Last night a video came up as a suggestion on my YouTube feed. It featured an interview by Joanna Lumley of Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe. Lumley is filling in for Terry Wogan which causes some confusion for Milligan. Spike's were always interesting interviews - it was hard to keep him on topic, any topic. This is a very good example. Oh, and there is a very polite gatecrasher. The video is at the bottom of the post - its worth a look.
During the interview Spike mentions Woy Woy and his parents and it reminded me of my two 'encounters' with him...
 |
| Spike Milligan, Civic Theatre, Newcastle (1980) ©Paul Foley |
In the 1960's my family lived on the Central Coast. One Friday afternoon, probably sometime in 1969, Chris Finn (my school mate) and I were on a bus to Woy Woy to spend the weekend at his place.
There was a guy sitting up the front talking in funny voices and with various mad facial expressions. He had the whole bus in stitches but I had no idea who he was. The driver was all over the road.
Chris told me he was some comedian from England called Spike and that he did things like this whenever he was in town visiting his parents.
Years later, I was commissioned to photograph Spike Milligan during a performance at Newcastle’s Civic Theatre.
He was brilliantly funny. And this was despite him devoting a small part of the show using my presence in the pit as a foil for his jokes. The audience couldn’t see me and the jokes weren’t about me personally - it was just perfect improv.
During the show there was a short intermission while a pianist played on stage. It was during this that I was backstage sitting on a riser in a dim pool of light changing film.
As I concentrated on reloading my cameras I barely noticed when a shape sat near me. I did notice, though, when he hunched over and began making sobbing noises.
I took myself away from loading and looked at the person beside me. It was Spike. There were no tears, just a soft, forlorn sob.
I looked for a few moments and motioned to ask if he was ok. He just turned slightly away - I took it to mean he didn’t want to engage. I couldn't easily move away - the cameras and film were spread in front of me and it was the only place with any light at all.
We each stayed there in the nearly invisible light. I finished loading the last camera as the pianist finished his piece and then Spike was up and walking out past the curtain.
The second half of the show was even better than the first.
These photos are scans from old prints I made from the Ektachrome (tungsten) slide film I used in the day. Back then I used Olympus OM1n and 2n cameras so the lens was most likely a 180mm f2.8 (manual focus of course).
One day I'll have to dig the job folder out of storage. It was back in the day when clients got the original slides so I'm not sure what I'll find. Most likely just the outtakes.
 |
| Spike Milligan, Civic Theatre, Newcastle (1980) ©Paul Foley |
Post © Paul Foley/Lightmoods
No comments:
Post a Comment
Any questions? Comments? Please get in touch.