Happy Meal Ltd - 100 Club 07-03-17

Happy Meal Limited (HMLTD) – 100 Club 7-03-17

Return of the Batcave ?– heaven forbid

I am old enough to know what I’m talking about when I tell you reader about the times of the Batcavists. I regularly frequented Alice in Wonderland at Gossips on Monday nights circa 1985 / 86. The Dr of the Medics fame would play all the music I most loved – The Stooges, T Rex, David Bowie, Lou Reed, The Monkees, Fire by Arthur Brown, Wheels on Fire by Jackie someone and then some more contemporary stuff like Bauhaus, The Saints, The Scientists. What he never played was Specimen, the band formed by the kings of the goths, the daftest, most outrageous darling, full make up and big hair group who were Batcave supremos. What a desperate bunch of non-starters. Sigue Sigue Sputnik came along, looked even more daft than the rest, and disappeared down the music industry plug hole never to be mentioned ever again. Until now.

Happy Meal Ltd are doing all of the above, all over again. The singer wails, postures, strips off to his PVC trousers, wails some more and the rest do much the same while playing an instrument. When the first songs chorus is “Choo Choo Train, get on the Choo Choo Train “ you know the night is not going to bother the cerebral cortex too much. And yet there is a willing crowd joining in, singing the words, moshing, surfing, loving it. The songs generally have a jungle beat lifted from Adam and the Ants Sioux warrior phase (Dog Eat Dog, We Are Family), and sometimes it sounds great. If only the songs would go somewhere. But they all seem to stop just at the wrong moment, pause, and then the groove goes again. Just as you are ready to let go , go with it, start to bounce, the song stops. Just as my legs propelled me skywards when I saw Adam and the Ants doing Cartrouble last year, this lot could do the same. They’ve got something, they just don’t seem to know what to do with it, yet.

Shame because there is a ready audience for a band who are a bit of a laugh and know how to play. HMLtd might get there, but at the moment they are a work in progress. It seems Sony music think they have got something having given them a record contract. There are some records and videos out there, check youtube. Well done the manager who swung that one, I would have run a mile if i were the record company . Just remember what happened to the Batcavists fellas, sunk without trace. Ditch the posturing, its desperate attention seeking and it was all done 30 years ago and everyone got egg on their expensive clothes. Thank god for the Stone Roses and Shoom, Frankie Knuckles and Bones. Acid House wiped the poseurs off the earths surface, no-one laments their loss, dont let it happen to you.

The Seven Acts of Mercy + Radical Sounds - 02-03-17

The Seven Acts of Mercy + Radical Sounds

No mention has been made so far on this oft talked about blog about a play I went to Stratford-Upon-Avon to see. Anders Lustgarten's The Seven Acts of Mercy’s main subject matter was the last days of Caravaggio – the revered painter and brawler.

We’d heard mainly bad things about the rock-hard benches at the Swan Theatre. However the seats in the Lower Circle were fine, although to have been at ground level in the stalls would have improved the experience two-fold. Located within the enormous main RSC theatre complex on the river, I was slightly green around the edges with envy regarding those going to see the Shakespeare play in the main theatre; Henry V.

The Seven Acts of Mercy started well with a darkly lit violent scene involving Caravaggio and an aggressor who had been sent by some dangerous Sicilian brothers to seek him out. They were after blood after the artist had killed one of their family while holed up on the island. Swarthy, vicious, swearing like a trooper, the famous artist dispatched him with a sword drawn warning, but also, he had been warned; his life was in danger. It was an effective opening, my mind was taken to a world of cutthroats and thieves, lurking in the shadows and doorways of Naples back streets.  Every time the action returned to 16^th century Italy, my interest revived.

