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August 8, 2009

WILLIE DEVILLE AND BAND

WILLIE DE VILLE AND BAND

By ROBERT PALMER
Published: April 20, 1981

WILLIE DeVILLE launched his band, Mink DeVille, at downtown rock clubs like CBGB in the mid-70's, but unlike the other performers who found their initial audience on that circuit -the Talking Heads, Television, Blondie - Mr. DeVille was a New York classicist. This city's most distinctive popular music has often been a mixture of street-wise realism and sheer romantic invention, and Mr. DeVille's songs and the personality he projected had both.

He knew some of Manhattan's tougher neighborhoods, including the blocks east of Tompkins Square Park, which are the setting for some of his most arresting songs. But he had also learned from the pop music cranked out by professional songwriters in Broadway's Brill Building in the l960's, and especially from the Drifters and Ben E. King disks that populated New York's side streets and back alleys with Romeos and Juliets who wore leather jackets but were pure in heart.

In his three-piece suits, which were street-corner sharp, and his pencil-thin mustache and pompadour, Mr. DeVille could have been a character from ''Spanish Harlem'' or ''Save the Last Dance for Me.'' And perhaps he was. Certainly his music had an authenticity, a kind of New York soul, that few of his fellow travelers on the punk-rock circuit even aspired to.

Mr. DeVille's career never quite took off, despite the impressive breadth and depth of his talent. He is recording a new album for Atlantic records, having departed from his previous recording commitment under less than amicable circumstances. And on Friday night he was at the Savoy, where he demonstrated with an almost insolent ease that he is still ready for the recognition that should have been his several years ago. He has the songs, he has the voice, and he has the band. And he has expanded the scope of his music by adding elements of French cafe songs and Louisiana zydeco to the mixture of rock, blues, Latin and Brill Building soul that was already there.

Now is the time for Mr. DeVille to finally make good on his exceptional promise. One hopes he will be able to make a new album that captures at least some of the feline grace and casual mastery of shows like his performance at the Savoy.

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Uri Geller - westminster movies

The Weekly News

Westminster movies

2009-08-01 4:27

The best footage was edited out. I protested. I threatened to cancel the whole documentary. But an arcane and pointless law was upheld, and the losers were... everyone.
If you tuned in at the weekend to see video film of Michael Jackson from my private archive, you saw my friend as he really was — fun-loving, shy, smart and dedicated to his fans. But you didn’t see the most incredible shots of all. I don’t know whether they will ever be aired — I understand I could face prison if I ever release them.

For most of my career, my brother-in-law Shipi has kept a record of our incredible everyday lives on camera. To start with, we made Super-8 cine movies. Shipi built up his biceps lugging those big cameras around Europe and America, and when we wanted to run the movies we had to set up a projector and a screen.
I wasn’t the only star exploring celluloid freedom by making home movies. Peter Sellers had been taping everything he saw since the start of the Sixties. Maybe he got the idea from director Blake Edwards on the Pink Panther film-set... or maybe it was something to do with being married to Britt Ekland!
As videotapes got smaller and storage got easier, we archived more and more home movies. By the time Hanna and I were married under the traditional Jewish chuppah (or canopy) at our home in 2001, Shipi was using a palm-sized digital camera. These days he records hours of footage with his mobile phone.
Much of the Seventies material has been archived onto DVD. It brings a lump to my throat to see Hanna and me as we were back then — it looks like another planet. And then Daniel and Natalie came along, and that really changed our world. Like all parents we love to watch films of when the children were young.
After Michael Jackson died, I reviewed a lot of the movies we’d shot with him. Initially it was part of my grieving process, a way of bidding farewell to my friend. And then I realised that what I had was rare, probably unique — a glimpse of Michael as he really was.
Cameras usually brought out the performer, the entertainer in Michael. It was a defensive reaction. But our friendship was so close and natural that he didn’t feel inhibited by Shipi’s incessant filming — in fact, he loved it, and he teased Shipi about getting the best angles, especially with the fans and outside Harrods.
That camera was rolling from breakfast till bedtime, wherever we went.
And it was rolling when we visited the Palace of Westminster, with my dear friend Lord Greville Janner. We had a guided tour of the Commons, and Shipi captured the moment that Michael sat on the front bench.
“Don’t sit there!” Greville barked. He began to explain that only cabinet ministers were permitted to park on those pews, but Michael was wearing his mischievous grin. I could see he’d spotted a way to have some fun.
“How about there?” he asked, pointing to the Speaker’s Chair. “Can I sit up there, Greville? No? OK... can I buy it?”
It’s all on tape. So is our visit to the Lords’ library, with its magnificent leather-bound volumes, hundreds of years old — Michael was fascinated by their antiquity. He searched their spines, looking for titles that hinted at forgotten mysteries.
When I revealed this footage for the documentary, I believed the programme-makers would recognise it as historic and candid. But I had reckoned without the iron statute that no recordings may be made inside the Houses of Parliament, apart from limited shots of the debates.
So to everyone who tuned in expecting to get the whole story, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hold anything back. But sometimes, you have to press the ‘pause’ button.


