Blog No. 35
Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 11:38AM BLOG 35
I have spent the last two days in John Lennon’s house in Liverpool making a programme for Radio 4. After a while I got to thinking that it was my house and was getting annoyed with these four tours a day coming through my front door. It was really weird yesterday, we let the tours go through then interviewed them when they had some free time at the end so in between times I would just lie in the sun in Aunt Mimi’s garden under the apple trees she planted. Some people get very moved when they’re in the house and I think I probably spoilt the most important moment in their lives by asking them stupid questions. But they were all very nice about it, a couple of Americans sang Please Please Me for us in the porch where John and Paul used to play.
Another weird thing is that quite rightly the National Trust limits access to the house to these four tours every day but there is a constant stream of tourists in taxis or on foot who come to the gate and stare at the house unable to enter, like Gazans staring through the border wire. Its a little disconcerting.
Hi Elak, yes it would be good to have Panic on Mp3. Can you just send it or do I have to get in touch with you?
Blog 35a
Hi Shane. Yes it as me on the 82. Thank you for posting and confirming my "man of the people" image.
I do really like the formality of the passengers on Liverpool buses though, a lot of people still say "Thank you driver" as they get off as if he's driven them on a three day stagecoach ride from Derby.
Blog 35b
Hi Evelyn,
I watched the game at Matthew Norman's house. He is a sports writer and restaurant critic. If you look at his last column for the Guardian it was me who was with him when we reviewed Stevie Gerrard's restaurant in Southport and though we gave his place 11 out of 10 so as not to affect his performance it clearly didn't work.
Blog 35c
The details of my Autumn reading tour are now in the Appearances section.
This Sunday I'm in the Independent on Sunday, a big piece on cycling.
Reader Comments (41)
Hi Alexi,
Where you on the number 82 bus in Liverpool early yesterday evening? I'm sure it was you and after reading your blog today I think it was.
Cheers
Shane
RE: Panic - I've got it too (thanks Elak! xx ) think i can mail it too you, might have to do it song by song? Will give it a go.
Not sure myself why people get overcome visiting celebrity homes. My best friends mum has been to Graceland twice and I'd a friend who'd wait outside hotels to get a look at Michael Jackson, but all that seems a bit odd to me...although I do visit the rosebush of Peter Sellers in Golders Green cemetary...apologies, not sure what my point was!
Jay
xx
It'd have to be song by song and take 3-4 e-mails, so I won't send anything unless you ask! Elak would have a much faster way anyhow i think :)
xx
I think the thrill of the celebrity house must be the desire to avoid this closed off reality...this "bell jar" to quote Plath. When one is middle aged and has the responsibility of a family and no realistic chance at having what appears to be a really groovy and financially rewarding job that would take care of all these troubles...one looks at this house and thinks how incredibly possible it would be for them.
Oh course, this is insane...but so is working 9-5 and coming home and cooking and cleaning and having your 11 year old flip you off. So...you know...
I'm not usually much on celebrities...I prefer my own specifically constructed fantasies. Of course if the hero of my dreams takes on the look of Keanu Reeves it's a bonus.
I did feel the need to take a look at this website after seeing an old clip of OTT...Alexei says somethings about unemployment and police and government and I realized that Canada is very much in that position right now (including being run by a lunatic) but we've somehow lost our long standing habit of protesting and now are sitting quietly watching all we had flitter away.....it does make me wish we had our own energetic, head slapping hero to wake us up. But...yeah...it wouldn't really help to have a look at his house.
I think it's more to do with the fact that he's dead, we'll never see him again. People visit famous artist's and writer's houses when they're dead, it's just what happens.
Where will you watch the game tonight, Alexei?
I hope the Liverpool series you did will be released on dvd; it's still not on YouTube.
Hey Alexie,
Great to finally here from you. More so that you would like a copy of your album. I can send it as one compressed .rar file that you would open with WinRar or WinZip to extract the MP3s. Write me at phaota@gmail.com and I'll send you the link. Or private message me on my Facebook profile. User name Phaota. I wish your "Stuff" series was available on DVD here in the States. Would love to have them all. Bye for now.
Sorry, me again - it's just the fan page has more than doubled its fans in 12 hours, have a look!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alexei-Sayle/19242619537
xx
I feel a little sick. Do you think it was the hot sauce last night?
Can't wait for the inside story on Menlove Avenue. I'm sure it'll be more revealing than having gone there in person. Whilst It would be much better to visit famous people's houses when they are alive, unless you know them and are on good terms they tend to want to call the police.
Mellowmel's analysis strikes a ring of truth, especially the 'this is insane or course' part which raised a smile. Though isn't middle age overly optimistic for trod on dreams? I'd say more like late 20s early 30s.
Menlove and his aunt MImi play a central role in Beatles's mythology which was constructed in large part by Peter Brown's book 'The Love You Make'. A sanitised version of the truth as myths wont to be.
