Ian Louis Harris

An Unexpected Evening At The Barbican During Which I Heard Sibelius, Met Rita Frank & Experienced Driving In Dense London Fog, 12 November 1989

My log records the following:

Amazing evening – although the programme seems to be lost. Jilly had left two tickets for me at short notice. I gave away the spare ticket at the door, to Rita Frank. I drove her back to Marge’s place in Hackney via everywhere due to mega fog – I had just passed my driving test & didn’t even know where the fog lights were. Rita busied herself dancing in her seat to my hippy tape. Friendship founded.

All I can recall of the concert is that the centrepiece was a Sibelius symphony. I think Sibelius 5 but it might be 2. I’m struggling to find more details, although more details must be available somewhere if I search hard enough…

…update!

I have subscribed to a newspaper clipping service and found this:

Concert seen 12 November 1989 12 Nov 1989, Sun The Observer (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

..so, as I said, some Sibelius plus…

Sibelius Symphony No 6;
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3;
Debussy La Mer.

London Symphony Orchestra with Paavo Berglund to provide authentic Finnish conducting. Barry Douglas tinkling the ivories. Thank you, Jilly!

Jilly was working at the Barbican at that time and would occasionally hand down tickets to me. Usually with a little more notice than on this occasion. I told Jilly that I’d struggle to find a date for a Sunday evening concert at such short notice but that I’d like to see that concert (whatever it was). Her view was that it was better to place one of the tickets than neither.

When I got to the Barbican and collected my tickets, there was a queue for returns; mostly couples and small groups. I announced that I had one spare ticket and was happy to give it away.

Two middle-aged women started bickering with each other, the first trying to refuse and the second telling the first that she really should take the ticket.

Seems that I’m your date…

…said the American woman, who I learnt was named Rita Frank and lived in New York. Her friend, Marge lived in Hackney and was (I think) an academic. Marge, being a generous soul, was happy that the expedition had at least ended up with her visitor/guest getting to see the concert. Marge went home.

Rita was charming company for an evening at the concert hall. She clearly was not very familiar with London, though, so I sensed she was a little daunted by the thought of travelling back to Hackney alone.

I had my car with me, having fairly recently (that summer) passed my driving test. I offered to take Rita back to Marge’s house, handing Rita my car copy of the L0ndon A-Z map book (remember those? No sensible Londoner drove without one.)

As we emerged from the Barbican Centre, I saw that a heavy fog had descended. Really heavy fog.

“Oh, London Fog”, said Rita, “I’ve heard all about these…”

Of course, I’d heard about them too, but by 1989 they were extremely rare, such that I don’t recall ever having seen quite so much fog in London before…or since.

Fom: The Illustrated London News, volume 10, Jan. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY

“Oh wow”, said Rita, grabbing one of my cassettes from a pile, “The Happy Tape…that sounds great. Can we listen to The Happy Tape?”

“Actually, it’s called The Hippy Tape”, I said.

“Even better”, said Rita.

The Hippy Tape was a superb mix tape – or in the modern parlance and in its current incarnation – is a superb playlist. It comprises these beauties:

Turn Turn Turn, The Byrds
Bluebird, Buffalo Springfield
Nashville Cats, Lovin’ Spoonful
Rock’n’Roll Woman, Buffalo Springfield
Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix Experience
Let Us In, Speedy Keen
Ballad of Easy Rider, The Byrds
Keep On Truckin’, Donovan
White Room, Cream
For What It’s Worth, Buffalo Springfield
I Feel Free, Cream
May You Never, John Martyn
Somebody To Love, Grace Slick
Meet Me On the Corner, Lindisfarne
Moonshadow, Cat Stevens
Alabama, Neil Young
The Needle and the Damage Done, Neil Young
White Rabbit, Jefferson Airplane
Magical Connection, John B Sebastian
The First Cut is the Deepest, P P Arnold
Crazy Love, Van Morrison

I most certainly hadn’t driven in fog before. I knew that there was such a thing as fog lights, but I had no idea what they were or how to operate them on my spanking new, first ever, car. (A red Renault 19, seeing as you asked).

