A long time ago .........

Inspired by the picture I found of myself in the production of The Pirates of Penzance I thought I’d trawl through the archives a little more to show some other images of me on stage. Ahhhhh….happy days.

The Desert Song - 1993

Here I played the comedy lead, Benjamin Kidd opposite the lovely Gill Pegg (Simon's Mum)

Billy - 1994

With almost as many faces as Dr Lao, the musical version of Billy Liar was my swansong as a performer.

Pirate Copy

It has been quite a week in all with 2 shows to attend and the chance to catch up with old friends both physically and metaphorically. The first old friend came in the shape of another production from the Carl Rosa Opera Company, to wit, The Pirates of Penzance. I was rather enjoying this production. It was a little hammy in places but I was very impressed with Ruth played by Beverly Klein, who I had seen last year in Fiddler of the Roof as Golde. Anyway things were going quite well and Roger, my date for the evening, was rather enjoying his first G & S. Well, I knew there were some highlights ahead, but even I wasn’t ready for Jo Brand as the Sergeant of Police. Now, don’t get me wrong, I find Brand an innovative and highly amusing comedienne. I have always been a fan of her stand-up comedy and usually enjoy her contributions to chat-shows etc. But here she was simply awful.

I have since heard that Brand has lent her talents to a number of unusual tasks lately and this is simply one of those things to accomplish - the West End Show. Well my comment is “Do that on your own time, honey, not ours!” Brands presence here is a con to the paying public; an experiment that should never had left the rehearsal room without the director saying – “Nah, the punters deserve better than this.”

Anyway, this aside, Pirate got me thinking and I thought it would be a great opportunity to post the picture of me as the Pirate King, circa 1992 – eeek, that’s 17 years ago!!!! Then as I pondered over this image, I suddenly remembered that for a long while this was my Gaydar picture. We are talking about 6 years ago or thereabouts. It was the only decent picture I had of me, remembering that this was in a period when it was still acceptable not to have a picture on Gaydar.


This is also the reason why I first read Howard's Blog - the incomparable Coterie of Zombies. There was a link somehow where he is called the Pirate King so I just assumed it was another G & S fan. Naturally having met him in person, he is a tad more Iolanthe, than Pirate King - hee hee!


Anyway the other friend I met up with after many months was Chris. I had spent the evening in the charming company of Maude Maggart - although I had actually spent the evening with Scott. Then we all headed over to meet Chris and finally ended up at the Retro Bar. It was good to see him again and looking so well. He should lay off the sauce, though......he always ends up with so many dodgy guys.

When You Party In London

When you travel around London, battling the Theatre Lords and generally doing good, I have always found it best to travel with an assistant!

How Not To Order a Pint In London

Ralph uses his 'sexuality' to get served at London hotspot, Barcode.

Mystery Couture

I was slumming my way around Facebook the other day – me Julie had left her account open by accident and it intrigued me to take a peek inside. Naturally as she and I have many mutual friends from over the years there were plenty of faces I recognised. It was, however, a little bit of a shock to find this picture on line. I have no idea when it was taken, but it is myself (natch) photographed with my best friend Rowena. What is more, it is one of those rare images where I look kinda human. It’s very odd that whilst I recognise the home (Rowena’s) the era, (the last two years) and the photographer (Angelina Doyle) – I can’t for the life of me place the red shirt! Isn’t that bizarre?!

Morning Glory

One of the new pleasures of taking a little more exercise is to discover the joy of cycling in London. It might be true that one of the first things I saw upon arriving in this fair city twelve years ago was a cyclist being thrown from his bike by the car in front of us. Really, from that moment on, I have kind of avoided getting a bike. However, two years ago, I found myself in possession of a cycle and spent a rather glorious summer free-wheeling down Brixton Hill in the early hours wondering why anyone would travel any other way. That said, travelling home one evening wearing my rather stylish cloak of invisibility I was ignored by some idiot driver. I was out of action for some time (although I still wear the cloak in bars upon occasion, it would seem) and it took me a while to regain the courage to get back on my trusty bike.

Then I came up with the rather novel idea of getting off the bike whenever I felt in danger. Oddly enough this is a policy followed by several of my cycling compadres, who also dismount at dangerous junctions and turnings.

