Terry and Jerry in The Summer of 81

(Above:) The last Harry Pye painting of 2022 was a portrait of 2 Tone legends Terry Hall and Jerry Dammers. The title is: "Terry & Jerry in the Summer of 81"  65cm x 90cm, Acrylic on Canvas.

Above: Photo of Terry taken by Harry Pye in 2012. 

Above: Photo of Jerry taken by Harry Pye in 2010

My childhood heroes The Specials were a band from Coventry - to some they were a post punk ska revival band, to others they were a mod band or an Art School band, some fans only wanted to dance to their music whilst other fans loved their mix of very funny songs and very serious political songs. On the fantastic debut album produced by Elvis Costello in 1978 the line up was: Jerry Dammers on keyboards, Terry Hall and Neville Staple on lead vocals, Lynval Golding on rhythm guitar, Roddy Radiation on lead guitar, Horace Panter on bass, John Bradbury on Drums, plus Dick Cuthell on trumpet and Rico Rodriguez on trombone. Also important were photographer Chalkie Davies and video director Barney Bubbles. Golding and Radiation both composed a couple of the band's most popular songs. And Terry co wrote "Man At C & A" with Jerry, and also contributed lines to a couple of Jerry's songs (e.g. "all the girls are slags" in"Nite Klub") That said, Jerry was the architect of The Specials and the 2 Tone label, the main song writer and the arranger. But Terry's good looks, his distinctive vocal delivery and "Mum, I want to go home" look, plus the fact that, unlike Jerry, he was from a working class background all played a part in the band's success.

It was so sad that Terry Hall lost his battle with cancer and died on December the 18th 2022. He was only 63. Terry Hall was a wonderful front man, he had a lovely voice and had a great way with words. I love pretty much everything The Specials did from "Gangsters" to "What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend" but like most fans I think they probably peaked with "Ghost Town" was stayed at Number One for 3 weeks in the Summer of 1981. 

The Ghost Town e.p. which featured; "Why? " and "Friday Night Saturday Morning" is one of the best singles of all time. But Terry, Lynval and Neville weren't happy so they left the band to be The Fun Boy Three.

"The Specials had become one big joke. Jerry was drafting people into the band and the first we'd know about it was when they'd turn up on stage!"Terry explained to NME journalist Adrian Thrills in Feb 1982. (Possibly this is about flute player Paul Heskett and singer Rhoda Dakar being added to the line up when promoting "Ghost Town"?)  Neville Staple added: "It got to the stage where we didn't all have a say in what The Specials were doing. But we're not kids, so we should have a say. People can't be yes-men all the time." Terry explains that there were other problems causing frustration... "The trouble with those songs was that we always had to have a guitar part and a bassline just to accommodate The Specials as a band. I wanted the song "Friday Night Saturday Morning" to be recorded with just a piano and vocals, as if it were being sung by a bloke in a pub, not by a band."

The Fun Boy Three had their moments such as; "Lunatics" and "Farm Yard Connection." While Jerry was helping produce tracks like "The Boiler" by Rhoda Dakar and throwing his energies into the Artists Against Apartheid project. Terry co-wrote the pop classic "Our Lips Are Sealed" with Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Gos) which got to Number One in America. He also discovered Banarama who went on to become Britain's the most successful female band. In an interview with The Face magazine Hall said he was constantly being asked about his relationship with Jerry Dammers. Terry explained there was no big feud and that Jerry was one of the most intelligent people he'd ever met.

After The Fun Boy Three Hall was lucky to get to collaborate with guitarist and keyboard player Toby Lyons and bass player Karl Shale. They formed The Colourfield whose wonderful debut album ("Virgins And Phillistimes") released in 1985 features brillaint songs like 'Take' and 'Thinking of You'. Jerry Dammers had revealed that his song "Housebound" (from his "In The Studio" L.P) was about Terry being scared to leave his home. I've wondered if any of Terry's lyrics about guilt and betrayal on the first Colourfield album were in some way connected to his feelings about Jerry. 

I remember reading Terry's interview with Tony Fletcher for Jamming in March 1985 and being shocked by Terry's trashing of The Specials - something he would continue to do for quite some time.

Terry Hall: "There was no racism in Coventry until The Specials started singing about it.... Ghost Town was an embaressment... I just don't like the idea of holding up a gold disc when its got a lot to do with unemployment... (In The Specials) I was getting wages for doing sod all." 