My inadequacies in the fog lights department were exceeded by Rita’s inadequacies in the map reading department…

…in any case Rita seemed more interested in grooving to The Hippy Tape, which is great driving music in conditions where you can see and know where you are going…

…but not so great when you are trying to navigate neighbourhoods you don’t know as a recently qualified driver in dense fog.

My “sense of direction inadequacies” are a matter of legend. The sat nav could have been invented just for me, but in 1989, in the absence of knowing where you are going and in the absence of a helpful map reader and in the presence of dense fog…

…we simply drove around and around the mean streets of the East End for ages, until a mixture of borderline adequacy and luck got us to Marge’s house in one piece. A near miracle, frankly.

Marge turned out to be charming company too. Also a fairly practical sort (compared with me and Rita), who was able to fortify me with coffee and give me some sensible, simple directions to get back to somewhere I vaguely knew and from whence I could take a straight road in the direction of West London.

Meanwhile, it transpired that Rita was not just a New Yorker, but lived on the Upper West Side, very close to the apartment I was, coincidentally, being lent for a week, just over a week hence. Rita was most insistent that I get in touch when I got to New York. Her daughter, Mara, would be off college that week (Thanksgiving week) and would be delighted to act as my informal guide to New York.

At the time, I thought Rita was simply being super polite and that I would probably just “touch base” with her when I got to New York…

…besides, I imagined that 20-year-old Mara might have other ideas about the joys (or otherwise) of showing a random Londoner around New York…

…but in fact Mara and I became very good friends, not only while I was in New York for a few days…

My First Visit To The USA Part One: New York, c19 to 22 November 1989

…but subsequently when she came over to London to study for a while, the following year. I shall write up those later episodes presently.

Little did Jilly know that she was kicking off such a wonderful sequence of events when she offered me those Barbican tickets at short notice!

Thanks, Jilly.

Playing With Trains by Stephen Poliakoff, The Pit, 11 November 1989

I remember this play, production and indeed the whole evening very well.

I had long been a fan of Poliakoff’s plays when I went to see this one, having read a great many of his plays and seen a few of the filmed versions of his works, but this was I think only the second time I’d got to see one of his plays on the stage.

My log says:

Very good. We sat next to Poliakoff himself and went on to Daniel [Scordel]’s party afterwards.

“We”, in this instance, was me and Annalisa de Mercur. The evening we attended was a preview – I think possibly even the first or one of the first previews.

I recall us getting to The Pit a little late and struggling to see any available pairs of seats once we got in. Annalisa made a bee-line for some empty seats that were clearly marked “reserved” with Stephen Poliakoff himself sitting next to those reservations.

“You can’t sit there”, I said to Annalisa, “they’re reserved”.

“It’s OK, you can sit there”, said Stephen Poliakoff.

“Are you sure it’s OK?” I said to him.

“Yes, they won’t all be needed”, he said.

“Are you something to do with the production?”, asked Annalisa, in the sort of questioning tone that only she might use in such circumstances.

“Stephen’s the playwright”, I said to her, “so I think he knows what he’s talking about”.

“Thank you”, I said to Stephen.

“That’s all right”, said Stephen. Then he said, “I wish they wouldn’t put my picture on the programme. I don’t like being recognised”.

“I’d have recognised you anyway”, I said.

Stephen Poliakoff half-smiled at me.

I really liked this play and the production. It is not Poliakoff’s finest, but it was a very interesting play, covering (as Poliakoff often does) societal issues and family issues in one fell swoop.

Superb cast, including my first live look at several truly excellent stage folk: Michael Pennington, Simon Russell Beale, Lesley Sharpe and Ralph Fiennes to name but four.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this production.

Here’s Michael Billington’s Guardian take on it:

Billington on Trains Fri, Dec 1, 1989 – 36 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Kate Kellaway’s take in The Observer:

Kellaway on Trains Sun, Dec 3, 1989 – 43 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Annalisa was not as keen on this piece as I was. To be honest, she wasn’t very interested in theatre, but tended to come along to stuff I’d booked with Bobbie in mind if/when Bobbie wasn’t available.

I think it might have been during the interval of this one, in reference to a family row during the piece, that Annalisa commented, “I don’t much like this sort of drama – I can get all this at home.

It reminded me of one of my favourite Peter Cook quotes:

I go to the theatre to be entertained… I don’t want to see plays about rape, sodomy and drug addiction… I can get all that at home.

