Looking back to London, this is the famous Bar Italia, a cafe on Frith Street in the heart of Soho. I drew this as part of two pieces I out in to the Pence Gallery’s annual Art Auction, deciding I really wanted to put in a place that meant a lot to me. Well, Soho means a lot to me, not necessarily Bar Italia, given that the last time I actually had anything here was in the mid-1990s. I just love that it is still here, still very much keeping Old Soho alive in the face of all the dross and change in this area. I drew it on an 8″x10″ piece of paper and framed it, I was really pleased with how it turned out. That might be me sat in the corner, wearing what looks like a Charleroi shirt (lot of Italians lived in Charleroi), but not exactly representative of when I would actually go there. For one thing, it’s daylight, and another, I don’t drink coffee. Bar Italia was a great place to go at about 3 or 4 in the morning, after going to whatever small Soho nightclub that played indie or rock music, and have a cold soda or even a cappuccino. I knew some Italians back then and we’d sometimes go there in those wee hours and those were the only times I ever had cappuccino, and the cappuccino in Bar Italia was really good. I can’t stand coffee, but that was nice. It was more the location, filled with interesting people, Soho people, all that little bit still awake and alive before the night bus home. In summertime the sky would already be streaked with early morning pink, as you walked down to Trafalgar Square to get the N5 from outside the National Gallery with the rest of the world. In those days I had boundless energy; if I stayed up all night, I wouldn’t even notice. I definitely had the odd occasion when I would be up all night, then rater than sleep I would just shower, have breakfast and then go off to work my day job in the Asda coffee shop. When you’re 20, you can do anything. I was a sensible 20 year old though, not very hedonistic, but I loved London. I remember going off to Germany when I was 20, to spend a year working in a school for children with disabilities, a live-in job I found so difficult and stressful that I ended up leaving, and coming home again. Mostly I just missed London. The world out there was great, but London, and this London especially, was just the best place. I’ve long since left it behind now, and found a new life in California. Pulp famously ended their Different Class album with the song ‘Bar Italia’, dedicated to this old Italian cafe, including the line “I’m fading fast, and it’s nearly dawn”. When a man is tired of London, it’s time for the Night Bus. This building, 22 Frith Street, has a longer history though, as the blue plaque indicates. This is where John Logie Baird first demonstrated his new invention, the ‘television’, back in 1926. That caught on didn’t it. Further up Frith Street is Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club – and I’ve never actually been there. When i was in my late teens and 20s, jazz clubs were not really my thing. Maybe some day I might go, and pop into Bar Italia afterwards.

This drawing will be in the Pence Gallery’s Art Auction this year; details are at: https://pencegallery.org/events/art-auction/. There’ll be a Preview Exhibit on September 8th if you’re in Davis, and bidding starts on Sept 10 through Sept 23, when the Art Auction Party takes place at the gallery, always fun, and there are loads of great artists involved this year.