But the play was mainly set in the present day, centring around a grey haired Scouser and his grandson, the elder endlessly educating the teenager on the rights and wrongs of the universe according to SWP doctrine. Need;ess to say it was dry as a bone but there was some humour; the biggest laugh of the night was at the start of part two, after the interval. His prodigal son has returned and the three generations of the family are watching a football match on TV. The son is a baddy because of his job, but far worse is the fact he is a Liverpool fan in the midst of Evertonians. Grandfather then goes into a speech in which he compares each political party to a football team. “Ukip are Chelsea “ he announced to great laughs. Eh ? How do you work that out? Man Utd were the greens, City were Lib Dems and sin of sins, Liverpool were  New Labour. The scene went down well but I was seething, already bored by the tedium of this story overloaded with leftie lectures delivered in scouse. What this strand had to do with Caravaggio I had no clue - but i am told it was to do with using street people as models for his mainly classical paintings, as was the case in the present as the young lad took pictures of other characters on his phone, The play has far more scouse than Italian art and I was completely bored well beyond the end. Its one thing to ram political views down the audience’s necks, but to alienate so many by insulting so many teams seemed crass in the extreme.

Radical Sounds at Senate House 02/03/17

Orlando Harrison did a great job organising this interesting event in a large lecture hall in Senate House. The sound quality was spectacular, especially used well in the last segment regarding Baader Meinhoff. The sounds went round the room using a quadrophonic set up skilfully, and when O took to the synth, playing along live, we were momentarily in the realms of gorgeousness. A soundscape accompanies words and a picture, Huey Newton of the Black Panthers was the main subject of another section of words and sounds.

Some of the poetry reading left me cold, but a ranting and shaking man from Berlin battled his nerves and delivered some well worked scenes from Kreuzberg's squatter scene. It seems the urban guerrillas are still manning the barricades in  2017 Berlin. There was also a display of LGBT, anarchist and revolutionary literature upstairs, for which we had to register and become day visitors to the library. I counted over 100 people in the audience, many of whom were experts in sending bad vibes and the evil eye to others who were trying to enjoy the experience by having some fun. Fun ? No sir, revolution is a fun free zone. Don’t you know that ?

Impressionism and Modern Art Spring Sale - Sothebys

Sotheby's Spring auction started March 1 - Christies began Feb 28 and runs until March 8
Update after March 1 - Magritte and Klimt go for almost £50m in record breaking day (see below preview)

The main auction houses deliberately hold their major auctions on the same day and at the same time. Not just to be difficult, but to make it worth the big spenders from the east time to come to London during the dreary months. So what if a tycoon fancies something from each sale while they are running simultaneously? Hmm, quite a dilemma.

You would need to be keen to run from Sothebys to Christies. We sauntered, chatted, had a coffee and I puffed on a vape until i found someone with a lighter and immediately had a ciggie while averting my eyes from the hideous picture on the uniform pack. By the time we arrived at Christies front door we were only allowed to watch people exiting. The huge posters of two Le Corbusiers and a Matisse and other fabulous looking works only wetted my appetite for more. The Matisse went for over £8m earlier tonight - (28 -02-17) during the first evening auction.
Sotheby's first auction starts on March 1. Theres a mixed bag including a late (1964) Picasso which has a stupendous estimate of only £1m . Bargain !
Sotheby's have produced a very interesting short film about the Plante de Tomates which was produced during WW2. This is expected to go for over £15m, and looking at it in person you can see why. Although I find the hidden meaning attributed to it tenuous, it is clearly a beautifully produced masterpiece. Just as Van Gogh's Sunflowers are said to be indicative of his disturbed frame of mind, the expert suggests the Tomato Plant is symbolic of the dark times in which it is produced, and also the better days expected to come.
Three more Picassos were displayed in their own room, with the Tomato Plant in another room, hung on the opposite wall to a Modigliani portrait of a young man  (Portrait de Baranowski). These are all expected to go for around £10m . As is the Klimt entitled "Bauerngarten", hung on a third wall of this 'stars of the show' room.
In the main room, two Basquiats (see pic) were hung alongside a large Warhol which had a double exposure effect - despite being a painting. My favourite work, a huge Basquiat with a vibrant red emblazoned on a figure with stick arms and fingers held in the air; "One Eyed Man or Xerox Face" 1982 - estimate £14m - £18m. It is pictured below with members of Picasso & Matisse Lovers London group beside.
This work goes under the hammer on March 8 so you may still have time to see it before it disappears into a wealthy persons private world .