Playing With Trains did not have rape, sodomy or drug addiction as far as I recall. I do also remember suggesting that Annalisa keep her opinions to herself until we were clear of The Pit given that it was a preview night and it wasn’t the cast and crew’s fault that I had taken a guest who was not so keen on theatre.

We legged it across town to Daniel Scordel’s pad on Trinity Road, where the party was in full swing once we got there. I think Daniel was going out with Maz (Marianne Tudor Craig) by then, but I think that relationship was still quite new. I don’t remember much about the party other than it being rather a good one.

I do specifically remember Daniel’s kid sister, who was I think 17 or 18 at that time, grooving to a particular dance tune that I liked but did not recognise, so I asked her, after the record finished, what it was.

“You haven’t heard of it?” she said, “but it’s been in the charts for weeks. You’re sad”.

I’m pretty sure it was Ride On Time by Black Box

Like Daniel, I was just 27 at that time. It was the very first time I remember feeling old.

Othello by William Shakespeare, RSC at the Young Vic, 4 November 1989

My log says that this was a transfer from The Other Place in Stratford and that I (possibly we – Bobbie was with me) was/were not 100% sure about it.

What was there not to be sure about? Splendid cast: Willard White as Othello, Ian McKellen as Iago, Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona, Zoe Wannamaker as Emilia…Trevor Nunn directing.

Well, actually, I think I have a bit of a problem with this play. Janie and I saw a National Theatre production about eight years later and I just couldn’t get on with that either.

https://ianlouisharris.com/2022/08/02/othello-by-william-shakespeare-cottesloe-theatre-2-august-1997

I also have a feeling that the 1989 RSC production felt a little over-theatrical to me. There is a certain Trevor Nunn style. Little did I know then that Janie and I would meet Trevor and Imogen – strangely around about the time we saw the 1997 RNT Othello.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this one.

Here are Ian McKellen’s thoughts on the matter.

Bobbie might be full of memories of this one and chime in…let’s see!

Michael Ratcliffe in The Observer wrote this:

Ratcliffe On Othello Sun, Aug 27, 1989 – 36 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Billington in the Guardian wrote this:

Billington on Othello Sat, Aug 26, 1989 – 20 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Man Beast And Virtue by Luigi Pirandello, Cottesloe Theatre, 7 October 1989

My log says “little recollection” for this one, so I guess it didn’t make a big impression. Bobbie was with me.

Pirandello is one of those playwrights whose work I want to like more than actually do like. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that I tend to enjoy reading his plays, because the ideas are fascinating, but many of them are difficult to produce in an entertaining way – at least to the eyes of the modern audience.

Man, Beast And Virtue is an early Pirandello, written in 1919 (100 years ago as I write in 2019), about two years before his breakthrough play, Six Characters In Search Of An Author.

A relatively straightforward, slightly farcical, love-triangle piece, there is a synopsis of the 1950s film version, in somewhat broken English at the time of writing, on Wikipedia.

Trevor Eve played Paolino, the lover, Terence Rigby played Captain Perella and Marion Bailey (best known for her Mike Leigh connections both professionally and privately) played Mrs Perella. William Gaskill directed. Charles Wood had written a new adaptation of the play fro this production. A fine supporting cast too – here is the Theatricalia entry.

So did all that research just now bring the experience flooding back to me? Ever so slightly yes…but basically no.

Probably not really my type of play. I do recall the setting being very imaginative and a sense that I felt entertained for the evening.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on Man Beast Sat, Sep 9, 1989 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Ratcliffe in The Observer thought little of it:

Ratcliffe on Man Beast Sun, Sep 10, 1989 – 46 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Perhaps Bobbie remembers something more about it?

Mad Mullah, Comedy Lyric, cSeptember 1989

This is the first of the comedy lyrics on my log, roughly dated as September 1989. Actually I suspect that an early incarnation of The Ultimate Love Song probably preceded it, but no matter.

Mad Mullah lacks the subtlety and/or humour of some of my later work, but it is not bad for an early effort and has some multi-layering to it.

