This page contains all the articles that match the Newsflash-tag, chronologically sorted, from old to new.
Most browsers have a search function (Ctrl-F) that will highlight the entry you are looking for.
Alternatively there is the 'Holy Search' search field and the 'Taglist'.
Yesterday (5th of February 2010) Mark
Blake (Pigs Might Fly, Mojo Magazine) messaged the Reverend with the
following cryptic message:
We've received a very interesting letter about the elusive Iggy. Wanted
you to be the first to know! More news to follow.
Of course the Church immediately contacted the journalist and this is
what the Church is allowed to disclose today:
An old acquaintance of Iggy's emailed (Mojo magazine) and shared some
info. She is alive and well and living in southern England. She
has chosen to remain anonymous all these years.
More information will probably be published in the next issue(s) of Mojo
and, of course, the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit.
(Many thanks to Mark Blake who we are eternally thankful for breaking
the news to the Church.)
Last week The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit published the incredible news that
Iggy had been traced back. This was a world exclusive as no other news
medium had reported this before.
The news that Iggy had been found was, unfortunately, also all there was
to say. Although discreet investigations were done it was soon made
clear that she wanted to stay anonymous and that she didn’t want to blow
her cover. A short interview was out of the question, even for Mojo
magazine and Mark Blake who triggered these latest events.
The Reverend is by all means not a souvenir collector who wanted to ring
at her bell like all those true fans used to do at Syd Barrett’s
door and her wish to be left in peace was immediately and
unconditionally granted.
In September 2008 The Croydon Guardian published an article about Iggy
after the Church had contacted the newspaper to get more information
about The Orchid dancehall in Purley: Where
did she go? This article unearthed some unpublished pictures by
Anthony Stern that were later shown at The City Wakes festival in
Cambridge and was also mentioned in the March issue of Mojo.
Kirsty Whalley, the journalist who brought us the first Iggy article in
The Croydon Guardian, has now managed to interview Iggy, an interview
that can be found in today’s issue of this newspaper.
When Mick turned up to take the photos I helped paint the floor boards
for the shoot, I was covered in paint, I still remember the smell of it.
In the next weeks however the Church will scrutinize the interview, and
comments will be added where appropriate. For the moment all we wish to
say is hip hip hurray to Kirsty Whalley!
Nothing is so stupid as New Year resolutions, especially when you read
them when the katzenjammer is over. On the second
of January of 2010 the Reverend uttered the fear that the Church
would soon disappear by lack of Iggy. If this meant one single thing it
is that the Reverend is by no means a reliable prophet.
The March edition of the music magazine Mojo,
that mysteriously appeared in January 2010, had a 14 pages cover story
about the Syd Barrett album The Madcap Laughs that was finally
released in January 1970 after nearly twenty months of tinkering. Its
main article I'm Not Here (Pat Gilbert) gave the portrait of the
artist as a young man and his struggle to get his first solo album done.
A small insert Who's That Girl (Mark Blake) tried to reveal some
of the mysteries around Iggy The Eskimo, but to no avail (more questions
were raised then answered, see: (I've
got my) Mojo (working...). Last, but not least, In My Room
(Paul Drummond) gave some background information about The Madcap Laughs
photo shoot, interviewing Duggie Fields, Storm Thorgerson, inevitably
Mick Rock and en passant citing Jenny Spires and the Holy Church
of Iggy the Inuit (but not in so many words, see Goofer
Dust [(I've got my) Mojo (working)... Part 2] .
(For your information: the complete Mojo article can could be
downloaded quite legally and for free at the official Syd Barrett website:
direct link to the scanned pdf
document, hosted since 2016 at the Church.)
It needs to be said that the Mojo article achieved in two week time what
the Church couldn't achieve in two years: finding Iggy. On the 6th of
February 2010 it was revealed
that she was alive and well and living in southern England and although
this news was covered by the Church the scoop arrived, noblesse oblige,
at the Mojo offices in a letter from an acquaintance of her: Peter Brown
(not the Pete[r] Brown from Cream and Piblokto fame).
Part of this letter has been published in issue 197 (April) and goes
like this:
Peter Brown letter in Mojo 197.
One woman, with many faces
Re Iggy’s whereabouts, I can enlighten you a little on her post-Madcap
life. I first met Iggy - her real name was Evelyn - in the early ’70s,
when she arrived from the King’s Road to the house where I lived in
Brighton with a miscellany of artists and eccentrics.
I spent a lot of time with Iggy including nights ‘on the town’. She was
a loose cannon, absolutely stunning, and fab company I soon discovered
that it was none other than Iggy gracing my copy of The Madcap Laughs,
and told her that Syd had been a peer of mine in Cambridge. I also knew
Jenny Spires (who introduced Iggy to Syd), and saw Pink Floyd at various
venues. I spent an evening with Syd once and we walked back together to
our respective homes near Cherry Hinton in stoned stupor.
In the mid ’80s I learned that Iggy was living in Sussex and working at
a racing stables, where she married a farmhand. She’s since kept her
whereabouts quiet, though a friend at the stables, who I spoke to
recently informs me of Iggy’s low-key flamboyance in the area. There are
a wealth of other stories, but brevity forbids!
Next to Brown aka Thongman, Jenny Spires decided to comment as well:
Jenny Spires letter in Mojo 197.
I struggle, you collaborate
I’ve read your Syd article and there are two or three things to correct.
