So what has happened this week well let Uncle Mark tell you all.
Firstly a day of preparing final year students at University Wales Trinity St David`s. Working on body language, voice projection and the ups and downs of being self-employed. I had a wonderful day working with some amazing youngsters who had a clear idea of what they wanted from life and how they were going to get it. Wished I had been that clear in my 20`s.
It was then a trip to Bridgend to consult at the Carnegie House. Where they are planning a series of classical lunchtime concerts from tenors to string quartets, harpists to pianists. This Bridgend venue will be transformed to the Wigmore Hall before we know it. It`s so exciting that a town council can be so open to the arts and be willing to showcase the incredible talent that we have here in Wales.
From my meeting I popped across the road to Bauhaus Coffee shop run by a Jamaican lad whose goat curry is known throughout the area and my gosh it really was fab!! “5 hours of cooking in sexy Caribbean spices and cooked with love” was the reply when I asked what the recipe was.
Driving home from Bridgend and I popped on radio 2 ( I couldn’t quite tune into radio Carmarthenshire) and who should be on with his new single but Marc Almond (Soft Cell). It really sounded wonderful. It made me recall us working together only a few weeks ago for the Mildway charity – that was a great night and what a lovely chap Marc is. His album is out in March.
The weekend saw me invited by Georgina Lester to Charles and Patricia Lester’s gallery and studio in Abergavenny. Talk about top end talent being here in Wales these designers have created and designed for everyone from Barbra Streisand, Sian Philips, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Shirley Bassey and even those girls from Birds of a Feather. All the silk and velvets are hand crafted by a specialist in-house team creating individual pieces of art. I was truly blown away by the quality of designs.
As I nosed around the racks of garments I commented on how theatrical some of the designs are. Georgina then told me that they have designed for numerous films including Oscar nominated film Wings of a Dove starring Helena Bonham-Carter. Then I noticed a set of rather operatic garments and was told that alongside the numerous film stars that they have worked with, they have designed for numerous opera productions. They have also created beautiful outfits for the divas like Dame Kiri TeKanawa & Felicity Lott who I am honoured to say that I have worked with over the years. But to date I have not managed to acquire a Lester bespoke suit but I am certainly working on it to go with my Oswald Boateng dinner jacket. Next week I`m answering some of your very interesting questions that you have sent in – keep them coming.
This article was originally published in the Carmarthen Journal in Mark’s weekly column for the paper.
