It’s only rock and roll, but I buy it, buy it, yes I do..
This month, I was fascinated to see a David Bowie exhibition at the V&A in London's Kensington. Is it only Rock and Roll?
Let’s be honest, whatever age you are, reading this column, chances are there's a genre of music you love. Yes, I use that word correctly, "love", or at the very least, you are absorbed by it.
There’s even a chance you can capitalise on it.
Why music memorabilia is not just nostalgia but an investment
If you’re a regular reader, you’ll be used to me telling you what a painting or a mirror made at auction or sold for in a gallery somewhere. Well, rock and roll makes money too!
If you’d happened to own Kurt Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E guitar from his MTV Unplugged performance, it sold at auction for more than £4.4 million in 2020.
John Lennon’s “Imagine” piano? Well over £1.5 million in 2000. Whilst it’s mostly musical instruments that make the money, lyrics and clothing also make their mark.
I’m guessing that a fair number of us have spotted a music star out and about, yet the strange thing about celebrity is that they come into the world just like us, go shopping, have relationships and listen to music.
Like us, rock stars seem to have music heroes too; Eric Clapton and Billy Wyman both had huge collections and a friend of mine, who will remain nameless, has an incredible Beatles archive from a family connection to the band.
When I was a little Andrew, my mum took me and a friend who lived next door to us on the 186 bus to the Granada cinema in Harrow and there, sat outside, smoking something, was none other than David Bowie.
I’d go on to see Bowie in concert multiple times and in Fortnum & Mason’s, Virgin Mega Store in Oxford Street picking out vinyl like me, a glance and a smile of polite (in awe) recognition and a smile back, and lastly, one morning really early, wandering the Avebury stones with his lovely wife. How could you intrude on that?
I’ll forget seeing Steven Tyler with a bag of dog food at the garden gate, helping with the shopping. That cracked me up. I thought he’d gone to work for Tesco.
Mum was horrified he was smoking and although he hadn’t achieved the superstar status that he’d one day attract, he was playing Eastman Hall at Kodak in nearby Wealdstone later on that evening. David had the look of a rock star. Something even a young kid picked up on.
Another rocker moved in a few streets away. It was Alvin Stardust, not I, hasten to add his real name! I even saw him washing the windows!
No leather gloves, though. Extraordinary yet ordinary. A strange world isn’t it?
In life I’ve slammed the brakes on to avoid the Fine Young Cannibals running in front of t if my car, Jamiroquai in Soho Square, George Michael sat in the back of a car in a traffic jam on the A40 and during my athletic years, yes honestly, I’d often see Elton John drive past as I ran through Letchmore Heath, Hertfordshire.
I also met Paul McGuinness, U2’s manager, who extolled his new band. They were going to be huge he told me. “Really”, I said, really cynically. I am a fool.
I even sat in the barbers' next to Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys. Noel thought I was a nerd, clearly, in Venice.
I wanted a selfie for my old friend Rupert Macnee, whose dad was John Steed in The Avengers and drove the taxi in the Oasis video of Don’t Look Back in Anger. He wasn’t playing dice.
By 13 or 14 I was hooked on music and over the next six or seven years my passion included everything from Rockabilly; especially Gene Vincent and Merrill E Moore, to Jazz Funk; Gap Mangione, Disco; Donna Summer and Chic, Electronic music; Kraftwerk, Telex and even Ozric Tentacles, Japanese Techno music; YMO and Punk from bands like The Plastics (Japanese) to the Sex Pistols and even Ian Dury, the New Romantic thing came along and it was everything from Ultravox to Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft and Adam Ant and everything in between!
I also collected film music by maestro favourites Ennio Morricone and Laurie Johnson. As I got older, I added in trad jazz, Motown, metal and rock.
I’ll stop there, although where does our love of “pop music” really end? Yes, I listen to classical music and opera too but I’m talking about pop memorabilia today.
