Alfie 80

 

Congratulations to Alfie / Alfreda Benge on her 80th birthday!

And don´t you forget to buy the book "Side by side" with her and Robert´s selected lyrics (Faber & Faber 2020).

Faber Radio presents Robert Wyatt and Alfie Benge

Robert Wyatt and Alfie Benge have curated their favourite songs for Faber Radio.

September 17th (2020) Faber will publish Side by Side, the collected lyrics, poems, writings and drawings of Robert and Alfie. Looking forward to that one!

Robert Wyatt Turns 75 (Uncut)

Uncut magazine has a fine piece on Robert Wyatt (and Alfie) in their March issue 2020:
"I´m so somewhere else now..." (Uncut 274 March 2020 pp 56 - 61).

The focus is on history, stories and daily life, but there are also some great news: Faber will publish Robert Wyatt and Alfreda Benge´s collected lyrics this year, with introduction written by Jarvis Cocker!

Jarvis Cocker: "His version of Chic´s "At Last I´m Free" is amazing! I was DJing in Cologne once and we´d been told we had to stop, so I put that track on, thinking, "It´s quite mellow, so that´ll be the end of the party". But it was a lovely moment - all these people in Germany at three o´clock in the morning singing a Robert Wyatt song at the top of their lungs". Now that´s Wyatting!

Robert and Alfie in LUNCHEON Magazine

Check out Martin Clark´s interview with Robert Wyatt and Alfreda Benge in LUNCHEON N.8 AW 2019-20:"Robert Wyatt and Alfie Benge" (p 90 - 101).

Great photos by Kuba Ryniewicz.

I don´t know how big this magazine is, but here in Norway it seems to be for sale in one place only! Since I was in Oslo for the weekend I found it at Narvesen kiosk/Continental, where they had copies with 2 of the 3 front pages available.

Annette Peacock in The New Yorker

You might be interested in Damon Krukowsk´s piece "The Unclassifiable, Unstreamable Eighties Albums of Annette Peacock" in the New Yorker (5 December 2018), where she among other things talks about Alfie and Robert Wyatt.

"I was impressed with Alfie’s work, its innocence, the colors, her concept, and I asked her to do a portrait for the cover of “I Have No Feelings.” Alfie was apologetic for never having finished the hands. But all I saw was that glorious, blue, technicolor sky visible through my transparent eyes, and I didn’t care about the unfinished hands. Robert and Alfie are like Paris in the thirties, wonderful, and I fell in love with them both!"

Nicolas Roeg (RIP), Venice and Rock Bottom

Somebody (@MrPaulDuane) recently tweeted a link to a piece called "Two Intertwined Semi-Venetian Masterpieces" by Glenn Kenny (The Criterion Collection 2015).

I must have read it before but can´t see that I have posted it.

"Venice asserts itself as “a sinister presence” in Roeg’s film ((Don’t Look Now, 1973)) Robert Wyatt aptly notes in the liner notes to a 1998 reissue of his 1974 album Rock Bottom. Wyatt cites Don’t Look Now in his notes because the making of the film, particularly its six-week Venice shoot, is intimately intertwined with the genesis of his classic album—ranked alongside Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks by NME in the year of its release, when it was also awarded an international Grand Prix du Disque in France, and, according to biographer Marcus O’Dair, “still widely considered one of the finest albums ever made.”

Late in 1972, Wyatt’s then girlfriend and future wife, the artist Alfreda Benge, was hired as second assistant editor for the just-beginning Roeg production. Benge had met Roeg while he was shooting the concert doc Glastonbury Fayre, and was close friends with the film’s female lead,Julie Christie. The picture began filming around Christmas in England, and in January of 1973 moved to Venice for location shooting."

Æncrages and Wyatt Tribute Concerts

Found this info on Twitter via @dheissler:

"#Æncrages fête ses 40 ans : Samedi 13 octobre à 16h30 à La Claranda (11190 Serres) #Rencontre avec les éditions Æncrages & Co et Roland Chopard, suivie d’une soirée « hommage à Robert Wyatt ». #savethedate #RobertWyatt".

A 40 years celebration at La Claranda of publishers Æncrages there with a tribute concert to Robert Wyatt too. Musicians are Éric Lareine and Pascal Maupeu.

For info on Æncrages and their projects with Robert Wyatt and Alfreda Benge please visit the still fantastic Une Discographie De Robert Wyatt.

Lareine and Maupeu are doing a tribute concert the day before also!

Heap of Sheeps

Here is Keel Her with "Heap of Sheeps" - a cover of Robert Wyatt an Alfreda Benge´s "Heaps of Sheeps" ("Shleep" 1997)!

Keel Her is Rose Keeler-Schäffeler, and the track is from the 2017 download album "Not Myself".

Robert Wyatt and Alfreda Benge “Chat”

Dave Larder is chatting with Robert Wyatt and Alfie for the Lincolnshire Art and Music Bulletin.

Unfortunately I am not able to embed it here, so run on over to SoundCloud for a listen.

Dave Larder says: This is not really an interview, it’s more of a chat mainly because (1) Robert can talk for hours and (2) I don’t claim to be any sort of interviewer. Also, due to my technical inability, the songs that we talk about are not chronologically linked throughout the talking. Instead, I have published a play list – and listeners can choose how and when they listen to the songs.

