Sixtyplusurfers interview
Marty Wilde
Interview by Jenny Itzcovitz
Marty Wilde is celebrating his 85th birthday with a new single and EP of the same name, ‘Two Eyes Streaming’. He will also be hitting the road for a string of 20 live dates for his Greatest Hits Tour, including a special homecoming gig at The Blackheath Halls.
We caught up with Marty to find out all about the new EP and how he wrote it. He tells us what he is most looking forward to about performing live to an audience, and who will be joining him on the tour. He tells us about his favourite songs and how he composes his music.
There’s also a lovely message for Sixtyplusurfers readers. And we’ve included a fabulous video for you to watch of his new single, ‘Two Eyes Streaming’.
How are you keeping? And what are you enjoying most about the Springtime?
“I’m keeping very well thank you, and I will be enjoying springtime when it finally stops raining, but I look forward to the smell of cut grass again.”
Many congratulations on your 85th birthday. How will you be celebrating?
“I will probably celebrate my 85th birthday by going down to London to one of my favourite Japanese Restaurants and enjoying some Chicken Teriyaki.”
You have released a fabulous new EP, ‘Two Eyes Streaming’, can you tell us a bit about it, and how and where you recorded it?
“I started writing ‘Two Eyes Streaming’ about five months ago, and it’s based on my own experiences as a war time child, that missed a father who had to travel round Great Britain teaching other soldiers.
“This wartime experience that I and many other children had to endure was quite sad really, because often, it would be a relationship that was never fully repaired, and although my relationship with my father was a lot stronger when I turned 16, there would always be that gap from the months that we didn’t spend together.”
The EP has an adorable picture of you as a child on the front, dressed up as a soldier. Can you tell us a bit about the photograph, when it was taken, and why you decided to use it for the cover?
“The picture was taken at a house in Salcombe in Devon, I would guess I was 4 years old. I would say it was taken around about 1943.
“I used the photograph of me, so it could remind people of what it was like for a small child at that time. I’m wearing my father’s army hat, and one of his bags, and I have a walking stick over my shoulder instead of a gun.”
You have also released the song ‘Two Eyes Streaming’ as a single, a poignant and beautiful track about missing your dad when he had to go away. Can you tell us about the song, its message, and how you wrote it?
“The message of ‘Two Eyes Streaming’ that I tried to get across, was the feeling that many men who have to serve away feel when they have to leave their loved ones behind.
“The good news of the song is that a father will return – one day soon.”
The EP also includes a wonderful song called ‘Talkin’ ‘Bout Elvis’, a tribute to Elvis Presley. What did Elvis mean to you? How did he influence your music? And why did you decide to write the track about him?
“Elvis Presley to me when I was just 16, was the be all and end all of rock ‘n’ roll. He gave people like me, Cliff Richard, Billy Fury, Shaky Stevens, and many others around the world, a blueprint to success. ‘Talkin Bout Elvis’ is a simple song in many ways, but it’s a reflection of how I feel about the man, and the great lessons that he taught me.”
Did you ever get to meet Elvis Presley or work with him in any way? We would love to hear all about it?
“I never met Elvis, but I did meet Lamaar Fyke, who tried to organise a trip for me to meet Elvis. Lamaar Fyke was Elvis’s right hand man, and I was due to meet Elvis one weekend in Germany when Elvis was on furlough, but unfortunately on the very day I was supposed to go, Larry Parnes, my manager rang to tell me that I had a TV show lined up on that day.
“I asked Lamaar if he would take my record of ‘Bad Boy’ to Elvis to see if he thought it would be a big hit, and thankfully Elvis gave the thumbs up to Lamaar.”
One of my favourite tracks on the EP is ‘Running Together’, a lovely upbeat song which you sing live with your daughters, Kim and Roxanne. What was it like to make the song with them? And how did you record it?
“One of my favourite tracks on the EP is ‘Running Together’, as it was a song I wrote about my loved ones and my fans.
