Sad News

 

not...the man named above...but titled after Ron Devious, CEO of Spagggettti Enterprises!

Allan Green - a memoir…

I began this idiosyncratic discursive nonsense with an acknowledgement to my close friend Allan Green who I’ve already credited with a vast majority of photographs on this site.  I am extremely saddened to report that Allan died on October 19th 2024.
Much more a figurative than abstract artist Allan was far more interested and attracted to the sessions run by Peter Redgrove than any other aspect of the art school offer.  I don’t recall exactly when but I’m sure it was only a few weeks in he also took up photography in a far more committed and serious fashion than most of the rest of our cohort.  John Wilkinson ran the photography studios high up in Kerris Vean the old house at the top of the small campus and was really helpful to anyone that wanted to engage with the medium (and to the film makers such as Denis Lowe - see this link to his much more comprehensive site on Falmouth).

Allan photographed in front of the photo montage at his degree show

Allan and myself, along with Jimmy Whitehead were the longterm residents of the Penwerris Inn and consequently got to know one another well.  I think it was our shared interest in literature and, especially poetry that bonded us - not least as Allan started to write quite seriously.  Encouraged by Redgrove and, I like to think, egged on by my occasional critiques (or crass commentary as you wish!) he developed a body of written work that stands the test of time.  The three books he produced, The Crack, HMS Air Rifle, Jim’s Dream and Devious are the backbone of his award of a first class Diploma - the only one awarded in our cohort of Painting students!   The last of these volumes is interspersed with photographs in a manner that years later might be termed Sebaldian - indeed Allan’s written work as a whole has something of the same stylistic range as that of the great man.  Oddly enough two years after completing his Diploma in 1973 Allan took a place on the (now) legendary Writing MA at East Anglia.  At the time, WG Sebald was settling into his lecturing berth at the University - I never got to ask Allan if they ever met though in our conversations that included his time in Norwich and our mutual interest in Sebald’s writing he never mentioned him, and his partner Moira tells me that they never had an encounter.  I shall post some extracts from these volumes on this site in the near future.

Like many many others, I miss him a great deal - our conversations down the years often touching on ‘those Ponderosa days’…

Squadron Leader & Bomber...

Jim in the studio with (I think) David Weekes with his back to the camera - note the famous VCS3 in the bottom right.  Another great photo from Allan Green.

I'm not sure if Jim Dymond was a Squadron Leader! but I'm fairly sure he had been in the RAF as a pilot and had come to college subsequently.  Being a decade or so older than most of us he provided intelligence & thoughtfulness to a group of youngsters who - and I'll speak only for myself here - sorely needed some of those qualities! In any event prompted by our painting tutor, Ron Smith, one of whose canvases (splendidly replete with his very avant garde cutouts) can be spied in the background, we formed the Ron Smith Group.  Ron was by this time heavily into his saxophone experimentation and encouraged us in our 'freeform jazz' aspirations.  So much so that when he wasn't around we set up a gig - in the lecture theatre - and produced a handbill to announce ourselves.

"Cruisin' with Squadron Leader Jim Dymond and his 'jets' Dave Manley, Allan Green, Jimmy Whitehead (Bomber)
'Mildly Electric' featuring Boy Scouts Night Out formerly the Ron Smith Group.
a) any other moment than this in a total state of experiences - LIVE IN ANY OTHER MOMENT
any phrase has time (length) but we appreciate this now - even memory. The phrase the music is only 'seen' in parts in its own moment - and realy (sic) cannot be considered outside this moment. "START AT THE BEGINNING AND END AT THE END" Sol Le Witt

I say 'we' but I'm fairly certain this was (substantially) the work of 'Bomber' Jimmy Whitehead.  Jimmy had been a pupil at the legendary Moseley Road School of Art, a specialist secondary for talented kids, and was a mercurial individual with an insatiable appetite for going 'out there'.  He has become a distinguished and feted composer with his alter ego JLiat and you can find out more about how this came about here.  The nascent beginnings of his complex philosophical music can be detected in the musings on the handbill - or not!

Jimmy Whitehead (other than on the handbill never nicknamed 'Bomber'!)

The text along the side of the bill runs:

'Tall, dark, straggly haired, middle aged, ex- R.A.F. pilot Jim Dymond leads his highly trained 'Jets' - 'Bomber' Jimmy Whitehead, languid Al Green (so tired of bein' alone) and Boy Genius Dave Manley into the strange moribund darkness of new music from under the wing of 'fledgling rock saxist' Ron Smith'.  Its a mark of Jim's decency that he never objected to any of the epithets and whilst Allan and myself have some decencies inflicted by a lifetime's experience to describe me as a 'boy genius' and he as 'languid' is something of a stretch!