First, I met Iggy [the Eskimo] in 1966, not 1969 as stated. Also, the
floor was painted as soon as Syd moved into Wetherby Mansions, and was
already done when I was there. Part of it, under the bed, wasn’t
finished, but was done by the time I left in early 1969. I don’t think
it was painted with a photoshoot in mind. Also, in the larger photo, the
daffodils look quite fresh, but in the photo used for the cover they are
dead. This seems to suggest that that photo was done a couple of weeks
later?
With reference to Mandrax - there were no Mandrax in the flat at this
stage. These came later, around early summer. This is not to say Syd had
never had Mandrax, but they weren’t readily available to him at that
time.
It seems now that there is enough material left for the Church to go on
with its mission for the next lustrum. So keep watching this space and
remember, don't do anything that Iggy wouldn't have done.
The Reverend wants to thank Mojo for donating a copy of the April issue
to the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit. Thanks guys!
Happy New Year, children of the revolution! What a long strange trip
2010 has been. The first half of it showed the Church's biggest parade,
with plenty of clowns and jugglers and a couple of anoraky world
exclusive Barrett-scattering things.
Our solar, solitary, solstice, soloist star,fallen
from the black sky(to paraphrase French historian and poet Dr.
Denis Combet) was discovered by the team of Mojo
magazine early 2010. The Church retaliated with Gretta Barclay's first
(and only) interview in 4 decades, an extensive study of Welsh folk
legend Meic Stevens' meetings
with Syd Barrett in the early Seventies and a couple of articles about The
Cromwellian club and casino, including some anecdotes from Rod
Harrod, the man who practically launched Jimi Hendrix's career.
Those exhilarating things inevitably lead to the Church's petite mort,
a period of melancholy and transcendence, for the second half of 2010.
But this was just a temporarily breakdown. Several findings of the
Church were quoted in the most recent Syd Barrett biography
by Julian Palacios, the Reverend has just been granted his first
interview (to appear [hopefully] on a Spanish Barrett blog) and in
November agent provocateur Mark
Blake let the Church know that Evelyn (Iggy) had agreed on an
interview for Mojo magazine. On top of that Ig, our Ig, send the
Church a lovely note that mellowed the Reverend’s heart. 2011 promises
to be great.
Iggy The Eskimo! Found!
The February issue from Mojo (# 207) - OUT NOW – contains Mark
Blake's much expected Iggy interview. As is our habit the Church will
not publish the article as long as the magazine is for sale in the
shops. So why are you still reading this blog then? Open those Xmas and
New Year envelopes, jump on that bike with the basket and the bell that
rings, and hurry up to the shop!
Only after you have bought, borrowed or stolen (the Reverend will
forgive but not visit you in prison!) Mojo 207 and read the article you
are allowed to come back at the Church where additional bits and pieces
may (or may not) be revealed the following weeks. According to
someone who knows there is 'a wealth of other interview material' that
didn't make it into printed matter but that might see the light of day
on several places of the metaverse. Some day. Perhaps.
Mojo: mysterious comment.
PS: The Mojo website
has got a strange anonymous cryptic comment, posted the 2nd of January
at 04:46PM. It goes 'love you mark blake thank you for being
[actually: bèing] so real hang in there felix atagong'.
The Church may happen to believe to know from whom it has arrived.
Still looking for a Xmas present: Mark
Blake has just written a pretty good Queen biography: Is This
The Real Life? The Untold Story Of Queen, Aurum Press Ltd. ISBN:
9781845135973 (The Church is not affiliated with or endorsed by this
company.)
Iggy Rose enters the pantheon of Jenny Spires and Libby Gausden!
An Iggy Rose radio interview was diffused on Monday night, the 25th of
May at 10 PM EST at Nikki
Palomino's (talk) radio show Dazed Radio on Whatever
68. As for UK based people it was already Tuesday 26th at 3 o’clock
in the morning, and 4 AM for those in Western Europe, we had to wait for
an archived version.
The complete radio show, one hour and a half, with several guests has
been hosted at Nikki Palomino's Mixcloud page: Dazed
Radio Show Recorded Live 5.25.15.
A condensed version (37 minutes) with only the Iggy parts has been
hosted on the Reverend's Soundcloud spot:
Quoting one of the listener's who told the Church:
Iggy sounds great, her voice is so warm, not at all what I expected her
to sound like, for some reason. I can imagine a conversation with her
would be such fun.
The second weekend of June has the second Cambridge biennial Birdie Hop
meeting, with special guest stars: Viv Brans, Vic Singh, Peter Gilmour,
Men On The Border, Jenny Spires, Warren Dosanjh, Libby Gausden, Dave
'Dean' Parker & Iggy Rose (and some more).
Unfortunately the Facebook group for this event has been closed for
prying eyes, but some pictures and videos have already leaked out.
Many thanks to: Sandra Blickem, Mick Brown, Warren Dosanjh, Vanessa
Flores, Tim Greenhall, Alex Hoffmann, Antonio Jesus (Solo En Las Nubes),
Douglas Milne, Göran Nyström (Men On The Border), Vic Singh, Abigail
Thomson-Smith, Eva Wijkniet... ♥ Iggy ♥ Libby ♥
The Church closed its door at the end of March 2015, but promised to
keep an eye open for all things relatively Syd-and-Iggy-related.