'Pardon me, I'm very drunk'

I just read: Marcus O'Dair (2016). 'Pardon me, I'm very drunk': alcohol, creativity and performance anxiety in the case of Robert Wyatt. Popular Music, 35, pp 207-221.

Unfortunately it is not open access, so you have to check if your local library has a subscription (or jump over here to buy).

The scholarly article´s title is pretty descriptive of course, and the story of Robert Wyatt and his alcohol use (and misuse) is seen in context of the literature on the topics mentioned in the title.

The conclusion? Even if the alcohol use led to dependency, and at times a strained relationship with Alfie, it might have helped him "to overcome performance anxiety and to enhance at least some stages of creativity". But it might have been partly due to placebo!

Musical Couples on Late Junction

Check out the episode of Late Junction on BBC Radio 3 where "Verity Sharp celebrates avant-garde musical couples ahead of tomorrow night's "wedding session" from Matana Roberts and Seb Rochford. Robert Wyatt explains how lyrics written by his wife Alfie have stretched him as a musician...".

Robert Wyatt and "Cuckoo Madame" is on after about 73 minutes.

28 days left to listen!

TRICATEL XX

The Tricatel record label is celebrating it´s 20th year, and a new sampler called "Tricatel XX" is released 10 December.

One of the tracks on the CD is the wonderful and catchy "This summer night" written by Bertrand Burgalat, Alfreda Benge and Robert Wyatt (who is also singing).
May well be played while it´s still winter too!

And please note, this song is not on the vinyl version!

New Alfreda Benge Prints For Sale

We have already mentioned the paperback edition of Marcus O´Dair´s Robert Wyatt biography in the blog (July 9), and I just received info about an American edition out this week through Counterpoint and an Italian edition due in October.

To celebrate this there are three new beautiful prints of Alfreda Benge´s Robert Wyatt covers for sale at Hypergallery.

This time: Shleep, Comicopera and Dondestan!

There are still copies left of Alfie´s "Alice in Wonderland" print too. It´s on my wall now, getting some fine comments from visitors!

Some Robert Wyatt EPs

Now that you have read the 2014 Robert Wyatt biography and bought the great samplers on Domino, it might be a fine time to start getting some slabs of old vinyl too?

I have had a 12" EP day today, and did a quick check on eBay for the items. It should be possible to get most of these for a reasonable price if you don´t start outbidding one another.

- The Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit 1987)
- The Last Nightinggale (Wyatt on two tracks) (Recommended Rec 1984)
- 4 Track Ep (Virgin 1975)
- Work in Progress (Rough Trade 1984)
- 1982 - 1984 (Rough Trade 1984)
- Robert Wyatt (Base Records 1981)

The three last ones with cover by Alfreda Benge.
The Last Nightingale cover: Ralph Steadman.

Title links get you to track lists and other info.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all of you good folks.

I will have an Easter vacation now, and try to stay offline for more than a week, do some reading, skiing, eating and other things humans do when their not in cyberspace.

Don´t forget the Easter Special over at Hypergallery, where you may buy the same Alfreda Benge artwork that I was unpacking yesterday!

Alfie in Wonderland

There’s a new signed artist print from Alfreda Benge – a rare one that isn’t from a Robert Wyatt album – being published to celebrate the 150th anniversary of publication of Lewis Carroll´s "Alice in Wonderland".

It’s available for sale at Hypergallery, where Alfie’s prints of "Rock Bottom" (down to the last 20 of this edition now) and "Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard" are also still available.

This artwork was originally created for the cover of French group Klimperei’s "Alice Au Pays Des Merveilles" (In-Poly-Sons 2000).


Limited edition of 60

Image size: 17.00" x 17.00"

Paper size: 24.00" x 24.00"

Manuel Bienvenu - Suspended There

After the post on Alfreda Benge´s London exhibition yesterday, I started searching a bit, and here is a song I must have missed:

"Suspended There" (track no 2) on Manuel Bienvenu´s "Elephant Home" (Wasbi Discs 2005) has lyrics by Alfie.

Listen and buy over on Bandcamp.

More Alfreda Benge on Discogs.

Alfreda Benge: P.L.A.

Alfreda Benge’s first exhibition in a UK institution is happening at "Space" in London 07 FEB - 05 APR 2015!

The exhibition "P.L.A." (named after the beautiful track on "Old Rottenhat") will show paintings, illustrations and lyrics, both from her collaboration with Robert Wyatt, as well as other projects.

Address and more right here.

The illustration above is the cover of the eponymous Rough Trade Italian sampler from 1981.

Robert Wyatt and Alfreda Benge on Freak Zone

Robert Wyatt and Alfreda Benge talk about their creative partnership with Wyatt's biographer Marcus O'Dair on Stuart Maconie´s "Freak Zone" (BBC 3).

Release date: 07 Dec 2014 (3 weeks left to listen!).

Whole show here.

A mug with beard and a piece in The Irish Times

Afraid of beard with your cocoa?

If not, you might want a Robert Wyatt mug from Raw Art!

And with a mug of whatever, you also may want to read Marcus O´Dair´s piece "Why Robert Wyatt’s wife Alfie is his most important collaborator" in The Irish Times (10/12 2014).

O´Dair says that his book "Different Every Time" should perhaps have been subtitled “The authorised biography of Robert Wyatt and Alfreda Benge”.