Update #1 - After the first auction 2/3/17

Plante de Tomates - 1944 - went for £17m - 12.5% over the top estimate of £15m. Most of the big hitters performed in the same way ;-
Modigliani -  Portrait de Baranowski = £16m
Picasso - Portrait de Femme Nue Assise = £13.65m & Portrait de Femme Assise dans une fauteuille sur fond blu = £12m
But one picture went way beyond, way, way beyond. Like last year, it was a Klimt that the big boys came for in a really big way. Estimated to sell for £15m tops, the hammer eventually fell at an incredible £47.9m ! Entitled "Bauerngarten", the multicoloured bed of flowers is from 1907, painted during the Belle Epoch in Vienna with which he became synonymous. It is certainly an unusual work for the great portrait artist; it has great beauty and a mysterious quality which is perhaps what lifts it into the stratospheric realm it now resides. It may have hidden depths, people were rhapsodising about it as I looked on, but I didnt think it was as special as certain collectors clearly do. The experts at Sotheby's had given it the full marketing treatment, but they would have been pleased with it being the top seller of the day, as it was hung in the same room & manner as the Tomato Plant and Baranowski portrait. To me, this is what makes viewing paintings in this environment so special. The significance of the art work can radically shift from one day to the next. This is an unmistakable sign that Klimt values are going to climb ever upwards, just as a similar record price achieved at Christies for a Magritte signals the same thing for the Belgian surrealist.

Kiefer's Walhalla at White cube, Gavin Turk at Newport St

Gavin Turk at Newport Street Gallery + Anselm Kiefer – Walhalla at White Cube SE1

The best of 2016 – at the start of 2017

The best of what ive seen in 2016 – quite a lot of art shows, not enough plays, gigs and movies…too much TV !

The best art shows 2016 – I would love to have made it to Den Bosch for the much heralded exhibition of Hierynomous Bosch works at his birth place. Clive Anderson mentioned it on Front row and said it was worth the trip, even though The Prado reneged on its commitment to send the phantasmagorical “Garden of Earthly Delights”- his best known masterpiece. Oh well, Madrid here I come.

London is a great place for art lovers. The Tate is constantly reaching for new heights, which is keeping the competition on their A game. My most disliked show of the year ; Abstract Expressionism was at the RA and had so many admirers. Today I went to The Newport Road Gallery for the new Gavin turk show. I was amazed to see a room of Pollocks, accompanied by the photos of him pouring the paint on to the canvas on the ground, as seen at the RA.

“Is this a Gavin Turk show or a Jackson Pollox show ?” I ask an attendant.

“No, It’s Gavin Turk, it just looks like Pollocks…” she replies.

“Err, yes ,I could have told you that”, quick as a flash, I counter.

“Look at the signatures” she says to my back as I take my leave.

“Blimey, they are just like the originals” I told my buddy. “He looks just like him in the pictures as well”.

Gavin Turk is not only a great artist, he is a good impressionist, and his humorous works generally work, without the joke wearing thin and grating. A difficult trick to pull off. I enjoyed the room devoted purely to a blue plaque dedicated to himself. The Sid Vicious in a Perspex tank is a nod to the host's most famous work – Damien Hirst’s Shark in a tank – “The impossibility of living ….etc“ or is it called “1000 years “? I love Hirst titles.

There are some skilful models like Tussauds waxworks. We were staring at one; A Captain Birdseye type with HMS Ulysees emblazoned on his hat, when it suddenly burst into laughter. Another waxwork – Turk again looking like a tramp, is standing in the middle of the floor, you have to look twice when you walk past. Cool, clever and fun, the self-absorption seems playful rather than self-obsessed, which is how Sarah Lucas’ shows leave me feeling.

“This is the best yet” declares Chris. “And this gallery is fantastic”.

“I liked the Jeff Koons, the artist was impressed with Hirsts’ collection on the TV show they did together.” But yes I agreed, this is the best show so far in this fledgling space, even though parking around here is a whole new experience of one-ways leading to cul-de-sacs leading to estates with strictly no parking signs everywhere you look. All in a zone so quiet you only see learners and the odd Parcel Force van driving around all day.

