THE CONTROVERSIAL & ECCENTRIC WORLD OF THE NOW DECEASED ARTIST LUCIAN FREUD…SUE TILLEY “THE MODEL” …..AND THE KRAYS

How Lucian Freud once owed £500,000 in gambling debts to gangland Kray twins

LucienFreud.jpg

Lucian Freud
Birth name Lucian Michael Freud
Born 8 December 1922
BerlinGermany
Died 20 July 2011 (aged 88)
LondonEngland
Spouse Kathleen “Kitty” Epstein (1948–1952; divorced)
Lady Caroline Blackwood (1953–1959; divorced)
Nationality British
Field Painting
Training Central School of Art


East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing


Goldsmiths College

NAKED  SELF PORTRAIT OF LUCIAN FREUD

Private: Lucian Freud spoke candidly about his gambling problem

Artist Lucian Freud ran up half a million pounds in gambling debts with gangland crimelords the Kray brothers.

Britain’s most renowned living artist said the brothers ‘forced’ money on him to feed his addiction, but he was only able to repay them in small amounts.

The 87-year-old confessed he once cancelled an exhibition out of fear they would demand more money if they saw he was earning.

The situation got so bad that at one point he received a warning from the police.

In a revealing interview, the notoriously private artist discussed the nights he spent in police cells for fighting, his relationship with Kate Moss and how he escorted Greta Garbo to nightclubs.

‘She was the most famous person in the world at that stage. I was very young, she was in her late thirties,’ he said of the actress.

‘The people in the clubs could not believe it.’

He said of Kate Moss, whom he met through his fashion designer daughter Bella: ‘She was interesting company and full of surprising behaviour,’ said Freud, who in 2002  painted a portrait of the heavily-pregnant and naked model in 2002.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, he said he was sometimes annoyed when Miss Moss was late for sittings ‘only in that way that girls are’.

He believes the painting was unsuccessful because photographers waited outside his house, disturbing his obsession with privacy.

Freud had a well-documented relationship with the Kray twins Reggie and Ronnie – with Reggie counting Freud amongst his favourite painters.

Club owner: Reggie Kray, centre, with Eddie Pucci, Frank Sinatra's bodyguard and Shirley Bassey in the early SixtiesClub owner: Reggie Kray, centre, with Eddie Pucci, Frank Sinatra’s bodyguard and Shirley Bassey in the early Sixties

Their paths crossed in the swinging Sixties demi-monde of  West End nightclub life.

As club owners the Krays mixed with politicians and great entertainers of the day including Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland Shirley Bassey and Barbara Windsor.

The artist once said of his gambling: ‘I always went all out. The idea of it being a sport seemed to me insane. The thing I liked was risking everything. Losing everything to do with money.’

A self-portrait of Freud nursing a black eye after a punch-up with a taxi driver sold for more than £2.8million last monthA self-portrait of Freud nursing a black eye after a punch-up with a taxi driver sold for more than £2.8million last month

He also explained his reasons for stopping gambling: ‘As I got more money, they wouldn’t take the bets and it just became pointless.

‘If I’d been in very high-powered card games with grand, rich people, perhaps, but that wasn’t what I did.’

The artist also disclosed he has four new muses: he is painting his assistant David Dawson; artist and printmaker Perienne Christian, 26; and two restaurateurs – Jeremy King, co-owner of The Wolseley where Freud frequently eats, and Sally Clarke, owner of Clarke’s in Kensington.

Artist and gambler: Freud in 1958Artist and gambler: Freud in 1958

Freud is the grandson of Sigmund Freud and was born in Berlin where, at the age of nine, he photographed Hitler.

The family moved to England in 1933 to escape the rise of Nazism, and became British citizens six years later.

Freud reveals their naturalisation was made possible by the intervention of the Duke of Kent.

Freud’s painting Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, a life-size portrait of Jobcentre worker Sue Tilley, sold for £17.2million in 2008.

It set the world record for the highest price paid in an auction for a work of art by a living artist.

He remains ambitious though, adding: I work every day and night. I don’t do anything else. There is no point otherwise.’

This month, a self-portrait of Freud nursing a black eye after a punch-up with a taxi driver sold for more than £2.8million at auction.

