Coming Up

To Chichester last Sunday to see the John Minton exhibition at the excellent Pallant House Gallery.  Most of the best works from his tragically short career were on display, including his beautiful book covers for the likes of the influential publisher John Lehmann and best sellers such as Elizabeth David's A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950) and French Country Cooking (1951).  I had never seen the large-scale history paintings he produced at the end, but I thought these the least successful in the show - sadly he took his own life in 1957 aged 39.

I would love to have time to see more live music, but it isn't possible at the moment.  Just these for now:

Tuesday 10th October Meier Budjana Group (with Asaf Sirkis on drums and Jimmy Haslip bass) Jazz Hastings

Great show.  If you are interested in World Music, Prog and Jazz you should catch them on their tour. Amazing playing from all concerned.

Friday 13th October The Flaming Stars The Lexington, London

The support band Get Your Gun (from Aalborg in Denmark) were very good.  Sounds like Brendan Perry from Dead Can Dance singing over guitar from the school of My Bloody Valentine or Spiritualized.  Powerful and convincing.  More on them here.

Wednesday 25th October Public Service Broadcasting De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill

Thursday 26th October Salon for the City with Sarah Wise and Kim Newman talking about (I hope) Quatermass and the Pit.

I shall be giving a folklore talk in London on Monday 23rd October.  Book here.  Copies of Netherwood and other books will be on sale.

Dance Till the Stars Come Down

Having recently acquired a drawing by John Minton (1917-1957) I read his biography by Frances Spalding Dance Till the Stars Come Down.  A good friend of Michael Ayrton (see earlier post) this talented painter, illustrator, stage designer and teacher seems to have suffered from manic depression: he took his own life on 20th January 1957.  He was homosexual and a heavy drinker and hung out with the usual Soho & Fitzrovia suspects: the two Roberts, Bacon, Freud etc and shared a studio with Keith Vaughan.  For me, some of his most evocative works are his Thames dockside pictures, when it was still a working port and not an investment opportunity.  Here's a passage he wrote about this favourite subject:

'I do not think the initial stimulus to paint is necessarily visual.  For instance, a ship's siren is one of the most potent sounds I know, arousing a whole series of images.  Awakening the particular grey sadness of the docks, the dark enormous ships and cold chill wind shuddering over the sea, the cranes drawn slenderly intricate and black upon the steel sky; amongst the small shapes of painted colour, the vivid orange, rust red, white and cobalt, or again, the high still skies of midsummer, the warehouses sharp and square in the honey-coloured sun, and the quietness of ships glittering across the pale horizontal water; where occasionally a small figure moves and is still again.  The flags hanging limp; afternoon; nostalgia for distant cities and landscapes of the world.'  [Spalding p.103]