Mimi as the idealised ideal aunt and mother substitute for the abandoned Lennon. She was, of course, a real human being full of self doubt and guilt who'd had an extra- marital affair with one of her lodgers. In her own words, 'I'm a wicked wicked woman' and 'I'm afraid of death'. The later, however irrationally, being in part related to the former?
If you do any more name dropping you'll have flat feet alexei...sheeeesh!
Anyone would think you have no self esteem.
My penultimate post should read 'latter' not 'later'. But, it's a bit late for that. Oh for a sign in and edit/delete option for individual posts. I blame the England team myself.
You can skip round my prattle to the link to the Indie. on Sunday article on cycling which is at the bottom of the page.
Alexei, I'd like to suggest that you, or your agent, get in touch with the people at the very hip and trendy Rouleur cycling magazine. I'm sure they would be very interested in publishing something on cycling penned by yourself. You might get a free Paul Smith suit or one of their 250 quid cycling bags out of them. I would get them to call you, but as a lowly (albeit indispensable!) 'water carrier' I only deliver the goods: Editorial enquiries, email editorial@rouleur.cc or call 0207 482 9185.
Incidentally, I used to do the 'Swift' cycle courier run from the John West offices in the Liver building to H&M Customs at the far end of Albert Dock. Fit as a butcher's dog I was. I gave it up as I didn't want to be part of the food chain that has led to the depletion of blue fin tuna stocks to such an extent they are probably beyond saving. Either that or I got a better job.
THIS IS THE LINK TO THE INDIE ON SUNDAY ARTICLE:
.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/watch-i1t-mate-alexei-sayle-looks-back-on-his-30-years-of-twowheeling-around-london-2008642.html
Just read the article in the Independent. Living near Paris, I can say that I am very happy to see more people cycling to work, etc. through the Vélib' network. If it extended out to my town, I would probably use it all the time. BUT I would find a Vélib' station as soon as I got inside Paris city limits. You really couldn't pay me to ride in Paris because the bus drivers seem to feel about cyclists and pedestrians the way that one bike book author felt about dogs. Some of the bike lanes are in the middle of pavement. Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë started as a Green Party guy so I am not quite sure why these bike lanes were approved. Paris could use classes for cyclists, though. Saw a young lady cycling while simultaneously listening to music and texting on her iPhone this week. She was on one of the busiest tiny streets in town, rue d'Hauteville. I couldn't help but think, 'What an odd way to manifest self-loathing...'
Hi Alexei, some time ago I was in London with my son and we saw a stretch of bicycle lane of about 1.5 meter long. We didn't understand what it meant (was it a short launching strip, are you supposed to fly once you get to the Gray's Inn Road?) We took a picture, but I still don't get what it was all about. Maybe that's because in Amsterdam you're always supposed to have a continues 'path', whether it's a bicycle lane, or a side of the road. That way you always know where to go as a cyclist, and when driving a car, you know where to expect cyclists.
Nice piece, cool picture, though I'm suprised you have a helmet!
Where I live in Harrow, there are a number of these bizarre cycling lanes like the one Evelyn describes. Also we have some roads where there are matchstick cyclists painted down the middle of the road! (Right where the white vans drive so they can speed over the middle hump.)
We are regular visitors to Holland and when there we regularly hire bikes from the railway station and try to cycle as much as we possibly can. We have a picture on the wall of Nit Pickanini (aged about 2 at the time) fast asleep over the handlebars after a ride from the Cube Houses in Rotterdam to our hotel in Schiedam. I have never felt unsafe cycling there and let Nit Pickanini's elder sister ride through busy cities without worrying. As Alexei says in the article families travel by bike and I have vivid memories of cycling in Den Haag and seeing a woman with three children, her shopping and a buggy on a bike navigating the tram tacks while a tram approaches. Nothing happened, I just remember the image.
The argument that cycle lanes can be counterproductive, which you point out in your article in the Indie. Alexei, is counterintuitive perhaps. But makes complete sense if you have actually tried cycling round any major city in the UK using cycle lanes.
P.S, Not 'H&M Customs' (in previous post) but HM Revenue and Customs Queens Dock. Maybe I got the sack for delivering to the wrong addresses.
Hi Alexi
I'm feeling a little better this morning - I think it was more than the hot sauce.
I was just looking at that picture of you at the top of the page and noticed your legs look quite short. Is this because you are lying prone on a coach that would normally be slimming?
From Twitter: "I'm playing an Arts v Science footy game, Southbank, 7pm. Referee is Alexei Sayle. I'm told it'll be lighthearted. There is no such setting."
Damn, I wish I could see that! Alexei, get someone to film that and put it up on YouTube!
I showed interest, I did this by raising the (ah f** that) give us more fish people!