The artist has previously discussed his habit of getting into scrapes, saying: ‘I used to have a lot of fights.

‘It wasn’t because I liked fighting, it was really just that people said things to me to which I felt the only reply was to hit them.

STARS BEHIND BRAS AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL ……..JENNIE BELLESTAR

OUR TONGUE IN CHEEK, BIT OF HARMLESS FUN – STARS BEHIND BRA’S AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL CONTINUES TO GROW WITH THE ADDITION OF THESE ITEMS !!!! MORE TO FOLLOW…………. COME ON YOU CELEBS KEEP THEM COMING
LARGE ,MEDIUM OR SMALL SIZE DOES NOT MATTER HERE !!!!!!!!

SINCERE THANKS JENNIE FOR HAVING KINDLY CONTRIBUTED  ONE OF YOUR 1980’S  WELL WORN ON STAGE POLKA DOT BRA’S AND WONDERFUL EARLY PHOTOGRAPH OF YOURSELF WITH THE BAND.

GREATLY APPRECIATED AND WELCOME ADDITION TO OUR IMMORTALISED STARS BEHIND BRAS EXHIBITION HERE AT THE JAIL.

 

JENNIE BELLESTAR’S POLKA DOT BRA  COMPLETE WITH SIGNATURE AND DOODLE DRAWING

 

A VERY EARLY BELLE STARS SIGNED PUBLICITY PHOTO INSCRIBED TO LITTLEDEAN JAIL SENT WITH BRA AND LETTER

 

 

JENNIE BELLESTAR’S POLKA DOT BRA  COMPLETE WITH SIGNATURE AND DOODLE DRAWING

 

NOTE SENT WITH BRA AND PHOTO

AS ABOVE

 

CLOSE UP OF JENNIE BELLESTAR’S POLKA DOT BRA  COMPLETE WITH SIGNATURE AND DOODLE DRAWING

JENNIE PERFORMING WITH THE BELLE STARS IN EARLY 1980’S

 

SCREEN GRAB PIC FROM THE OFFICIAL IKO IKO VIDEO ….ALSO FEATURED IN THE GREAT CLASSIC FILM – RAINMAN

 

 

PICTURE DISK FOR THE CLASSIC HIT IKO IKO

SINGLE COVER FOR CLASSIC BELLE STAR HIT IKO IKO

 

JENNIE BELLESTAR PICTURED HEREON PHOTO SHOOT  AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL ON THE BACK OF THE ACE FACE QUADROPHENIA SCOOTER ALONGSIDE LEE THOMPSON OF MADNESS

 

 

The Belle Stars were an all female British rock band, founded in London in 1980 by former members of the 2 Tone ska revival bandThe Bodysnatchers.

Career

After The Bodysnatchers broke up, guitarists Stella Barker and Sarah-Jane Owen, saxophonist Miranda Joyce, keyboardist Penny Leyton, and drummer Judy Parsons decided to form a new band, recruiting bass player Lesley Shone and lead vocalist Jennie Matthias (also known as Jenny McKeown and Jenny Bellestar). Their first performance was on Christmas Day, 1980, before they had chosen a name.

Within a short time, the group became well known around London, notably appearing on the front cover of Sounds magazine early in 1981. Shortly thereafter, they were signed by Stiff Records, then highly successful due to its star act, Madness.

The band’s debut single, “Hiawatha” was released in the late spring of 1981, produced by Madness producers Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley. The band promoted the single by playing support for ska acts The Beat and Madness. However, the single failed to chart, despite continuing media attention.

The same production team was responsible for “Slick Trick”, the second single. It too failed to chart. Keyboard player Penny Leyton left the band late in the year, to be replaced on saxophone andkeyboards by Clare Hirst. Leyton later joined The Deltones.

When the third single, the radio friendly “Another Latin Love Song” again failed to break into the charts, the band tried cover versions instead, with some success. “Iko Iko“, a cover of The Dixie Cups‘ 1965 hit (later featured in the 1988 movie Rain Man), was The Belle Stars’ long-hoped-for UK Singles Chart debut, peaking at a modest number 35 in June 1982. The Belle Stars furthered this with “The Clapping Song” (their first top 20 hit), a remake of the 1965 Shirley Ellis hit, and then “Mockingbird”, a hit for Inez and Charlie Foxx in 1969 and James Taylor and Carly Simon in 1974.