The second Colourfield LP ("Deception") was very disappointing. His last album for the Chrysalis label ("Ultra Modern Nusrey Rhymes") was also less than fantastic. The problem wasn't Terry's voice or his lyrics it was more to do with his choice of collaborators and the musical arrangements they came up with. I wonder what would have happened if Hall had contacted Dammers in 1987? I wish they'd worked on a project again in the same way Lou Reed and John Cale collaborated on the album "Songs For Drella." Terry had liked Jerry's song "War Crimes" and Jerry had liked The Colourfield so I felt there was a chance something could happen - but no. In the 90s Terry worked with songwriters such as Dave Stewart from Eurythmics, Stephen Duffy, Lightning Seed Ian Broudie and ex Smith Craig Gannon, and came up with a few gems such as; "Possessed," "Sonny and his Sister," "Sense," and "No No No" but, in truth, none of these really equal a track like "Friday Night And Saturday Morning." Jerry went on to collaborate with; Madness, Robert Wyatt, Arthur Brown and Johnny Clarke. He contributed a song for the film Absolute Beginners, toured the country with his Spatial AKA Orchestra and also worked as a D.J. 

In the mid 90s the former Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins had a big worldwide hit with "A Girl Like You." And it felt like this unexpected success inspired Terry, and all the guys who'd been big in the 80s like Nick Heyward, Lloyd Cole to throw their hats in the ring one more time. No major label was interested in Terry and so his covers of songs like "I Saw The Light" and "Music To Watch Girls By" were released on his own South Sea Bubble Company label. I got the feeling he lost a lot of money. More and more acts such as Blur, Tricky and Pulp said in the press how much they loved The Specials and what an inspiration they'd been. Terry told Jo Whiley that when he saw Lynval, Neville, Panter and Radiation touring under the name "The Specials" he felt they shouldn't but at the same time appreciated some of them had mortages to pay and some of them had no pension etc.

In 2003 it was revealed in Uncut magazine that Jerry Dammers wanted to reform The Specials and "start off where Ghost Town left off" with a new song called 'First Victims Of War.' This new song had been recorded (or at least a demo of it had been reorded) and it featured Dammers, Rico Rodriquez, Dick Cuthell plus Lynval Golding on lead vocals. Roddy Radiation posted on social media that there had indeed been a band meeting and Dammers had played them this new track but he personally didn't like it as "it droaned on and on and on and on." I've never heard it so I can't comment. Later of course all of The Specials (apart from Jerry, Dick and Rico) toured around the world playing the old hits to fans new and old. A free CD of the band playing live was given away to people who bought The Sunday Times - none of the songs sounded anywhere as good as they'd done on live albums back in the day . Dammers told The Word magazine that in his opinion Terry & Co were giving people " a warped view" of what The Specials were about. He felt the band should be writing protest songs and doing things no one had done before. In 2019, Terry and Lynval Golding and Horace Panter released a Specials album called "Encore" (which they said was taking off from where Ghost Town had left off) and then 5 years later brought out an album of protest songs. Although I haven't liked any of their new self penned material I thought they recorded some great cover versions of songs such as "Blam Blam Fever" (originally recorded by The Valentines in 1967), plus John Barry's "All The Time In The World" and Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" Although bassist Horace, new drummer Kenrick Rowe, new keyboard player Nikolaj Torp Larson, and new trombone player Tim Smart are all very good at what they do,  I always felt I was listening to "The Fun Boy 3 without Neville" rather than "The Specials." That said, it's very impressive that Terry kept his good looks and could still sing brilliantly right up until the end. It was also great he never lost his sense of humour..

Terry was on great form when he did this interview with comedian Richard Herring (I advise you to fast forward past the 8 minute intro). There's some real comedy gold when he discuses previous jobs. 

Watch the interview: Here 

Jerry reacted to the news of Terry's death by saying he was very shocked and adding "Contrary to some of what's reported since, Terry and I got on well in the original Specials.... It was in the studio with Elvis Costello producing, where Terry was able to sing quietly, that I think his hidden strength came out, a delivery which brought out the melancholy in some of The Specials' songs, and which I think a lot of people could relate to."

Listen again to the brilliant: "Friday Night And Saturday Morning" :Here I wish their collaborations had continued. 

Happy Hanukkah Mr Nimoy painted by Harry Pye with Rowland Smith

 

Above: "Happy Hanukkah Mr Nimoy" painted by Harry Pye with Rowland Smith (2022) Acrylic on Canvas, 65x90cm

Leonard Nimoy is the much loved Star Trek actor who, from 1966 to 2013, played Mr Spock. Spock is known for the words, "Live long and prosper" and also his Vulcan salute. 

