Owning Up

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Swinging and singing - Rated
Owning Up remains the true highpoint for me with its loving evocation of a world that was already vanishing when George wrote it back in the early 60's. To anyone who still thinks the 50's were stuffy and conformist in Britain, such as Daily Mail readers for example, this book will provide the necessary corrective. The only difference with that decade and the 60's was that suddenly everyone was aware of the hedonism going on underneath the surface. Even if you're not a jazz fan, the book will rivet you with its graphic descriptions of Melly and partner in crime Mick Mulligan cutting a swathe through late night drinking clubs, provincial dance halls in such glamorous locations as Grimsby and Boston, (Birmingham's reputation never recovered from the battering George gave it in this volume) and scrubbers - always scrubbers! Is there something in the female psyche that pre-programs them to offer themselves sexually to otherwise physically-unappetising musicians? Whatever, generations of spotty adolescents in rock bands are eternally grateful! Rum, Bum and Concertina shocked me when I first read it back in the 70's but remains an intriguing picture of George - a round peg in a square hole if ever there was one - somehow finding time to fit in National Service in the navy whilst attending art galleries, anarchists meetings, and homosexual orgies. Buy it. When they made George they threw away the mould - and clean forgot how to sculpt another one.