Anyway, in a quest to find a safer way to travel in to work I now take the cycle path through Kennington Park. I don’t think it’s an official cycle path, but there are no sign to the contrary as you enter and I am always careful to avoid the joggers. Anyway, cycling into the park this week I had to stop to take a picture. Nothing here quite captures the magic of that view. It was quite simply, breathtaking. Heavy mists dispersing in the morning sun-light – it was like cycling into a magical far off land. And it was Kennington for crying out loud! This is something that the tube travellers miss of a morning.

It's All In The Prep Work

Part of my direction for 2008 is to be better organised both with my time and with my work. To this end I am really working hard at exercising and keeping my energy levels high by eating properly. It’s always fun to have goals to work towards and I have three at the moment. The first – to be confirmed – will be John coming over from NYC for the Brit awards on Feb 20th. I know that’s very soon but it will be fun getting it together in time. The next big event is my friends from Gloucester, Andy and Christian are coming to London for the weekend of March 8th, which coincides with a party John and Terry are throwing. Finally I will be travelling to NYC mid-May to visit my friend Ralph.

A Normal Day

This week has been a bit of a holiday for me and whilst I usually find it quite difficult to relax, I have managed to do quite well. I can’t help feeling I should have exercised a bit more – c’est la vie! Well the holiday is well and truly over and I was back to work with a bang. First stop was the Guildhall Art Gallery in the city where portrait artist June Crisfield Chapman was showing a collection of her theatrical portraits. If you are even slightly unsure of where the venue is, take a cab. I foolishly assumed it was somewhere near the Barbican Centre and naturally once you enter said building at any given point, you are destined to spend the next twenty minutes trying to get out. Eventually me Julie finally sorted out a route through the building and we made it to the opening with minutes to spare.

It does seem a little bit of an odd venue to display this work but the wine was sweet, the portraits lively and we got the chance to meet the artist herself, who gave some insight into her working methods. The image here, is of Henry Goodman as Shylock.

After this I dropped me Julie off at Euston and headed for the Shaw Theatre where I was reviewing Chita Rivera – The Secret of Life. Rivera is one of those strange creatures of the theatre who – for reasons only history can explain – never made it on the big screen. Rivera was Anita in West Side Story (an Oscar winning role for Rita Moreno in the movie version), she created the role of Velma Kelly in Chicago (an Oscar winning role for Catherine Zeta Jones in the movie version)…..you get the picture. Rivera is one of those women who seem to have been around for ever, and I could count on one hand the number of people who knew who I was talking about.

Anyway, suffice to say that when one talks of legends on Broadway, Rivera is a living one.

The evening was delightful – what a hoot to have Dame Ian McKellen in the audience again. My date seemed to enjoy himself immensely and we then headed back to the hotel for my night shift. I think it’s pretty safe to assume, the holiday is well and truly over!

Other Resolutions

One of the other things I am trying to do on the list is to take more pictures. I read lots of blogs with pictures on them and I am constantly amazed at how brilliant an image of ' lego brick in the mud' looks. Perfectly artless and yet great images. Somehow, despite all my artistic background, a great photograph evades me.

Here is one of my early efforts, though. This is what I can only imagine is a fake 'Banksy'. It appeared on a wall at the New Kent Road flyover and cheered up a blustery winter morning no end.

Getting Started

I have been planning to start this blog since the beginning of the New Year, but as usual with these sort of things, I have been procrastinating. I set myself a few resolutions for the New Year, listed as follows:-

1. Give up smoking
2. Write a blog
3. Take a relevant photograph every day
4. Cycle more often
5. Drink as much water as I do coffee/tea each day
6. Aim to write at least two features per month
7. Complete a creative venture each week

The reason this blog is so late arriving, as if an excuse is needed, is because I am still rather amazed at the fact that I have managed the first resolution. I am now a non-smoker. After that, I have been cycling everywhere, and I have even been using my camera, but the smoking really rather threw me. I am just so suprised at how I have done it. No panic attacks; no food binges; no temper changes... I have spent the last month wondering when it was all going to kick off. Waiting for it to all fall apart was one of the reasons I hesitated before writing it down, I suppose. Still hopefully, this hasn't jinxed things and in 5 entries time I am back on 20 a day. I hope not.