In his 1975 autobiography I Am Not Spock, Nimoy, who was Jewish, wrote that he based it on the Priestly Blessing performed by Jewish Kohanim with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the Henrew letterShin (ש in Square Script, or Paleo Hebrew 𐤔‎), which has three upward strokes similar to the position of the thumb and fingers in the gesture. The letter Shin here stands for El Shaddai, meaning "Almighty (God)", as well as for Shekinah and Shalom. Nimoy wrote that when he was a child, his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue, where he saw the blessing performed and was impressed by it

Watch the story behind Mr Spock's Vulcan salute:Here

“Harry Pye’s playful, skewed and slyly subversive visions of a brighter, better reality are the perfect antidote to a world of woe. His paintings are a delightful and, at times, poignant riposte to all the po-faced, cynical and joyless cultural landfill cluttering up the place”

— Stephen Ellcock, author of, All Good Things

Harry Pye graduated from Winchester School of Art in 1995. Over the years Harry’s paintings have been selected for shows at; The Barbican, Calvert 22, The Discerning Eye Mall Gallery, The Bankside Gallery, The Creekside Art Gallery, and festivals such as; Elefest and Deptford X. 

Pye’s work featured in two group exhibitions at Tate Modern; Save Our Souls, and Inside Job. His paintings have also been exhibited in galleries in; Australia, Brazil, China, and Denmark.

Pye paintings have been sold to raise money for charities such as Art Against Knives, Break Through, Action For Children, Kids & Co, CARA, Depression Alliance, Friends of the Earth, and The National Brain Appeal.

His paintings have appeared on record sleeves, posters on the underground and the cover of the Tate Staff Handbook. His work has appeared in numerous publications including; The Times, The Guardian, The Evening Standard, Frieze, and Turps Banana.

His collaborative exhibition with Jasper Joffe (Joffe et Pye) was rave reviewed on BBC Radio 4. Speaking on Saturday Review, The director of the I.C.A, Ekow Eshun’s response to the show was: “Intense feelings about love, loneliness and fear, anxiety, desire and hope, and ambition all come into play into these paintings. Very powerful I thought. What could have been fey, arch, or game playing was actually very warm. Harry was the winner of the Daily Mirror’s Paint Tony Blair competition judged by Gilbert and George. The Week magazine said of Harry’s work, “Pye's apparent naivety is accompanied by a strong sense of construction and design. Their directness and humour are appealing” And the critic Ana Finel Honigman described him as one of “London's premiere puckish artists and curators.”

Christmas Cards For Sale at Vout-O-Reenie's Xmas Art Fair on Thursday 8th December

Don't miss the amazing oppotunity of buying some affordable home made Christmas cards!

 

Vout-O-Reenee's Xmas Art Fair on Thursday 8th December 5 till 10pm. 

Address: The Crypt, 50 Prescot St, E1 8BB

Don't miss out on this chance to buy affordable Xmas gifts and cards from; Alice Herrick, Angel Adley, Buttress & Snatch, C.A. Halpin, Carson Parkin Fairley, Charlotte Bracegirdle, Clive Jennings, Cristina Calvache, Daisy Gammon, Harry Pye, Keeler Tornero, Mandee Gage, Michael Coles, Olga Suchanova, Sadie Hennessy, and Silvia Ziranek.

Always On My Mind exhibition raises £6,000 for The National Brain Appeal

 

The National Brain Appeal

@BrainAppeal

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This week's #FridayFundraisers are curator Harry Pye and the incredible artists who took part in #AlwaysOnMyMind Taking place at Fitzrovia Gallery, the group art exhibition raised £6,000 in aid of The National Brain Appeal and we couldn't be more grateful

Introducing Igor Kudelin

Igor Kudelin is an artist from Ukraine, the city of Dnipro (Dnepropetrovsk). For five years he collaborated with the Museum of Ukrainian Painting in the city of Dnipro, where he was the leading artist and curator of three contemporary art festivals. At the beginning of 2020, he decided to do one of his individual projects that was not related to his patrons in the museum. He used to be fond of portraits in modern styles, but he decided to make this project like a burlesque opera, where his heroes are, this is a synthesis of the libretto and the rhythms of music. 

The image above is from Igor's Burlesque opera "Million Dollars" project

Harry Pye: How are you? Are you feeling happy and healthy?

Igor: "I am far from home now, and I can’t fully and calmly make the art that I like at the moment and have to do some things that I probably wouldn’t do in my studio, so now I’m not in the best shape. There is a feeling of some apathy and nervousness. Of course I try to pull myself by the ears, I force myself to work and sometimes I explore the local art scene."