“It was great to have my family onstage with me, and you can see it all in my new video Marty Wilde Live Onstage.”
You will shortly be hitting the road for a string of 20 live dates in your Greatest Hits Tour 2024. Can you tell us about the tour, the songs you will sing, and what you have planned?
“The tour will include some of my past hits, and I can’t wait to meet everybody again, but there will be a few surprises.”
What do you enjoy most about performing live to an audience?
“The thrill of performing in front of an audience started for me when I was quite young and has never left me.
“The warmth I get from an audience these days, at times can be really fantastic, and I always try to give of my best for them.”
How will you be preparing for the tour? And what team of musicians and road crew will be with you?
“At my age, the biggest fear when touring is losing one’s voice or becoming very tired, so I do my best to look after myself by trying to get plenty of sleep and not eating too much roadside food.
“I will have my usual backing group the Wildcats who have been with me for many years, for instance my lead guitarist, Neville has been with me for 40 years.”
Will your son, Ricky and daughters Kim and Roxy be joining you on tour? And what will you enjoy most about having your family around you?
“Ricky and Kim will probably not join me on tour as they have commitments themselves, but I’m hopeful that some of them will come to see me when I appear at Blackheath Halls.”
I hear you are doing a special homecoming show at Blackheath Halls and going back to where it all started for you. Can you tell us about this and any special memories you have of the venue?
“I don’t know much about Blackheath Halls and I honestly can’t remember if I ever played there before, but I can’t wait to be there to meet everybody again.
“Blackheath is one of my favourite places in the whole world, as I grew up as a young child frequenting it whenever I could, especially being able to play in the beautiful park there, Greenwich Park.”
It’s your 85th birthday year, and you are still going strong with a 20-date tour while other artists are retiring. What is your secret?
“I will try to continue to tour, although I am in my 85th year, for as long as I possibly can.
“And there is no secret formula to being able to do this, I am just lucky that I have comparatively reasonable heath.”
You have released some wonderful tracks over the years, and many have been picked up and later recorded by other artists. Which song is your favourite from the early days? And can you tell us why?
“My favourite song from the early days is, without doubt, ‘Bad Boy’ because it was my first self penned hit which made me realise I could write hit songs.
“But I must say also, that ‘Kids In America’ and ‘Jesamine’ and ‘Cambodia’ are very special songs to me.”
Over the years you must have appeared at some wonderful venues and performed for many special people. What has been your favourite venue and why was it special?
“Over the years I have worked, there have been so many wonderful venues that it’s impossible to pick out a favourite one.”
How do you tend to write your music? Do you sit at the piano or pick up a guitar? Is there a typical process? Do you have a recording studio at home or somewhere quiet where you compose?
“I write the music for my most of my songs, working with chords on my guitar, and there is no special place that gives me inspiration – since I get ideas all the time, wherever I am at that moment.
“But when it comes down to the final finish of a song, I like the peace and quietness of mid morning such as 4am.”
You have such a talented family, how do you encourage and help them in their singing careers?
“My family, I feel, without doubt, have been influenced by my career and occasionally I do like to encourage them, particularly when I get a good idea for a song for them, or an idea for one of their shows.”
What are your hobbies and interests when you are not singing?
“My hobbies are golf and military aviation.”
Do you have a special message for Sixtyplusurfers readers?
“My special message for Sixtyplusurfers readers is to stay young in your mind, and pass on the knowledge you have gleaned throughout your life to the younger generations.
“And don’t smoke, go easy on the drinking, and cherish the people you love.”
Listen to ‘Two Eyes Streaming’
Click on arrow to watch the video
Marty Wilde Greatest Hits Tour tickets are available from www.martywilde.com
The Cartoon Museum Exhibition
American Comics at The Cartoon Museum
Comic books are American as apple pie and Uncle Sam… aren’t they? Visit The Cartoon Museum this Spring to discover how British artists and writers invaded America and made their mark on iconic superheroes and more!
