out like Biggles’s scarf.
I think Mick was even more basic than Ozzie.
Anglesey Nude
There was certainly a lot going on – or rather coming off – in those Skunk Band days. I was once driving through Anglesey and couldn’t help but notice that the girl in the passenger seat was gradually taking her clothes off. It was hard…to concentrate. The moment she was naked, the traffic began to slow down almost to a halt. Had they twigged what was going on? Actually the traffic was slowing because we had hit carnival time. Although tempted to upstage all the other acts put together, she slowly slid down the seat.
But it was touch and go in more ways than one.
If your girlfriends all seem to have the same tendency to disrobe your mind doesn’t half become focused on it. One girl triumphed as a topless Winifred Atwell – a ludicrous idea in itself but adding extra rhythm to the proceedings – though at a private party, it has to be stressed. A couple of girls went publicly nude at a pub, to the great joy of the punters. Many of my girlfriends had sexy, erotic photographs taken of themselves, in some cases before they met me, in others after they had met me. Naturally I have thought a lot about this phenomenon! I came to the conclusion that although I enjoyed this nudity, I didn’t necessarily inspire it in them. It existed in them irrespective of others and I certainly upheld their right to express themselves in any way they wished. Perhaps there was an element of this behaviour directed at me – to tame the beast, as they say, but this wasn’t the whole picture by any means.
I’ve noticed that nudity doesn’t make a person more sexy. Nor does clothing. If a person is sexually neutral or frigid nowt can be done until this changes. Sexuality is something within the person and clothes or lack of clothes can only enhance what is there already.
And isn’t gross exhibitionism an intrusive annoyance?
I don’t want girls to be nude to the point of hairlessness. I like girls to be natural. In the Fifties and Sixties body hair was more acceptable than it is now. Continental women didn’t depilate and I liked to think that the most beautiful continental stars of the Fifties and Sixties: Sophia Loren and Gina Lollabrigida didn’t. Not in my fantasies, anyway.
But nudity was very much the thing in the Sixties and Seventies. There was a trend for wet T-shirt competitions where everyone would end up without a T-shirt on at all. There were nightclubs where you hung your clothes by the door! I think one was called Club 49 – or was it 69? This started in New York and was aimed at the rich and famous: a nudist night club. At the other end of the scale there were teenage parties where we would advance from Postman’s Knock to Postmistress’s Knockers – then to Dustman’s Knock which was a bit dirtier!
The Gig From Hell
Whilst in Wales, Whitty continued to play music for pleasure, supplementing his benefit with casual work, as he always had. In the end, the isolation and the terminal illness of his sister drove Whitty and Cathy back to Crewe and the Skunk Band entered its third phase. During his absence the music had changed quite a bit. I had placed more of my own stamp on it and in this second phase the set had a jazz, jug band and blues bias put to rock ‘n’ roll. It was less pop-oriented; I could set the old songs with more humour, in a manner that would appeal to bikers.
Whitty continued to go on benders which left him extremely depressed. One Sunday morning I was contacted in Moston by Shep who was then living in relative squalor above the shop with my dog Rafe. Pete, who had been staying with him, had slit his wrists in the bath. Leaping into my new car I soon left leafy deep-carpeted suburbia behind, not knowing what I would find at the end of my journey to Crewe.
I screeched up to the Nantwich Road premises and ran up the stairs two at a time to the seedy bathroom. There was Whitty still in the bath. Still drunk.
I think Mick was even more basic than Ozzie.
Anglesey Nude
There was certainly a lot going on – or rather coming off – in those Skunk Band days. I was once driving through Anglesey and couldn’t help but notice that the girl in the passenger seat was gradually taking her clothes off. It was hard…to concentrate. The moment she was naked, the traffic began to slow down almost to a halt. Had they twigged what was going on? Actually the traffic was slowing because we had hit carnival time. Although tempted to upstage all the other acts put together, she slowly slid down the seat.
But it was touch and go in more ways than one.
If your girlfriends all seem to have the same tendency to disrobe your mind doesn’t half become focused on it. One girl triumphed as a topless Winifred Atwell – a ludicrous idea in itself but adding extra rhythm to the proceedings – though at a private party, it has to be stressed. A couple of girls went publicly nude at a pub, to the great joy of the punters. Many of my girlfriends had sexy, erotic photographs taken of themselves, in some cases before they met me, in others after they had met me. Naturally I have thought a lot about this phenomenon! I came to the conclusion that although I enjoyed this nudity, I didn’t necessarily inspire it in them. It existed in them irrespective of others and I certainly upheld their right to express themselves in any way they wished. Perhaps there was an element of this behaviour directed at me – to tame the beast, as they say, but this wasn’t the whole picture by any means.
I’ve noticed that nudity doesn’t make a person more sexy. Nor does clothing. If a person is sexually neutral or frigid nowt can be done until this changes. Sexuality is something within the person and clothes or lack of clothes can only enhance what is there already.
And isn’t gross exhibitionism an intrusive annoyance?
I don’t want girls to be nude to the point of hairlessness. I like girls to be natural. In the Fifties and Sixties body hair was more acceptable than it is now. Continental women didn’t depilate and I liked to think that the most beautiful continental stars of the Fifties and Sixties: Sophia Loren and Gina Lollabrigida didn’t. Not in my fantasies, anyway.
But nudity was very much the thing in the Sixties and Seventies. There was a trend for wet T-shirt competitions where everyone would end up without a T-shirt on at all. There were nightclubs where you hung your clothes by the door! I think one was called Club 49 – or was it 69? This started in New York and was aimed at the rich and famous: a nudist night club. At the other end of the scale there were teenage parties where we would advance from Postman’s Knock to Postmistress’s Knockers – then to Dustman’s Knock which was a bit dirtier!
The Gig From Hell
Whilst in Wales, Whitty continued to play music for pleasure, supplementing his benefit with casual work, as he always had. In the end, the isolation and the terminal illness of his sister drove Whitty and Cathy back to Crewe and the Skunk Band entered its third phase. During his absence the music had changed quite a bit. I had placed more of my own stamp on it and in this second phase the set had a jazz, jug band and blues bias put to rock ‘n’ roll. It was less pop-oriented; I could set the old songs with more humour, in a manner that would appeal to bikers.
Whitty continued to go on benders which left him extremely depressed. One Sunday morning I was contacted in Moston by Shep who was then living in relative squalor above the shop with my dog Rafe. Pete, who had been staying with him, had slit his wrists in the bath. Leaping into my new car I soon left leafy deep-carpeted suburbia behind, not knowing what I would find at the end of my journey to Crewe.
I screeched up to the Nantwich Road premises and ran up the stairs two at a time to the seedy bathroom. There was Whitty still in the bath. Still drunk.
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