Sex and champagne forever

It makes a refreshing change to read a beautiful obituary of someone who is not a "celebrity", nor even that well-known, but who made a significant impact on culture nonetheless. That is exactly how I felt when I read in tonight's Evening Standard the heartfelt tribute by "renowned fashion journalist and tastemaker" Ben Cobb to his friend Edward Sexton, bespoke tailor and co-founder of the Swinging Sixties favourite Nutters of Savile Row. Here are few extracts...

He began making a name for himself as a skilled cutter and by 1967 he was working at Donaldson, Williams and Ward, a fusty Savile Row establishment. It was here Edward met well-connected salesman Tommy Nutter; bored of buttoned-up business suits, the two started a side hustle creating outré outfits for private clients. Their signature look? Big shoulders, cinched-in waists, super wide lapels and even wider trousers.

“I was very influenced by the 30s and 40s,” Edward told me, “and I always loved Fred Astaire’s looks.” With funding from Cilla Black and Beatles manager Peter Brown, Edward and Tommy opened the doors to Nutters of Savile Row on Valentine’s Day 1969. The Row’s old guard didn’t know what hit them as Swinging London swarmed into Number 35a. Goodbye pinstripes; hello peacocks! That suit Mick Jagger got married in? Edward made that. Bianca’s too. Those far-out Elton John suits that inspired Harry Styles? Edward made those. And Harry’s. He dressed John and Yoko, Paul McCartney, Twiggy and Bowie. Jarvis Cocker. Bobby Gillespie. From a basement backroom, Edward systematically revolutionised menswear stitch by stitch, decade by decade...

When Edward was 76 years old, I put him on the cover of the fashion magazine Perfect. He turned up on set, immaculate as always and shoot-ready. As he stood in front of the camera I could see him mouthing something to himself. Later I asked him what he was saying. “Sex and champagne, sex and champagne,” he replied; apparently Bowie had taught him this photogenic trick. (Give it a go, it sure beats saying “Cheeese”.)

...I also had the honour of presenting Edward with the “Visionary” award at last year’s Walpole Luxury Awards...As he clutched his award, I asked if he could retire now; his reply is unprintable here but, suffice to say, Edward worked right up until the end. Standing side-by-side for our final photocall that night, I heard him mumbling Bowie’s mantra under his breath.

Sex and champagne forever, Edward.

RIP, Edward Sexton (9th November 1942 – 23rd July 2023)

Wheeee...

...Sundays here at Dolores Delargo Towers are such fun!

[No, it's not actually French & Saunders, it is Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits]

The Voice of the Isle of Dogs

We have a centenary to celebrate, dear reader! As quintessentially "London" as you can get, yesterday would have been the 100th birthday of one of this country's "national treasures" Queenie Watts!

Born and bred in the Isle of Dogs (more commonly referred to nowadays as part of the generic - but more marketable - "London Docklands") in the East End of London, she and her husband "Slim" became well-known local characters as landlord and landlady of two popular pubs in the area, the Iron Bridge Tavern and the Rose and Crown, and Queenie in particular became locally famous for her singing...

From an interview with my Nana's favourite (now defunct) gossip-mag Weekend [read the article scans here and here]:

"...if I've had a bevy on a Saturday and feel in the mood, I might stagger up and do something."

Bust she's not keen on pub songs or beer barrel music. Show Me the Way To Go Home is not in Queenie's repertoire. Basin Street Blues and Lonesome Road are.

"I only sing stuff that's got soul," she says. "If you can't sing with feeling, I don't think you should bother. My elder sisters were into jazz. I played their records and I learned them.

!I got hooked on Billie Holiday quite early. I don't style myself after her - let's say she influenced me."

Her mother, music hall singer Marie Gooding, refused to let her join a band when she had the opportunity at 15.

Queenie says: "She wouldn't hear of it. She said, 'I'm not having you chased round Paris by men.'" Apparently it happened to her on tour.

"Singing was all I wanted to do. I regret I never got into it at the right age."

It wouldn't be long until some bigger showbiz opportunities beckoned. She was one of the old-time performers" who appeared on the short-lived TV variety series Stars and Garters, the estimable Joan Littlewood cast Queenie in her film Sparrers Can't Sing, alongside Barbara Windsor, and she was cast as (surprise, surprise) a pub singer in Alfie. She gained her widest audience however, when she starred alongside Arthur Mullard in the prime-time ITV sitcom Romany Jones and its sequel Yus, My Dear in the 1970s.

Returning to the 1960s, however, Queenie and Slim (remarkably) were featured in a short documentary about their East End lives Portrait of Queenie, and it featured several clips of Queenie performing:

Queenie Watts - The Isle of Dogs

Queenie Watts - The Best is Yet to Come

Queenie Watts - I Remember April

A remarkable woman, with a remarkable voice.

Queenie Watts (born Mary Spenton, 21st July 1923 – 25th January 1980)

[More Queenie here]

Marchons, marchons!

Bastille Day, le 14 juillet, La fête nationale française - whatever one calls it, the French are celebrating it!

Bien sûr...

Jessye Norman - La Marseillaise (200 aniversario Revolución Francesa - La mar)

Faire la fête!

Icon

Marc Almond in Brompton Cemetery, photo by Derek Ridgers

Marc Almond by Mike Owen.

Many happy returns of the day to our Patron Saint of Torch Songs, Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond, OBE!

All hail.

The Sweetheart of Spain

Another day, another classic diva has departed for Fabulon - Señorita Carmen Sevilla, one of Spain's most glamorous and popular screen stars. In her heyday in the 1950s and 60s she was often compared to that other glittering and photogenic icon Ava Gardner, and she went on to sustain a career that spanned seven decades.

According to her obituary in The Independent:

Admirers nicknamed her “La novia de España,” the bride or sweetheart of Spain, and her fans included Pope John XXIII, who sent a congratulatory telegram when she married composer and conductor Augusto Algueró in 1961, at a wedding ceremony that reportedly attracted tens of thousands of people to the plaza outside the cathedral in Zaragoza.

In later years she carved a niche in prime-time television, often being called upon to see in the New Year celebrations.

And she was a fabulous singer, to boot:

Carmen Sevilla - Cariño Trianero

Carmen Sevilla - El Relicario

RIP Señorita Carmen Sevilla (16th October 1930 - 27th June 2023)