In stark contrast, I leave my Hornet directly outside The White Cube on Bermondsey St when I visit the Anselm Kiefer show, Walhalla. Forget fun and laughs, this is as heavy a show – literally and metaphorically – as you are likely to see in London this month. A dimly lit corridor is filled with empty beds, the lead covers turned back as if the occupants have popped off somewhere. The galleries are often staggering in the scope, ambition and often stunning finish and effect of the works they contain. Huge works fashioned from lead, shellac, clay and acrylic paint hang from the walls, often depicting a smashed and destroyed urban landscape. Post war German cities come to mind as the bombed out buildings seem to be smoking following a recent shelling. Piles of bicycles and beds are contained in Perspex display tanks. A row of lead dresses hang from a rail in another, then an upside down tree almost touches the ground in the next work. The inventive use of these most difficult, obdurate and unbending of materials to work with is a marvel to behold. The artistic beauty of some of the pictures, with metallic blues and yellows adding to the effect of decay and destruction lends ever more power to this incredible show. Valhalla was a way into the Viking afterlife, the Valkyries were the women who accompanied the dead on their journey. A spiral staircase disappears into  the ceiling of the gallery, the clothes hanging from the steps a clue to the intended meaning of the Germanic titles of the works.

A must see, the best of 2016 ? Kubrick at Somerset House was great fun, as was Art Night by the ICA. Picassos portraits were a treat, but this show would have beaten all comers. Well, art world of 2017 ? You’ve got 51 weeks to go. Lets see what you’ve got .

Roth is BAFTA bound - SPOILERS BEWARE

10 Rillington Place –Tim Roth is BAFTA bound as Reg Christie

“Treedown gotobed is a great name for a culture vulture blog” is a statement rarely heard in Kings Cross on a  sunny afternoon. In fact Ive never heard anyone say it. I regularly state it is widely read, but few believe me. How do you convince strangers that you are a successful GP if you are not. It’s a trick Tim Roth pulls off with regularity in his mesmeric performance as Reg Christie in this hypnotically watchable BBC series. Set in grim and grimey post-war London, the cul-de-sac on which Christie lives with his wife(Samantha Morton) looks just like the one in The Ladykillers. That was Battlebridge Road in N1, but there are so few scenes set outside the house and street, it is hard to tell where Rillington Place is.

Three hours is a lot of time to be on screen, and if there was one weakness in this tour de force of a production, it was the sets of the house interior. The peeling wallpaper, squalid dirt and rubbish infesting every corner, the sepia grey and brown tones were all a bit overdone. Times were tough, but a scene in Episode 3 in which a local Bobby calls round and sits on the only piece of furniture in the lounge, a chair surrounded by a few piles of clothes, rings slightly hollow. It is symbolic of Christie’s dire state, he is starting to lose control of a small world he has lorded over for so long. He has treated all comers to a list of rules like he owned the place, but only now nearing stories end are we told he is merely the oldest tenant, his landlord act just another fabrication in a long list of lies, starting with the pretence of being a doctor and war veteran, apparently gassed while in the trenches.

His defence which works so well when poor Timothy Evans is convicted and hung for one of Christie’s crimes – the murder of Evans’ wife and daughter – is what motive would this gently spoken old veteran have? Evans can come up with no explanation. Roth plays Christie as the blandest Northerner you could meet, nearly always speaking just louder than a whisper , the vocabulary littered with harmless phrases like “Ill be back in a tick”, while he vanishes into another room to attempt an abortion on another lady he has fooled. You see the psycho inside, but its only in private and all evidence is gone in a flash from his demeanour. His murder of his wife is so cold blooded, the editing seemed to deliberately shy away from the suffocating agony on Morton’s face. Suffice to say, Roth is a favourite for a BAFTA next year.

Lazarus The Musical

Lazarus The Musical

It was with trepidation we entered the vast tin can like structure erected specially for this musical event in Kings Cross. A quick listen to the songs on the internet had put us –the Bowie / Iggy hard core fans -into a panic. We happened upon one of the two schmaltzy renditions of a Bowie past glory.

“OMG – they are going to give it the full-on jazz hands, singing and dancing Lloyd Webber treatment, aren’t they?” says Bowie fan #1.

“They better not or I will stand up and start breaking things “ I replied.

It isn’t like that , thank God. The story is hard work; Newton, The Man Who Fell to Earth, built a rocket with the billions he made from his 7 major patents, in order to return to his wife and daughter in a far off planet with no water. But Man stopped him, and now he is stuck in a New York apartment, drinking and hallucinating a girl who delivers all the schmaltz there is. But there are other characters, one is called Valentine, and another is a helper who becomes besotted. Played by Amy Lennox, she is terrific, as is Michael Hall of Six Feet Under fame in the main role.

