Buzzblu

A shout from London, a step in the past and hopefully in the future too.
I arrived here on Tuesday and I will be here a few more days on business, as well as pleasure.
London was my home many years ago, for a period of 12 years. London was where I became one of the early punks, believe it or not. I played with different bands, to name a few, a band called Flex that was on tour with the Eurithmics on the "Sweat Dreams" tour. We also pleyed a gig at the Rock Gardn in those days and David Bowie was in the audience. That was a funny evening and it did not end there. Several years later I met Bowie at a friend's palac in Venice and he still remembered having met me at the Rock Garden. I really appreciated that kind of attitude from his side, a totally humble and extremely pleasant man that I hav an utter respect and admiration for and I consider myself very priviledged to have met him and spent some time with him during the Venice carnival many years ago. Grace Jones was also part of our little group that week, adorable and crazy as usual.

Then I went on to play with anoher band called Pleasure and the Beast, and if anyone out there knows where Marty, Robert, LA and the rest of the band are today, please do let me know. We ejoyed quite a bit of success with Pleasure and the Beast and it was one of the funniest periods in my life, especilly touring with them, a really wonderful bunch of old friends that I wish I had not lost touch with.

So as you can imagine, London is a well of feelings and memories for me, especially since before last time I was here a few months ago, I had not been back here for many years.

Yesterday afternoon I was at a fetish exhibition (http://www.thexpo.co.uk/), which is being held at the Barbican (http://www.barbicanliving.co.uk/). I used to live at the Barbican, first with my parents, then by myself, and I had not been back since. Wonderful and melancholic memories came to mind and kept me breathless for a while.

Today I am planning to take a stroll down the King's Road, where I used to be every single day in my early days of punk in 1977, when we used to sit outside SEX, Vivienne Westwood's boutique at the time, when often there would also be Sid Vicious, Jordan, Siouxsie, Sue Catwoman, etc.
I also played with another band called the Kelvinators, quite underground and unknown since we mainly did the college circuits and got banned from a few, but another great bunch of guys.

Yesterday I met a childhood friend of mine, Alain, after several years of having lost touch. He is such a great man, a truly positive energy that would make anyone feel good. Alain is now my agent in Miami, which I am really happy about, since I do not think I could get a better person than Alain to represent me there.
Incredible to meet old school fiends as "adults", with families and kids of our own, responsibilities, and especially a past that at one point got divided simply because of distances and moving to different parts of the world, as most of my school friends did becaue of the nature of buiness of our parents. I have often wondered how it would be to see everyone again. There are some people I would love to meet up. Diane de Beauregard, Emmanuel Moreau, Christiane Barakat, just to menton a few.

While here in London I live in a fabulous place in Portland Place, of which I include some pictures below. It is a huge and very beautiful town house built in 1773 by the Adam brothers, at that time very famous architects.





Last night I went with a whole big group of Swedish friends to Torture Garden and tonight we will all go to Rubber Ball, two parties that are part of www.skintworubberball.com, one of the biggest fetish parties in the world. Extremely fun, friendly people, good music with good DJ's and for me an insight on the fetish scene outside of Sweden, which I have got to know through my book project over the past two years.
Now I'm hitting the town for another dose of memory lane, making me feel like an old fogey.
One thing before I leave...last night I was thinking the following about London, and it probably is because it was my home during my teenage, or maybe it's just the town itself, but whether happy, sad, excited, depressed, no matter what the situation is, London does make me feel. This is both in a good and bad way, since the highs are very high and the lows very low, but it really does awaken my senses.