Pauline Boty, The Only Blonde In The World

I am really pleased to see that there is a programme on  BBC4 tonight called Pauline Boty, I am the 60s. I am glad that she is finally getting the recognition she deserves. To celebrate the occasion I thought I would  dust off this piece I wrote about  Pauline back in 2019..............................................................................A couple of days ago when I was researching a piece about Adrian Mitchell I read that he and his wife had adopted a child who was the daughter of their friends the artist Pauline Boty and Clive Goodwin. This aroused my curiosity because I hadn’t heard of Pauline Boty before, so I looked for info about her. What I found was quite fascinating for me because I have always been interested in people who had a brief flirtation with fame and then disappeared into obscurity, or made an important contribution to the arts and have been unfairly overlooked. Pauline was one of the founders of the British Pop Art movement along with the likes of David Hockney and Peter Blake who both went on to be world famous, but Pauline has been largely forgotten. Another thing I have noticed about Pauline is that she was extremely beautiful. This might have been to her detriment because she might have only been noticed for her looks and not for her work.

Pauline was born in 1938 and after attending art school in Wimbledon where her classmates called her ‘The Wimbledon Bardot’. She studied stained glass design at the Royal College Of Art. She wanted to study painting but couldn’t because admissions for women to that course were limited due to the institutionalised sexism of the times. That didn’t stop her painting in her spare time though. She was a bit of a polymath. As well as painting, Pauline also published poetry, acted, and also was a leading light in a group called the Anti-Uglies who protested against the brutalism of post-war British architecture. Pauline was one of the artists featured in a TV programme directed by Ken Russell in 1962 called Pop Goes The Easel. She acted at the Royal Court Theatre, appeared in Armchair Theatre on television, danced on Ready Steady Go and was one of Michael Caine’s girlfriends in the film Alfie. When Bob Dylan first visited Britain in 1963 it was Pauline who showed him around London.

Colour Her Gone.

It should be for her art that Pauline is remembered. I have looked at her work on the internet and am most impressed. Her paintings are bright and exuberant and sensual. There are two pictures featuring Marilyn Monroe called The Only Blonde In The World and Colour Her Gone which particularly caught my eye. There is another one as well called ironically, It’s A Man’s World which celebrates her femininity. I also liked a picture called 5 4 3 2 1 which took its title from a song by Manfred Mann. If there was an exhibition of her work near me I would certainly go along and see it.

Pauline’s life ended tragically young. After a whirlwind romance she married Clive Goodwin. In 1965 she became pregnant. During a pre-natal test it was discovered that she had leukaemia. She refused chemotherapy because it would harm her child and she died at the age of only 28 just a few months after the birth of her daughter.  Her daughter also died tragically from a heroin overdose in 1995.

After she died Pauline’s paintings were stored away in a barn on her brother’s farm where they remained, gathering dust for over thirty years. Pauline’s place in British art was largely forgotten until recent years. In 2013 a retrospective exhibition of her work was finally held in Wolverhampton and later Chichester. It is due to the sexism in British art that she has been overlooked for so long. The same applies to literature. The leading figures in British writing in the 50’s were called The Angry Young Men, what about the angry young women?. Also, the other day I looked in a poetry anthology I have called Children Of Albion published in 1969 which features 65 poets of the era. There are only five female poets in it, what a disgrace.

In the 1960’s, because of her looks everyone was in love with Pauline Boty. I read this by Sabine Durrant who said in 1993, “Even now, grown men with grey hair in dark houses in Notting Hill cry at the sound of Pauline Boty’s name.”

Postscript: Five years after I wrote this piece I am very pleased that Pauline is finally getting some recognition. This week I was watching the first episode of a new series on BBC by historian Simon Schama called The Story Of Us which looked at what shaped Britain since 1945 and Pauline's work featured quite heavily in the episode. I hope this might lead to a major exhibition of her work.

The Only Blonde In The World.

Lindisfarne Lady Eleanor live 1978

R.I.P. Bill Fay.

Bill Fay in 1970.

I was very sorry today to hear that Bill Fay has died at the age of 81. As a small tribute to Bill I thought I'd republish this review that I wrote five years ago..................................................................... Today I have been listening to a CD that arrived a couple of days ago. It is simply called Bill Fay. It was first released in 1970 and it has taken me fifty years to discover it.  It was just over a week ago that somebody put a link on Facebook to an article in the New York Times. It was about an American songwriter called Joshua Henry who had set out in 2010 to find a long forgotten English singer who had made an album that he and his father loved. This singer was Bill Fay and nothing had been heard of him since 1971 when he had been dropped by his record label.  Ever since Joshua Henry tracked down Bill Fay and persuaded him to return to the recording studio he has made three albums. The latest called Countless Branches was only released in the last two weeks. Since his re-emergence from obscurity Bill Fay’s songs have been championed by such people as Jeff Tweedy of the band Wilko. Bill has even been persuaded to join Wilko on stage for a song and has made an appearance on BBC’s Later With Jools Holland. He has no intentions of touring to promote his latest work though. It seems that Bill didn’t mind the decades of obscurity because he was content to write songs and record them at home purely for the love of making music.

