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2019 Post of the Year Thread


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21 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

I love stories like this. Any more about this @BomberPat?

About the French House, or about the friend? There's an obituary of the big man here, which repeats a couple of his most oft-told stories to me (meeting Jeffrey Bernard on his first day in Soho, and knowing John Updike when he lived in America);

http://taking-liberties.squarespace.com/blog/2018/1/22/michael-peel-rip.html

There's a comment in there about him refusing to write a book - that's an argument I had with him countless times, and I actually did make some leeway and agree to ghost-write/edit for him at some point, but never really got any further than that.

Years ago, I acquired a signed copy of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch for a (relatively) ridiculously low price. Years later, long-term unemployed and in a lot of debt, I had to sell it, and many other things, off to make a bit of cash. I posted a photo of it on Facebook, and he commented on it with, "met Burroughs in the Colony once when he was a guest of Francis Bacon, fascinating man". That he could just drop stuff like that and it never felt like bragging, I always found hilarious. He became a bit of a bitter old Brexiteer Tory towards the end, sadly, as being in and out of hospital, and cooped up inside more often than not, did a bit of a number on him.

The first time I went to the French, it was to meet him, and I assumed we'd just be drinking there til closing time and he'd be getting a taxi home, as used to be the case when we met anywhere else. After a few hours they, he announced that we were going to Gerry's for "Edie's birthday". I had no idea who Edie was, or what or where Gerry's was. It turned out Edie was Suggs' mum. 

Edited by BomberPat
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4 hours ago, BomberPat said:

About the French House, or about the friend? There's an obituary of the big man here, which repeats a couple of his most oft-told stories to me (meeting Jeffrey Bernard on his first day in Soho, and knowing John Updike when he lived in America);

http://taking-liberties.squarespace.com/blog/2018/1/22/michael-peel-rip.html

There's a comment in there about him refusing to write a book - that's an argument I had with him countless times, and I actually did make some leeway and agree to ghost-write/edit for him at some point, but never really got any further than that.

Years ago, I acquired a signed copy of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch for a (relatively) ridiculously low price. Years later, long-term unemployed and in a lot of debt, I had to sell it, and many other things, off to make a bit of cash. I posted a photo of it on Facebook, and he commented on it with, "met Burroughs in the Colony once when he was a guest of Francis Bacon, fascinating man". That he could just drop stuff like that and it never felt like bragging, I always found hilarious. He became a bit of a bitter old Brexiteer Tory towards the end, sadly, as being in and out of hospital, and cooped up inside more often than not, did a bit of a number on him.

The first time I went to the French, it was to meet him, and I assumed we'd just be drinking there til closing time and he'd be getting a taxi home, as used to be the case when we met anywhere else. After a few hours they, he announced that we were going to Gerry's for "Edie's birthday". I had no idea who Edie was, or what or where Gerry's was. It turned out Edie was Suggs' mum. 

Thanks for sharing that, he sounds absolutely fascinating. That obituary was good to. I cant even imagine what his life was like.

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3 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Thanks for sharing that, he sounds absolutely fascinating. That obituary was good to. I cant even imagine what his life was like.

There's a bit in there about him having lost millions - that seemed to happen a couple of times, but I never really knew the story.

He came from money, and had been born in Jersey, which is where I met him, as he used to drink in the same coffee shop as me. I since learned that he came back to Jersey because he'd lost everything, and his brother was trying to help him get back on his feet. He was living in a tiny shithole flat that a friend of mine had previously lived in, but everyone assumed he must be minted because he was a big fat posh bloke who always seemed happy to buy people coffee and drinks - not realising that at the times he couldn't afford it, he just stayed in and scraped by. All the time he was spending in that coffee shop, he was apparently making deals with various companies to try and get back in the game.

We never really talked about work, but I know the reason he went to the US was because he worked for Wang Laboratories, so I assume a lot of his wealth had come from working in computing in the '70s and '80s, and when I knew him he was really into viral marketing, and an early adopter of a lot of social media.  I know there was another point, much earlier, when his family lost a lot of money, as his parents had apparently lived in South Africa, and the government seized their assets and they were forced to leave when his father took a stand against apartheid. 

There's another bit of press I found, from the Daily Mail, when he was leading the campaign to save the Colony Room, which refers to him as "a magnificent 20-something stone trencherman, who quaffs port by the pint". I remember that article going around on social media, with people invariably commenting "20-something? You've lost weight, Twiggy". The only quote he gave the Daily Mail when asked was something like, "up until now most of this lot didn't even know my real name". 

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Joe Blog's retort to UK Kat Von D is sublime. His other previous jabs in the back-and-forth are great as well but his reply to Kat's "Copying me won’t help you lose your virginity bro" is just fantastic;

the simpsons kiss GIF

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