Drawing: Sebastian Coe, Lord of the Olympic Rings

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

After heading the successful London bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics Sebastian Coe became Chairman of the London Organising Committee and not only the head but the ‘face’ of the Games.

Along with fellow Brits Steve Cram and Steve Ovett, they dominated middle distance running during the 1980s. He won four Olympic medals, including successive golds in the 1500m at Moscow (1980) and Los Angeles (1984). The other medals were successive silvers in the 800m at the same Olympics.

Lord Coe is actually colour blind, so I guess they all look the same to him. He also held eight outdoor and three indoor world records and in 1979 he broke 3 world records in the space of 41 days.

After retiring from Athletics, Seb was elected to Parliament as the Tory MP for Falmouth from 1992-1977. In 2000 he was made a Life Peer for services to William Hague, the then Leader of the Opposition, as his Chief Of Staff.

I mailed this caricature to his Parliamentary office in 1994 and he returned it, signed.

Drawing: Charlton Heston

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

With his larger-than-life roles in The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur, Charlton Heston became identified with Biblical epics more than most actors. The Hollywood legend made over 100 films over a sixty year career, winning the 1959 Best Actor Oscar for his title role in Ben Hur – a role originally turned down by Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster, and Rock Hudson.

Born John Charles Carter, ‘Chuck’ (as most called him, except his wife of 64 years who always used the moniker ‘Charlie’) chose his stage name from the surname of his mother (Charlton) and his stepfathers surname (Heston).

In 1996 he made a flying stop tour of New Zealand’s three main cities to promote his autobiography In The Arena. I found out late that he would be signing copies at Whitcoulls in central Christchurch for 30 minutes.

The book didn’t interest me, but Chuck’s siggy did. I went to the local public library, flicked through a few more publications and found the iconic image Charlton as Moses in The Ten Commandments and quickly sketched it on an A4 sheet of paper. In my haste I wrote his name as ‘Charllton’.

Now to get it signed, in person, without buying a copy of the book looked unlikely, so I needed some assistance from the big man above… not in the biblical sense, the Whitcoulls store manager, whose office was situated above the store. I did try and ask a shop assistant if she could get Charlton to sign it, but she referred me to the boss. Fair enough. Nothing to lose. I put my request to him, he said he would mention it to the minders, and if ‘Moses’ wanted to sign and had the time, so be it. It was in the lap of the gods.

In due course, Charlton arrived, took up his position, signed copies for the crowded congregation and headed to the door and my holding position. I wasn’t alone. Non-buying ‘graphers had gathered. Moses moved quickly, but I managed to stop him with the sketch. He looked at it, turned it sideways, took out his pen and corrected the spelling. Oops. He turned it back and signed it, then into the car and away.

Got him. Next time, remember one of the Ten Commandments – thou shalt spell the celeb’s name correctly.

Drawing: Glen Campbell

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Country music legend Glen Campbell visited my home town of Invercargill on the southern coast of New Zealand in March 1991. An ideal opportunity to get Glen’s ‘graph. As usual, I left it late and in my haste, stuffed up!

In 50 years in show business, Glen has recorded 70 albums with 45 million sales, including hits such as Galverston, Gentle On My Mind, Rhinestone Cowboy and Wichita Lineman. He made history in 1967, winning 4 Grammys in both country and pop categories. He also tried his hand at acting. In 1969 he was personally selected by John Wayne to play alongside ‘the Duke’ in True Grit.

I was a member of the City Council which managed the Civic Theatre, where Glen was performing that evening. I wasn’t able to get it in person due to a Council meeting – just wasn’t PC to ask for leave to get Glen Campbell’s autograph. So I enlisted the help of the theatre manager, who left the drawing in his dressing room with a request note.

Just before I went into the meeting, I quickly sketched Glen’s head, based on a photo in the ticket office, then attached a body and guitar without reference to reality. I went into the meeting, a lengthy public submission hearing that went long into the night. After the meeting, one of the theatre staff bought me an envelope with the signed sketch enclosed… and the mistake in the drawing noted – obviously using his right hand!

Drawing: Luciano Pavarotti

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Luciano Pavarotti was one of the finest tenors of the 20th Century known for the brilliance and beauty of his tone, especially into the upper register.

He achieved worldwide fame as one of The Three Tenors and his rendition of Puccini’s aria Nessun Dorma from Turandot, which became the theme song for the BBC TV’s coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. It achieved pop status and remained his trademark piece. At the end of the Cup Final in Rome, he was joined by the other two tenors, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras for a concert, which was recorded and became the biggest selling classical album of all time.

He was also known for his humanitarian causes, especially his Pavarotti and Friends charity concerts in his home town of Modena, for several UN projects, with the likes of Eric Clapton, Celine Dion, Elton John, Queen, Sting and George Michael participating.

He signed my caricature after his Sydney concert in March 1994. Sadly, he passed away from pancreatic cancer after an international farewell tour in 2007.

Drawing: Victor Borge

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Victor Borge was considered one of the world’s great comedic geniuses. Dubbed ‘The Clown Prince of Denmark,’ he had no significant rivals in a career that spanned more than 7 years. His comic persona and stage routine was tailored to his personality quirks, musical gifts and extraordinary sense of humour.

