ANDREW LOGAN DELIVERS ART PHILOSOPOHY

Andrew Logan in his crash helmet creation
(Paddy Whitaker in the background)
Photo by Keir Malem

Fancy a lecture on Art Philosophy at the Victoria & Albert? The artist Andrew Logan,  creator of some of the globe's most original sculptures will be sprouting forth about his unique brand of Art at the The Lydia  &  Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre on Friday 16th September at the Victoria & Albert museum.

Andrew Logan’s lecture promises to be a humdinger as according to the V & A, Mr Logan’s enlightening talk will be an exploration and deep discussion of his philosophy.

“Art can be discovered anywhere,” Mr Logan proclaims.

 Friday 16 September 19.00-20.00 p.m. Tickets: £10.  Call the Victoria & Albert on 020 7942 2000 for mass bookings.

Andrew Logan signing his book at the V & A

THE KEEP MAGAZINE IS A KEEPER

I was walking through Selfridges’glossy magazine section when I was stopped in my tracks by The Keep's magazine quirky cover.

 When I flicked through this first edition I noticed the Commissioning Editor is Iain Finlayson, which compelled me to buy it.

Iain Finlayson

 Mr Finlayson, an author who moonlights as a book reviewer has written several books including the sublime Tangier: City of the dream.

And when I saw The Keep’s contributors include the interesting writer Duncan Fallowell and GQ editor Dylan Jones OBE, trustee of the Hay Festival I was intrigued.

The Keep, a stronghold of ambitious thinking and artistic excellence; a treasury of new writing, iconic images, exciting ideas and creative imagination is published by Hay & Wye CIC, and intends to be a biannual magazine published in the deep winter and late spring of each year.

It could also just be described as Hay-on-Wye’s new literary magazine, as there are substantial extracts from some of the festival’s Hay based authors’ new books which enticed me to buy them: namely Under the Tump by Oliver Balch and Tom Bullough’s Addlands.

 Hay resident Soma Ghosh wrote the sizzling Death of an Idol:My Strangest Relationship article after Prince’s death on the Keep’s website. In the printed first edition, she interviews Hay based, fellow ex-Soho clubber Nina Lyon at length about her new book Uprooted: On the Trail of the Green Man.

The Keep isn’t purely a promotional vehicle for Hay based authors’ new books though. The magazine is illustrated with photographs of prize-winning quality, which should make the National Portrait Gallery drool; all of which definitely helps make this first issue a collector’s item. Grab it while you can. (Also available from The Shop on the Keep Magazine website).

Soma Ghosh

Eggs Over Easy Retrospective

(I should rename this blog "There Is Nothing Wrong With Nepotism!").

My illustrious brother-in-law is Austin de Lone, who is routinely described as 'Legendary'.

'Well, I guess if you stick around long enough, good thing happen,' he tells me.

He is one of the originators of Eggs Over Easy, the scintillating American country rock band who undisputedly started Pub Rock in the early Seventies. For non-afficianados of this prolific band which was made up of Austin (keyboard, guitar and vocals) Jack O'Hara (guitar, bass and vocals) and the late Brien Hopkins, (keyboards, bass, guitar & vocals), read their created detailed entry on Wikipedia!

Austin, Jack and Brien 

This ain't a parochial music column, but I must state here the band, who undisputedly paved the way for the Punk movement had a compelling repertoire of over hundred songs, fifty originals and covers, and during the early Seventies regularly wowed their packed out audiences at the late and lamented Tally Ho club in Kentish Town.

Awed disciples, which included future musical stalwarts like Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Loudoun Wainwright III and the West Coast spawned Huey Lewis worshipped at their musical shrine.

Nick Lowe

Unfortunately, I didn't get my hands on their Good 'n' Cheap vinyl at the time, but now, miraculously on June 24th,Yep records is due to release the entire restored and remastered Good'N'Cheap catalogue.

Elvis Costello

Elvis and Eggs Over Easy

Eggs Over Easy, the criminally overlooked American band that invented pub rock, influenced the careers of artists on both sides of the Atlantic — from Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello, to Loudon Wainwright III and Huey Lewis — and laid the groundwork for a grass-roots movement that would spawn UK punk, is finally getting its due with Good ‘n’ Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story, a definitive 3xLP/2xCD set to be released June 24 via Yep Roc. 