Obviously serendipity meant that, from that moment on, Syd-and-Iggy
related matters would regularly smash against the Church's closed
windows at the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow, making this one
of our busier seasons.
Iggy Rose was a guest on American Dazed (talk) Radio, her first
radio-interview ever. The condensed version still is 47 minutes but what
an intense 47 minutes they are: Iggy
Rose Radio Interview.
In June Iggy was invited to the biennial, second and probably last Birdie
Hop Cambridge meeting where she met with Libby Gausden, Jenny Spires
and a bunch of Barrett-fans: Iggy
Rose in Cambridge.
And then, when you're least expecting it, there is a brand new Iggy
picture that make our hormone levels go crazy.
This article follows the same steps as that other one of 2012 that
published the discovery of Iggy's 'Pocahontas' picture, that has been an
inspiration for so many Iggy fans and their fanart creations: Iggy
- a new look in festivals.
The 1967 Festival of the Flower Children
Festival of the Flower Children. Poster: courtesy Oscar Wilson."
Two weeks after Iggy had visited the National Jazz, Pop, Ballads and
Blues Festival at the Royal Windsor Racecourse, where she had her
picture taken for Music Maker magazine (see: Iggy
- a new look in festivals), there was the first Woburn festival with
an equally appealing title: Festival of the Flower Children.
Wanting to cash in on the Summer of Love (and the Bank Holiday Weekend
of 26-28 August) it tried to be a direct competitor for the first one
that was already well established and in its seventh edition. Flower
Children also went on for three days but its bill was less abundant,
less adventurous and clearly directed at the general public or 'weekend'
hippies, rather than the underground elite. The host, the Duke
of Bedford, one of those examples the French invented the guillotine
for and the living proof that the posh establishment will temporarily
adhere an alternative lifestyle if there is a buck to earn, sneered:
Only flower children are allowed in. They are nice peaceful young people
who like beat music and coloured lights. They are very different from
hippies who take drugs and make trouble. Hippies will definitely be
barred.
Dancing Flower Children (The Australian Women's Weekly).
The Duke of Bedford apparently grabbed 10% of the entrance money
estimated at £50.000, according to an article in The
Australian Women's Weekly, but the promoters, the Seller brothers,
apparently weren't that happy and the financial debacle may have
quickened the demise of their mod nightclub Tiles,
where Jeff
Dexter was the house DJ. The Daily Telegraph, however, wrote that
the festival made the nice profit of £20.000. (Much of the information
and some of the pictures in this article come from the excellent UK
Rock Festivals.) For snobbish left-elitist underground circles and
their affiliated magazines is was all a sell-out. Peter Jenner:
Gradually all sorts of dubious people began to get involved. The music
business began to take over. (…) There were things like the Festival of
the Flower Children.
That the Seller brothers were thinking more in the terms of profit than
music or mod culture was perhaps proven by their nightclub Tiles that
was described by Tom
Wolfe as the 'Noonday
Underground'. In the middle of the day, during lunch hour, the club
opened and was visited by 'office boys, office girls, department store
clerks' and teenagers who had left school at fifteen, for their daily
dose of mod music and a Coca-Cola. Tiles aimed for an easy-going public
and although it lacked style and personality it did have a proper bar, a
good dance floor, a fancy stage and an excellent sound system.
Sleeping Flower Child (The Australian Women's Weekly).
With the exception of perhaps Dantalian's
Chariot (another band led by Zoot Money) and Tomorrow
(with drummer Twink) the bill wasn't really underground, nor
psychedelic. Pink Floyd was never considered to appear at the festival,
although Rob
Chapman pretends the opposite in his immaculate biography. Not that
the band would've come as they had already cancelled the Windsor
Racecourse gig due to Barrett's erratic behaviour.
For the press the festival was gefundenes fressen and news
photographers seemed to outnumber groovers. And now we let you guess,
who can be found on one of those pictures, you think?
Flower Mother and Child (The Australian Women's Weekly).
Inside heroes
On the 21st of September the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit was asked the
following by Jacinta Storten:
Hi there, do you know if Iggy attended the Festival of the Flower
Children love-in at Woburn Abbey in 1967? I have some photos of
attendees and one of them looks just like her, on the other hand the
photo could be from the Woburn Festival that Fleetwood Mac headlined
which I think Pink Floyd were also billed from memory it was 67 or 68. [Note
from FA: for the record, at the 1968 version of the Woburn Abbey
festival, Fleetwood Mac never showed up, although they were billed. Pink
Floyd never played the festival either as they were touring North
America on that day.]
Such a mail obviously has the same effect on the Church as a red rag to
a bull. We immediately contacted Iggy Rose who wasn't aware of ever
being at the festival, but you know the saying 'if you remember the
sixties, you weren't there'. We wrote back to Jacinta, asking for a copy
of the picture so that we could send it over to Iggy, but due to the
quirky way Facebook messaging works sometimes (or should we say: not
works) that was ignored. (We have that effect on many people.)
Luckily on the fifth of November the picture appeared on the HeroInSight
Tumblr blog:
Iggy the Eskimo, Festival of the Flower Children, 1967.
'Iggy ”The Eskimo” Rose at Festival of the Flower Children Love-in,
Woburn Abbey UK, 1967.
As soon as we got hold of the picture we send it to Iggy who confirmed
it was indeed her:
My goodness, where did you find that? I look stoned. Haha. I can't
even remember being there. Lol xxx.