“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people,” he would say. Victor publicly ridiculed Adolf Hitler in his native Denmark just before WWII. When the Germans invaded, he managed to escape to America, obtaining a visa due to his American-born wife. He learnt to speak English and gained an understanding of American humour by watching movies; quickly rising to prominence with The Victor Borge Show on NBC from the mid 1940s. At one time he was the highest paid entertainer in the world.

Victor’s Comedy in Music one man show on Broadway reached 849 performances – the largest solo run in the Great White Ways history. It was based on a routine that became synonymous with his style, announcing that he was going to play a piece, but seldom actually getting around to doing it because of his hilarious interaction with the audience.

Ironically, his most famous pieces aren’t musical. Phonetic Punctuation recites all of the punctuation marks as exaggerated onomatopoeic sounds. Inflationary Language uses the incremented numbers embedded in words such as “once upon a time” becoming “twice upon a time”, “wonderful” – “twoderful”; “tennis” – “elevenis” and so on.

He toured New Zealand on many occasions. I can’t recall the exact year, but I sent him this caricature and some copies at Dunedin’s Regent Theatre either in the late 1980s or the early 1990s and received these two copies back signed. He kept the original. Not sure what the inscription is all about…

Victor performed to the end. After returning to his Greenwich, Connecticut home from a December 2000 concert in Copenhagen, he died the next day aged 91.

Drawing: Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David are amongst the greatest composing duos of all time. One of their most memorable songs was Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, for which they won the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Grammy Awards.

A number of their hits were written especially for Grammy winner Dionne Warwick, including Walk On By, Alfie, I Say A Little Prayer and Do You Know The Way To San Jose. She ranks amongst the 40 biggest hit makers of the entire rock and pop era. She’s second only to Aretha Franklin as the most charted female vocalist of all time, with 56 of her singles making the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962-1998.

In September 1995 she performed in New Zealand, including Auckland’s Aotea Centre, where she signed my sketch. Burt Bacharach was scheduled to do a New Zealand tour in early 2007 with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, but broke his collar bone and was unable to travel. Dionne Warwick replaced him, saying “That’s what friends are for”.

It was to be her final performance visit to the country. Burt rescheduled for July later that year, the ‘ultra cool cult hero of the contemporary music set’ played a number of gigs, including Auckland’s Vector Arena with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra.

I was in Auckland at the time, but couldn’t go to the concert. I was, however, very keen to get his ‘graph, but only had half and hour, so did a lightning fast sketch based on a poster pic of him at the Vector Arena and left it at the stage door with a note and a return envelope. It was returned, signed, along with a signed copy of his “At This Time” CD.

Drawing: Leonard Cohen

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen was on the third leg of his 2008-2009 World Tour when he visited New Zealand in 2009. He signed this sketch for me at the TBS Arena in Wellington after his concert on the 21 January.

Drawing: Cliff Richard

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Peter Pan of Pop started life as Harry Rodger Webb before becoming Cliff Richard and a career spanning over 50 years. He is the third top selling singles artist in UK history, selling 21 million units and 250 million worldwide.

As part of his “Hit List Tour” in 1995, Sir Cliff played New Zealand in January/February. While in Dunedin he freely walked around in the southern city wearing a T shirt with “No, I just look like him” printed on the front. He signed my sketch at his hotel.

Drawing: Windsor Davies

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

I’ve had the good fortune to meet Windsor Davies on two occasions, both in Invercargill, New Zealand.

In 1986 , he performed at the city’s Civic Theatre in Ray Cooney’s Run For Your Wife with Robin Askwith and Geoffrey Hughes. He returned in 1994 with the Cinderella production in 1994.

On both occasions the cast attended mayoral functions after the opening nights. I drew this quick sketch of Windsor as his character, Baron Hardup at the latter. He signed it, referencing our previous meeting, in typical Batter Sergeant Major Williams ‘speak’ from TV’s It Ain’t Half Hot Mum with one of his classic statements. You can imagine his deep, distinctive Welsh voice saying it.

Drawing: Sir Peter Ustinov

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

One of the people I had always wanted to to meet was Sir Peter Ustinov – actor, writer, noted wit and raconteur. In July 1990 I was privileged to see his one man show at the Civic Theatre in Invercargill, New Zealand and meet him afterwards.

In an interview, Sir Peter mentioned the Invercargill incident, “in a theatre that smelled of a furniture depository and made it very clear that it wasn’t very often used. Suddenly in the middle of my performance all the lights went out, including the exit signs.”

He continued performing in the dark, and got more laughs. He compensated for the lack of being seen by verbally expressing his actions in a more descriptive manner. After 20 minutes, the lights came back on, “I was dying for them to fail again,” Sir Peter said.

The interview was in 1992 – two years after the performance, when time allowed him to view the incident in a more positive way. But on the night his mood was colder than the Winter’s evening. At the time I was Deputy Mayor, and hosted a function for Sir Peter after his show. As you could imagine, he was not in a good frame of mind and his sense of humour had vanished. It took some coaxing by our City Manager, Richard King, to get him to the Mayoral Lounge, next to the Theatre.

Once there he was very charming. I asked him to sign my caricature. He looked at it for a while, then quipped, “yes, that’s me.”

My wife, Senga, had given birth to our son Ben the day before, so I asked him to add on “and wee Ben” to the inscription. He duly obliged, with ‘Ben’ in much smaller script. His sense of humour was restored, but no one mentioned the unscheduled black-out.