Huey Lewis 

Loudoun Wainwright III

Additionally, founding band members Jack O’Hara and Austin de Lone have just played a special reunion show at NYC’s Rockwood Stage 3 which reportedly drove their fans old and new mental with enthusiasm. For the first time ever, the entire Eggs Over Easy catalog, lovingly restored and remastered, is available as a deluxe set. 

Included in this collection is the band’s debut album Good ‘n’ Cheap, produced by Link Wray and originally released on A&M Records in 1972; their rarely-heard second LP, Fear of Frying, originally (if barely) released on Lee Michaels’ Squish Records in 1980; two songs from the band’s lone single released on Buffalo Records; and the previously unreleased London ’71 sessions recorded at Olympic Studios, and produced by Animals bassist and Jimi Hendrix producer Chas Chandler. 

The 2xCD package includes a 24-page booklet, and the 3xLP set features an 8-page insert, with extremely rare photos, show flyers, press clippings, musician and writer credits, plus the definitive story of the band by acclaimed music writer Gene Sculatti, who called Good ‘n’ Cheap a “near-masterpiece” when he originally reviewed it for Creem Magazine in 1972. 

Dave Robinson

With roots stretching back to late 1960s Berkeley, CA, the three principals in the Eggs – songwriters Jack O’Hara, Austin de Lone, and Brien Hopkins – were lured to London in 1970 by Chandler with the promise of a record deal and sessions at Olympic. When said deal proved apparitional, the Eggs “did what any American band would do,” recalls Stiff Records co-founder and original Eggs fan Dave Robinson, “They went to the nearest bar and said, ‘Give us your worst night.'” 

Chas Chandler

Which is how Eggs Over Easy leapt onto the pages of pop music history. Their humble Monday night gigs at a former Kentish Town jazz club called the Tally Ho – pub rock ground zero – would become the hub for a new network of artists, venues, and music biz makers and herald a sea change in the direction of underground and eventually popular music. 

“There were hippies there, skinheads, Rastafarians. I remember, most especially, a Sikh bus driver with a turban on and his bus driver uniform dancing away. It was an unbelievable scene with people hanging off the ceilings. There was this fantastic feeling that you were in on something extraordinary.” – Nick Lowe on Eggs Over Easy at The Tally Ho.

 I haven't delved into iTunes for a while but after viewing this 'criminally overlooked' band's explanatory documentary on YouTube, I have pre-ordered the entire Eggs Over Easy catalogue from:
Yep Roc Store Pre-Order: Yep Roc Store

Digital Order from iTunes. (Available from June 24th).

A Vintage Designer Dress Gets Handed Down Through The Generations

I grabbed this divine Ossie Clark/Celia Birtwell dress from the rails at the defunct Radley showroom during the late Seventies. After I wore it to death at bashes like the Playboy parties at Stocks House in Hertfordshire, I passed it on to my sister Lesley. She lived in it when she was pregnant with her daughter Caroline de Lone.

Now twenty four years later, I'm thrilled to see chanteuse/songwriter Caroline (Austin de Lone’s daughter) wore it last night when she stormed the stage at the Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, paving the way for country singer Carlene Carter's spectacular appearance.

Barry Miles Catapults William Burroughs Into the Stratosphere

My most treasured collection consists of a shelf of autographed first edition books. The Executioner’s Song, Norman Mailer’s arguably best book used to be sandwiched between Evelyn Waugh’s Basil Seal Rides Again and Jackie Collins’ Hollywood Wives!

I’ve since had to rearrange my bookshelf after I bumped into Barry Miles, the acclaimed counterculture writer and biographer at Marylebone market last Sunday.

Barry Miles

When I espied Barry Miles , commonly known as Miles by the fish stall I knew there must be a God. As fate would have it, I had a copy of his latest book William S. Burroughs: A Life stuffed in my shopping bag. I asked Miles to sign it, and he agreed.

Published in 2014 one hundred years after Burrough's death, it is the definitive biography on William Burroughs, the controversial writer who inspired and motivated a conglomerate of artists to worship at his avant-garde shrine.

William Burroughs

Miles' gripping William Burroughs biography, which left me reeling with awe offers the reader everything and more there is to know about the fascinating/controversial writer, and his iconoclastic literature/writing.

For intricate details of Burroughs' complete Bibliography, including the formation of his earlier works: Junky,  Naked Lunch, Queer  etc. devour the book.

Fortunately, Miles had the full support of the Burroughs estate while writing the bio. He also had the advantage of having being a friend of Burroughs since the mid Sixties, plus knowing other  historical Beat personalities like the influential Allen Ginsberg.

Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs

Miles has had least eighty glowing international reviews including a humdinger from The New York Times and deservedly so.

Miles with Burroughs.

Now, William S. Burroughs: A Life is stacked against Norman Mailer on my bookshelf. All I can say is that Miles’ inscription is the most intriguing of my entire collection.

Peter Schlesinger's Photographic Memories

When the sculpturist and painter Peter Schlesinger took a photo of me wearing a silver metallic jump suit, hanging onto the light fittings at my house during the early Seventies, little did I suspect his impromptu snap would one day appear in one of his books.

Peter’s new photographic book, the long awaited sequel to his Checkered Past visual diary is titled Peter Schlesinger A Photographic Memory 1968-1989. It’s an appropriate title because all the nostalgic photos in Peter’s fascinating new book are of his old friends from the orbits of fashion, art, showbiz and society, preserved in their prime of youth.

Extraordinary private pictures of David Hockney, his muse Celia Birtwell, Paloma Picasso, Cecil Beaton and Amanda Lear are just some of the exquisite subjects whom Peter took impromptu snaps of with his natural gift for composition and originality.

Amanda Lear. Photo by Peter Schlesinger

Peter’s partner, the multi-talented Swedish photographer and writer Eric Boman features heavily in the book, which is just as well as he was regarded as being the most beautiful boy on the block.

Amanda Lear with Eric Boman. Photo by Peter Schlesinger

One of the cinema verity styled photos of him and Manolo Blahnik looking slightly anxious in the crowded Notting Hill Gate’s carnival made me laugh.

The photographs are all multi-dimensional works of art, which necessitates one viewing them again and again. Schlesinger’s photographs, which have a film still quality will never go stale.

Cecil Beaton and David Hockney. Photo by Peter Schlesinger

People who didn’t personally know Peter’s international group of friends including the likes of the artist R.B. Kitaj, Christopher Isherwood, Bryan Ferry and Andy Warhol should none the less appreciate this fascinating book.

Viewing Schlesinger's photographs is like being rewarded with an intimate glimpse into his carefree life during the late Twentieth century. For example, It’s hard to imagine now driving along a deserted Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica which Peter's snap captured.

Peter Schlesinger's sculptures

Peter Schlesinger, whose sculptures are incidentally totally original has produced an unique book which effortlessly records the joi de vivre of his glamorous and individual friends in a less congested world.

My Best Review Yet

I suppose I should be flattered. I see my novel Frantic has been pirated.

On one dodgy site, I was fascinated to wade through the mainly illiterate reviews. But one pirate going under the pseudonym of Avatar has given me my best review yet: “It's disgusting and painful to read, but impossible to stop.”

Avatar

Thank you Avatar, whoever you are. I wish that tablets belonging to pirate pigs are afflicted with irreversible viruses after their owners download material for free. Looking on the bright side, at least Frantic is being read. Grrrrr!

Caroline de Lone Fingerprints

It’s not often that a twenty-two year old ingenue has her debut CD produced by her dad. But my niece - singer-songwriter Caroline de Lone has. Her father Austin de Lone has just produced her first album titled Fingerprints.

Austin is a musician as well as a record producer and has been nurturing Caroline's all round musical talents since she was a baby. I know I'm the proud aunt, but Caroline has got the most gorgeous voice.

For Christmas, Caroline sent me a preview copy of Fingerprints, which I’ve been playing non-stop. I particularly love her stirring tracks Places, and Man UP which to my untrained ear are potential pop hit singles.

Caroline's band consists of a group of musical stalwarts including the veteran rockabilly guitarist Bill Kirchen, Eric McCann, Paul Revelli, Austin de Lone and nineteen year old musical prodigy Matt Jaffe, who plays Acoustic Guitar on Caroline’s CD.

Mat Jaffe

Caroline is unveiling her Fingerprints CD at the legendary Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley on Wednesday February 11th. (Show starts at 8 p.m. Admission: $5). Fortunately for the over subscribed audience, Caroline is a riveting singer and performer and I can safely say she will do her CD more than justice. A star is born?!

Crushed is resurrected

I am my own Fave Rave this month. Crushed, my illustrated Young Adult novel has just been resurrected from the Out of Print graveyard. The book is now on global Amazon Kindle.

Since the book became available on line, readers in India, Germany, France, England and the USA have bought copies. Not bad for a novel, resurrected from Out of Print obscurity.

