Acquitted By Mirrors, Volume 1 |
 After many
delays due to the pressure of work and other unreasonable excuses, here is the very first
issue of Acquitted by Mirrors. Though somewhat modest in scope and presentation at the moment, it is hoped to expand the format with each successive issue. Within these pages are several items of interest to aficionados of my work....(lists of favourite bands, never before published lyrics, etc...Etc.) Future editions will have more features in this area, such as a detailed article on The Echo Observatory studio, (a room above my kitchen) anecdotes about holidays in the South of France, (relating to Jean Cocteau memorabilia), unpublished photos of my dark and sinister past, happy snaps of my family, erotic photographs of Jan Nelson's elbow...you know the kind of thing. But, besides all this there will hopefully be included articles, photographs and poetry by my famous (!) friends in the wonderful world of Art! Yes, you too can share the same glamourous world of dropout rock stars, people who sit alone on leather sofas in high ceilinged rooms pretending to die from exotic diseases whilst receiving extravagant sexual favours from exquisitely dressed dwarfs. Yes, you guessed it......A Family Magazine! Hope you enjoy it........Stay Young Bill Nelson JEAN COCTEAUA PERSONAL APPRAISAL
Cocteau's command over the elements of the Arts (or their command over him) was staggering. An athlete of the imagination, he was able to leap from Film Direction to Pottery to Tapestry Design to Poetry as easily as a bird leaps from one branch to another, but as he once commented in an interview, "always in the same tree." I first came into contact with Cocteau's work during my four years at Wakefield Art School where I was a student during the sixties. Purely by accident I came across a book of his in the school library. It contained the screenplays for two of his films, Blood of a Poet and Testament of Orpheus. What struck me most at the time, much more than the scripts themselves, was the power of the films' visual images which were printed in some profusion throughout the book. Gradually, the fascination grew, and, the more I discovered about the man, the more I discovered in myself the echoes of a similar creative experience. Here was a like mind, far more gifted and articulate than I could ever be, but a like mind nonetheless. It seemed to me that Cocteau was sending back messages from a glorious and heroic beyond...A Beyond where I had never dared consciously travel but recognized instinctively by means of subconscious signs and symbols. Somewhere inside I possessed the necessary maps and diagrams to navigate Cocteau's complex maze of images. The door to Jean Cocteau's personal mythology would eventually be opened by the key to my own which, it seemed, had been hanging on some rusty hood in the corners of my imagination. Romantic? Perhaps so. I was only sixteen at the time. But now, seventeen years after that eventful afternoon in the Art School Library, Cocteau remains as much a hero as ever. Finding books on or by Jean Cocteau isn't the easiest task in the world. They do exist, I have shelves full of them, but they certainly have to be searched for. My own collection has been acquired over the years from both Europe and America. Surprisingly, America seems to be much more aware of Cocteau's importance than Britain. It was in Los Angeles last year that I was able to purchase one of Cocteau's actual letters to a fellow poet. The letter was brought to my attention by an American fan who had spotted it in a store specialising in rare books and correspondence. It now hangs from behind glass in my home. I also own several ceramic plates and sets of cufflinks designed by Cocteau along with limited edition lithographs, videotapes of his films, newspaper cuttings, a very rare 1923 edition of his 'Dessins', even a plant stolen from the garden of the villa he used to inhabit at St Jean-Cap_Ferrat in the South of France. Obsession or hobby? It's very difficult to decide...either way it doesn't matter. In the end it's not really the kind of thing I could rationalize, nor would I want to. Heroes are thin on the ground these days...... Jean Cocteau died at Milly-la-Foret, not far from Paris, on the 11th of October 1963 at the age of 74. A great friend of his, Edith Piaf, had died the previous night and the emotional strain of this news did not help him overcome his own illness. He is buried beneath a great stone slab in the tiny chapel of St. Blaise-des-Simples at Milly-la-Forest. He decorated the chapel walls with his drawings in 1959 and the slab itself carries the inscription in his own handwriting, decorated with his star. It reads simply:- 'Je reste avec vous' - 'I remain with you', but as he said in 'Testament of Orpheus', "Poets only pretend to be dead...." There are so many wonderful anecdotes about Cocteau's life, and so much to discover about his work, that I could sit here forever trying to pass them on. If you feel like finding out for yourself, here is a list of some recommended books and their publishers:
RECORDING EQUIPMENT
RECOMMENDED RECORDSA small selection of my favourite albums. I'll be listing more in future issues, but try these for now. Most of these steer well clear of rock and pop, but there is nothing that could be considered really 'difficult' listening amongst them. In some cases I've picked out a particularly favourite track which you should try and hear first. None of the albums are listed in any order of preference....for me they are all essential listening. (click here to order any of these albums) John Cale - Paris 1919 GUITARS
MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUMENTS AND THINGS
A LIST OF MY FAVOURITE FILMSIN NO PARTICULAR ORDER OF PREFERENCE
**to be continued**
NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWSRelease dates have now been set with Phonogram for Bill's new album and single. The single is Eros Arriving/Haunting in my Head and will be available from the end of April. It will also be available as a double pack single with two extra tracks He and Sleep were Brothers/Flesh. The double pack will cost about 1.50 no more. The version of Eros Arriving on the single is produced by Bill Nelson and Chris Hughes and is a different recording from the album version. The album is entitled The Love That Whirls (Diary of a Thinking Heart) and contains twelve tracks, none of which are on the double pack single. The album will retail at 50p more than a normal album, for a limited period, as it will contain the soundtrack to the Yorkshire Actors presentation of La Belle et la Bete (Beauty and the Beast) on a second album. The album will be released in late May-early June. BBC 2 'Riverside' programme recently showed the two year old video that Bill shot to accompany Do You Dream in Colour. The video was all filmed at Bill's house on Super 8 and features himself, Ian, and Jan. True to form the BBC did not give us enough notice to be able to inform you. It is hoped to release a video compilation at some future stage. Richard Jobson has been working with both Bill and The Associates for a single to be released later this summer on Virgin. Bill has been enjoying himself lately playing with some of his favourite musicians. He and Mick Karn (from Japan) have been playing with the Japanese Ippu Do. Bill spent the Easter weekend playing with his favourite drummer Yukihiro Takahashi (Yellow Magic Orchestra) who is recording his new album in London, the compliment will be returned on Bill's next recordings when Yukihiro will play drums. Also playing on these sessions were Heaven 17. The Love That Whirls will contain an inner bag with all the lyrics, whilst Beauty and the Beast will have a scene by scene explanation of the script.
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Jean Cocteau was a Frenchman
and a poet. The five pointed star with which he nearly always signed his name led him on a
dazzling course through every facet of the Arts. Film Making, Painting, Drawing, Ceramics,
Sculpture, Tapestry Design, Art Critique, Philosophy and of course Poetry. The very soul
of his personality, Cocteau's poetry was no mere by-product of the written word. For Jean
Cocteau, poetry was a quality essential to every act of creativity, indeed without
it, no such acts could truly be called Art. Throughout his life he elevated and exalted
this basic ideal until it became an esoteric and spiritual entity in itself. It was this
same mysterious, indefinable 'something' that gave his works such a personal and magical
character. 
