The Last Bohemians is an independent new audio series that meets female firebrands and controversial outsiders from significant eras in culture and the arts. From subversive musicians and rock'n'roll groupies to groundbreaking artists and game-changing style icons, these are women who have lived life on the edge and still refuse to play by the rules

S1: The Last Bohemians - Trailer - Launching 4 March 2019

Molly Parkin

Louis Armstrong

The inspiration for this series, Molly Parkin is a painter, erotic novelist and a former fashion editor who was once just as famous for her bedroom liaisons with the movers and shakers of London. She is never without a bejewelled turban on her head or a saucy anecdote at hand. Now 87, she lives on the iconic World’s End estate in Chelsea, in a kaleidoscopic apartment filled with her art and clothing.   In this candid – and fairly explicit! – episode The Last Bohemians meets her at home, where she discusses her illuminating sex life, her wild days at The Colony Club with artist Francis Bacon, her penchant for erotic writing and how to get off in your eighties.  Presenter: Kate Hutchinson Producer: Alannah Chance Photos: Laura Kelly www.thelastbohemians.co.uk @thelastbohemianspod

The inspiration for this series, Molly Parkin is a painter, erotic novelist and a former fashion editor who was once just as famous for her bedroom liaisons with the movers and shakers of London. She is never without a bejewelled turban on her head or a saucy anecdote at hand. Now 87, she lives on the iconic World’s End estate in Chelsea, in a kaleidoscopic apartment filled with her art and clothing. In this candid – and fairly explicit! – episode The Last Bohemians meets her at home, where she discusses her illuminating sex life, her wild days at The Colony Club with artist Francis Bacon, her penchant for erotic writing and how to get off in your eighties. Presenter: <a href="http://www.katehutchinson.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kate Hutchinson</a> Producer: <a href="https://twitter.com/miss_chance" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Alannah Chance</a> Photos: <a href="https://www.laurakellyphoto.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Laura Kelly</a> <a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.thelastbohemians.co.uk</a> <a href="http://www.instagram.com/lastbohemianspod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@thelastbohemianspod</a>

S1 Ep1: Molly Parkin: the grand dame of British bohemia on Soho's glory days, Louis Armstrong and self love

Bonnie Greer

Chicago-raised Bonnie Greer is instantly recognisable in the UK as a television pundit, playwright and critic. She famously took on former BNP leader Nick Griffin on BBC's Question Time and has written five books and numerous plays that skewer politics, identity and race.   The Last Bohemians meets Bonnie in Soho, London, where she explores how the 1970s New York of Basquiat and Warhol shaped her an an artist, as well as her far-ranging ideas on making work about race, ageism, navigating the art and opinions of problematic personalities, and how not to play it safe as an artist.  Presenter: Kate Hutchinson Producer: Isis Thompson Photos: Laura Kelly www.thelastbohemians.co.uk @thelastbohemianspod

Chicago-raised Bonnie Greer is instantly recognisable in the UK as a television pundit, playwright and critic. She famously took on former BNP leader Nick Griffin on BBC's Question Time and has written five books and numerous plays that skewer politics, identity and race. The Last Bohemians meets Bonnie in Soho, London, where she explores how the 1970s New York of Basquiat and Warhol shaped her an an artist, as well as her far-ranging ideas on making work about race, ageism, navigating the art and opinions of problematic personalities, and how not to play it safe as an artist. Presenter: <a href="http://www.katehutchinson.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kate Hutchinson</a> Producer: <a href="https://twitter.com/thisisisis1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Isis Thompson</a> Photos: <a href="https://www.laurakellyphoto.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Laura Kelly</a> <a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.thelastbohemians.co.uk</a> <a href="http://www.instagram.com/lastbohemianspod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@thelastbohemianspod</a>

S1 Ep2: Bonnie Greer: the playwright and critic considers Basquiat, Madonna, making work about race and how not to play it safe as an artist

Amanda Feilding

Amanda Feilding is flying the flag for the medical benefits of recreational drugs like cannabis and LSD with her pioneering work at The Beckley Foundation. Based out of the 75-year-old's tumbling country pile in Oxfordshire – which is ringed by a moat and has an island encircled with temple-like pillars – the foundation funds leading research into the medical benefits of psychedelics and mind-altering substances.   Amanda is also a countess whose lineage traces back to Charles II of England. In the 1960s, after travelling around Sri Lanka on her own, she discovered acid and hung out with the beat poets of the era, never without her beloved pet pigeon Birdie by her side. She met the Dutch scientist Bart Hughes, who introduced her to the shamanic practice of trepanation – essentially drilling a hole in one’s head, which she performed on herself in 1970.   Needless to say, a conversation with Amanda Feilding, with the wind blowing through the trees, is quite a trip in itself… ​ Presenter: Kate Hutchinson Producer: Lucy Dearlove Photos: Laura Kelly www.thelastbohemians.co.uk @thelastbohemianspod  Music:  Blue Dot Sessions - Disinter Blue Dot Sessions - Solemn Application Blue Dot Sessions - Slow Casino Blue Dot Sessions - Thread Magenta

