Thursday 19th December 2013

Beginning to buckle under the pressure of Christmas.

Last Thursday Eddie Sedgewick gave a Retrospective of his artworks in Earlsy Courtsie. ‘Never look back,’ the song says (which song?). Eddie dared to look back – to Bianca, to Pattie Smith, to David Bowie, to the Blitz Club, to Punk, to the 70s. Eve Ferret came to the Retrospective in a black nightie in honour of Stephanie, ubiquitous in those days, and always her underwear was her outwear. Nobody quite knew what became of her. Ronnie Ronnie present. He was huge at Blitz. Robert Nevil, also, who was at school with Eddie Sedgewick. Sprung from Prep and Public, they took a slum flat in Brixton, were burgled every day, wore furs and mohair and corsets. When the trains were halted unexpectedly outside the window, they staged a strip tease to divert the passengers.

That was how it was going to be, in those days, the new Gay life, then barely legal. Outrageous! That’s the word. Funnily enough I read in the paper a few days after the show that Punk killed a lot of people. But Robert Nevil got huge in the Pony Club, maintains an establishment, Eddie Sedgewick hitched with the MP for Whirly and Lorraine. They get  a Christmas card from Ed Milly, hand-signed. I intend going to Brighton to see it. Ronnie Ronnie also gained a Bruce MacBain designed home.

They survived. Could they have gone on like that, now pushing 60?

It was worth looking back, for Eddie’s early works are divine and still fresh and vibrant.

The Show is called ‘Rip it Up’. I thought it was going to be one of those art ‘events’ where the artist purées all his work in a Magimix or flushes it down the lav, followed by some grotesque sex acts.

But no, we looked back. Now we must look forward. Poor Little Rich Gays reinvent and reassess. It’s not easy because no Poor Little Rich Gay can ever be criticised, will never confess, or admit to error. Improvement is not the word.  Change and growth, especially if achieved through therapy  – yuck! Yet Poor Little Rich Gays never give in. Ceaselessly on they go.

Eve Ferret in Nightie in Honour of Stephanie from Blitz Days

Eddie Sedgewick Himself in Tiny Outfit of Today Looking Back to Yesterday: HIs Speech at his Retrospective

Eddie Sedgewick’s Vision of Bianca, A Work Dating from the 70s

How They Were: Typical 70s Gays of Eddie’s Circle