Backstage Norman... in drag...

This image is Norman Norris AKA as Jumping Jack/Earl of Mustard, taken backstage at the Albert Hall Busker's Concert.  Bizarrely - but there again, Norman was never remotely normal in his interactions with life in general - he decided that he would go on in drag.  The old school busker who was supposed to accompany him flatly refused when Norman got into his women's clothes.  He asked Don and Alan for help but it it was obvious they could not do it, Don headlining and Alan with his specially prepared act.  So that's how I ended up playing twice on the bill - once with Aidan Agnew (as 'African Jack and the Matabele Uprising' - well, we were young!) and once with Norman.  Not so much of a chore as I had by that time worked extensively with the old rogue - but he came slightly unstuck as he hadn't figured out that a long dress might inhibit his tap dancing.  It didn't really matter - the overall image of this gnarled loon in a dress, dancing with golden boots that had cut-down skis on the bottom was always going to impress!

Proof OK!

I've had the proof back and it seems ok. It seems that the changes I made to the images worked. Ordered another as a last check - if that comes back without any problems - we shall roll on 27th September!

Good News - and some more old video...

Looks like the master document has printed ok and I should receive the final proof copy in a couple of days. If it's ok, I'll put another through to do a last check - then hopefully we will go on 27th September...

In the meantime - here's a couple of film extracts from 1969. No sound, unfortunately. The first is from the Albert Hall Buskers' Concert rehearsal at Max Rivers rehearsal rooms off Charing Cross Road, here...
I think this was taken from the documentary that was filmed about the event and subsequently disappeared down the years.  You can see me on the beginning, on the right, playing with my compadre Aidan Agnew (he's on banjo).
The second clip, here, is from the British Pathe News archive, shot at the concert and on the street.  The tall guy standing on the neck of the escapologist Johnny Eagles is Pat Keene - co-author of the book.  He was there as a photographer rather than a musician that night - and his photos are the only record of this unique event apart from these scraps of footage and the lost movie.  It then cuts, rather oddly, to footage shot in Leicester Square - the first busker is the American, Dave Parker, also known as Dyon Parker and Dave Helling.  Then me, resplendent in side burns...  Playing to the queues on the Warner cinema, synchonistically - my surname, but no relation...
Finding these two clips when I was researching the book and looking at my younger self, over forty years ago, was a strange experience...

New Publication Date...

There has been a small glitch in the publishing - some corruption in the photo image files embedded in the master document has led to problems printing. This should be sorted fairly quickly but I have put back publication date for a couple of weeks so that I can run some test copies through the publishing web site to make sure that there are no problems. Belt and braces - new publication date hopefully Tuesday 27th September...

Publication looms...

Pat Keene sent me the final corrections to the proof copy so we are almost ready to roll. Publication day is set for Wednesday 14th September, if all goes well. The link to the internet store is already on the side panel of this blog but I will flag it up prominently as and when...

Some clips... tap dancers and geniuses...

Norman Norris, AKA 'Jumping Jack' and 'The Earl of Mustard,' was one of the old school buskers who performed round Leicester Square and beyond.  Yet, after initial confrontations with the new breed of guitar toting street musicians, he was quick to join them.  There is a special section in the book dedicated to him.  All three of us worked with him at various times: for me especially, as the youngest, he showed me much and I had a great affection for him, despite his craziness and relentless need for attention.  Here are two clips from the film 'The London Nobody Knows,' with Norman and Alan Young playing and talking.   

Extracts: four, five, six...

Photo is proof copy (for obvious reasons!): Jumping Jack and 'Scotty' busking in Leicester Square, 1968.  (Copyright Pat Keene).


Don:

I met a character named John Sidfall in Dublin back in 1964. I walked into O' Donaghue's bar⁵ in Baggot Street and asked if I could play. The barman was hesitating, he wasn't sure so there was John sitting with three or four old drunkards stuffing their faces with Guinness. They said: 'Let him play.' A pause. Then an afterthought: 'What do you play?' I said: 'Skiffle' and gave them 'Freight Train' and a couple of similar songs. Afterwards I sat down with John and had a couple of drinks. He seemed to live on Guinness, which he swore by, saying that, as in the advert, Guinness was really good for you...

5 O' Donaghues – famous bar in Dublin that features traditional music, home to the Dubliners and many others.

Pat:

Back now in Devon, I was practising every day and managed to get a couple of spots on Westward Television as it was then by the simple procedure of walking in and saying: 'How about a gig?' You could in those days, television was more informal and they had a show called 'Westward Diary' which I appeared on. So I'd play them a song, £12, I think I got paid. Didn't get any further work, mind you. But I was involved in the embryonic folk scene that was down there, playing in the clubs. I was doing American stuff which was frowned on by a lot of the folky purists. But I made a few quid, got some guest bookings here and there and started up the Paignton folk club with a guy called Max Eastley⁶ who went on to be a good guitar player and we played together quite a bit, people liked us. And that's where I first met Don Partridge and Alan Young who were busking in Torbay at the time. I somehow bumped into them and got them a gig in the folk club. All kinds of people – John Renbourn⁷, Martin Carthy⁸, they'd do a circuit, Exeter, Newton Abbot, Sidmouth, Exmouth – we'd get them a week's work to make it worth their while to come down and it was good for us because it would pull people to the club. 

 

6 Max Eastley - musician who later became famous through his innovative explorations of kinetic art, sound and sculpture combined. A pioneer in the field of sound art and installations.

7 John Renbourn 1944 – Superb guitar player who solo and in tandem with Bert Jansch took acoustic/folk guitar to another level. Founded the folk rock band Pentangle with Jansch.

8 Martin Carthy 1940 – Another pioneer of folk guitar. He took the route back into the tradition and became one of its finest singers and interpreters, tailoring his guitar style to match the material, moving away from the blues and skiffle influences. His playing undergirded his singing in novel ways for English folk music.

Rod:

I had played guitar in various places round the country, doing some occasional busking and even a couple of floor spots in folk clubs. My transition from would-be jazz pianist to folk strummer/finger picker/singer had been fairly swift – probably because I realised on my first forays on the road that a guitar was more portable. Also the influence of the country blues musicians I had come to via my interest in jazz – then Bob Dylan. With Woody Guthrie standing somewhere at the back of it all...  Now I was encountering the London buskers – the Young Turks who had forced their way onto a rough old scene in a generational putsch, Alan, Don and Pat, with the collaboration of two of the older buskers, Megan Aikman and Norman – AKA Jumping Jack the tap dancer. Maybe Norman had been too crazy for his generation anyway. He fitted right in to the London of the Sixties, about to enter its own era of craziness.