MAD MULLAH (A Song to the tune of "Moonshadow" by Cat Stevens)
CHORUS
I’m being followed by a mad Mullah, mad Mullah, mad Mullah,
Ducking and hiding from a mad Mullah, mad Mullah, mad Mullah.
VERSE ONE
And if I went out of my tree,
Who would mourn Salman Rushdie?
And if they ever shoot my mouth,
Awayayayayayayayay, I won’t have to speak no more.
And if I went out of my mind,
Apologies then would be signed.
And if they ever blow my pen,
Awayayayayayayayay, I won’t have to write no more.
Yes, I’m being followed by a mad Mullah, mad Mullah, mad Mullah,
Ducking and hiding from a mad Mullah, mad Mullah, mad Mullah.
VERSE TWO
And if I ever lose my ken,
Would it be on “News at Ten”?
And if they ever blast my eyes,
Awayayayayayayayay, I won’t have to see no more.
And if I ever lose my sense,
Would they cease to take offence?
And if they ever beat my brains,
Awayayayayayayayay, I won’t have to think…. [no more].
Yes, I’m being followed by a mad Mullah, mad Mullah, mad Mullah,
Ducking and hiding from a mad Mullah, mad Mullah, mad Mullah.
VERSE THREE (MODULATION – DRAMATIC BIT)
“Did it take long to find me?”, I asked as the doorbell rang.
“Did it take long to find me, and am I to garotte or hang?”.
FINAL CHORUS
I’ve been followed by a mad Mullah, mad Mullah, mad Mullah,
Blasted to silence by a mad Mullah, mad Mullah, mad Mullah.
Mad Mullah, mad Mullah,
Mad Mullah, mad Mullah.

The video below has Cat Stevens singing Moonshadow with the lyrics on the screen:

A Five Day Work Visit To Amsterdam Including A Concertgebouw Evening 23 September 1989

Hotel Krasnapolsky Amsterdam Steven Lek, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Dutch people were friendly, you know they put me up and they fed me…
Amsterdam, Al Stewart

My client was hugely apologetic. The only way they could arrange the three days of meetings in Amsterdam required at a delicate stage of the project I was managing was to schedule a Thursday, Friday and then Monday. They realised that this would be inconvenient for me and of course they were happy to fly me backwards and forwards to London if I wanted to spend the weekend at home or they were happy to put me up and feed me at their expense for the duration, including the weekend.

Young, free and single in September 1989, I was delighted to go for the “stay in Amsterdam at their expense” option.

Please stay at the Kras on our corporate account if you are going to stay that long…

…they said. It would have been rude to say no. I usually stayed for my short stopovers at a more modest place, the Rembrandt Classic I think, preferring the less formal and low key atmosphere.

Once work was done on the Friday evening, the weekend was my own. I didn’t keep a log of this visit but I remember most of the things I did:

an Indonesian rijsttafel meal on the Friday evening. A rijsttafel for one is a bit of an oxymoron, but the restaurant came highly recommended by my Dutch clients, for good reason;
Van Gogh Museum;
Rijksmuseum;
Rembrandt House;
Concertgebouw on Saturday evening (see below);
Anne Frank House (on the Sunday if I remember correctly);
Lots of strolling around the canals, sitting in coffee bars (the proper posh ones that serve coffee and play classical music), reading my book and feeling terribly sophisticated. I’m sure Mozart Violin Concertos weren’t playing all the time in every coffee shop, but I do remember hearing them more than once. I have, ever since, associated those concertos with this weekend in Amsterdam.

Concertgebouw, 23 September 1989

I was thrilled to be able to score a good ticket at the Concertgebouw “on a whim”. I guess it is that much easier to be lucky and get a single ticket at short notice. I liked the look of the concert and was not disappointed.

I heard/saw the house band (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra aka Koninklijt Concertgebouworkest) conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, with

Ludwig van Beethoven – Overture “Leonora” Op 72a
Richard Strauss – Horn Concerto No 2 in E Flat Major
Antonin Dvorak – Symphony No 7 in D Minor, Op 70

Local lad, Jacob Slagter, was the horn soloist.

I have long-loved the Dvorak’s 7th symphony and was in seventh heaven (did you see what I did there?) at this performance of it.

Here is that very orchestra, but under Colin Davis a few years earlier, playing the Dvorak 7th:

I loved Amsterdam. It is one of the few places in the world, other than London, where I think I could live happily.

