monday"). He was so nice I took his photo, and posted them to him and a few days later he rang to thank me. A real gent - he's called Conan Nicholas - named after his Godfather, Arthur Conan Doyle, no less. I later found out he 'invented cat racing'.

John Bagnall said...

Wow, a lovely account of the almost extinct eccentric milieu I'm talking about, BB!

I went to art school with the grandson of Ben Nicholson and he used to excite my imagination no end with inherited tales of bohemian London when pubs seemed to be crammed with genuinely oddball characters.

Boring Being said...

I can heartily recommend a DVD - "Look At Life - Swinging London", a collection of short documentaries from the sixties. One in particular is about the rise of the Soho coffee shops (all but gone now, alas) and full of little vignettes featuring the denizens of old, characterful soho and London before Starbucks and Gap moved in. Loads of great stuff on that DVD.

I assume you're familiar with film/book "The London Nobody Knows"?

John Bagnall said...

I've made a note of that DVD, but no, BB, I know nothing of "The London Nobody Knows." Please tell me more...

Boring Being said...

It's a film based on the book of the same name by Geoffrey Fletcher. It was made in 1967. Fletcher wrote and an illustrated a series of books about the soon-to-be-planned-out-of-existence , characterful and often seedy bits of London of the 50's and early 60s, especially the East End and the Thames-side. He had a very louche, dryly humorous and frank writing style. I've been collecting his books for a couple of years - you can often get them for pennies on ebay.

The film's presenter is James Mason, dressed for a weekend in the country. He's perfectly cast in this role and keeps drifting into his native Yorkshire accent. The film is hard to get on DVD - but there is a bloke who sells them on ebay for a very good price.

Here's an article about TLNK by St Etienne's Bob Stanley:

http://tinyurl.com/yupxzg

John Bagnall said...

I've located the London Nobody Knows paperback and DVD on ebay already and am 99% sure both will be right "up my street".

Thanks for the Geoffrey Fletcher tip, BB.