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. Jump to: navigation, search August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1926 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough on Merseyside in north west England, on the north side of the Mersey estuary. ... Jump to: navigation, search Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK... Jump to: navigation, search Jazz master Louis Armstrong remains one of the most loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ... Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see blues (disambiguation) Blues is a vocal and instrumental music form which emerged in the African-American community of the United States. ... LeAnn Rimes singing in concert For other senses of this word, see singer (disambiguation). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1973 was a common year starting on Monday. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Art history usually refers to the history of the visual arts. ...

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. Jump to: navigation, search Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough on Merseyside in north west England, on the north side of the Mersey estuary. ... The south or garden front of Stowe from Jones Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen (1819). ... Jump to: navigation, search Since its coining, the term homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ...

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. Jump to: navigation, search The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the senior service of the British armed services, being the oldest of its three branches. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Jump to: navigation, search A possible replacement article is being worked on here: Anarchism/historical Anarchism can refer to any of a range of political views, characterized by a rejection of authority in various forms. ...

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. Jump to: navigation, search Surrealism is a cultural, artistic, and intellectual movement oriented toward the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative faculties of the unconscious mind and the attainment of a state different from, more than, and ultimately truer than everyday reality: the sur-real, i. ...

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. Jump to: navigation, search Bisexuality in human sexual behavior refers to sexual desire for both males and females. ...

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. Jump to: navigation, search The 1960s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Daily Mail is a British newspaper, first published in 1896. ... Flook was a cartoon strip by Trog in the Daily Mail newspaper, which ran from 1949 to 1984. ... Wally Fawkes (born 1924) is a jazz musician and satirical cartoonist. ...

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. Jump to: navigation, search The 1970s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1970 and 1979. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2003(MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Stranglers - (L to R) - Dave Greenfield, Jet Black, Jean-Jacques Burnel and Hugh Cornwell. ...

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, weakening eyesight, incipient emphysema, difficulty with stairs, impotence, lung cancer, incontinence and feelings of faintness whenever he stands up too quicklyand . He is also an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. For the psychedelic rock band, see The Modern Art. ... This article is about hearing impairment in the patholocial sense. ... The incidence of lung cancer is highly correlated with smoking. ... The National Secular Society is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes secularism. ...

His singing style, particularly for the blues, is strongly influenced by his idol, Bessie Smith. Bessie Smith photographed by Carl Van Vechten Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA was the most popular and successful blues singer of 1920s and 30s, and a huge influence on the singers who followed her. ...

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
• Slowing Down (memoir)