I do not like to write in a rush, or perform without time to prepare, but this is London. Our streets an open prison.
Berlin is bohemian. It was great to be there for the wedding of Anne-Cathrin and Jason McGlade and who I first met at the back of Red Gallery in Shoreditch, when they were producing Freestyle, the round magazine, out of the back of a truck they’d driven through Germany and Europe. We later did the Red book together, I wrote it, Jason did the pictures, Kedge from Tomato designed it (who later did the first Cold Lips, and Jason did the second, the one with Dr John Cooper Clarke). I was proud to put Jason’s art on the cover of Ambit 246, around his show at Gallery46, and for Anne-Cathrin to design our photography book by Martyn Goodacre. It all grooves on. I love his work.
Tonight we head out to Gallery46, where Jason McGlade’s film will play for a great friend, Johny Brown, who I first met at the Bull & Gate, in Camden when our friend’s big sister was playing drums in The Band of Holy Joy, and the NME were amazed at all these teenage fans.
I am trying to find the words for Johny. He compares me to Patti Smith, which is the coolest from the coolest. He was first signed to Rough Trade in the 80s, and through the years, has proven a great mentor, always encouraging me, and believing. It’s hard to believe in what I do as I’ve grown up in hype, so I struggle with what is real, and only recently has my work begun to be seen as standing alone, in my own eyes. Which are the hardest on me.
However, alongside work by Gil De Ray, Inga Tillere, and many more I will try to perform some words which tribute him slightly in the gallery tomorrow afternoon. They will do no justice, but that is where we’ll be from 2pm, and there is also poetry on the Sunday afternoon from a cast of friends who I am also likely to join. All details are here: https://johny.co.uk
It will be a happening tangle of friends and romance.
Come if you can. x