HEROES: The British Invasion of American Comics tells the story of early American comics such as Buster Brown, Miss Fury and Superman, how they influenced British artists and culture, and how the British took that influence and sold it back to America through legendary comics such as Watchmen and V For Vendetta.
The exhibition also celebrates The Mighty World of Marvel which brought Marvel’s heroes and heroines to newsagents across Britain every week.
In 1972, Stan Lee launched Marvel UK with an event at The Bung Hole wine bar in Holborn, London. Up until then, UK distribution of American comics had been patchy at best, and fans often had to make do with poorer-quality black and white imitations. The Mighty World of Marvel brought Marvel’s heroes and heroines to newsagents across Britain every week, establishing a new fan base and influencing an upcoming generation of comic creators.
The exhibition also shines a light on the many British creators who provided art for iconic superheroes including Batman, Spider-Man, Hellboy and Hit-Girl, including works by Brian Bolland, David Lloyd, Doug Braithwaite and Alison Sampson.
On the way you’ll discover British attempts to imitate American strips in the 1940s, find out the story behind the 1972 launch of Marvel UK, and enjoy stunning artwork by key figures from DC Comics and the British Invasion. You’ll even get to see the costume of a real-life British superhero!
The exhibition features an incredible collection of original Sunday Paper Strips and artworks from the early 1900s and wonderful British and American comic art from the 1950s to the modern day. Among these are works by legendary names such as Jack Kirby, Jack Davis and Tarpe Mills.
Since the 1938 publication of Action Comics #1 the world has fallen more and more in love with American comic books, right up to the box office success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Drawing inspiration from popular characters of the 1940s, such as Popeye and Aquaman, the Brits took no time proving they could do it just as well as the Americans, leading to decades of collaboration and competition across the Atlantic. Through this exhibition you will be able to step back in time and see just how right they were.
The Cartoon Museum can be found at 63 Wells Street, Fitzrovia, London, W1A 3AE. Easy to get to, the museum is 5 minutes walk from Oxford Circus underground.
The exhibition is open now and runs until 20th October 2024.
For more information visit the website at www.cartoonmuseum.org
Or call: 020 7580 8155.
Charles Dickens and his Pets
Faithful Companions Charles Dickens’ Pets
A new exhibition, opening this Spring, will be the first to celebrate the animals that found their way into the books and homes of Charles Dickens.
Throwing the spotlight on to the dogs, ravens, goldfinches and cats who shared houseroom with the Dickens family, as well as Dickens’s horses and the animals that became characters in stories such as Oliver Twist, Bleak House and Barnaby Rudge.
Charles Dickens, pictured with his favourite dog, a mastiff called ‘Turk’
Faithful Companions: Charles Dickens & his Pets runs from 15th May 2024 until 12th January 2025. The exhibition takes place at the Charles Dickens Museum at 48 Doughty Street, Holborn, the only house in which Dickens lived in London that survives.
Featuring handwritten letters, Dickens family picture albums, photographs and beautiful illustrations, the family-friendly exhibition will reveal the animals that shared Dickens’s life.
Charles Dickens’s children with Grip the raven by Daniel Maclise c.1841.
Katey, Walter (in the hat)
Charles Junior (centre) & Mary
It will be full of tales of Dickens’s pets, including the household havoc caused by beloved raven Grip, who loved an inappropriate peck, became a character in Barnaby Rudge and was believed to have been the inspiration for Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven.
You can also find out about Bob the cat, who regularly put out Dickens’s reading light in a persistent bid for attention. Many of the tales are told by Charles Dickens himself, in a series of rarely-seen letters.
Younger visitors will head for the exhibition’s story space, to don costumes, dive into books and games and create their own animal stories on the top floor of the home in which Dickens wrote many of his own.
