Open book

Bill Wyman base player of the Rolling Stones asked if we would be interested to direct ‘Willie and the Poor Boys’ a half hour music special. The scene was to be nineteen fifty’s at Fulham Town Hall, London. When local bands would play on a Friday night at a local dance hall. Ringo Starr was going to play the janitor, a cameo role at the end of the film. We hired several professional dancers besides inviting the public to turn up in period costumes. Like all films the music was pre-recorded and the many wonderful musician played along with soundtrack. (I have listed the musician below) We had six cameras shooting the action but behind me where eight international news camera capturing the event with so many famous rock stars on stage. After the first take I took Bill on one side and told him they lacked energy. Expecting Bill to be diplomatic with the rock stars he walked back on to the stage and said, “The director thinks we stink and need to get some energy.” They did with gr...

In the film ‘Murder Story’ Sir Christopher Lee was hired to play Willard Hope a writer of mystery novels. He dies half way through the film, since we couldn’t pay him for the whole shoot. An actor of his quality is worth the fee he receives but this was a very low budget movie. He is found in a closet strangled in fact we used a toilet. This was the only small room in the house in Amsterdam. After our first take, the cameraman pointed out it look like Dracula had died. Sir Christopher had spent years creating other characters; sadly the public seem to remember him as Count Dracula in the Hammer Horror movies. We quickly change the make up so Sir Christopher looked more like himself as Willard Hope. I invent the story we lost his open eyes in the darkness of the closet, another case of British diplomacy better known as BS. In one of the earlier scenes he and co-star Alexis Denisof were walking down a side street in Amsterdam passing one of the many window sex stores the...

Oh my blessed Socrates Self control individually Myself action for myself happiness I mourn your loss I love your morality Vauvenargues, La Rochefoucauld, Nicolas Chamfort Buried in their own hypocrisy and delusion All animals have morality Not all animals are equal Free us from the slavery of democracy The politician and criminal are but the same Mirrored through the looking glass of the community Man steals from man Only the rats are left to pick over the pieces Nietzsche believed in the supreme man The Tea Party believed they are the supreme race Reagan and Thatcher the empire demolition dream team Jenga politics for the workingman The decline of the American global dictatorship World peace after the death of the human race Only the bankers, politicians and Justin Bieber wannabe’s Left alive to sing for their supper Nail me to nihilism

The Eurythmics once again asked us to direct their music video ‘Sister are doing for themselves’ featuring Aretha Franklin. We were shooting in Detroit, Michigan so Aretha Franklin didn’t have to travel too far from her home. It also meant that I saw another part of America at the time when Detroit was a booming car-making city. The producer told me Miss Franklin was just about to arrive. I told Annie Lennox that I would go and meet Aretha so Annie didn’t have to be interrupted having her make up applied. Aretha’s car arrived with its number plate Zooming but Aretha wasn’t inside. A long black limousine pulled into the Studio parking lot. The driver ran around the limo and opened the car door. Miss Franklin stepped out of the limousine dressed in a red suede dress and coat. Ermine tails hanging down from the coat. She knew how to make an entrance. I greeted her as though I was meeting the Queen of England after all she is the Queen of Soul. She was very gracious took my ...

Writers are often asked what books influenced them. We all have our favourite books, understanding what inspired you as a writer is very important. I have five books that I feel not only inspired me but set my creative journey. The Jacaranda Tree by H. E. Bates At the age of twelve it was one of the prescribed reading books at school. Set in Burma during World War Two as the Japanese forces invade. With the great British stiff upper lip mentality a small English community set out on journey to escape. Full of prejudices, bitterness, tension and insoluble conflict the adventure begins. H. E. Bates captures the locality, the heat and dryness. It was this that has been trapped in my mind all these years later. You feel the weather and although I have never been to Burma now Republic of the Union of Myanmar. I feel I know something about the country even if it was a long time ago. Paterson the protagonist takes his Burmese mistress and her young brother along with him. As a twelve y...

I am not one of those people that kiss and tell. I respect the artists I have work with even if some of them have not been as friendly as they could be. Bob Dylan was not one of them; his professionalism and warm heartedness endeared him to everyone. Arriving from England to make two Bob Dylan music videos in Los Angeles I was excited to work with such a great musician. They were ‘When the Night comes Falling from the Sky’ and ‘ Emotionally Yours ’. The production company had made base camp at United Methodist Church on Highland just below the Hollywood Bowl. Filming was to start on Cherokee Avenue just off Hollywood Boulevard. Just before Bob Dylan arrived for the scene I had entered a store selling nuts and dried fruit. The owner a tall thin man with an enormous black moustache was obviously not happy with a film crew outside his store. We had a permit to shoot on the street but the production company hadn’t given any under the table money to the store owners. I asked the ang...

Whatever happened to laughter in the world? No one seems to be laughing anymore. The world is facing a crisis more serious than monetary problems, a greater threat than wars, plagues and corrupt politicians. The world is losing its’ funny men. There are a few professional clowns who perform in the theatre and most of them have joined the race for more quick money, the escalator to greed. Their performances tend to be the same now as when they started. Very few make comment on the society in which they live. Laughter is the most powerful peaceful weapon to use to make change. Yet the funny men are at the bottom of any list of importance. In 1972 Clown Cavalcade I formed, with the ultimate aim of rectifying the situation. The company lasted fifteen years teaching hundreds the art of comedy. It was not foreseen that it would have to exist in an environment that had no room for a sense of humour. We have certainly experienced what the early Christians must have felt in our strug...