What can you tell me about your life in the Ukraine? Did you have a happy childhood?

"I don't like to talk about my childhood, it was a long time ago. I will say a few words. Childhood in the USSR was quite normal and predictable. From childhood I loved to draw, but I did not like the Soviet academic school, it did not find a response in my heart, there was no mystery and experiment in it.

I studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Institute and in my third year I realized that architecture was a boring subject for me and then transferred to the Art and Graphic Faculty of the Pedagogical Institute. Dnepropetrovsk is a city with a million inhabitants, but in terms of art and culture, the city was very archaic. I set myself the goal of being the most extraordinary artist in order to try to bring the population out of a long hibernation and, in addition to painting, I began to develop disciplines that were not previously present on the Dnepropetrovsk art scene - performance, installation, action. I hope I managed to influence the state of contemporary art in my city a little."

In what ways are you a bad man? What aspects of your character need to improve?

"I am not a very sociable person, in the sense that if you consider that art is not only creativity, but also business, then I often lose in promoting myself. I don’t have enough time or I’m just too lazy to engage in self-promotion. I am 60 years old and it is unlikely that I can improve myself in this regard."

In what ways are you a bad artist? In what ways does your work need to improve?

"It is unlikely that any artist will say honestly about himself that he is bad. Like any person, I am not perfect and can be both a good and a bad artist, especially since it is too late for me to correct anything, and this quality in this case acts as a correlate. Modern visual art is very different from the rest of the arts, it has many contradictions and unprovable formulas and as a rule you have to be a little aggressive and have confidence in your actions. You just need to believe that you are right for yourself, if you believe in yourself, then others will believe too."

What films have meant a lot to you? Which films have you seen more than once? Are there any directors you see as being artists?

"My favorite directors are Dziga Vertov, Bunuel, Fellini, Tarkovsky, Jarmusch, Godard, Antonioni, Lynch. I don't watch the latest directors anymore. All of these directors are artists for me. Most of all I reviewed the films of Tarkovsky, Jarmusch and Antonioni. I watched Amarcord and Eight and a Half three times, Tarkovsky - Solaris and Andrey Rublev, three times each, Antonioni - Night, Adventure, Zoom, I am a reporter, three or four times. Jarmusch - The Limits of Control, watched ten times. David Lynch - Lost Highway and Mulholland, watched three times each."

Who are your heroes?

"The question is a little unclear, I know English very poorly (this question is in the field of art or global) I like people of science and art, politicians are not very clear creatures for me. Of the artists, I would single out two stages in my age-old development. The first are De Kooning, Pollak and Bacon, the second are Lucio Fontana, Rothko, Malevich, Agnes Martin, Robert Ryman and Roman Opalka. With age, you are not very aggressive and become a little wiser. Therefore, I am close to more subtle artists who, as it were, worked at the level of quantum theory."

What do you feel most passionate about?

"Now for myself I have made some axioms that used to be quite illusory. I've burned my hydrogen like the stars and I'm starting to use helium to reconnect with eternity. I no longer want to narrate, tell and convince about anything, only to convey the subtle changes that occur in my mind with minimal means on canvas. There is a desire to simply contemplate a pure, transparent stream disappearing into eternity."

What are you working on next - what is your next project?

"I brought with me to London a series of portraits of the burlesque opera "Million Dollars", where my heroes are a synthesis of the libretto and rhythms of music. As rhythms, I used different areas of contemporary art. Whether I will continue this series is unlikely, but I would like to put them in a gallery.

At the moment, I am interested in the direction that I started in 2020 and 2022. This is minimalism or something else, I do not undertake to give a definition. I have already said before that I want art with calm, smooth rhythms, when you think philosophically about the world without fuss, realizing that you cannot change the order of things and just as calmly, without excessive fuss, apply paint without going into details about certain qualities and values ​​​​acquired humanity. Therefore, I will continue, with some changes, my series of works - "Dharma", "Treatises on Modern Art" - text and vertical white stripes, "Treats on Color", "Treats on Physics and Mathematics" - an abstract straightforward text and very difficult to define , where is a treatise, they are indicated only in the text to the work. The distinction of visual art differs from the public social arts of film and music in that it can remain personal and self-contained. 

A small clarification, I would like to continue, but alas, without a materials studio, it is still impossible to continue my story."

To find out more about Igor and his projects e-mail: and his work e-mail: igorkudelin@yahoo.com