"God Save the Queen!" - getting shirty about the Plight of the Bumblebee

Mr Wesley took a sojourn in the South of France to see l'il Ocean and his mum and dad, slap bang in a spate of searing temperatures. Unable to do much outside he was watching telly in the cool interior one morning and found himself progressively more and more in a funk as items about fracking, elephant poaching and the plight of the bumblebee followed one upon the other. And so he came up with a rather clever  idea for a "God Save the Queen" bee-shirt.

To get you in the mood, here's a musical interlude: a novel version of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble-Bee", played on the accordion, which seems a propos as Mark had the idea in France:

Upon his return, we buzzed along to the end of our road to take advice from the good folk at Roots & Shoots there. They teach young people with learning difficulties how to nurture gardens and they also house the London Beekeepers' Association. http://www.rootsandshoots.org.uk/
We shyly sought out David Perkins who takes care of the wild garden to make sure we were on the right track. We found him occupied with a party of six year olds, schooling them in bee husbandry. He threw a couple of suits at us, told us to get Velcro-ed up and tag along. So there we were covered head to ankle, with gauntlets covering our hands, but not having anticipated this turn of events we were wearing flip flops. You will be relieved to hear our tootsies survived unstung.

Mr Wesley contemplates the weedy pond in the wild garden at Roots & Shoots

It gets warm in there

Mr Wesley entertaining the children whose tour we crashed

Then we headed out to the hives where David Perkins smoked the inhabitants into action.

Back in his office, while the children ate their packed lunches, David approved the graphic and gave us a poster and more information on what we can all do to help reverse the decline in the bee population. Buzzing with excitement we ran back to the yard and got printing:

Extract from the text on the back:

Bombus Bedlamus!  Create asylum for bees: plant more flowers!
“Bumblebees are key factors in our wildlife. If they disappear many of our plants will not bear fruit. I am proud to be associated with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust”. Sir David Attenborough

bumblebeeconservation.org

You can buy the shirt on our e-shop, and these two new styles also:
the Earl's crown (in white, navy or taupe) -
http://earlofbedlam.bigcartel.com/product/earl-of-bedlam-summer-2013-t-shirt

and the newly remixed for Kennington, reprinted classic Bedlam Motorcycle Club - http://earlofbedlam.bigcartel.com/product/bedlam-motorcycle-t-shirt:

And in the final burst of exciting shirt-related news, we are delighted to announce that we now offer a bespoke shirt service. Come in for a consultation, be measured up for a pattern and choose from the finest Lancashire cottons. Put your dream shirt together (lady's or gentleman's) with the details you desire - collar, cuff, monogram, all to play with. Reward your wardrobe with beautifully made, British clothes. Do not let another craftsman or bee become extinct in the UK!

For your beach reading, you still have a chance to pick up the August issue of "JazzWise" magazine, with the British jazz quartet Empirical on the cover, dressed by Bedlam.

Rebirth of the website

Here is a postcard from Kennington, where the heat wave has temporarily abated. This missive is dedicated to Lyn, one of our most loyal subscribers, who gave us a nudge the other day, saying it was July 17th since we last posted. How delighted we are that anyone should notice!

Someone who spreads sunshine wherever he goes is our friend Nile Rodgers, by popular consensus "Man of the Year", whose song for Daft Punk, "Get Lucky" has been the global soundtrack to the summer. It was #1 in scores of countries including the UK, US, France and Australia. For readers on Mars who may not have heard it, it goes a little something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I

GQ magazine did a piece on Nile's personal style and what a thrill to find Bedlam given props by il Maestro! -
http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/style/articles/2013-08/08/nile-rodgers-chic-album-2013-interview
In it he made us glow with pride at these words:
"On some level, with certain tailors, I have a love affair with the bespoke process. There's this label Earl of Bedlam, a new line coming up here in London. Their rap is that they use nothing but the finest English [British] fabrics. I have some wonderful woollen suits. Even their T-shirts are extraordinary: there are a couple of shots of a three piece white suit [founder] Mark Wesley made for me in a magazine called Jocks & Nerds. He's making some stuff for me now - he's dying to make clothing for the girls but I don't want him to. We'll ruin them every show. We try and wear something different every performance and I hate to go through bespoke clothing - we sweat this stuff up and it's really not nice."

