In the presence of the Divine – the inimitable Audra McDonald – portraying Billie Holliday in her final days, lives and breathes the Legend with an enthralling ingenuity – a heartbeat away from the Icon herself.
The Musical Play – LADY DAY – at The Wyndham’s theatre written by Lanie Robertson is a revelation as Audra invites us to join her as she entices us into the world of Billie Holiday, the most revered Jazz artist of our time, along with the betrayal, despair, racism and genocide that were reflected in her lyrics. Audra’s performance is remarkable, with her undeniable talent and echoes of the Legend herself, with her underlying pain and the haunted memories of childhood abuse.
The magic is relived through Audra as what can only be described as a spiritual conduit for the Legend as she wails and weaves her way through the lyrics, portraying Holiday’s demise, and bringing us nearer to the torment which is tangible and inevitably touches each member of the audience.
We witness the impact as we encounter a nervous ripple of excitement that emanates from the crowd as the show delves into the intricacies of her relationships and drug abuse, and the tension of her musicians as she threatens to lose control at every turn, regaining composure by the skin of her music.
Responses are sometimes inappropriate when silence is demanded, but the house are invited to experience the images of Strange Fruit, with Blood on the Leaves, and God Bless the Child written after a confrontation with her Mother – which is a prickly way to spend an evening if you are not equipped.
But those of us who have already become familiar with the Legend and have explored her songs, will be prepared to take on the heady power of Billie Holiday so thrillingly performed by the multi-talented Grammy award winning Audra McDonald and spend the following days recovering from the intensity of the narrative and glory of the interpretation.
The show runs until 9th September, so beg, steal or borrow a ticket now to avoid disappointment.
Bruno Tilley visited us at Pinewood Studios recently as he was launching his new art based T-Shirt company and wanted to show us. We were definitely impressed with the T-shirts, but even more so with Bruno himself.
An old friend of Bruno’s told him ‘when something really bad happens, good will follow’ which is why in the turbulent industry of Music and Art, Bruno has always remained positive and focused on a good outcome.
It has certainly paid off and in spite of the fact that after Art School Bruno was living in a chaotic but rather creative squat, this is where he landed the dream job as designer at Island Records.
Bruno one of those rare individuals who is both creative and practical, and after enlisting a design team was the first person to create an ‘in house’ art department within a record label – his job description being ‘One foot in art and one in Marketing’.
His passion for art and music drove him to ensure that his success was not short lived, and he remained at Island Records for ten years having worked his way up to creative director and onto the board of directors. In that time he directed videos and lead campaigns for legends like Bob Marley, U2, Grace Jones and many more. Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley was the first music video that Bruno directed.
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Wherever possible he would like to meet with the artists first and then create their campaign image, which was a huge part of their ultimate success, both with their imagery as well as their music.
Not only has Bruno designed major album covers he has also produced various music videos and even music videos based on cult television series such as The Prisoner and Thunderbirds. Bruno was especially keen to do a video based on Thunderbirds as it was his favourite TV series growing up. You can see the Thunderbirds music video below. A little known fact is that as in the original TV series of Thunderbirds real human hands were used for close up shots, the human hands in the video are actually Bruno’s!
He always loved working with fellow creatives and commissioned some of the leading photographers, Illustrators, designers, film makers and even sculptors to create the campaigns.
Very often these campaigns would include T-shirts which were then worn by celebrities all over the world. Sometimes the T shirts sold more than the records.
During his time at Island Records, as one of his assignments Bruno fell head over heels in love with a beautiful young singer, who he discovered was dangerously addicted to heroin.
On Bruno’s mission to save the singer, he was beckoned into ghettos, drug dens, and rehab centres, and describes this phase of his life as now seeming unreal, “Every day was like living in a movie” As a form of a personal exorcism and warning to others Bruno took the experience and has written a full length feature film called ‘Hooked’ which he hopes to direct.
As painful as it was, Bruno felt it was a turning point in his life and is now happily married with a lovely young daughter, whom he absolutely adores.
So back to the T-shirts, if you log onto the Website, www.aware.zone you can see a wide range of images featuring top photographers, painters and image makers which are not only innovative, exciting but above all unique.
The quality is first class, and the high photographic imagery is indelible as they are produced with a dye process and which means they won’t fade. The T shirts are Eco friendly and printed using recycled plastic bottles leaving a positive footprint on the planet. The prices are great too, and I can feel several Birthday and Christmas presents coming on, as well as a few personal buys.
As we filmed Bruno he said he suddenly was feeling very serious, and joked that he is usually a very entertaining man. However, we looked at it from another perspective, as he reminisced over his incredibly creative and successful life, he was beginning to realise that Bruno Tilley is a bit of a legend himself, and one thing for sure – as he said when referring to his campaign with the young female singer, he ‘did it all for love’, and we know that it is the most powerful emotion of all.