An internet search revealed that the picture
is currently hosted at Photo Inventory France, that seems to be owned by
an Ebay seller called Photo
Vintage France. The picture (30 x 19.5 cm) was put several times on
sale before, between June 2012 and August 2015, for the price of 159
Euro, but apparently no buyer has ever been found. Lucky for us,
otherwise the picture had perhaps never been found.
We contacted the owner of the Ebay shop, Bruno Tartarin, asking if he
could give us more information about this picture. We got a reply pretty
fast, but it didn't really give us info we didn't know already:
Cette image vient des archives Holmes-Lebel. Flower Children, Hippies
Rally, Woburn Abbey, Angleterre, circa 1967. RE2173 Tirage argentique
d'époque tamponnée.
Translation: This image comes from the Holmes-Lebel archives. Flower
Children, Hippies Rally, Woburn Abbey, Angleterre, circa 1967. RE2173 Authentic
gelatin-silver photography, stamped.
Internet searches for the Holmes-Lebel company didn't lead to anything
substantial apart from the fact that they created / sold pictures for
advertisements, movie posters, record and book covers and magazines in
the sixties. Also the photographer who took Iggy's picture is a mystery
as the agency had several internationally renowned people working for
them like Rona
Jutka, Raymond
Voinquel, Inge
Morath, Christian
Simonpietri...
Update 2015 12 22: Meanwhile the picture has mysteriously landed
at Atagong Mansion, and for once, the Reverend isn't interested in the
front of the picture, but wants to study the different marks on the
back. There are four in total: 1. a blue stamp of the Holmes-Lebel
company with the remark that the document has to be returned after
publication: 'document à rendre'. 2. another stamp with the
warning that four times the copyright amount will be asked if the
document gets lost or damaged: 'en cas de perte ou détérioration des
documents il sera perçu quatre fois le prix de cession des droits'. 3.
a sticker describing the picture in English:
HIPPIES RALLY (THE FLOWER CHILDREN), WOBURN ABBEY, ENGLAND Hippy girl
dressed in the Indian way. Copyright HOLMES-LEBEL/I.M.F. n) 3008
4. a remark written in pencil, reading 'woodstook'.
Scans of the stamps, stickers and marks on the back can be found on our
Iggy Tumblr page: Hippy
Girl.
Jean Straker (taken from Oz 6, 1967).
Porn and the Englishman
A photographer who certainly was present at the Flower Children festival
was Londoner Jean
Straker whose photo studio was in Soho and who was interviewed in
the 6th issue of Oz
because his pictures were considered pornographic in the prude
interpretation of the English law.
In 1951 he founded the Visual Arts Club where he gave lectures, sold his
pictures and where he would have 'photographers, amateur and
professional, studying the female nude'. Straker's pictures were
considered pornography under the Obscene
Publications Act and in 1961 over 1600 of his negatives and 233 of
his prints were confiscated. While Straker claimed his pictures were of
artistic value the judge didn't follow this explanation. In appeal,
Straker got many of his negatives back, but this was forced on a
technicality, using a loophole in the law, and the official
interpretation was still that his pictures were obscene.
This situation lingered on with Straker trying to fight censorship and
in 1967 Jean Straker noted (in Oz 6):
Now, as most lawyers know, I been through all this jazz before; apart
from a few thousand motorists, and a few hundred barrow boys, I must be
the most prosecuted non-criminal in town.
Jean Straker also visited the Festival of the Flower Children were he
might have taken over 220 pictures. Harper's
Books currently sells a (partial) archive of 39 different 5 x 8 inch
black and white photographs. However, at 3.000 USD for this collection,
it is a bit expensive just to find out if the Iggy picture is part of it.
At 165 Euro the Holmes-Lebel piece is almost a bargain.
Flower Child by Jean Straker.
The who, the what and the where?
There is a big chance we will never know who took Iggy's picture at the
festival of the Flower Children. It could've been one of Iggy's froody
friends, as we know she knew quite a few free-lance photographers,
including the one who took her picture two weeks earlier at the National
Jazz, Pop, Ballads and Blues Festival. If only she could remember his
name! At the other hand, she could've been invited to the festival by
Jeff Dexter, who had developed some interest in her and tried to record
her in the studio.
It is possible that the picture was bought by the Holmes-Lebel agency in
order to publish it in a French magazine. It would be nice to find that
article back, if there ever has been one.
But the good news is that a new Iggy picture has been unearthed and that
is was found – again – by one of her many fans. For that the Church (and
Iggy Rose) will be eternally grateful to Jacinta 'HeroInSight' Storten...
The quest continues... good hunting my sistren and brethren...
and don't do anything that Iggy wouldn't do...
Many thanks to: HeroInSight, Jacinta Storten, Iggy Rose, Bruno Tartarin, UK
Rock Festivals. ♥ Iggy ♥ Libby ♥
Some pictures and articles, used for this post, will be published at the
Holy Church's Tumblr blog under the Festival
of the Flower Children-tag.
Sources (other than the above internet links): Chapman, Rob: A
Very Irregular Head, Faber and Faber, London, 2010, p. 179. Green,
Jonathon: All Dressed Up, Pimlico, London, 1999, p. 43, 221. Green,
Jonathon: Days In The Life, Pimlico, London, 1998, p. 112. Palacios,
Julian: Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd: Dark Globe, Plexus, London,
2010, p. 246. Photo Inventory France: http://photoinventory.fr/photos/RE2173.png Pullen,
Bob: Photography and Censorship: The Photographs and Ideals of Jean
Straker, Photography and Culture, Volume 1, Issue 2, 2008 (online
pdf version).