The Wonder: A Woman Keeps A Secret, Susanna Centlivre, The Gate, 16 September 1989

I don’t recall much about this one and the diary is a mess for it. I suspect that the mention of Bobbie on the Friday and The Wonder on the Saturday ended up being one and the same evening. So I’m guessing that I saw this production with Bobbie on one of those evenings.

There’s the diary page for that week. If any of my friends can help me to unpick all of that, may I just thank you profoundly in advance.

The Wonder. To the extent that I remember it, I think the production and acting was very good but that we didn’t much like the play.

An interesting but now rarely performed playwright from the late Restoration/early Hanoverian period, I’m not sure that Susanna Centilivre‘s plays have dated well. But that’s not her fault. I don’t suppose she even faintly imagined The Wonder being revived in 1989 when she dedicated it to the new king, George I, in 1714.

The Wonder was a huge hit in its day. Here is a link to an on-line preview of the play book.

The Escapade Theatre Company (confusingly not the company that now bears that name) was a group dedicated to reviving plays written by or mostly about women.

Anna Mazzotti played the female lead role Isabella, with great poise and confidence I recall. I managed to track her down in 2019 as someone who did/does many Italian language programmes for the BBC and theatre in Rome -still listing The Wonder on her theatrical cv. Strangely (as she only lists two), she also lists Dealing With Clair at the Orange Tree, which Janie and I saw when the Orange Tree revived it (recently at the time of writing):

Dealing With Clair by Martin Crimp, Orange Tree Theatre, 24 November 2018

The male lead, Don Felix, was played by a young Christopher Eccleston – possibly only his second professional gig. His cv is no longer talking about this one, but it does still mention, amongst many other things, Dr Who.

Any further intelligence on this one will need to come from others, e.g. Bobbie!…

…or Michael Billington! Good old Billy – he reviewed the production in The Guardian:

Billington on The Wonder Sat, Sep 2, 1989 – 20 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

A Prom Commemorating The Day War Broke Out, City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Simon Rattle, Royal Albert Hall, 3 September 1989

Another CBSO with Simon Rattle concert and another note in my diary wondering who joined me for this one. My prime suspect this time is Bobbie. For sure she was around again by then, as she had been away for most of August that year but for sure was back by the end of the month when we saw the Merchant Of Venice:

The Merchant Of Venice by William Shakespeare, Phoenix Theatre, 29 August 1989

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this prom. This is what we heard:

Benjamin Britten – Sinfonia da Requiem
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 7 in E minor

Anthony Payne in the Independent thinks Mahler’s 7th is a tough work and that the CBSO under Rattle did a good job with it:

Rattle Prom Payne Indy 05 Sep 1989, Tue The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Robert Henderson in the Telegraph thought the pairing of these two works ingenious while expressing his own doubts about Mahler’s 7th:

Rattle Prom Henderson Telegraph 05 Sep 1989, Tue The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Want to judge for yourself? Here is Thomas Adès conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the Sinfonia da Requiem at the Proms in 2013…

…and here is Claudio Abbado with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra doing Mahler’s 7th.

The Merchant Of Venice by William Shakespeare, Phoenix Theatre, 29 August 1989

I saw this production of The Merchant Of Venice with Bobbie. I don’t think either of us was overly enamoured of it. I registered “quite good” in my log, which is faint praise from me.

There was a lot of hype about this production because Dustin Hoffman was playing Shylock. I recall that Bobbie’s friend May Lamb referred to that actor as “Dustbin Hoffman” – I must admit that I have never been able to process his name the same way since.

There were other good folk in this production; Geraldine James as Portia for a start. Michael Sibbery as Gratiano, Ian Lavender as Solanio, Leigh Lawson as Antonio, Peter-Hugo Daly as Launcelot Gobbo and many other good names. Peter Hall directed it.

Here is its Theatricalia entry.

Sometimes a collection of big names is not, in itself, enough.

Also, I have a feeling that this is not really a great play; that’s my opinion anyway. Technically it is a comedy in the Shakespeare canon, but well short of laughs for the modern audience, even by Shakespeare comedy standards.

This review piece from the New York Times archive suggests that the critics weren’t overly impressed with this production either.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review: