Profile of George Melly on Famous Like Me

George Melly (born: 17 August 1926 in Liverpool, England) is a British jazz and blues singer. From 1965-1973 he was a critic for The Observer and he also lectures on art history.

He was born in Liverpool to middle-class parents and was educated at Stowe public school, where, as well as discovering his interest in modern art, jazz and blues, he also became a practicing homosexual.

He joined the Royal Navy at the end of the Second World War because, as he quipped to the recruiting officer, the uniforms were 'so much nicer'. As he related in his autobiography, Rum, Bum and Concertina, he was crestfallen to discover that he would not be sent to a ship and was thus denied the "bell-bottom" uniform he desired. Instead he received desk duty and wore the other Navy uniform, described as "the dreaded fore-and-aft". Later, however, he did see ship duty. He never saw active combat, but was almost court-martialled for distributing anarchist literature.

After the war, he found work in a London gallery specialising in Surrealism and eventually drifted into the world of jazz music, finding work with Mick Mulligan's Magnolia Jazz Band. This was a time when jazz was very popular in Britain - a time known as the trad-boom, "trad" meaning traditional jazz.

Melly was bisexual but later in life had only heterosexual relationships. He married twice and has a child from each marriage. He married his current wife, Diana, in 1963. Their son, Tom, was born two days after the wedding.

He retired from jazz at the end of the trad-boom in the early 1960s and became a film critic for The Observer. He also became the writer on the Daily Mail's satirical newspaper strip Flook, illustrated by Trog.

He returned to jazz singing in the early 1970s with John Chilton's Feetwarmers, a partnership that only ended in 2003. (During the 1970s, he also recorded a single with rock band The Stranglers.) He now sings with Digby Fairweather's band.

He is still active in journalism, as well as lecturing on Surrealism and other aspects of modern art, despite worsening health problems such as deafness and lung cancer. He is also an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.

His singing style, particularly for the blues, is strongly influenced by his idol, Bessie Smith.

Bibliography

• Scouse Mouse (biography - childhood)
• Rum, Bum and Concertina (biography - navy)
• Owning Up (biography - trad-boom jazz career)
• It's All Writ Out for You: Life and Work of Scottie Wilson
• Hooked! Fishing Memories
• Great Lovers
• Revolt into Style: Pop Arts in Britain
• Paris and the Surrealists
• Don't Tell Sybil: Intimate Memoir of E.L.T. Mesens
• Tribe of One: Great Naive and Primitive Painters of the British Isles

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