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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZMELLY, George(b Alan George Heywood Melly, 17 August 1926, Liverpool; d 5 July 2007) UK singer and art critic. He sang with the Mick Mulligan jazz band '51-62 (trumpeter Mulligan d 20 December 2006) and drew the popular Flook comic strip '56-71; worked as a journalist. His scandalous and hilarious book Owning Up about his jazz career attracted attention; his brief pen portrait of Mulligan's bassist Gerry Salisbury was an example of his accuracy as a journalist and raconteur. The spirit of his music was not washed away by rock'n'roll; he returned to singing with John Chilton '73 and had a BBC TV show called Good Time George. A great admirer of Bessie Smith, he was a popular and likeable character wearing outrageously loud clothes. His views on music are a bit mouldy fig: jazz should be 'good time music', as though Smith's art came from starring on Broadway. LPs with Chilton's Feetwarmers included Nuts (after his cover of Eva Taylor's 'Hot Nuts'), followed by Son Of Nuts '73 on WEA, Melly Is At It Again '76 on Reprise; Sings Hoagy (from Ronnie Scott's Club), Sings Fats Waller, Let's Do It, Like Sherry Wine and Makin' Whoopee '78-83, all on Pye/PRT. Other books included I Flook '62, Revolt Into Style (rock criticism), more autobiography Rum, Bum And Concertina '77, Mellymobile '83. |