NEXT PROJECT: 1945 to 1951, Britain and the Anglo French Art Centre

My next project will be my biggest to date: I am researching the Anglo-French Art Centre, 1945-51, set against the Labour Landslide, the birth of the Welfare State, austerity, the birth of the arts council and the Festival of Britain 1951 which, arguably, stood between art and the people.

My parents met at the Anglo-French. There they experienced the Parisian New French Realists, influenced by Existentialism. Tom and Muriel Mallin were friends with Conrad Romyn, Birget Skiold and other European travellers.

It is a brief, fascinating period of British history - cultural and political - which I will be exploring over the next year or two. If you have any reflections on this period or have contacts via the Anglo-French Art Centre, please get in touch.

Picture above: Still Life by Tom Mallin (in a private collection).

A Tiny Tom Mallin Illustration

Here is a tiny book illustration created in the 1950s. A painting of his is due to make an appearance in a Major Movie soon (details will appear here).

If you would like to see more of Tom Mallin's work go to the Tom Mallin Blog or if you're interested in purchasing a little history go to Rupert's Gallery (an eBay Shop).

Ralph's, traditional gentlemen's hairdressing

Ralph's, Northgate Street, Great Yarmouth.

The fields of North Norwich are flourishing

Sprouting seeds in progress.

Last Saturday's Anti Cuts Rally in Norwich

This is part of the 200 plus rally in Norwich Against The Cuts last Saturday organised by Norfolk Against The Cuts. A march is being organised for Saturday, December 4th, assemble 12noon at Chapelfield Gardens.

Though not top of the agenda of concern, the Arts will be very heavily cut in Norwich. Venues such as the Arts Centre, which has done so much to nurture young talent, is under threat. Just one of many...

A gathering storm over The Forum

Sand like Mud, Hunstanton Beach

Subway, Anglia Square, Norwich

December at Milestones Jazz Club, Lowestoft

TOP GUITARIST LEADING FUNKY ORGAN TRIO RETURNS TO MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB

The next concert at Milestones Jazz Club on Sunday 7 November features the return of a band that captures the energetic spirit and gritty Hammond organ format of the 1960’s Blue Note style - The Nigel Price Organ Trio.

When jazz guitarist Nigel Price last performed at Milestones Jazz Club he recorded his new album, appropriately titled, ‘Live!’.

Five out of the CD’s eight tracks were recorded at Milestones and has already received rave reviews in the national press and jazz music publications with the London Evening Standard making it their ‘CD of the Week’, calling it ‘a real killer’.

At this concert Nigel once again leads his funky and hard-swinging band in the spirit of Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff through fiery originals and well-chosen standards.

Musical petrol is thrown on the fire by the band’s other members - the brisk, quick-fire playing of Hammond organist Pete Whittaker and drummer Matt Home, leading London musicians in their own right.

Nigel’s fluid and confident voice skilfully fuses flowing bebop lines, the earthy wail of the blues and a will to swing and has made him instantly accessible and popular with jazz audiences.

Since the late Humphrey Lyttelton called Nigel ‘a really class performer’ it is not surprising that he has fast become one of the UK’s leading jazz musicians, often performing at Ronnie Scott’s Club and working with the likes of Pee Wee Ellis, Bobby Wellins, Alan Barnes, Peter King and the legendary David Axelrod at the Royal Festival Hall.

As guitarist with the standard bearers for the UK jazz-funk and acid jazz movements, The James Taylor Quartet, Nigel spent a number of years recording and touring Europe making him equally at home with modern jazz, funk and blues.

"We’re really looking forward to playing in Lowestoft again as the last concert we did at Milestones was the best of the tour," says Nigel, "The recordings were so good that we could easily have released a ‘Live at Milestones’ CD".

The band’s full line-up features Nigel Price (guitar), Pete Whittaker (Hammond organ) and Matt Home (drums).

Listen to Nigel Price’s music by visiting http://www.nigelprice.biz or http://www.myspace.com/117923069 or via the club website at http://www.milestonesjazzclub.co.uk

This concert is part of a national tour supported by Jazz Services.

All Milestones gigs are held on the first Sunday of every month and take place at Hotel Hatfield, Esplanade, Lowestoft with the doors opening at 8pm.

Admission - £7 / £6 (concession).

Cantley Sugar Beet Factory

Taken from the train on my mobile camera

A Mad, Mad World

In this mad world of bankers' debt transferred to the working classes to pay off in job losses, welfare cuts and ever growing student debts, the unfolding catastrophe that is Climate Change seems to have fallen off the agenda. But hang on...

There is a growing campaign that needs everyone's attention in the UK: the creation of one million green jobs - to both halt climate change and to provide jobs for the present and the future. Find out more here http://www.climate-change-jobs.org/

You'd not guess...

You'd not guess... I went to the cinema last night to see 'Made in Dagenham' about the women machinists strike for equal pay at Fords in 1968.

The film certainly gave a real taste of the 1960s but not the social turmoil of 1968 - in Britain as across the World. However, some wonderful scenes in the factory and some stunning performances. Also, the blocking tactics of the union bureaucracy against the rank and file members was well portrayed.

I thoroughly enjoyed my evening out at The Hollywood Cinema, Norwich, though I honestly didn't eat all this popcorn!

WEEKLY REPORT 1

I'm sure we're all incredibly heartened by the 33 Chilean miners escape from being trapped 69 days underneath a mountain half a mile down. The spirit of solidarity and team work has echoed across the world.

I was amazed that the right wing Chilean President, having rolled up his sleeves, promised laws to protect the country's workers. Not so Cameron & Co. Our Oxbridge Coalition leaders are a throw back to Britain in the 1930s. Cameron and Clegg appear like characters from the cartoon strip Lord Snooty (I'm sure Cameron is a waxwork). Yet these fleshless men - these millionaires via inheritance - rule our lives again.

Trouble is, this isn't a comic strip.

Crunch is, Tories and Lib Dems (the Condems) have always, always said: debt is the curse, debt is the reason they're attacking the working class. So, how come the Condems are condemning our young people to a life time of debt in order to learn?

FULHAM PALACE ART FAIR OPENING

I'm hot foot back from the The Fulham Palace Art Fair. Quite an experience. Lovely people and place. I've learnt a lot about my own work through looking at other artists' work and taking part in such a huge event.

Art Fairs aren't gallery spaces, though they're not part of the 'democratisation of art' movement either. They are great places to try out selling art. However, I'm not sure what any of us mean by 'art.' Picasso's shabby works would not get a look in at an Art Fair because so much is about presentation. Yet, presentation is an important aspect - the most important aspect! - in selling art because we're generally talking here about wall space. Given a nice house, it is about finding a piece of art to put on a wall.

I think we might be running out of private walls though.

For myself, it's all about going away from the wall - as sculpture did historically.

Catch me catching up with myself soon!!

Golden Days

Paul Frankland sent me this memory lane photo he took back in 1980 - around the time I grew a moustache to play Chief Redcoat Riley in Orton's 'Erpingham Camp' staged at the Quay Theatre Sudbury. Great times.

I recently featured Paul's photographic exhibition at The Quay, Sudbury, at which he took over £500 to support the theatre! Good stuff.