The songs are pretty good, some are even an improvement !! Its No Game came early and was wonderfully twisted, Absolute Beginners was better than the original, Changes was invigorated by a loss of temper half way through, delivered by Lennox’ character, hurling the contents of the fridge at Newton in a fury. All The Young dudes just comes out of nowhere, as do This is Not America and Always Crashing in the Same Car – this was a highlight for me. The new songs all stand up fine, fitting in seamlessly with the 70s oeuvre. Where are They Now is a song I am beginning to think is an ironic look back to Berlin, does he really care? Bowie is proud of his legacy, but it is so unlike him to look over his shoulder at the past. Iggy already did it when they were in Berlin ; Dum Dum Boys does the same thing, just 30 years earlier.Lazarus the song is similar with the line about getting to New York and living like a King. Hmm.

The performance received a standing ovation so I guess most of the audience went with it. The large screen standing stage centre could have been used better. I know they were acting their socks off, but we couldn’t see enough to tell, being so far back. When the screen did relay the on stage action, it frequently seemed to buffer, so the visual was a second behind the sound. Occasionally it was well done, the shot from above at the end, when a rocket has been drawn on the floor in tape is a nice effect. But the shots of earth from space were too little as were the story telling sequences.

Bowie was involved pretty much all the way in the production so this is what he wanted. Its pretty good, I don’t know what many of the peripheral characters were doing there, but so what? Its great to have this treat to go and see on a grey Sunday afternoon.

Picassos Portraits

Picasso's Portraits - National Portrait Gallery - October 2016 - Febuary 2017
Spanish Matador of 20th century Art could give you Eternal Life, but he may also give you the longest lingering Death

" I hate Picasso !" So begin quite a few conversations. If I am holding forth on one my Mastermind specialist subjects; The works of Benny Hill 1992 - 2002 say, or the career of David Bowie 1972 - 1977, someone invariably fancies having a little nip, a tickle around my tender parts to see if I will bite. Why would I ? You are allowed to hate him; he was a bully and a control freak. Misogynist ? Hmmm, he loved women and hated them. His career can be analyzed in terms of his muses, one woman followed another, from 1917 to his death in Mougins in 1973. The women rarely lasted a decade and once a newer, younger model had her feet on the chaise-long, the other woman was on her way out. He was a bastard and he didn't hide it, just take a look at the 1932 masterpiece Nude, Green Leaves and Bust at the Tate .

Marie Therese Walter(MTW) is in, but she is in deep. Picasso depicts her as voluptuous; curves, bosoms and dirty thoughts. This stupendous picture shows her entwined in ribbons, wrapped up like a toy girl for Pablo to play with. The dark shadow of a face dominates the outlines, Picasso has her under control, and it aint pretty. There is a decent Marie-Therese Walter portrait here, but not a notable example; no double face or malignant menace to be detected. Just MTW in profile, bright, uncomplicated in composition and colour, just straight yellow hair. Is boredom setting in? Is the glass half empty, not half full?
This show starts so well I thought we were in for a real treat. The early years are fascinating, when he moved from the bohemian haunts of Barcelona and his hangout Els 4 Gats, to Paris and the outright filthy demi-monde of Pigalle, Montmartre, Aristide Bruant, Toulouse Lautrec, the Moulin Rouge and La Bateau Lavoir. Still finding himself as an artist, he sketched funny cartoons and daft doodles which are dubiously shown here. The self-portraits of 1896 and 1906 shown together, tell a tale of hard living and lost hair. The blue period is marvelously represented with one of the real blockbuster pieces of the show. A swarthy man of high forehead and thick mustache looks straight at us with imperious self confidence, while his malnourished companion looks forlornly miserable behind his shoulder. All in a nocturne blue wash that spoke of debauchery, long nights of voyeurism and absinthe drinking, visits to Maisons-Closes after another riotous night at Le Chat Noir or Lapin Agile.

