Showing who you really are

Photo: Juergen & Thomas (1979)

I gave myself permission to make a record that I’d wanted to make for a long time. I thought I was going to die, that this was my last chance to make a record. That’s the thing with ‘Broken English’, it’s this sense, this energy, that “fucking hell, before I die, I’m going to show you bastards who I am.”

Marianne Faithfull

Waiting till the golden fields of retirement when you have all that free time on your hands to do that thing you’ve always wanted to do – write that book, visit that place, develop that skill, play that instrument is not a good idea. The bastards will keep extending retirement age and you’ll never get there.

Do it now. Tap in to that urgent energy. There really is no time like the present.

The new documentary by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard about Marianne, ‘Broken English’ is not to be missed. It’s a bold and artistic approach to the subject as you’d expect from the creators of the brilliant ‘20,000 Days on Earth’ (about Brighton’s favourite son, Nick Cave – this is being written on the train to Brighton). George MacKay is particularly good and Tilda Swinton is her usual powerful self – it’s a doc but it uses actors.

London premiere on 1st December 2025

Jane & Iain also have a show right now at the exquisite Fitzrovia Chapel in Central London entitled ‘Souvenir’ based on my friend Michael Bracewell’s book of the same name. (Michael and I made the feature documentary ‘The Pilgrimage of Gilbert & George together a couple of years ago). Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys called Michael’s book “the best evocation I’ve read of London in the 80s”. It’s a vivid remembrance of the city in the late 1970s (when the Broken English LP came out [1979]- one of the greatest years of pop music) and early 1980s – the last years prior to the rise of Digital. The ‘Souvenir’ exhibition runs till 8th February.