In the garden at Doughty Street
In the first half of the 19th century, when the Dickens family lived at Doughty Street, London had become a city full of animals, with cattle heading to Smithfield Market, dogs performing in the streets and horses pulling carts and omnibuses. A great chronicler of society, Dickens captured this Victorian profusion of animals in his stories and his journals.
48 Doughty Street is where he wrote the stories that made him an international superstar. When Dickens and his young family moved into the home in the 1830s, he was a budding author, unknown to most, but by the time the family left, Dickens was world famous, having written a trio of wildly successful novels – The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby – in his study at home.
The Charles Dickens Museum is the world’s most comprehensive repository of material related to Charles Dickens. It is located at 48 Doughty Street, London, the home of Charles Dickens and his family in the late 1830s.
While living here, Dickens completed The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, alongside editing Bentley’s Miscellany. With a rich collection of over 100,000 items spanning the whole of Dickens’s life and beyond, a research library and archive, an education programme, university partnerships, public events and a series of changing special exhibitions, the Museum acts as a hub for the study and appreciation of Dickens’s life and work.
The Dining Room at Charles Dickens Museum in Doughty Street
The collection includes furniture, personal effects, letters, manuscripts, rare editions, paintings, prints, and photographs.
Doughty Street is a place of pilgrimage for people from all over the world – fans, scholars, researchers, writers – and it is a place of learning for thousands of children and young people.
Faithful Companions: Charles Dickens & his Pets is at The Charles Dickens Museum, 48-49 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LX.
The nearest tube station to the museum is Russell Square, which is only a 5-minute walk from the front door.
Opening hours: 10am to 5pm, Wednesday – Sunday (closed Mondays and Tuesdays).
Exhibition dates: 15th May 2024 – 12th January 2025.
To book tickets and for more information visit www.dickensmuseum.com
Or call: 020 7405 2127.
Sixtyplusurfers Competition
Win a Finches Friend Bird Feeder Bundle
Sixtyplusurfers has teamed up with Finches Friend Nature to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a Bundle of Three Bird Feeders.
Our fabulous prize includes, a Cleaner Window Feeder, a Cleaner Peanut Feeder and a Cleaner Feeder 1 hanging seed feeder.
Cleaner Peanut Feeder has been created to combat the spread of disease in wild birds and its simple design makes it easy to clean and fill. We recommended it be filled with peanuts certified free of Aflatoxin, which is poisonous and harmful to small birds. Priced at an RRP of £29.99.
Cleaner Window Feeder is perfect for urban areas, smaller gardens or for anyone who wants to feel closer to nature. With two feeding perches, the smaller trough-shaped, feed areas, ensure that the food stays dry and cannot be contaminated. RRP is £23.95.
Cleaner Feeder 1, a hanging seed feeder, features a single chamber. It holds up to 1.79l of food, more than the capacity of a standard feeder. RRP £44.99.
Dick Woods, Founder of Finches Friend Nature, tells his story. “Hello, it’s a pleasure to have this opportunity to talk with you about Finches Friend Nature and our vital bird feeding products. At 67 I’m, no spring chicken, and feel passionately about protecting wild birds, before we lose species that I remember seeing in great numbers as a boy.
“In my younger days, I was fortunate to travel the world, dabbling in various industries like oil and construction vehicles. I’ll be the first to admit, I wasn’t the brightest, but I like to solve problems and have the persistence to do so.
“The natural world wasn’t my priority, I had a family to feed, but as time progressed my priorities shifted. I became increasingly concerned about the world we’re leaving for our children and grandchildren.
“There’s a phrase I like to use: ‘The more I learn, the less I know.’
“Nowadays, I’m a far cry from the man I was then. Blood sports make my skin crawl, I take pride in having vegetarian days, and the thought of trophy hunters brings tears to my eyes. The changing climate and dwindling forests keep me up at night.
“Did you know that just 4% of mammals are left in the wild? A sobering thought.
