In August 1984, Linda Marrinon, Geoff Lowe and I were staying at The Royalton (44 West 44th Street) in New York. For Linda and I, it was our first overseas excursion. With Vivienne Shark LeWitt, we started our Grand Tour in Rome, exhibited at ‘ANZART’ in Edinburgh, then continued to London where Vivienne stayed on. Steven Bush joined us in NY (*his exhibition at Sutton Gallery has just opened) where we spent our days mostly visiting museums. (Experiencing 'Ghost Busters' in a New York cinema was fun, too. Very meta.) After a substantial renovation, MoMA had just re-opened with ‘An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture’. It included some Australians, a rare event even for white Anglo male non-indigenous: Peter Booth, Paul Boston, Tony Coleing, Mike Parr.
I had grown up admiring Tina Turner’s awesome 'River Deep, Mountain High' (1966), before my similar regard for Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone and Janis Joplin. While in NY, one afternoon I heard on local radio that Tina Turner was about to start a new tour in the wake of her breakthrough return single ‘What’s love got to do with it?’. She would be at The Ritz (119 East 11th Street) that night.
So, beer and pizza in an East Village restaurant with another music survivor Screamin' Jay Hawkins busking us with his ‘I put a spell on you’ (1956), then off to join the queue at The Ritz. Hawkers stalked the queue trying to sell us their (real or fake?) inflated-price tickets. Eventually I bit and was one of the last to get inside before FULL HOUSE and a great performance.
Today, news that Tina has died aged 83. The final para of a New York Times review of that August 1984 Ritz concert season :
“Miss Turner doesn't mind mocking herself; after a hip-shaking, knee- swinging rendition of a rock song, she pauses for a deep, sweeping, bow, delivered with a diva's hauteur. Yet in her own way, Miss Turner has as much dignity as any performer now working. If there have to be sex symbols, Tina Turner is the best kind - wise, tough and adult.”
VALE TINA
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Tina's Audience of Respect
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
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