All this aroused my interest, because as you know I love finding long forgotten great music. I looked on YouTube and I liked the first song I heard called Be Not So Fearful which was included on his very first album. (I have shared that song to blogger if you want to hear it) I decided to see if this album was still available, looked on eBay and there it was. It had been re-released in 2008 on the Esoteric Label. Two days later it popped through my letterbox. Van Morrison fans might like to know that it was an ex-member of Van’s group Them Called Terry Noon who discovered Bill in the mid 60's. He had moved from being a musician to management, spotted Bill and brought him to Decca. One of Decca’s labels was Deram who had a subsidiary label for ‘progressive’ music called Nova and it was on this label that Bill Fay was released in 1970.

There are thirteen songs plus two bonus tracks from an earlier single release. I won’t go through the whole album song by song, because I won’t be able to think of anything to say about some of them. The opening track is called Garden Song and is like an ode to the joys of gardening with such lines as ‘I’ll wait for the rain to anoint my face’. It starts quietly but builds to a crescendo of instruments. It sounds like a whole orchestra was used on this recording. The Sun Is Bored also has huge swirls of orchestration which was quite the fashion of that era. At times I was reminded of an album called A Salty Dog by Procol Harum or McArthur Park or Scott Walker. Sing Us One Of Your Songs May has a military style drum beat intro before a deadpan spoken delivery of a melancholic anti-war song. Gentle Willie is also a song with a pacifist sentiment. Methane River is a great song, but the vocals are almost drowned out in places by a cacophony of trumpets. It’s a shame because there are some nice woodwind sounds during the quieter passages. The Room, Goodnight Stan, Cannons Plain and Down to The Bridge are all excellent songs. One of the bonus tracks Screams In The Ears is an account of going to a horrible party. Some Good Advice had echoes possibly of Nick Drake.

Bill Fay now.

I enjoyed the album very much indeed. My only complaint is that I think it is over-produced on some songs. Less is more.  Bill and just his piano would have been sufficient for some of the tracks. I think if it was recorded these days it would have a more stripped-back sound. Apparently, it was the follow-up album called Time Of The Last Persecution that led Joshua Henry to track down Bill Fay. Maybe that’s the album I should have ordered. There is no doubt though that Bill Fay is a very talented singer-songwriter and I am pleased that at the age of 76 he is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

Be Not So Fearful by Bill Fay.

A World Of Peace Must Come by Stephen Kalinich & Brian Wilson.

Brian Wilson was my first music hero. When all the other kids at my school were either Stones fans or Beatles fans, I was different and knew that The Beach Boys were the best group in the world. Although my music taste expanded as I got older, I still followed the ups and downs, trials and tribulations of Brian’s career with interest through the decades. I thought I was a bit of an expert on Brian’s life and music. Recently however I read about a recording Brian made in 1969 that I knew nothing about. I discovered that he had produced and played on a spoken word album by a poet called Stephen John Kalinich. The recording was completed in one day on August 22^nd, 1969, at Brian’s house in Bel Air California. It was Called A World Of Peace Must Come. I recognised the name Stephen Kalinich because he co-wrote three songs with Dennis Wilson, Be Still and Little Bird on the Beach Boys 1968 album Friends, and All I Want To Do on 20/20. Stephen and Brian couldn’t get a record company to release the album, and it was lost for decades until being rediscovered and finally released by Light In The Attic Records in 2008. 

I read more about Stephen on Wikipedia which told me that he was born in New York in 1942 and moved to California in the mid-60s where he became known as a poet and peace activist, appearing at such venues as The Troubadour in Los Angeles. He made a recording called Leaves Of Grass, but no radio station would play it, mistakenly thinking it was about marijuana, but it did bring him to the attention of Brian and Dennis Wilson. I decided I needed to hear this album, and the CD arrived here a few days ago. The album contains twelve tracks recorded at Brian’s house plus Leaves Of Grass as a bonus track. All the lyrics are written by Stephen. It begins with a few seconds of unmistakeable Brian Wilson harmony intro before Stephen recites the first poem Candy Face Lane. The album contains a very useful booklet with all the words, so you can read the poems while listening. 

I won’t comment on every poem, but I think they stand up very well against the Beat poets I know from this era such as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Gary Snyder, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti who are probably the only other American poets I can think of from the 60s. The themes are of spirituality, peace and nature.  Some tracks such as The Deer, The Elk, The Raven are performed as songs with some music accompaniment. On that track a dog can be heard barking in the background, which was probably accidental, but reminded me of Pet Sounds. On The Magic Hand there is a nice touch where Brian’s wife Marilyn Wilson sings a small section of Tears On My Pillow. My favourite track is Be Still which is based on the song which appeared on the Friends album. A critic described it as a ‘Unitarian hymn’ and interpreted the lyrics to be a description of the ‘sacred essence of life and the human potential to interact with God’. 