“Tragedy struck in my garden a few years back, when around 40 Greenfinches perished, and it was then that I knew I had to act. When it happened, and my beloved Greenfinches fell victim to disease, I had no idea that wild bird feeding could have such negative consequences.
“As I delved into the research, I uncovered eye-opening truths. It turns out, when we invite large numbers of different bird species to feed intensively, they’re more likely to share diseases.
“The Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (CWHC) has produced ground-breaking science on this topic, and I highly recommend giving it a read. Armed with this knowledge, a stroll through the garden centre or a browse through bird feeding websites might just leave you feeling enlightened and outraged.
“The disease that claimed my Greenfinches is called Trichomonosis, a parasitic illness spread through saliva and faeces around wild bird feeders. To give this more perspective, Trichomonosis became endemic in the UK in 2005 and by 2018 it had killed 5 million Greenfinches and Chaffinches. That number now is more like 6.5 million and Greenfinches are now red listed and endangered in the UK.
“But there is hope. According to the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (CWHC), there are steps we can take to combat this and other diseases. The advice is simple. Feed dry food from a perch, avoid enabling birds to walk and defecate in the food, and steer clear of secondary feeding. It’s all about keeping those feeders clean and hygienic.
“Seven years ago, when I turned 60, the last thing on my mind was starting another business, but as they say, fate works in mysterious ways, and armed with this information, I set about creating our unique bird feeders.
“Whilst my product design experience led to the creation of the feeders, I must give credit where it’s due – none of this would be possible without my partner in crime!
“For me, a hard drive used to mean a journey from Canterbury to Liverpool, a trip I made quite often. Little did I know it’s actually part of a computer! So when it came to making Finches Friend a success, I knew I needed a modern touch.
“That’s where my son Andrew comes in. While I’ve spent my life in engineering, tinkering with products for commercial vehicles, Andrew is the real keyboard king, always keeping up with the latest trends, managing our website, supporting customers, and I even let him feedback on the product designs occasionally!
“Since the loss of the birds in my garden all those years ago, and the development of our first Cleaner Feeder, we’ve built a complete solution for ethical bird feeding.
“Our range of hanging feeders, window feeders, and peanut feeders are designed with disease prevention at their core. Take our ZIG (Zero Invasive Guarding) product, for example, which keeps pesky parakeets and squirrels at bay.
“We’re also trialling our Cleaner Feeding Centre, which promises to revolutionise the way we deal with feeder waste, significantly reducing the risk of secondary feeding. Cleaner Nest Boxes are also on the horizon!
“For many of us, bird tables, open food trays, and bird baths have long been considered harmless. The truth is, they can unwittingly contribute to the spread of diseases like Trichomonosis. The parasite can survive in damp food for up to 48 hours.
“Put another way, you wouldn’t feed a cat or a dog from a bowl that’s been left out in all weather, used by every animal on the street, walked in and defecated in. So why do we let birds feed this way!?
“At Finches Friend, we’ve made it as easy as possible to keep your feeders clean and dry, ensuring the health and wellbeing of our feathered friends. But Trichomonosis isn’t the only concern. Other diseases found on and around bird feeders, like Salmonellosis and Avian Influenza, are real concerns and disease spread on feeders is an issue that should be taken very seriously, for our sake, and the birds that use them.
“Please remember to clean your feeders at least weekly, using hot water, detergent, and a dash of disinfectant. Discard any unused food and ensure that the feeders are completely dry before putting them back up. Wear rubber gloves and don’t forget to wash your hands thoroughly afterwards!
“Since beginning this journey, we’ve learned so much about the plight of wild birds, and we’re proud to have built a business that’s unique in putting bird welfare first.
“There are six and a half million reasons why we need to make a change, and that number is growing by the day…..
“Together, we can make a difference.”