The cubist era has another top quality example - the portrait of Kahnweiler, one of the first dealers to notice his gifts. This was the only picture I had to look between other people's heads to see. It takes a lot of looking, and even then I dont really like it.
Next - Olga Kholklova gets her own room with three masterpieces telling the sorry tale. Portrait#1 is pure and beautiful, Olga looks like a classic Russian aristocrat with the hair parted and short, a la mode and ready to Charleston or Cha Cha Cha. Diaghlevs prima ballerina married Picasso, had his son Paulo, who is seen in a short film where they play in the garden. Portrait #2 is more stylized, the feel is slightly surreal, something isnt right. Portrait #3 is the killer. MTW has come along, she must have seen the pictures her husband was producing while out on his daily stroll around the Boulevards and cafes of Paris, and then to the studio, no doubt for hours and hours. The coup de grace, Portrait #3 shows ashen faced Olga with eyes popping, the ridiculous hat perched on a featureless face, perched on a neck that curves like Mount Fuji to a point, upon which the head seems to have lost contact and now could topple off any second. Imagine how she felt when she saw it, next to all those sex stuffed portraits of his mistress and mother to his child, Maya.
"Ive dispatched you Olga. You better go before I lose your head forever..."
This kind of cruelty was also brought to bare on the next woman in the line; Dora Maar. She figures large in the tale, in a sumptuously finished portrait of her sitting in a chair, anguish apparent n her body language, eyes looking one way, the rest of the face going the other. Its as if she has turned her head mid-portrait, like a long exposure photo. Dora is memorable as the thin, nervy companion of the war years, famous as The Weeping Woman, did she know this would be her epitaph? She is also the subject of a sculpture of high quality which is a more generous portrayal.

Picasso has produced some ugly pieces - two more are in the final room which is a hotch potch of post war work. Two good friends are shown in garish and tasteless attire. Lee Miller looks like a 70 year old hag and not the uber swanky war correspondent she was at the time. And Nusch Eluard, wife of his poet friend, seen depicted in a charcoal on paper which is Picasso at his most sophisticated. But the portrait again is ugly and vicious in tone. What did these platonic friends make of their portraits?

Two male friends emerge from the story as major influences; Sebastià Junyer i Vidal is involved in much of the work, as is Sebartes, who is on the receiving end of some schoolboy humour. Some 50s posters are defaced by PP - its a daft claim to attribute these to his "highly tuned sense of humour" as the blurb does . The men have a laugh , a cartoon showing two of them catching a train to town, selling the work and receiving the dollars. There are two pornographic drawings, one pure x cert smut, another part of the Vollard suite style of line drawing in a classical style; the pope looks on from behind a curtain as a girl and boy have sex on on a couch. These are followed by serious PP, working on his versions of Velazquez' Las Meninas, as he did on many masterpieces from art history in his later years.
Dotted around this last room are pieces of sculpture, ceramics and pottery. Two flat sheet metal pieces show another muse , Sylvie David in profile in another style Ive not seen before. How can you say you dont like Picasso? You cant possibly know enough about him and his work to judge, there is so much and so original is it.
We end with a major portrait of Francois Gilot and a large work showing final muse Jacqueline Roque surveying her domain at La Californie in the hills above Cannes. Or is she contemplating eternity, as gifted to her by this Spanish matador of 20th century art. To be his subject is truly to live forever; she knew she would be contemplated by the people of the future, for they all will wonder what she was thinking as Picasso worked on his latest masterpiece, one of over 70 pieces he produced of Roque.




Her predecessor, Francois Gilot gave him Claude and Paloma, she also gave him a run for her money. She was the only woman to leave him. But Jacqueline was assistant, protector , secretary and muse. A large photograph shows  them together, with PP teaching the kids how to  paint. Another lovely piece shows the same subject, with the mother looking down and spotlighting each child in a blaze of colour - one green, the other blue. Did Pablo go soft and sentimental at the end? I doubt it.

Ambience, Price and Booking ; Two of us got in for £15.50, that was with a concession, no gift aid.
With Artfund card it was £8.50 or thereabouts.
Full price is £17 or £19 with gift aid.
We did not book and got in straight away. It is reasonably spaced out and as I mentioned, only the cubism room was quite full, but by no means packed. There are choke points in between rooms where I (accidentally)shoulder barged a woman of pensionable age and kicked a lady's bag while showing how the charleston is depicted in Three Dancers at the Tate. Beware the silent seventy year olds!