The words have a zen-like simplicity, but very profound. Although this recording was made 55 years ago, I think it is very relevant to today’s world. In 1969 America was going through a very dark time with the Vietnam war, political assassinations, and race riots. Today America and the world is facing equally dark times, but as in the 60s there is also a growing spiritual consciousness that opposes the darkness. Another track I really like is America I Know You (I urge you to watch video below) which points out that despite all the problems America is still a great country. Americans don’t need some jumped up real estate speculator telling them they need to make America great again. It is great already. They gave us the best music for a start. As in all countries there are big problems to solve, but the people have to solve them together and not be divided by hate.

I better stop now before I get too political. I am pleased I discovered this rare recording. I know it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I think it is a very interesting piece of the Brian Wilson legend. This is what Stephen said about Brian on his birthday which I agree with..

‘Brian Wilson puts so much good into the universe. It could fill all space the positive impact of his melodies, harmonies, thoughts, and contributions to the consciousness of humanity is beyond what any scholar or critic could capture in words. The music speaks for itself, it produces joy and tears just by listening to it, it opens up the senses when you’re really down, it’s cathartic, it can help toward healing you. Brian Wilson has been a great friend to me and I’m so grateful for him and he touched so many other lives. God bless him on his birthday and the goodness he puts out into the universe regardless of all the struggles he has gone through himself. This is astonishing, not only touches me deeply, but it touches humanity and I’m so grateful that he was born and may he always be blessed’. Stevie Kalinich

Stephen John Kalinich - Brian Wilson - America, I Know You.

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, The Komedia Bath, 12/02/2025

It was a cold and dark Tuesday February evening as I boarded the train for the short journey to Bath. I arrived an hour early as usual because I don’t trust the trains to be on time. I passed the time in this place called Eat a Pitta enjoying some middle eastern type spicy food. Then crossed the road when I saw the doors open at The Komedia. I have never been to a gig previously at this venue. It used to be a cinema. The last time I remember setting foot in this building was 1988 when me and Kim saw A Fish Called Wanda here. They have removed the seating downstairs leaving just the balcony as a seated area. I don’t like it as a music venue as much as my favourite Bath venue The Forum which has a beautiful interior and much more spacious, but I suppose it’s not fair to compare the two.

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets came on stage promptly at 8.00. I’ve seen Nick quite a few times before, but only once with this band which was Glastonbury 2019. I love their retro twangy guitar sound which reminds me of the guitar groups of the early 60s like The Shadows or The Ventures. They play cheap guitars that I think are made in Korea, but they sound wonderful. They are just bass, two guitars and drums. Nick jokingly called the extrovert drummer Gringo Starr. Their gimmick is that they all wear these bizarre Mexican wrestling masks, so you never know what they look like. All Nick’s songs tend to be quite short, and they fairly ripped through them. The first song was So It Goes from Nick’s 1978 album Jesus Of Cool. This was followed by two songs from his excellent recent release Indoor Safari which were I Went To A Party and Raincoat In The River. Then Nick performed Lately I’ve Let Things Slide from 2001, and I Live On A Battlefield written by Paul Carrack. This song is from Nick’s The Impossible Bird album of 1994 which was when I realised how great Nick is. A neighbour Dave gave me a copy of that album and I loved every track. This was followed by three more songs from Indoor Safari which were Love Starvation, Jet Pac Boomerang, and Tokyo Bay.

Nick then left the stage, and we were treated to an Interlude with Los Straitjackets who played five tunes, but the only one I recognised was the theme to the Magnificent Seven. Nick returned and the evening got better and better. Trombone was followed by the poignant House For Sale, then Ragin’ Eyes from 1983s Abominable Showman, Without Love from 1979s Labour Of Lust album, and 12 Step Programme (To Quit You Baby). I thought one of the highlights of the evening was the recent Blue On Blue which he sang very emotionally. I filmed three songs, but they didn’t come out very well, Cruel To Be Kind was the best of them, but still a bit blurry, (See video below) Half A Boy And Half A Man was followed by my favourite Nick Lowe song (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love And Understanding? which is a message the whole world should hear, especially in these dark insane times. Most of Nick’s songs are upbeat rock and roll, or sad ballads about good love gone bad, but this song has a universal message.

In The Heart Of The City was the B-Side of Nick’s first single So It Goes on Stiff Records in 1976. This was followed by the brilliant classic I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock And Roll). Nick and the band then left the stage, but we knew they would be back. The first encore was Los Straitjackets performing a song which included parts of Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow which I recognised from the Beach Boys Party album but was originally by The Rivingtons. Nick then joined them for the Dave Edmunds & Rockpile song When I Write The Book. 

The second encore was just Nick on his own performing a very moving song you will know from Elvis Costello which was Alison. That brought a most enjoyable evening to a close. I was back on the pavement by 9.45 and in plenty of time to catch the 10.03 train back to Westbury. Thank you very much indeed to Los Straitjackets and the legend that is Nick Lowe.