A life filled to the brim - a tribute to George Melly

Jul 6 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

He married twice, having a daughter with his first wife, Victoria, and then a son with Diana, his charming and vivacious widow.

There were three constant threads in his adult years – surrealistic art, on which he was a world authority; the blues and jazz, in which a wonderfully deep and resonant voice blessed with perfect timing was his instrum- ent; and writing, which stretched from journalism to books.

Sex, booze and conversation hooked into all of these, particularly at the Colony Room, his favourite Soho club, once run by the formidable Muriel Belcher, a hostess with an enlightening vocabulary.

FOR a while in London, Melly had shared a flat with the late Simon Watson Taylor, who had read some of Melly’s early poems as secretary to the Surrealist Group in England. They became firm friends.

On one occasion, Melly returned from a trip to find the American beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso recovering from Asian flu in his bed.

The Colony set included the painters Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud.

But all the Bohemians and artists, including Dylan Thomas, popped into visit from time to time.

Another of the group was Wally Fawkes (the cartoonist Trog), for whom Melly wrote the caption bubbles for the Flook strip in the Daily Mail between 1956 and ’71.

Despite his love of the blues, Melly also admired the pop musicians of the 1960s and his book Revolt into Style, about how rebels are tamed, helped define the decade.

For much of the ’60s, he was the pop music critic and then TV critic on The Observer, while writing scripts for the films Smashing Time and A Girl Like You.

His overwhelming love, however, was for the blues-singing of Bessie Smith and until close to his death he was interpreting her songs in his own unmistakable style.

His early love of blues made him part of the emerging jazz and skiffle scene in the Liverpool of the 1950s and he would often sing with the Merseysippi jazz band, continuing the concert in the bus or train on the way home.

From 1973, he was singer with George Chilton’s Footwarmers.

Some years ago, there was a spell when it seemed that deafness might hinder Melly’s aplomb as a conversationalist, but a hi-tech hearing aid plugged into the tufts of his right ear brought welcome relief to the raw tonsils of his many friends.

Despite lung cancer, for which he refused treatment, and the early signs of dementia, Melly continued to sing in public until last month.

Among the many miracles of his life was the fact that he reached the age of 80, a glorious son of this old seaport.

davidcharters@dailypost.co.uk