I’ve loads of Bowie albums and programs that’ll probably find their way to a charity shop when I croak. The thing is, like most of us, I hear a tune and I’m transported back to 1970, 1980, or I hear “The Shaman” and I’m in London in the autumn of 1992 hearing “Naughty, naughty, very naughty… “ blasting out of a student let on Holloway Road.
So there you have it, some of you will be all nostalgic for the music I’ve mentioned, whilst others will mutter “ghastly” or “never heard of that!”.
Don’t worry, if you’re amongst the latter, I’ll try and write about something more to your liking next week.
This week, it’s Funkadelic, Frank Chickens, Tin Machine and all the music you loved, never heard of or hated.
Even if you loathed buying it, I’m pretty certain Carlos Kleiber conducting Schubert will give you a buzz.
I have to say, when it came to music, whatever the venue, I didn’t have a bad experience, except maybe the Embassy Club when I went to see a band with my school friend Jack and as we walked in, Lemmy from Motörhead drunkenly asked if we were rent boys!
Funny now, scared the life out of me back then. Ha! Quintessential Lemmy, I guess.
I sold a stack of old Sounds magazines for a few quid when times were hard, aren’t they always!
Over the years, I’ve sold Beatles lobby cards, albums, signed photos, posters, and even some Peter Blake artwork.
Sadly, never a painting by Bowie; if you find one, don’t sell it for a song.
This week’s advice? Check out your old vinyl collection and I’m not talking tins of Dulux!
I’m talking your singles and LP collection! Old clothes from back in the day by designers like Destroy make good money too! But vintage clothes are an article for another day.
It’s all very well talking about items that make millions, but with a bit of research you can start to trawl through vinyl records at boot fairs and in antique arcades and charity shops, look out for signed programs snd photos and posters too, but beware, a lot are either printed or forged.
If you don’t fancy collecting but have an interest in the music industry, there’s always the Hard Rock Cafe’s “The Vault” near London’s Park Lane, in the old Coutts Bank building, literally just off Piccadilly, by Hamilton Place.
It’s a free tour of their valuable music industry memorabilia, which is, as the name suggests, housed in the old bank vault.
In Liverpool, there’s the Beatles Museum and, of course Johnny Lennon’s childhood house to visit as well as the British Music Experience in the old Cunard Building there too.
Of course, where iconic music came from in Britain, there are tours.
Pick Manchester and it’s steeped in Hacienda Club history and tours of Stone Roses, Joy Division and Oasis places of interest.
Throughout Britain, there are statues to music heroes and murals and of course graffiti.
All this said, a lad doing a gardening job for me the other day hadn’t heard of Kylie Minogue or indeed, The Beastie Boys. Such is the passage of time.
I thought to myself, “Young people today.” I met Biffco, Kylie’s producer and he’s a lovely chap. Not quite so lovely as to introduce me to Kylie but such is life.
The best things to collect are memories.
Life. I am old and uncool but I’ll always be a lot younger than the Rolling Stones. Amen.
Recommended reading:
- Emotional return for dealer after 'taking a risk to follow grandmother's footsteps'
- Britain's hidden heritage which leaves thousands of artefacts unable to view
- The mystery of Boudica and where her final resting place is after death in 61AD
Who is Andrew Blackall?
Andrew Blackall is an English antique dealer with more than 30 years of experience selling period furniture and quirky collector's items to clients across the globe. He has written and produced award-winning film and television productions.
He was born in St John’s Wood, London and he grew up in and around London. He currently lives in Avebury, Wiltshire. His love of antiques stems from an early fascination with history and from visiting country homes throughout old England and the British Isles.
Many of Andrew’s clients are well known on both sides of the pond, patronising his ability to source antiquities with provenance and appeal. His stock has appeared in a number of films and TV shows. Andrew has two styles of business: one selling high-end decorative antiques at The Blanchard Collective, the other selling affordable collectables at The Malthouse Collective.
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