Update 2016 04 03: After the movie was 'found' on Facebook, it
took less than 24 hours before it was deleted from Dailymotion. We hope
that the original uploader will not get into trouble. We are currently
trying to get a reaction from Anthony Stern and Chimera Arts. (More
info: afterword.)
The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit, that wacky blog with an even wackier
Reverend vehemently tries to catalogue all things Iggy Rose, and
although several pictures and movies have been unearthed since then, one
important and most reverential piece was still missing in our collection.
Shot in 1968 by Anthony
Stern, 'iggy the eskimo girl' (all in lowercase) showed Iggy
Rose dancing barefoot through London, annoying the square folk who had
to go to work, creating kerfuffle wherever she put her lovely feet and
using something that resembles a smartphone, 30 years before these were
invented. The movie with its Pink Floyd soundtrack, restored in 2008 by Sadia
Sadia from Chimera
Arts, was shown at the legendary The
City Wakes in Cambridge and would now and then resurface on
avant-garde film festivals all over the world.
The movie never made it to the 'big' public though and several demands
of the Church to obtain a copy were politely refused. A one minute 27
seconds audience recording, taken at a Paris movie festival, was the
longest version we had (Iggy,
Eskimo Girl), next to a teaser from City Wakes (Syd
Barrett - Iggy).
Cut to 2014 when Anthony Stern launched a new website 'Anthony
Stern Films' with the promise to publish a DVD 'Get All From That
Ant' containing his complete filmography (see: Magnets
& Miracles). However the project came to a standstill and some
spin-offs, like an Iggy The Eskimo magnet never came off the ground
either (see: The
perfect Xmas gift: put Iggy on your fridge!).
Since then it was awfully quiet around the movie maker / glass artist
and frankly, the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit had given up hope to ever
see the 'iggy the eskimo girl' movie in full.
Iggy the Eskimo Girl, by Anthony Stern.
Until today.
This morning we were informed by an enthusiastic Iggy that a full
version of the movie can be found on Dailymotion,
where it had already been uploaded at the end of the previous year by
someone who is internationally recognised as a Pink Floyd buff. Quality
isn't too bad, although it isn't really spectacular either. This is due
to the fact that it is an audience recording as well, taken from a 2010
film festival in Lille. Some cropping and editing had to be done and the
audio was re-sampled. But as far as we can judge, this is the most
complete version and the closest to the original.
In the same breath Iggy also mentioned that she, with a couple of
friends, had some more tricks up her sleeve, but alas as the Reverend of
the Iggy's Church we had to take a vow of silence. But watch this space
if you want to be kept informed.
So for now, sistren and brethren, here is 'iggy the eskimo
girl'. Enjoy and don't do anything Iggy wouldn't do.
Content deleted. This video is no longer available because it has been
deleted.
If you dig deeper into the reason you get the message: The above video
has been deleted after a copyright claim.
Afterword
After the movie was 'found' and published on the Holy Church of Iggy the
Inuit, it took less than 24 hours before it was deleted. Uploaded at the
end of past year it led a calm life at Dailymotion until it was found by
a Birdie Hop group member, if our information is correct. From
there it quietly expanded to other groups and on other people's
timelines, including the one of Iggy Rose. Reactions were generally
ecstatic, except for one.
It didn't take long for Stephen
W. Tayler to claim that this was a copyright infringement. He is a
mixer, music producer, composer and sound designer who has worked on
hundreds of projects, including Kate Bush, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel
and Howard Jones. As a partner in Chimera
Arts he helped restoring eight Anthony Stern movies in 2008,
including 'iggy the eskimo girl'.
Neither Anthony Stern, Sadia Sadia, nor Anthony W. Tayler wanted to give
comments. (Back to top of the article.)
In our previous post (Lost
Weekends) we told how Keith Richards (with some help from Julian
Temple) took over the BBC4 broadcasting schedule on the weekend from the
23rd to the 25th September 2016.
One of the documentaries shown was called Lost
and Found: The Memory Marbles of Anthony Stern. Unfortunately it was
the only original piece that couldn't be re-watched on the BBC4 iPlayer,
probably due to copyright restrictions.
The Birdie
Hop group, that has a soft spot for Iggy Rose, looked for people who
had a copy, but could only find some pictures and snippets, taken with
mobile phones, from TV screens. Quality wasn't excellent, but it was all
we had.
Then professional Syd Barrett movie collector Hallucalation
chimed in. This man has already unearthed 'lost' Pink Floyd reels
earlier and again he did the impossible and traced back a digital copy
of the Anthony Stern BBC4 documentary. (A 2012 self-Interview with this
remarkable man, taken from Solo
En Las Nubes, can be found at Wondering
and Dreaming (a self-interview with Ewgeni Reingold).)
Even if your heart isn't necessary with Pink Floyd, nor with Iggy the
Eskimo, it is an excellent documentary, not only of the swinging
sixties, but of life in that decade in general. If the documentary was a
shortened version of Take All That From Ant, that has its premiere today
in Cambridge, by the way, then that movie is going to be a killer.