In January 1983 the Belle Stars released what would be their signature single, “Sign of the Times”, peaking at number three, and a chart success throughout Europe. The song’s music video, showing the Belle Stars in tuxedos, was also played frequently by MTV in the United States. The song went on to become the 30th best selling single of 1983 in the UK.

It was followed a month later by the band’s eponymous debut album, which reached number 15 on the UK Albums Chart.[1] As with the band’s singles, it was a mix of original songs and cover versions, including Bob and Earl‘s “Harlem Shuffle” (covered three years later by the Rolling Stones on Dirty Work) and Al Wilson‘s “The Snake”.

However, “Sign of the Times” proved to be the peak of the band’s success. Each follow-up single was less successful than its predecessor: “Sweet Memory”, reached number 22 in the charts in April 1983; “Indian Summer” number 52 in August; whilst “The Entertainer” did not chart. It took another year before the band had a minor hit, “80’s Romance”, which made number 71 in August 1984 before it dropped out after a week.[1] Despite this, the band continued to tour throughout Europe. However, the lack of success took its toll, and McKeown left the band, followed by others, until the band was down to Owen, Joyce, and Shone.

By 1984, Stiff Records was ailing, and it merged with Island Records; in July 1985 it was liquidated and bought by ZTT, the label owned by the husband and wife team of producer Trevor Horn and Jill Sinclair. Under Horn’s supervision, the three remaining members recorded a new Belle Stars album with the 4th & Broadway production team in New York City. However, the only tracks to be released were the single “World Domination”, a flop in Britain but peaked at number two for two weeks on the Billboard Dancefloor charts in the U.S.[2] Following this release the band broke up.

However, in 1989, the Belle Stars finally had a big U.S. chart hit, when “Iko Iko” reached number 14 on the Billboard Top 100 in March, after it was included on the soundtrack of the film Rain Man, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. The song had been a favourite of Hoffman’s. Matthias toured the U.S. to promote the song.

Leyton went on to join the all girl ska band The Deltones in 1984, and they released an album on Unicorn Records in 1989. Matthias has recently guested on the 1973 and Decadent albums by Skaville UK, and has more recently formed a new ska band with Lee Thompson from Madness called The Dance Brigade, and is currently performing in her new band 1-Stop-Experience, with Skip McDonald, Paget King and Chico Chigas.

[edit]Personnel

  • Jennie Matthias: lead vocals
  • Sarah Jane Owen: lead guitar
  • Stella Barker : rhythm guitar
  • Penny Leyton: keyboards (1981–1982)
  • Miranda Joyce (born 26 July 1962): alto saxophone
  • Clare Hirst: tenor saxophone, keyboards (1982–1984)
  • Lesley Shone: bass
  • Judy Parsons: drums

[edit]Discography

[edit]Singles

  • “Hiawatha” (Stiff Records) 1981 – UK
  • “Slick Trick” (Stiff Records) 1981 – UK
  • “Another Latin Love Song EP” (Stiff Records) 1982 – UK
  • Iko Iko” (Stiff Records) 1982 – UK #35, 1989 US #14
  • The Clapping Song” (Stiff Records) 1982 – UK #11, AUS #4
  • “Mockingbird” (Stiff Records) 1982 – UK #51
  • “Sign of the Times” (Stiff Records) 1983 – UK #3, AUS #45, US #75
  • “Sweet Memory” (Stiff Records) 1983 – UK #22
  • “Indian Summer” (Stiff Records) 1983 – UK #52
  • “The Entertainer” (Stiff Records) 1983 -UK #95
  • “80’s Romance” (Stiff Records) 1984 – UK #71
  • “World Domination” (Stiff Records) 1986 – US Dance #2
  • “Iko Iko” (Stiff Records) 1989 – US #14, AUS #7, UK #98[3]

[edit]Albums

  • The Belle Stars (Stiff Records) 1983 – UK # 15,[1] AUS # 76
  • The Very Best (Stiff Records) 1994
  • 80’s Romance: The Complete Belle Stars (Salvo) 2010