For more information about Finches Friend visit www.finchesfriend.com
For Your Chance to Win
Simply tell us how many greenfinches have currently been lost to Trichomonosis in the UK?
a) Around 6.5 million
b) Around 2.5 million
c) Around 10 thousand
d) Around 5 thousand
To Enter the Competition
Tell us how many greenfinches have currently been lost to Trichomonosis? Then send in your answer together
with your full name, postal address
and telephone number to
the Sixtyplusurfers email address sixtypluscomp@hotmail.co.uk
or click on the green link below:
* Please label your entry
Finches Friend Competition
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Graham Norton National Tour
Graham Norton Tour
to Celebrate Novel
Graham Norton Autumn Tour to celebrate release of novel, ‘Frankie’
Graham Norton, the nation’s favourite talk show host and author, is celebrating the release of his latest novel Frankie, published by Coronet, with a brand-new tour this autumn. An Evening with Graham Norton sees Graham discuss Frankie and share hilarious tales from his star-studded sofa, and turns the tables on himself to answer the audiences questions.
Frankie is an immersive, decade-sweeping story that brims with Graham’s trademark heart, intelligence and compellingly written characters. The novel takes us from small-town, conservative Ireland in the 1940s to the dazzling art scene of 1960s New York, via London, and tells the story of Frankie Howe, who has never been the leading lady in her own life.
Frankie has lived a long life and her small London flat is crammed full of art, furniture and memories. Damian, her young Irish carer, listens as she gradually tells him parts of her story – a story that takes us into a progressive, daring world of New York artists on the brink of fame, aspiring writers and larger-than-life characters.
Graham’s previous novels, Holding, A Keeper, Home Stretch and Forever Home, became instant bestsellers both in the UK and Ireland and won him outstanding praise from across all media and the literary community.
Holding won the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction. A Keeper was shortlisted for both the Specsavers Popular Fiction Award and the Irish book award. Home Stretch won the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction and has been optioned for a major TV series. Holding was made into a major ITV drama, directed by Kathy Burke, and Forever Home was shortlisted at the 2022 An Post Irish Book Awards.
He has won every major television award including nine BAFTAs, ten British Comedy Awards, the NTA Special Recognition Award and an International Emmy. He presents The Graham Norton Show on BBC One, The Eurovision Song Contest, hosts Wheel of Fortune for ITV and Last One Laughing Ireland for Amazon Prime, and is a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.
This is a rare opportunity to see one of the nation’s most beloved stars live. Various ticket options available, each including a copy of Graham’s latest novel. Frankie will publish on 12th September with a major new package and rebrand.
For tour dates and to get tickets visit www.socomedy.co.uk
Celebration of James Joyce
Derry Says Yes to Molly Bloomsday!
Siobhán McSweeney
This year, for the first time, Bloomsday, the annual celebration of James Joyce and his masterpiece Ulysses, will become Molly Bloomsday as it spreads north of the border from Dublin for a spectacular all-women inaugural event in Derry~Londonderry and Donegal. More than 30 female artists and performers from across Europe will converge on Northern Ireland for YES, a new, free festival of female creativity inspired by Joyce’s most famous female character, Molly Bloom.
From 13-16 June 2024, Derry~Londonderry will be alive with dance, music, food, art, literature and spectacle, culminating in an epic 18-hour finale transposing the famed Dublin locations of Ulysses to new places north of the Irish border.
Fiona Shaw
Among the many highlights of YES will be the world premiere of The Molly Films, a new cinematic suite giving a fresh presentation of a literary masterpiece and featuring a cast of some of the UK and Ireland’s finest actors, including Dame Harriet Walter, Fiona Shaw, Adjoa Andoh, Siobhán McSweeney and Eve Hewson. Each actress will take one of the eight mammoth ‘sentences’ which form the closing episode of Ulysses, famously known as Molly’s Soliloquy.