Iggy the Eskimo. Pictures: Anthony Stern.
Several entirely new pictures of Iggy have been unearthed, several
'better' screenshots of the Iggy, the Eskimo movie have been grabbed and
these can be seen on our Tumblr Memory
Marbles page. For your amusement we have of course also added some
Pink Floyd at UFO shots.
Enjoy.
This article is an update from Lost
Weekends. Many thanks to: Hallucalation, Antonio Jesús, Lisa Newman,
Anthony Stern, Yeeshkul.
Iain Owen Moore, nicknamed Emo (or Imo), is a legendary figure of the
Cambridge Mafia that circled in and around the early Floyd. Actually he
was already something of a legend before The Abdabs or The Tea Set
became The Pink Floyd Sound. Barrett & Waters liked to have him around
for old time's sake, but at the other hand David Gilmour also helped Emo
out of trouble a couple of times.
Emo was also an inspiration for the band. The phrase 'I've got a little
black book with my poems in' could be his, but it is certain that
'ummagumma' was one of his favourite expressions (and pastimes).
Needless to say that Pink Floyd later named one of their albums
'Ummagumma' and that – in true Floydian greedy tradition – Emo didn't
get any recognition for that. That's how we know our boys, laughing all
the way to the bank, blaming capitalism.
Later Emo also turned up on several Hipgnosis sleeves. He is on A
Nice Pair and on AC DC's Dirty
Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, if our memory still is correct after all
these years. When the Church was formed, nearly a decade ago, we were
told that Emo was hard to reach as he didn't believe in all that digital
tomfoolery, but he recently discovered Facebook and has been revealing
many anecdotes and memories to fans over the world.
Memory Sticks
Not only does Emo has a good memory, he also has an incredible archive
with many unseen Floydian pictures. He has uploaded private pictures of
Floyd and their friends such as Ginger Gilmour, Lyndsay Korner and
Gaylor Pinion (aka Gala or Gayla). And, since a couple of hours... three
unseen pictures of Iggy the Eskimo, probably taken at Wetherby Mansion,
in 1969.
Iggy the Eskimo, Wetherby Mansions, 1969. Po
and Emo, Formentera, 1969-ish.
Rumours & Facts
The Holy Church didn't find these pictures, but was warned by one of its
many friends, who also chatted with Emo about this. We do have his
authorisation though, to publish them here. The pictures are not of
supreme quality and may look a bit deformed, they are photographs of the
originals and not scans. Iain Moore:
Naughty Iggy. I only met her twice in 1969 but didn't speak to her. It
was during the two weeks she was at Syd's place. Syd (Barrett), Dave
(Gilmour) and Sam, my then girlfriend, all lived around the corner, so
it was 1969.
Iggy probably frequented Syd a lot longer than these 'two' weeks.
Margaretta Barclay, in her interview with the Church, told us that she
has a postcard, addressed to her and Iggy (at Wetherby Mansions) from
June 1969 (see: Gretta
Speaks). There is Twink's testimony that Iggy, Syd, Mick Farren,
Steve Peregrin Took and him crashed the launch party of King Crimson's
first album, high on Champagne and mandrax (see: Syd's
Last Stand). That was at the Speakeasy on the 5th of August 1969. At
the other hand, Iggy didn't join Syd on his Formentera trip that year,
where he met Emo and Aubrey 'Po' Powell, amongst others (see: Formentera
Lady).
Actually these pictures do not belong to Emo. They are in the private
hands of a Cambridge collector whose house is nearly a Syd Barrett and
early Floyd museum, so told us a visitor. We have been in contact with
this person for about a decade and as (s)he never told us about these
unknown Iggy portraits we can (hopefully) deduct that these portraits
only surfaced recently.
Update December 2017: According to Roddy Bogawa, these pictures
date from 1968 and were taken by a certain 'Gabi'.
The Third Man
Iggy, in her interview with Mark Blake (see: The
Strange Tale Of Iggy The Eskimo), has claimed there is a set of
'intimate' pictures of her and Syd, taken during The Madcap Laughs
sessions. And in one of her many conversations with the Reverend she
revealed that there could've been a third photographer around, next to
Mick Rock and Storm Thorgerson.
But she also told us, with tears in her eyes, that a suitcase with
personal belongings was tossed overboard by a rock star, when they
crossed the channel. In that suitcase were probably a hundred different
pictures, now lost forever. But the good news is: we have found three,
thanks to Iain Owen Moor.
We can only hope that the owner of these pictures will allow us to
publish a scanned hi-res version and would be so nice to explain when
and where and by whom they were taken.
Meanwhile, the Church will assure that prints of these portraits will be
send to Iggy Rose, who has left social media since the beginning of this
year and with whom we have sporadic contact.
Many thanks to: Petra Eder, Libby Gausden, Paula Hilton, Iain Owen
Moore, Anna Musial, Jenny Spires. ♥ Libby ♥ Iggy ♥
Bigger versions of these three pictures will be published on our Tumblr
blog, using the Emo
Moore tag.
Update December 2017: Iggy - as you probably know -
died on the 13th of December 2017, about half an hour before her
seventieth birthday. However, we are still accepting donations that will
be used for her funeral and to help her husband Andy in this difficult
period.
Original post:
A message from Libby Gausden, Birdie Hop & The Holy Church of Iggy the
Inuit.
