I have just finished & enjoyed Buddha of Suburbia, thank you.
Regarding the school being a shithole, although I was at a school up the road I knew several of the teachers at your school by repuation, and met a few through a friend at the school. It surprises me you do not mention the charismatic drama teacher, Paddy Moore. He was fascinated by experimental theatre and yoga, taught himself Ancient Greek, and started a club in which he would teach boys Ancient Greek after school, as far as I could tell entirely innocently: he really cared. I sometimes saw him, wrapped in a sack-cloth army surplus greatcoat, riding his moped to school up Croydon Rd, passing that dangerous crossoads where another feisty teacher, head of history Kerridge, died crashing his old Rover. Paddy was the most interesting of several engaging characters on the staff who must have been present at least as far back as the year the school was renamed.
How did I miss this at the time? This essay is just wonderful. The last paragraph in particular moved me to tears, just crystallized exactly why Bowie was/is/always will be important and why he meant so much to me. Thank you so much Mr Kureishi. x
That is fabulous! loved reading it. Bowie did some amazing work at the end, faced with death. Blackstar is a really shaking album, Lazarus an amazing piece. My grandson who was already dying when it came out, loved it. My son still plays it. But my mother, who had loved Bowie, was too frightened by her own end of life to want to hear it.
This just slices me up. Simultaneously inspirational and unnerving. As a lifelong fan of Bowie, I’m suddenly not sure if suburbia was my gestation pod or if my working class mates at grammar school were the true rebels who (mostly white) from the same streets nearby pushed me onto a vicarious escape path. Only a few made orbit. I was enthralled and confused and find myself still desperate to create despite my health issues. Maybe because of them. It’s now hard to decide through the haze. Thanks for your determination and insight. ⚡️
I met David Bowie once when I was hanging out in Top of the Pops rehearsals during my tea break ( I was a scenic artist then at the BBC ) He gave me his autograph ‘For Marguerite Many Thanks BO77… ‘ then later in the bar he sat alone reading a book. I even used a lyric from one of his songs for a painting that got selected for the Royal Academy Summer exhibition in 1981 ‘And the cash machines were Shrieking’ under my maiden name Marguerite Nix
I remember mr lane and his production of Billy Budd!-
Interesting- thanks john
I have just finished & enjoyed Buddha of Suburbia, thank you.
Regarding the school being a shithole, although I was at a school up the road I knew several of the teachers at your school by repuation, and met a few through a friend at the school. It surprises me you do not mention the charismatic drama teacher, Paddy Moore. He was fascinated by experimental theatre and yoga, taught himself Ancient Greek, and started a club in which he would teach boys Ancient Greek after school, as far as I could tell entirely innocently: he really cared. I sometimes saw him, wrapped in a sack-cloth army surplus greatcoat, riding his moped to school up Croydon Rd, passing that dangerous crossoads where another feisty teacher, head of history Kerridge, died crashing his old Rover. Paddy was the most interesting of several engaging characters on the staff who must have been present at least as far back as the year the school was renamed.
How did I miss this at the time? This essay is just wonderful. The last paragraph in particular moved me to tears, just crystallized exactly why Bowie was/is/always will be important and why he meant so much to me. Thank you so much Mr Kureishi. x
That is fabulous! loved reading it. Bowie did some amazing work at the end, faced with death. Blackstar is a really shaking album, Lazarus an amazing piece. My grandson who was already dying when it came out, loved it. My son still plays it. But my mother, who had loved Bowie, was too frightened by her own end of life to want to hear it.
This just slices me up. Simultaneously inspirational and unnerving. As a lifelong fan of Bowie, I’m suddenly not sure if suburbia was my gestation pod or if my working class mates at grammar school were the true rebels who (mostly white) from the same streets nearby pushed me onto a vicarious escape path. Only a few made orbit. I was enthralled and confused and find myself still desperate to create despite my health issues. Maybe because of them. It’s now hard to decide through the haze. Thanks for your determination and insight. ⚡️
I met David Bowie once when I was hanging out in Top of the Pops rehearsals during my tea break ( I was a scenic artist then at the BBC ) He gave me his autograph ‘For Marguerite Many Thanks BO77… ‘ then later in the bar he sat alone reading a book. I even used a lyric from one of his songs for a painting that got selected for the Royal Academy Summer exhibition in 1981 ‘And the cash machines were Shrieking’ under my maiden name Marguerite Nix
Beautifully captured. Thank you.