Generous as ever, he sorted us out for tickets to see him with his band Chic at the O2. We took along our friend and client, Mr Willis, who - factoring in the International Date Line, being born in Sidney, Australia - shares a birthday with Nile as well as a penchant for Bedlam, and also, it would appear, was surely the inspiration for Nile's song "The Greatest Dancer", at least on the evidence of that night:

Mr Willis bought a new shirt with a silver thread for the occasion of meeting Nile, with whom he shares a birthday and a crazy beat

Another of our celebrated musical clients is one's old mate Goldie, who funnily enough ALSO shares a birthday with Nile, so maybe to be born a Virgo is to be predisposed towards Bedlam?  G made it down to the studio a few weeks ago. I met him at Lambeth North tube station and we walked along Hercules Road toward our corner of the Lambeth Walk. I was conscious that a trio of inebriated locals were following so close on our heels that their breath was hot on our necks. So Goldie turned and flashed that famous smile at which point they came over all bashful to ask if he would pose for a picture with them. He complied with grace and I was reminded of how far the kid the Wolverhampton has come and how he possesses that rare common touch whereby my old mum and dad were quite as thrilled pink to see him again as were the tail-gating tinny drinkers.

Goldie in our "Harry" jacket, softest nubuck suede shooting jacket with biker zip sleeves

Happiness is seeing your old mates

Goldie in the "Tectonic" suit

"Don't wrap it, I'll wear it home" - G in the Ventile mac he chose, with Mr Wesley holding the new rolls of Ventile

Afterwards, G popped in to see Ma & Pa Butler , to their rosy delight

So clients celebrated and otherwise are now collated in galleries on our lovely new website, same address as it ever was, www.earlofbedlam.co.uk
We are so happy with how it looks and must give heaps and heaps of thanks to Henry Dinkel and Sophie Sweerts for making it happen http://www.dinkelandsweerts.com/portfolio/ and to our assorted photographers and models who donated time and talent in enormous measure. Ben Amure http://www.benjaminamure.com/ , Danny Lowe http://www.dannylowe.com/ and our New York star both sides of the lens, Jeffrey Mellor aka Redboy http://www.streetandstage.com/

It behoves us to give big retrospective props to friend since time began, Chrissey Sullivan, who so kindly made our first website / holding page that showed Hogarth's famous scene where the Rake has "Progressed" to Bedlam. It also bore one of my favourite quotes, from Nathaniel Lee, playwright and one time real life resident of Bedlam:
"They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me."
It served us well, and we shall always be grateful to Chrissey for constructing that for us.

I'm a little deconstructed, under the weather with some summer lurgy so am going to have an early dinner which Mr Wesley is about to serve (he is extremely handy with a stove) and get myself to bed, but the next post will be tomorrow - can Lyn keep up?! - to update you on our new shirts. Until then Bedlamites.

Rock'n'Roll Royalty

Regular readers will be aware of the beneficent avuncular role our main clothier Huddersfield Fine Worsted plays in our life these days. So when HM the Queen decided a jolly way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of her coronation was to invite all the Royal Warrant Holders - suppliers of goods to the Royal Household - to the gardens of Buckingham Palace, they invited us to ride through the gates on their coat tails. So on Thursday July 12th we first rode the bus over the bridge then walked across St. James' Park to the big house on the far side of the lake.

It was blazing hot as we walked around the gardens and chatted with folk from other companies, from Walker's Shortbread to Bentley Cars. We introduced ourselves to James from Lock & Co., the hatters of St. James and he said, "I know Earl of Bedlam!" 

We reminded him that we had posted a picture to their Facebook page of Rollo wearing one of our Tectonic suits, styled with a vintage shellacked coke of theirs, and he exclaimed that he had liked it very much. So that was worth the bus fare on its own.

Next we nosed around the beautiful Bentleys and noticed a familiar set of tools - including a fork, that I imagined someone had inadvertently left out after lunch. Noel Thompson, their master craftsman from Crewe, explained that Bentley invented a fancy machine to make the holes for the leather steering wheel covers to be stitched together, as the slightest bit too tight or slack can cause blisters for the driver. But it never got it as correct and comfortable for the human hand to hold as a human hand and the tines of a fork! Then he let me have a go at stitching it myself and presented me with a piece of their lovely leather embossed with the winged "B".

I got to have a go (and yes, it's been a while since I had my blond swoosh roots done)

Me and Noel with one I made earlier

My feet were on fire by the end of the afternoon, I could have done with soaking them in the little stream that feeds the huge lake in the Queen's back garden, or getting a lift home in one of the spare old cars that were left lying around all over the place like Steptoe's yard.

Then at 4.30pm we all had to troop out in order to return again a few hours later for the concert. I asked a policeman if we could just climb a tree and hide there til showtime. "We will find you Ma'am," he assured me.

Once home - luckily only the other side of Westminster Bridge - I could barely contemplate putting my shoes back on but anaesthetised with a glass of wine, I did and I was glad of it. It was a beautiful evening. Chris Evans was filming the One Show live and we presented him with a business card, saying we considered he goes rather well with our company name. He scrutinised it and laughed, "LOVE IT!!"