Soon Iggy will celebrate her seventieth birthday. Unfortunately she is
not doing well and she needs expensive medicine.
You can help by donating
some money. Everything helps.
We guarantee that the money will get to her.
The Iggy Bank are: Libby Gausden (GB), Paula (GB), Lisa (CA), Alex (DE),
Felix (BE) and the old bunch. Thanks to Brett for starting this way back
in 2012 and all our friends for supporting us.
Over the years people from around the globe have given Iggy some
support, not bragging about it to the outer world. That is why it hurts
to see that a Syd Barrett Facebook group posted the following about The
Iggy Bank and its plea to raise some money for Iggy Rose.
Him and his blog, in fact anything he's involved in, is everything
that's wrong with being a fan of Syd Barrett. (...) I sure wouldn't give
him any money for some "cause". (...) Paying Felix is maybe just giving
him drinking money.
The Iggy bank (it's a lame name, I agree) was started in January 2012
when some friends wanted to do something for her. Unlike some
underground heroes Iggy Rose didn't leave the sixties rich and famous.
Iggy lead a simple life, unaware of the fact that her iconic presence
helped business hippies selling coffee table books about record sleeves.
This is what we had to say way back in 2012:
The Iggy Bank is and will probably never be something official, we are
just a bunch of Internet friends who believe they are real people rather
than avatars. We give our word that all proceedings will go to Iggy.
Besides, if something would go wrong Libby Gausden has already promised
she will kick our butts.
The Iggy Bank Paypal funds are visible and fully open to the people
organising it, and it was actually Libby Gausden and Alex from Birdie
Hop who asked to resuscitate the 5 years old PayPal account.
Many thanks to all our donators and to the old and new friends who are
helping us.
♥ Iggy ♥ Libby Gausden (GB) ♥ Alexander (DE) ♥ Amy (US)
♥ Antonio (ES) ♥ Eva (NL) ♥ Lisa (CA).
You could find many weird folk running around in London in the sixties,
but there was only one Eskimo. On the 13th of December 2017, just a
couple of minutes before her seventieth birthday, Iggy Rose, aka Iggy
the Eskimo, peacefully died.
Crumbling Land
She was born in the Himalayas, on the fourteenth of December 1947, in a
country she has always refused to name, but it was probably that part of
India that became Pakistan, after a particular bloody separation, with
its death toll running into the hundreds of thousands. Her father was an
officer in the British army who married a local beauty. Their first
child was Evelyn, but for one reason or another she would be known as
Iggy. Her mother gave her an indigenous name as well, Laldingliani,
meaning gift of the gods, in a language Iggy never spoke.
Iggy, late forties.
Update December 2017: Iggy's mother, so was confirmed to us,
wasn't from Pakistan, but from Mizoram, situated at the North-East of
India, sharing borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Iggy grew up as any normal child, although she already had the special
gift of running into trouble. There is the family anecdote of the cat
Iggy wanted to pet in the garden, until her parents, or the servants,
found out it really was a hungry tiger on the loose.
For a while all went well, with Iggy and family living a luxurious and
protected life in one of the British enclaves, politely ignoring that a
civil war was raging around them. One day a mob invaded their house,
burned it down and, if Iggy’s recitation of the events is accurate, they
narrowly escaped a lynching party.
Family picture, late forties, early fifties.
Next stop: Aden, Yemen. Another melting pot of colonial and religious
problems. This was only a temporary solution as the family returned to
England where they lived the upstairs life. Iggy always stayed vague
about her family ties, but there might have been some railway money in
the family, from the time that railways were still a great money-making
thing.
Rome, late fifties?
Wild Thing
Iggy hit puberty, running away from home at fourteen, discovering boys,
girls, booze, and speed. These were the days when young adults refused
to lead the life of their grey parents, refused to listen to that boring
BBC and refused to agree with the après-guerre nuclear
warmongering. There may also have been some family turmoil, at times
Iggy alluded to that, other times she just blamed her exit from home
upon her temperamental character.
Iggy danced through life, her pretty looks and free spirit mostly
assured her some food and a place to stay. Through a well-known DJ she
turned from mods to rockers and Brighton was changed for London.
Enter Brian and Keith and others, for what could be called a groupie
career, although she never was a groupie pur sang. In contrast to
some flower power beauties who have made a fortune by talking out of
bed, Iggy stayed discrete about the people she met, from Beatles to
Yardbirds. There is the story how she was at a Rolling Stones party,
went 'home' in the evening, slept on the stairs of a house portal,
returning the next day as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
Probably for Iggy, it was. She never was a trophy hunter, nor a fortune
seeker.
Iggy and Jenny Spires met at Biba and they went to a Dusty Springfield après-event.
Jenny returned the favour and introduced her to Syd Barrett who had left
Pink Floyd, a band Iggy wasn’t particularly fond of. Iggy had always
been more of a Motown girl. She stayed for a couple of weeks at Wetherby
Mansions and she visited Barrett over the period of a few months, until
– one day – Duggie Fields told her that Syd didn’t live there any more.
The legend that Iggy vanished all of a sudden isn’t true, she just
wasn’t traceable on the Floydian radar any more. In those days it was
enough to move a couple of blocks where she frequented other, equally
alternative and underground, circles. There were painters, musicians,
actors, movie directors...
Iggy on a movie set, 1974.