***********


When we bought our home in England, back in the Eighties, one of the big attractions for me was the swimming pool. Every day, even on icy January mornings, I loved to dive into the heated water.
For 17 years, my daily swim was part of my meditation routine.
And then one day, I stopped. I suddenly lost all desire to swim. I can’t explain it — there’s no rational reason. I simply didn’t want to... and not once in the intervening years have I ever felt an urge to swim again.
Over the years, our pool has fallen into disrepair. We kept it covered, but we stopped bothering with maintenance. Until one day, when a party of children with cancer was visiting our home, a little boy spotted the pool and asked if he could take a dip.
I felt sad as I explained the pool was empty. And I vowed that next time a child asked to swim at my home, the water would be ready.
So a local firm, Buckingham Pools, are relining a

nd paving my pool. And since we were doing that, I thought we’d get the bathrooms in the house replumbed too.
That meant digging under the marble floors... which got me thinking about the carpets. I took a deep breath and decided to replace those as well.
The strange thing is that the carpets don’t seem like an extravagance — because the bathrooms are costing us five times as much. The plumbers’ bill is unbelievable.
My son Dan is flying in from California today. I’m going to tell him he made a mistake in training as a lawyer — he should have gone for the big money and become a plumber.


***********

left to right - Roy Zaltsman, Uri Geller, Ben David and Eran Raven


It’s great to catch up with contestants from my international TV series. These three mentalists — Roy Zaltsman, left, Shlomi Ben David, and Eran Raven, right — visited my London apartment this week to talk about the power of the mind.

Shlomi, in fact, has never been on the show, though he would make a fascinating guest.  Roy was part of my very first series, in Israel, and Eran appeared in America. He’s now working for Google... I suspect he’s developing a search engine that can read your mind.

Uri Geller - westminster movies
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business to butterfly « SL Ah Lian

business to butterfly

08Aug09


I think Polina-Kastner’s creations are genius, and wish the store would magically reopen. Both the military blazer and the knit vest are by Polina-Kastner, and the blazer is hand-drawn! it is so, so beautiful and sexy. The shoulder prims are way too cool. The knit sweater vest is incredibly detailed and I went back for the gray one too.

The military cuffed cutout boots are from Impossible Fashion, they have beautiful shoes that fit a little.. strangely. The designs are stunning, but the fit is…. I don’t know how to describe it, but you should try demos. The military cuffed boots with built-in-feet don’t come with demos, but I bought the boots, which were no-mod, and asked the designer for the version with skin tone-changer script, so you could do that too. It’s kind of confusing, but so worth it haha. When I saw the boots, I had to have them because Jane Aldridge of Sea of Shoes has them, the exact pair! in her shoe cupboard. Heh. I thought they were chanel but I’m probably wrong.

The mesh gloves and legwarmers in BRIGHT NEON GREEN, oh my! instant adoration. I spent a lot of money on the anuenue random vending machine. The gloves come in about 24 colors, 20L for the gloves and the legwarmers as a set! I have tons of repeats(they’re transferable though) and I want the bright turquoise pair sigh. anyone want to attack that machine and trade with my millions of extras(I have extra black, extra green, extra a lot of colors) if you get an extra turquoise?

and 69 will always be my favorite hair store, no competition. The rainbow 69 hair pack is very much beloved and always makes me happy wearing it!

Just look at the detail, down to the delicate hinges connecting the feathers to the wire, and the tiny gold studs. SHADE THRONE over drama earrings – gorgeous, huge feather, gold-studded earrings from the previous release. They are so surreal and the last thing I bought from the 20% off group sale ages ago.(Yeah, it’s extremely worthwhile to join the inworld group for 50L, you get promotions on new releases and group-only sales, as well as the group freebie!!) I was debating whether or not to get them, but they are so extraordinary and fierce that I didn’t take them off for two weeks after I got them. They really, really grew on me, and add that extra edge to any outfit.

hair: 69, color-changeable bow! ADORABLE. omg.
earrings: shade throne over drama earrings
blazer: Polina-Kastner
shorts: best shorts in the world, from zaara
navel ring: alienbear eostre belly ring
knuckle ring: FABULOUS by dango jewell girlicious knuckle ring (I still wish it said FABULOUS instead.)
ring: diamonds party ring from bandit
military cuffed cutout boots: Impossible Fashion

hair: 69, bow changes from black and white. I LOVE the color of this blonde! 69 does such unique hair textures.
gloves and legwarmers, neon green, 20L as a random set from anuenue vending machine
shoes, hoorenbeek, from MHO hunt
knit vest: Polina-Kastner

business to butterfly « SL Ah Lian
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Mink DeVille Founder Willy DeVille Dies at 55

Mink DeVille Founder Willy DeVille Dies at 55
8/7/2009 By Brock Thiessen

Willy DeVille, the singer, founder and principal member of ’70s punk/rock group Mink DeVille, has died. According to DeVille’s publicist, the songwriter passed away Thursday night (August 6) in hospital due to pancreatic cancer. He was 55.

"Willy DeVille this night joined Edith Piaf, Jack Nitzsche and Johnny Thunders," DeVille’s French tour organizer told AFP, referring to the French chanteuse who inspired him, to his producer and to the fellow ’70s punker, respectively.

Deville and his band cut their teeth in the late ’70s, playing in New York’s legendary CBGB alongside acts such as the Ramones, Blondie and Television. Eventually, Deville went on to work with famed producer Jack Nitzsche, who once studied under Phil Spector and helped shape several of Mink DeVille’s early albums. The 1977 record, Cabretta, featured the song "Spanish Stroll," which became a Top 20 hit in the UK.

“Mink DeVille knows the truth of a city street and the courage in a ghetto love song,” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame songwriter Doc Pomus once said about the band. “And the harsh reality in his voice and phrasing is yesterday, today, and tomorrow — timeless in the same way that loneliness, no money, and troubles find each other and never quit for a minute.”

During the next decades, DeVille began moving away from punk towards R&B, cajun and creole, in part inspired by his new home of New Orleans. In 1992, he produced a mariachi version of the ’60s rock staple "Hey Joe," which became an international hit.

DeVille’s last effort was the 2005 solo album Crow Jane Alley.


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