RIP George Melly, performing right to the end. “His final concert took place at the 100 Club in London on 10 June.” And while it makes perfect sense I never knew he was an authority on Surrealism. From the BBC obit:
At school, he first became interested in art, particularly Surrealism. He served as an able-seaman in the Royal Navy towards the end of World War II, where he got into trouble for distributing anarchist literature. He moved to London in 1948 to work in an art gallery run by Belgian artist ELT Mesens, a leading light in the International Surrealist movement. Melly became recognised as an authority on the subject and later wrote a book, Paris and the Surrealists. According to his memoirs, it was at this time that he augmented the promiscuous homosexuality of his schooldays, indulging in a series of menages a trois, initially with Mesens and his wife Sybil.
What a star.
I met George in Brighton train station in 2005. He was having a ‘wee drink’ at the bar while awaiting a train. Resplendant man in green and red pin stripe and boater. He was flirting with my (then) boyfriend.
I was lucky enough to see George perform at the 100 Club in Oxford Street almost 20 years ago! I can’t believe he was performing there again so recently! He was truly remarkable and one of the greatest performers of the 20th (and 21st!) Centuries if you ask me. I did not know about his other surrealist learnings. Thanks!