Rose Tinted
In coffee table books, invariably written by men, we read how beautiful
and carefree British psychedelic underground was. It wasn't always for
those who didn't make a fortune out of it. The summer of love wasn't
particularly women friendly either. Bad things happened to Iggy.
Luckily, many good things as well.
Iggy's wedding, 1978.
In the mid-seventies psychedelic tomfoolery was over and Iggy had to
look for a job. She worked on a horse-farm for a while and met her
husband there. They got married in 1978 and relocated to a small village
in the Horsham district of West Sussex where she worked in a local
supermarket. Even there she was the stuff legends are made of. In a
(long defunct) Facebook group people remembered how she would throw
groceries at those clients who didn't treat her with respect. The
management had to get rid of her before she could injure someone.
The Cambridge City Wakes festival (2008) triggered something of an Iggy
the Eskimo revival but Iggy's public life really started when Mark
Blake, from Pigs Might Fly fame, wrote about her in a Syd Barrett Mojo
Special (2010). One reader actually knew her and her quiet life was
suddenly interrupted. She was interviewed for Mojo and she learned there
was some kind of Iggy fandom on the world wide web. Contrary to general
belief it wasn't The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit who found her. Mark
Blake did.
Iggy discovered Facebook and made many, many, many friends.
A rose is a rose is a rose
Iggy was Iggy, nothing less, nothing more. Loud-mouthed, obnoxious,
loyal, sweet and with the greatest heart you have ever seen. Talking to
Iggy on the phone would mean a constant battering of your eardrums while
she rattled a hundred and twenty words a minute. Her emotions could
change from joy to anger to uncontrolled sobbing in less than a minute.
If she was mad her vocabulary was lively enough to make a sailor blush.
Iggy didn't wear masks. Iggy was the truest and most direct and brutally
honest person I have ever seen.
Iggy's attempt at a selfie, 2014.
The last time when I spoke to her, I asked: “ Iggy, is it good that I
call you from time to time?” “Why?” she answered. “To check if
I am not dead yet?”
I'm gonna miss those comments of her.
Face- and other books
Iggy always had big dreams. If Kathy Etcham, Jenny Fabian and Uschi
Obermaier could write books about rock stars, so could she.
Unfortunately Iggy's unstoppable enthusiasm for literally everything
around her made every attempt to interview her an impossible task. One
day she told me that her book needed pictures of unicorns to thank all
her lovely Facebook friends for their friendship and love. She was not
joking. Iggy was always incredibly happy with the support from her
Facebook friends. This was enormously important to her. She was always
thankful for that.
It was an honour to have known you, gal.
Sincere condolences to Andy and her family. Many thanks to everyone
supporting her.
Dream
If you ever go to heaven there is a rainbow garden where an Eskimo
girl is dancing, there are friendly tigers and gentle unicorns. Birds
are singing and circling around her like in a Disney movie. Brian is
jamming on a sitar. Syd is strumming some chords. It is a happy place.
Many thanks to all who have helped Iggy all these years, her husband,
neighbours, friends and caregivers... fans and freaks at birdie hop,
clowns & jugglers, late night, no man's land... ♥ Libby ♥ Iggy ♥
Paula ♥
It is the darkest period of the year, literally and figuratively. Today,
the 27th of December 2017, Iggy's funeral takes place at Worthing
Crematorium. We can only wish for strength for Iggy's husband, her
family, her friends... A big thank you for the Birdies and Nesters who
have supported Iggy all these years...
Catharsis
After most funerals, people sit together and commemorate the deceased,
and slowly the tears are being replaced with laughter, when funny
remembrances and anecdotes fill the atmosphere... It is a necessary part
of the grieving process and we are pretty sure that people can go on for
hours recalling Iggy's funnier moments.
Sydiots
A couple of years ago, 2013 already!, multi-instrumentalist and
Barrett-buff Rich Hall recorded an album called Birdie
Hop & the Sydiots. Its concept was to catalogue the wacky
aspects of Barrett fandom, including cosmic brides, silly reverends and
goofing administrators of various Syd Barrett Facebook groups.
One of the highlights of the album was a track called The Reverend,
clearly a reverie about the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit and its main
obsession: Iggy the Eskimo. For Iggy's seventieth birthday Rich, with
some help of his dog Porthos, recorded an acoustic version of the song.
Unfortunately Iggy never heard it and as such the song has now become a
fitting tribute. From Rich to Iggy, from Porthos to Doogle, we present
you Iggy's message that is love.
Gigolo aunts & uncles
Back in better days, June 2015, Iggy was invited to Cambridge at the
second Birdie
Hop meeting. Men On The Border joined as well, giving an exclusive
concert at the Rathmore Club. After the gig there was some time for an
acoustic sing-a-long with the band, fans, Cantabrigian mafia rockers and
a pretty unstoppable Iggy. Revive it here... original videos from Göran
Nyström and Solo En Las Nubes blogger Antonio Jesús Reyes.
Happy belated birthday Iggy. Hundreds of fans will never forget you.
Many thanks to: Rich Hall, Men On The Border, Göran Nystrom, Antonio
Jesús Reyes. ♥ Iggy ♥ Libby ♥ Paula ♥
Iggy Rose Memorial Card. Picture taken by David Stanford.
David Stanford:
It was so sad to be at the funeral. I can advise that her life was
celebrated in the manner I am sure she would have approved of. RIP sweet
Iggy Rose. ♥ ♥ ♥