Each year, on 16th June, the day on which Ulysses is set, ‘Bloomsday’ celebrations take place in Dublin and across the world, with readings, performances and costumed revellers hailing Joyce and the book’s central character, Leopold Bloom. This year, as 16th June becomes Molly Bloomsday for the first time, artists and audiences will take part in an epic YES finale.
Dame Harriet Walter
From 8am on Sunday 16th June to 2am on Monday 17th June, an 18-hour cultural Joycean journey across Derry~Londonderry and north Donegal will see Ulysses’ Dublin scenes re-interpreted across the compelling and evocative urban and rural scenery of Ireland’s north-west. Molly Bloomsday will be a glorious reimagining of Bloomsday in the city’s streets, bars, historic Guildhall Square and walls and the beaches and coastline of Donegal.
A freewheeling day of literature, music, food, film, conversation, performance, song and surprises, decorated with folklore, mythology and Irish history, Molly Bloomsday will begin at 8am with breakfast at Donegal’s Iron-Age sun-fort An Grianán of Aileach with a dramatic backdrop of the estuary of Lough Swilly sweeping northwards into the Atlantic Ocean.
Adjoa Andoh
It will take in the spectacular beach at Lisfannon (known in Irish as ‘Lios Feannáin’), before heading into the city for a packed day and evening of events, culminating in late-night music with Miss Trouli from Athens at the City Taphouse before a final stumble home at 2am the next day. As in the novel, at dawn (4.48am) the final event of Molly Bloomsday will be the global digital release of The Molly Films.
The YES Festival is led by female curators Shauna Kelpie (The Sixteen Nations), Martina Devlin (NOW), Tracey Lindsay (designer of The Molly Bed) and Margaret Kelly (Project Manager) and is produced and co-curated by Seán Doran and Liam Browne of ARTS OVER BORDERS, which has developed the ULYSSES European Odyssey with partners across the 18 European cities. Seán Doran says, “In the final episode of Ulysses, Molly’s long-and-winding stream of consciousness begins and ends with the word ‘yes’.
“This inspired us to pull Joyce’s Dublin-based story north to Derry~Londonderry, where ‘yes’ is used as a greeting, a colloquial form of ‘hello’. While it’s possibly an audacious move to take Bloomsday north in such dramatic fashion, it’s not out of keeping with Joyce’s own history.
“He shifted the nationalities of several of the characters and moved the locations of his own 1914 novella, Giacomo Joyce, from Italy to Ireland, and not all of Ulysses is set in Dublin. YES will be crammed with spectacle. Just over 100 years after the publication of Ulysses, we are excited to be giving Molly Bloom the limelight for once – though we hope this is only the beginning for an annual Molly Bloomsday up North.”
YES is the culmination of the ULYSSES European Odyssey, the largest-ever Ulysses celebration, which began in three of the European cities in which it was written – Trieste, Zürich, Paris – and comes home to both parts of Ireland for the last two episodes.
In mid-1921, as the Government of Ireland Act was dividing the island of Ireland into Republic and Northern, James Joyce was writing the 18th and final episode of Ulysses (Penelope). Joyce was acutely aware of the sober reality taking place in his home country. Particularly revealing in Ulysses’ final episode is Molly Bloom’s pro-Britishness in contrast to Leopold Bloom’s pro-Sinn Fein sympathies. Joyce chose Molly’s fictional birthplace as Gibraltar, a colony. She grew up in a military family, her father being in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, loved the sound of marching bands and her first two lovers were military men.
Eve Hewson
Ulysses was originally published in serial form in American literary magazine, The Little Review from 1918 to 1921, at which point copies of the magazine were seized and impounded by the Post Office, which refused to distribute them on grounds of obscenity. Further publication of the novel was banned in the US and UK. Ulysses was published as a book for the first time in 1922, by Sylvia Beach, owner of Paris bookshop, Shakespeare and Company.
YES dates: 13-16 June 2024 (exhibitions open June 10th).
To book and for more information, please visit www.yesderry.com