Dame Kyrie Te Kanawa sang the National Anthem - not in my key - but wearing my kinda pink. People were politely enthusiastic during the concert, we had to wait to the following night to let our hair down.

There are often extended pauses 

between blogs as I generally await the conclusion to some project or escapade in order to post the full story in one chunk. You will know if you dip into our Facebook page that we are in the process of launching our first series of silk scarves and pocket squares. And if you didn't already, please be persuaded to give our page a thumbs up "Like":

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Earl-of-Bedlam/157642327606726

While we have been engaged in the artwork and trying to get clearances from the chosen subjects where required, we took on a charming new client, Miss. Curbishley. We are making her a trouser suit for school. 

As I wrote on our Facebook page, she is, as you can see above, a beautiful girl born into an environment of some cool privilege. This might, you could be forgiven for expecting, have engendered a sense of entitlement and a certain aloof reserve. However her heart is as warm as her face is lovely and much credit for this must of course go to her mum and dad. Bill, her papa, is a legendary figure in the music and film world. He manages The Who and Judas Priest and used to look after Jimmy Page & Robert Plant . He produced those peaks of British cinema -"Tommy", "Quadrophenia" and "McVicar". His latest film project, "The Railway Man", stars Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. 

http://thebestyoumagazine.co/who-is-the-man/ 

And the enthusiasm and support of her mummy has thoroughly refreshed and reinvigorated our spirits. When we showed her the artwork for the scarves, Marcela helped the project along by pre-ordering a sumptuously large Clara Bow, as indeed did Madame Randolfi-Favel, head knitwear designer at Prada. When I mentioned we were still trying to get Keith Richards' blessing  http://www.keithrichards.com/ on his portrait in order to proceed she not only offered me a ticket for the Rolling Stones http://www.rollingstones.com/ in Hyde Park but said they would take on presenting it on our behalf. In my fevered imagination I pictured Bill getting backstage just as they were about to go on, Keith going "Wow, that's cool man", putting it round his neck and amblin' out to the roar of the crowd. Well. It didn't quite go like that. But take it on trust that we are sat with baited breath on some word back this week. Which is a diversion from my usual whole-book-not chapters blogging technique, but if we're suffering in the heat of suspense then you can jolly well join us in it.

So there was I on that beautiful evening last Saturday, hair down, hippie dress on, in the posh pen at the front of the stage, feeling thirty years younger in the company of my youthful companions - Miss. Curbishley and her two pals - when a chap in the crowd handed me a cold beer and a compliment, as the only woman who had co-ordinated her eye colour with her dress - red (no, cornflower blue). My cup, or my beer bottle anyway, did bubble over at that point. Then he added, "Are you their chaperone?" 

Bubble burst.

But the beer tasted so good that I merely smiled benignly.

In the course of the Hunt for The Keef we found ourselves a few months back at the private view of Ronnie Wood's exhibition at his gallery on Bruton Street, Mayfair  http://www.castlegalleries.com/artists/ronnie-wood#collection 

A nice man made conversation with us, we figured he mustn't know anybody, so we kept him company for a while. Watching the BBC coverage of Glastonbury the other week, we shrieked and pointed at the screen, for there he was on stage, one-time member of the band returned, Mick Taylor. 

On another day we were on Savile Row to collect fabric from Holland & Sherry (for Ms. Curbishley's suit indeed). In the little lift on the way back down I ran through our Priority To-do list for the day, top of which was "Find Keef". The lift doors opened and there was Ronnie Wood waiting to get in as we got out. I am not normally stunned or mute but I returned his friendly grin with a slack jaw. And then he was gone.

Not Keith

Swinging with the Stones in Hyde Park

Here's some pix of our quarry:

My lovely chaperones. NOT the other way round. And not, obviously, Keith.

KEITH!!! Was the flash of red our scarf??!! No.

Mick Jagger walking over the crowd but if it's not Keith walking toward me then it's not helpful

Not Keith, but Ronnie. Surprisingly fine painter as well, but not Keith.

Keith looked like he was having a good time, and I certainly was

Not only is it Keith but it is SMILEY Keith (we had worried he didn't look too chipper at Glastonbury)

Not only Keith, but Keith with our pal Mick Taylor

Attention seeker

Keith and Charlie, who also look surprisingly happy, possibly as this may be their last gig and he won't have to tour 

What it is we're trying to get to him, Anna McNeil's beautiful portrait that we commissioned, printed on silk satin crepe, as yet unhemmed in this picture

So we hope to have the full and concluded story of our first series of silk scarves, Les Fool'ards de Bedlam, wrapped up and posted soon. Don't go wandering off now!