Richard de Lone's Peace Love and Twang Benefit

Study the above poster, and if you are a bluegrass, blues, Americana, country and rockabilly fanatic - start drooling!

It's a Family Affair: for the record, singer/songwriter Caroline de Lone (Richard's sister and offspring of Lesley and Austin) will be belting her guts out amongst the exalted line up of fellow musicians at the 8th Annual Richard de Lone Special Housing Project, held at the Bimbo’s 365 club, 1025 Columbus, San Francisco, California on Sunday, October 5th.

Caroline de Lone's fingerprints CD

 I do hope Caroline will be singing songs from her debut album titled Fingerprints, which will be released just before December 25th. I admit she's my niece, but there is  lot to say for Nepotism. She is an Original.

 Exalted musicians, who will be twanging away beside her include Jim Lauderdale, Bill Kirchen, the Legendary Austin de Lone, Carlene Carter, Butch Hancock, Jim Dale Gilmour, Dan Hicks and The Hicksville Express and Kindred Maxwell and de Lone. 

Caroline and Austin de Lone

Dan Hicks

The concert will be worth going to for the Silent Auction alone: a Fender Jazzmaster, owned by Elvis Costello himself, a special copy of Elvis' first Jazzmaster, made in a limited edition by Fender, autographed and authenticated, with photo. Also a case of Boz Scaggs 'fantastic' 2007 vintage; a 20x30 original Ken Friedman framed photo of Jerry Garcia and more.

 So if you fancy a musically invigorating night out call Bimbo’s 365 club at (415) 474 0365 to book .... pronto.

Carlene Carter

Pow! Wow! Comics Unmasked

Woweeee Zoweeeee! At the tail end of the twentieth century, I used to write FutureShock stories for 2000 AD magazine. The longest comic I wrote was eight pages, but I always wanted to know how to write a 100 page graphic novel.

My prayers were recently answered: As part of the British Library’s compelling Comics Unmasked exhibition, imaginatively curated by John Harris Dunning, Paul Gravett, and Adrian Edwards (ends August 19th), the library organised a four session course on how to create a Graphic novel – from Beginner/Intermediate to Advanced level.

 

The course leaders consisted of Ariel Kahn, the Senior Lecturer in creative writing at Roehampton University, and John Harris Dunning (John's sublime graphic novel Salem Brownstone: All Along the Watchtowers was the first graphic novel published by Walker Books).

Ariel Kahn

John Harris Dunning

Special Guests included Sarah Lightman, director of Laydeez do Comics, and Emma Hayley, MD and Publisher of SelfMadeHero, which she launched in 2007, after spotting a gap in the market for high-quality graphic novels.

As the courses were all held in the evening, the participants were given the perk Of viewing the Comics Unmasked exhibition, ‘the UK’s largest ever exhibition of mainstream and underground comics, showcasing works that uncompromisingly address politics, gender, violence, sexuality and altered states’ after opening hours, when the public weren’t admitted.

 The first course (titled: Who is in Charge? The dynamics of image and text) was in the PACCAR gallery where the exhibition is held. Ariel Kahn co-hosted the workshop with John Harris Dunning.

One of the students told me he had just graduated from Kahn’s creative writing course at Roehampton university and exclaimed he was a Brilliant teacher. I have to say Kahn was one of the most exhilarating lecturers I have ever come across.

 If all that wasn’t stimulating enough, I actually had a one to one encounter with the charming John Harris Dunning, who showed me how to write AND draw a comic script. I illustrated Crushed, my YA novel but drawing thumbnail pix is another learning curve.

During the last From Pitch to Publication course I attended, SelfMadeHero’s Emma Hayley gave an inspiring talk before making herself available for us to pitch our stuff at her. If that wasn’t fab enough, a handful of us then went into the exhibition to have another look round. The exhibition space was designed by award-winning comic book artist Dave McKean, and I really felt I was inside a living comic.

  Kissley Leonor, who covers fashion, film and design at the British Library reminded us how lucky we were, saying the exhibition is always PACKED.

 Kissley Leonor

One of the great things about attending creative courses is meeting like-minded people. The viewers going round the gallery with me included Edward Fletcher, the creator of the Meiosis webcomic, and Royal College of Art student Fionnuala Doran - the winner of Comics Unmasked Arts Thread x British Library competition.

Fionnuala Doran 

 We all stopped ogling the Comic Art for a few minutes to discuss PhotoShop. And that reminds me I might now have to go on a course on how to learn Inking and Lettering!