Check out Bruno’s unique collection of Wearable Art at http://www.aware.zone/
You can see more of Bruno’s fantastic work on his website https://www.brunotilley.com/ You can like and follow Aware.Zone on twitter https://twitter.com/zone_aware
You can watch the exclusive interview with Bruno below
Twenty years have passed since that fateful night in Paris when we lost our beautiful Queen of Hearts in a tragic car accident. Since then there have been two very royal weddings close to home, with Charles and Camilla and William and Kate, and endless conspiracy theories with fingers pointed and questions raised as to the events leading up to Diana’s death in the tunnel.
Now, two decades on we are still talking about our People’s Princess, and with the recent documentaries around new footage of Diana in one, and rumblings of disapproval from the Palace in another, it is as if no time has passed at all.
The truth is we will probably never know what actually happened that night, and according to Ken Wharfe, her former bodyguard, who still maintains it was a tragic accident, if he had still been in charge of her welfare, she would never had been allowed to get into the Mercedes with a driver who had allegedly been drinking.
Others think differently, believing she was ‘dealt with’, as her romantic links with a Muslim, Dodi Fayed were getting serious.
If you are also a woman of a certain age, you will remember holding your breath as she delivered the iconic speech on Panorama in 2005, when she said ‘there were three of us in this marriage’. Our hearts went out to her then, and again when we saw the raw footage of her fresh faced and vulnerable as she poured her heart out to her sympathetic speech therapist.
Should the tapes have been allowed on television, of course they should – after all she shaped so many of our lives, and influenced the very essence of our mind set as she embarked on an adventure, starting out as an ordinary girl caring for children, marrying her Prince with a fairy tale Wedding, and then becoming the most powerful woman in the World.
It was the stuff that dreams are made of and we willingly bought into it as she went from strength, relating to her as she did to us and then with the birth of her boys, it all added to the illusion of her life and the belief that all was idyllic in the Palace of Perfection.
Little did we know that it was far from the truth. Whether or not Diana developed Bulimia before or after her discovery that Camilla was not going away is irrelevant. She was a naive 19 year old girl who loved her vocation as a Nanny and her camaraderie with her flat mates but was seduced into a Royal marriage with the promise of happy ever after.
Diana was abandoned from the minute she stepped foot into the Royal arena, and she had every reason to feel unsafe. She was surrounded by vultures who were feeding off her very life blood, and I don’t just mean the Paparazzi. Everyone wanted a part of her, were watching her every move and she just didn’t have the capacity to cope.
Charles was clearly in love with Camilla from the outset, and it is true you can’t choose who you fall in love with. Apart from that he was also under huge pressure to marry. But he underestimated the power of both his young wife and the people, and failed the mother of his children by burying his head in the sand as Diana cried out for his love and attention time and time again.
Not only was she left unsupported, but she was deemed to be unstable, and whispers of ‘madness’ and ‘out of control’ echoed around the walls of the Palace. A few hundred years before she would have been burned at the stake or beheaded, but at least then she wouldn’t have endured the humiliation and betrayal of the people close to her.
But Diana put on a public face with her Charity work, as a Mother and her other humanitarian activities, with an Oscar winning performance every day of her life. Nobody knew the underlying pain and devastation she was feeling, until it became impossible to conceal, and even after her divorce carried on with what she knew best.
Diana predicted that Charles would eventually marry Camilla, and it came to pass. But in the process Diana had been burnt by Charles time and time again, as he diminished her femininity in place of the adoration of his mistress, telling her that he had no intention of behaving differently to any Prince of Wales, who all had ‘other’ women.
In a recent television interview from Penny Junor, a rather stiff and starchy representative of the Royals, supporting Camilla with her sadly timed book about her own brush with infidelity with her serial adulterer husband Andrew Parker-Bowles, said that Camilla would definitely be Queen.
It is believed that Camilla is also desperate to be liked, and by no stretch of the imagination, even if you veer toward Camilla Camp, can you say that she has yet earned our respect or the right to be accepted as Queen.
I am also fascinated by the deafening silence of Prince William and Harry whose appearances were so spectacular in their recent documentary about their Mother, but they have not tried to prevent the other documentaries from going out.
They have come clean about their obvious lack of emotional support at the time of Diana’s death, and their instability that ensued, but have never actually aired their feelings about their father’s marriage to the person so many people blame for Diana’s demise.
July 12, 2026 100 BC Julius Caesar 1854 George Eastman 1895 Oscar Hammerstein II 1927 Frank Windsor 1928 Kathy Staff 1935 Roy Barraclough 1937 Bill Cosby 1943 Christine McVie 1947 Gareth Edwards
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