An Extraordinary Life
Album cover for The Picnic Party - The Palm Court Theatre Orchestra. Hand-tinted by Patricia Godwin
As a family, we went to see all kinds of theatre — with no boundaries. I remember in particular the 1972 production of Troilus and Cressida by the Bristol Old Vic, directed by Howard Davies. Tom Baker was in the cast, and as I have just discovered, along with John Nettles. Another production was Jerome Savary’s Le Grand Magic Circus at the Roundhouse, a wild, visual, anarchic piece, with side shows and moments where the audience were covered with a sheet of “snow”, heads poking through. Both productions, very much of the 1970s, were not particularly suitable for children, but they left a lasting impression on me and have influenced my productions. Troilus and Cressida used puppetry, and the sheer energy and craziness of Le Grand Magic Circus have stayed with me ever since. We visited art exhibitions in London and Paris, including the Centre Pompidou, also called the Beaubourg- an incredible modern building resembling a brightly coloured cube, with tubes and escalators covering the outside, so extraordinary in the 1970’s. An innovative architectural team designed it; the President of France, George Pompidou, commissioned it, and it was officially opened on 31 January 1977. An artist who particularly inspired me was Edward Kienholz, especially his installation The Beanery, which I saw at the Pompidou and then in London. It is a life-sized sculptural environment of an American bar, where the figures have clock faces. You walk through it, hearing the sounds of the Café — becoming part of the work itself. It felt very theatrical, where the audience steps inside and is an active participant in the world of the piece.
Our home continued to be filled with extraordinary people — conductors, composers, and artists of all kinds. Simon Rattle (Internationally famous conductor) babysat me, along with a woman whose name I can’t remember, but she was connected with the Goons. She wanted all the lights in the house low and complained that Peter Sellers had tantrums and threw things down the stairs. Tom Baker would appear now and then in his long, dishevelled green coat, and I visited Paavo Berglund’s (BSO Conductor) house to play with his children. George Hurst (another Conductor) would greet me backstage at the BSO with bursts of Cossack dancing, and we visited Vernon Handley (yet another conductor) at his home in a stunning part of Wales, walking in the woods around his home, eating wild strawberries. I remember a rehearsal of a performance at Dartington Hall to do Stravinsky’s The Soldier's Tale with Tim Rice and Mel Smith as narrators. My father played the bass clarinet for this, and Simon Rattle was the conductor. I think this may have been a research and development performance, before the one that is now officially archived. Mel Smith was the narrator. And Tim Rice was in the audience, and I explained to him all about ballet, as that was what I wanted to do at 6 years old, and I also enlightened him on the story of the Soldier's Tale, as we sat along wooden tables in a large school-like hall. Another family friend was the experimental composer and performer John White — I remember wanting to live in a flat like his, and I still think of the baked potatoes with pepper he once made for us, when we turned up unexpectedly. John White provided groundbreaking experimental composition workshops, and my mother, with me in tow, took part in one of these workshops. We blew into coke bottles after drinking at various intervals, also scraping sounds on walls and stamping rhythms on the ground, following newspaper print as the score – sip at every ‘and’, stamp on a ‘they’ and blow across the bottle for ‘when’ etc. – the sound created was incredible. John white was a key artist in Brian Eno’s ‘Obscure Records’ label and influencer of modern rock, and artists such as David Bowie.
In the summer, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra would have a long break, and we would travel to France — crossing the Channel on a hovercraft, then driving by compass and camping in the VW van. My mother carried Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking and would cook delicious food from whichever region we found ourselves in. However, Fruit and veg were dropped into a container full of Milton Solution, and the slight smell of bleach pervaded every dinner in the van. In her defence, many places in France didn’t have drinking water, and so bottled water was vital. There was a time my parents washed their teeth in wine as the shops were closed for a Saints Day. We connected with artists, architects, musicians and performers across France and Europe, who stayed friends beyond my father's death in 1998.
It was an extraordinary childhood, full of music, art, and imagination. The people around me were endlessly inspiring, and that world has stayed with me ever since. Apparently, my sister found writing ‘What I did on my Holidays’ very difficult, because, for example, she had met Morecambe and Wise, etc. The school would think she was making it up until one day Tom Baker escorted her to school and gave the teacher a peck on the cheek in front of the class – and demanded why they didn’t believe my sister. A pupil entering the class ran out saying Doctor Who is kissing Mrs… and he was promptly told off for telling lies. My sister now works as a company manager for major shows in the West End of London. Meeting famous people was just part of normal life for us, and they visited the house regularly. Some incredible people, such as an Artist called Henry Matthews, who had, along with his immediate family, escaped the Holocaust. He spent time with me explaining his life and why he painted, and this deeply made an impression on me. I have one of his paintings called Estrella, and there is another painting, Pimpinella, at my mum's house. The paintings are made up of extraordinary characters connected with music, often on a background of playable notations.
My dad was the most incredible entertainer both onstage and at home, and every Christmas and holiday, he would delight in family entertainments around the piano with drinks in hand.