Back on air
This weekend has passed and Friday also passed, with a fantastic turn out at the anti-street violence rally in Stockholm in memory or Riccardo Campogiani. 12.000 people showed up in the cold and rain.
It is now 1.10 am and I intend to start this week on a more frivolous tone than last time I wrote this blog.
Trying to fill you in on my last days in London last week.
On the Saturday I went to the Rubber Ball, a great fetish party with amazing artists and a realy good crowd and excellent DJ's. The highlight of that evening must have been when a dressage cavalier showed up in full top hat and uniform and his two (human) horses, two tall and very beautiful women that played the lipizan horse part amazingly. It really was fantastic showmanship and it gave me the insiration to shoot such a picture as the last picture to be shot for my fetish book, at least for this coming edition.
On the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning I strolled through London together wit my very good friend and colleague (well, she's almost part of the family, in fact we say that we have adopted her) Camilla, who's a real sweetheart.
Camilla took some pictures of me (here below) going through some monuments of my past in London, like for instance Shakespeare Tower in the Barbican, where I lived with my parents for a few years and then alone onc my parents left to go and live in Kuwait. The Barbican was a great architectural project of the 70's in the City of London. I loved living there.
I lived on the 11th floor of Shakespeare Tower with my parents but very often I would spent a lot of time on the 42nd floor, in the apartment next door to Roger Moore's, in Paul Raymond's penthouse where I had my friends Danny and Debbie, two models working in those days for Paul Raymond.
When my parents moved out of home (yes, it happened that way in my life since my father got transferred to the Italian Embassy in Kuwait and I did not want to follow them), I moved to the appropriately named Andrews House, also in the Barbican, shown behind me in this picture.
The walk through London ith Camilla continued through Hyde Park and onto Kensington, past Sloane Avenue, where I lived for the first part of my life in London with my parents and down the King's Road.
First I took Camilla to see where i used to hang out when I was not in school, together with the other punks of the time and often even with Sid Vicious, outside what was then called SEX, Vivienne Westwood's shop, that then changed he name to Seditionaries and then to its current name of World's End.
Unfortunately the boutique was closed, but through the window I managed to notice that thy still sell the old pirate boots and shirts, of which I had several of but lost everything through my frequent moves around the world...but I have promised myself to re-buy most of the things I had in those days, they really where great and still so modern!
We then walked back up the King's Road towards Sloane Square and into Glebe Place, where I first workes as a photo assistant to Bardo Fabiani, a true master of fashion photography in those days, ex-assistant to David Bailey.
The studio in Glebe Place lookd just as good from the outside and memories began rushing through my mind of those days when I worked for Bardo during the day and at Planets at night time, together with Boy George, who at the time was working there as a DJ and I was working in the wardrobe.
Boy George will be in Stockholm this week and I really hope I'll be able to meet him, wondering if he still remembers those days...
I wonder why I am being so nostalgic at the moment. London really brought back a lot of very nice memories. Maybe it's because I'm getting old? Maybe it's because I miss the stimuli of a metropolis...who knows?
One shop that still exists on the King' Road is a shop whose contents is nothing to write home about, but the name of which always brings a smile to my lips:
A quick word about Facebook. While in London and reminiscing, I managed to get in touch with an old school friend of mine, Christiane, and I also got in touch again with another school friend from London, Alain, who has now become my Miami agent. The wonders of the net...
Also on Facebook I found a great looking model, Ida, that I hope to be able to shoot this week, if I do you'll probably see the pictures in here soon...or on my Facebook group.
Well, it's quite late and it's time for me to say good night and have a great week!
PS: my site www.belluso.com is undergoing a minor face-lift. Please be patient if you experience some layout problems and do visit again on tuesday.
It is now 1.10 am and I intend to start this week on a more frivolous tone than last time I wrote this blog.
Trying to fill you in on my last days in London last week.
On the Saturday I went to the Rubber Ball, a great fetish party with amazing artists and a realy good crowd and excellent DJ's. The highlight of that evening must have been when a dressage cavalier showed up in full top hat and uniform and his two (human) horses, two tall and very beautiful women that played the lipizan horse part amazingly. It really was fantastic showmanship and it gave me the insiration to shoot such a picture as the last picture to be shot for my fetish book, at least for this coming edition.
On the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning I strolled through London together wit my very good friend and colleague (well, she's almost part of the family, in fact we say that we have adopted her) Camilla, who's a real sweetheart.
Camilla took some pictures of me (here below) going through some monuments of my past in London, like for instance Shakespeare Tower in the Barbican, where I lived with my parents for a few years and then alone onc my parents left to go and live in Kuwait. The Barbican was a great architectural project of the 70's in the City of London. I loved living there.
I lived on the 11th floor of Shakespeare Tower with my parents but very often I would spent a lot of time on the 42nd floor, in the apartment next door to Roger Moore's, in Paul Raymond's penthouse where I had my friends Danny and Debbie, two models working in those days for Paul Raymond.When my parents moved out of home (yes, it happened that way in my life since my father got transferred to the Italian Embassy in Kuwait and I did not want to follow them), I moved to the appropriately named Andrews House, also in the Barbican, shown behind me in this picture.
The walk through London ith Camilla continued through Hyde Park and onto Kensington, past Sloane Avenue, where I lived for the first part of my life in London with my parents and down the King's Road.
First I took Camilla to see where i used to hang out when I was not in school, together with the other punks of the time and often even with Sid Vicious, outside what was then called SEX, Vivienne Westwood's shop, that then changed he name to Seditionaries and then to its current name of World's End.
Unfortunately the boutique was closed, but through the window I managed to notice that thy still sell the old pirate boots and shirts, of which I had several of but lost everything through my frequent moves around the world...but I have promised myself to re-buy most of the things I had in those days, they really where great and still so modern!
We then walked back up the King's Road towards Sloane Square and into Glebe Place, where I first workes as a photo assistant to Bardo Fabiani, a true master of fashion photography in those days, ex-assistant to David Bailey.
The studio in Glebe Place lookd just as good from the outside and memories began rushing through my mind of those days when I worked for Bardo during the day and at Planets at night time, together with Boy George, who at the time was working there as a DJ and I was working in the wardrobe.
Boy George will be in Stockholm this week and I really hope I'll be able to meet him, wondering if he still remembers those days...
I wonder why I am being so nostalgic at the moment. London really brought back a lot of very nice memories. Maybe it's because I'm getting old? Maybe it's because I miss the stimuli of a metropolis...who knows?
One shop that still exists on the King' Road is a shop whose contents is nothing to write home about, but the name of which always brings a smile to my lips:
A quick word about Facebook. While in London and reminiscing, I managed to get in touch with an old school friend of mine, Christiane, and I also got in touch again with another school friend from London, Alain, who has now become my Miami agent. The wonders of the net...
Also on Facebook I found a great looking model, Ida, that I hope to be able to shoot this week, if I do you'll probably see the pictures in here soon...or on my Facebook group.
Well, it's quite late and it's time for me to say good night and have a great week!
PS: my site www.belluso.com is undergoing a minor face-lift. Please be patient if you experience some layout problems and do visit again on tuesday.
London
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.
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.
