The Hat has been away 'On Retreat' as they say behind their net curtains down my way...so apologies to our correspondent Mrs Trellis of North Wales and other caring readers for his absence. Back in the days when a Penguin was merely a valued and much-thumbed book and The Hat could sit in a bar with some pleasant company, a bit of blues, a pint of porter and a Gaulloise, he popped out to the theatre to see an immensely entertaining stage play by Keith Waterhouse called 'Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell'. The play concerns the reminiscences of Jeffrey as he sits, accidently locked into his local pub all night. Featuring Peter O'Toole at the time, it was both hilarious and moving and was also noted for the fabulous 'egg and pint' trick as a piece of stage business, (do look it up and try it yourself – but wear some waterproofs). Jeffrey was a columnist for The Spectator magazine and the title of the play comes from the habit of his employers of posting 'Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell' in the blank space where his sporadic column would have appeared had he not been too drunk or too hungover to write it.
Having spent a cheery hour or two in the same pub (The Coach and Horses) and reminisced with the said Jeffrey on a number of occasions when he was unwell, The Hat feels qualified to have posted the same notice of excuse on his own blog these last few weeks. Overcome by unreasonable demands, an attention-seeking cat, threatening calls from robot call centres, temperemental software and an insensitive and uncaring world, (I know you are all nodding), I have felt like one of Donleavy's characters – 'indisposed for all eternity'. So, Mrs Trellis, bear with me..I have new quills and the radiogram is fired up. The Blues are back on the menu.
Now, here is a family and friends connections test for you. The number of people claiming to be close friends of, or related to The Hat has fluctuated wildly over the years. This list did take a spectacular cull after The Great Disappearing Cash and Fame Debacle and there were several occasions before that when divorce papers and the priceless guitar collection were involved. But enough of these cynical dips in popularity. As you would expect, The Hat is in no doubt that the real reason people wish to put me on their tedious Do-It-Yourself-Genealogy Spreadsheets, is to lay hands on my genes in the hope that some of the Barking Brilliance will rub off on them. I know that I am not alone in delighting in the legacy of bagpipe-playing uncles, violinist fathers, concertina and spoon-playing in-laws and singing ex-wives. Then there is the Birmingham Pub Pianist of the Year, the mad angry painter, the photographers and dressmakers. On reflection, I notice that The Hat dynasty is pretty short on Bankers. Lawyers and Stockbrokers - but I suspect that may have something to do with a family predilection for Anarchist Marches and Revolution and has probably been deliberate rather than accidental.
Now that I have got you mentally trawling your own relations for genius and money (best of luck), I can share with you the discovery of a young, beautiful and talented film-maker emerging from the Hat's genealogical debris. She produces opinionated rule-breaking film, often music based, stuffed with the fresh take of youth and it was while watching one of these the other day, I was reminded of the huge influence of original moving images backed with powerful music and their ability to stimulate, sharpen and often change our view.
How wonderful it is to accidentally bump into one of those rare blues documentaries on a late night arts tv channel, discover an amazing soundtrack or someone new and exciting and then be able to flick into Youtube and locate that one track that you didn't know about. Then, via the wonder of the social media you can share this gem with others at the click of a mouse. It is not unusual for a film maker's passion for a subject to mainline straight from the screen into our consciousness and stick there for ever. The 'tracks of our years' are often the soundtracks of our years, Start with Ry Cooder in 'Paris Texas', check out Miles Davis in 'Lift to the Scaffold' and go buy 'Black Snake Moan' where an imaginative film maker has gathered Son House, Robert Burnside and Samuel Jackson all on one sound track. Scorcese, of course, with a number of music subject movies has a lot to answer for. The rush to buy the soundtrack of The Band's 'The Last Waltz' after watching the movie was astounding and both he and Tarantino have that innate ability to lift our lids with their use of music. I don't know if the Blues Brothers movie nudged film goers into the Blues but any movie that can nod in the direction of Magic Sam and Taj Mahal is ok by me.
On watching a re-run of Steve Graham's 2009 documentary on Peter Green the other night, The Hat is reminded how scarce early or even quite recent footage is compared with today's overwhelming abundance. The search engines are full of wonderful but sadly short clips of ghosts from the past and more are coming to light all the time. But these days live performance, however indifferent, goes on video non-stop and is often released commercially within months or even days. It seems that every time Rhianna throws a bump or a grind it is turned into a full length feature film and money changes hands. Nevertheless, we should be grateful that something like the stunning line-up of talent for the Fender Strat 50th Anniversary Concert is filmed by someone who understands music and is available in high quality video in no time at all - even though we still have to hunt for early Aretha and Sister Rosetta. So I guess we should maybe raise a small glass to some of those film-makers, old and young and up-coming who seem to know what they are doing and love our music.
There are already a lot of terrific videos out there from last year's Hebden Bridge Blues Festival and together they make an excellent backdrop to illustrate the extraordinary success of that event. If you go to the festival website (earmarked on this page) you can find click-thrus to videos of most of the talent that will be in Hebden in June this year. Some of these small films are quite brilliant. Others have the disarming twitches, crackling noise, shakes and grain of yesteryear and Phil the Hebden genius sound man is unsurprisingly nowhere to be seen or heard. However, you can be sure that this year's superb line-up will be captured pin-sharp and rock solid. God knows what Jeffrey Bernard would have made of it all. But, you can guarantee that however unwell he might have been, I don't doubt for a moment that if he were still around he would be drinking on behalf of us all to the blues and to the good health and prosperity of the Hebden Blues Festival. I wonder if anyone caught him on shaky film.....
Not long now.
Pip Pip!
The Blues Man in The Hat