Amanda Feilding is flying the flag for the medical benefits of recreational drugs like cannabis and LSD with her pioneering work at The Beckley Foundation. Based out of the 75-year-old's tumbling country pile in Oxfordshire – which is ringed by a moat and has an island encircled with temple-like pillars – the foundation funds leading research into the medical benefits of psychedelics and mind-altering substances.   Amanda is also a countess whose lineage traces back to Charles II of England. In the 1960s, after travelling around Sri Lanka on her own, she discovered acid and hung out with the beat poets of the era, never without her beloved pet pigeon Birdie by her side. She met the Dutch scientist Bart Hughes, who introduced her to the shamanic practice of trepanation – essentially drilling a hole in one’s head, which she performed on herself in 1970.   Needless to say, a conversation with Amanda Feilding, with the wind blowing through the trees, is quite a trip in itself… ​ Presenter: <a href="http://www.katehutchinson.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kate Hutchinson</a> Producer: <a href="https://lucydearlove.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lucy Dearlove</a> Photos: <a href="https://www.laurakellyphoto.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Laura Kelly</a> <a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.thelastbohemians.co.uk</a> <a href="http://www.instagram.com/lastbohemianspod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@thelastbohemianspod</a> Music: Blue Dot Sessions - Disinter Blue Dot Sessions - Solemn Application Blue Dot Sessions - Slow Casino Blue Dot Sessions - Thread Magenta

S1 Ep3: Amanda Feilding: beat poets, psychedelics and self-trepanation with the leading LSD campaigner and countess

Pauline Black

Think of punk and ska in 1980s Britain and you may well picture bands like The Clash and The Specials. Pauline Black, however, is the original rude girl. As the driving force behind Coventry 2-tone group The Selecter, she was a rare woman of colour making her way in music and sticking two fingers up to the skinheads while she was at it.   Today Pauline is a style icon and a cultural force, with her signature fedora, Doc Martens and formidable attitude, as documented in her book, Black By Design: A 2-Tone Memoir. She invited The Last Bohemians into her immaculate home in the Midlands to discuss how she became the first lady of 2-Tone, its multicultural vision, and the fight to make her voice heard. ​ Presenter: Kate Hutchinson Producer: Renay Richardson Photos: Laura Kelly www.thelastbohemians.co.uk @thelastbohemianspod

Think of punk and ska in 1980s Britain and you may well picture bands like The Clash and The Specials. Pauline Black, however, is the original rude girl. As the driving force behind Coventry 2-tone group The Selecter, she was a rare woman of colour making her way in music and sticking two fingers up to the skinheads while she was at it. Today Pauline is a style icon and a cultural force, with her signature fedora, Doc Martens and formidable attitude, as documented in her book, Black By Design: A 2-Tone Memoir. She invited The Last Bohemians into her immaculate home in the Midlands to discuss how she became the first lady of 2-Tone, its multicultural vision, and the fight to make her voice heard. ​ Presenter: <a href="http://www.katehutchinson.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kate Hutchinson</a> Producer: <a href="https://renayrichardson.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Renay Richardson</a> Photos: <a href="https://www.laurakellyphoto.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Laura Kelly</a> <a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.thelastbohemians.co.uk</a> <a href="http://www.instagram.com/lastbohemianspod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@thelastbohemianspod</a>

S1 Ep4: Pauline Black: the original rude girl on female empowerment, intersectionality and being a music trailblazer

When it comes to uncompromising musicians and artists, Cosey Fanni Tutti is in a league of her own. As part of Throbbing Gristle in the 1970s, she helped pioneer industrial music and her solo shows, modelling work and ‘actions’, as she calls them – including those that were part of the cultish collective and commune COUM Transmissions – blurred the lines between performance art, sex and subversion. Once considered shocking, her gallery shows shut down, now her vision is celebrated.   After TG, Cosey and her partner Chris Carter formed the musical duo Chris and Cosey and moved to the Norfolk countryside, where Cosey takes great pride in her blooming garden. It’s quite a contrast with the machine-led music that comes out of their home studio, which is where Cosey made TUTTI, her first solo album since 1982, released in 2019.   Cosey's autobiography, Art Sex Music, depicts a truly alternative thinker for whom acceptance is the last thing on her mind. An audience with Cosey is a real insight into a life dedicated to the decidedly unsubtle art of not giving a fuck and here she takes us into her beloved garden one sunny afternoon to explain just how she does it. ​ Presenter: Kate Hutchinson Producer: Ali Gardiner Photos: Laura Kelly www.thelastbohemians.co.uk @thelastbohemianspod

When it comes to uncompromising musicians and artists, Cosey Fanni Tutti is in a league of her own. As part of Throbbing Gristle in the 1970s, she helped pioneer industrial music and her solo shows, modelling work and ‘actions’, as she calls them – including those that were part of the cultish collective and commune COUM Transmissions – blurred the lines between performance art, sex and subversion. Once considered shocking, her gallery shows shut down, now her vision is celebrated. After TG, Cosey and her partner Chris Carter formed the musical duo Chris and Cosey and moved to the Norfolk countryside, where Cosey takes great pride in her blooming garden. It’s quite a contrast with the machine-led music that comes out of their home studio, which is where Cosey made TUTTI, her first solo album since 1982, released in 2019.   Cosey's autobiography, Art Sex Music, depicts a truly alternative thinker for whom acceptance is the last thing on her mind. An audience with Cosey is a real insight into a life dedicated to the decidedly unsubtle art of not giving a fuck and here she takes us into her beloved garden one sunny afternoon to explain just how she does it. ​ Presenter: <a href="http://www.katehutchinson.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kate Hutchinson</a> Producer: <a href="https://twitter.com/aligardiner" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ali Gardiner</a> Photos: <a href="https://www.laurakellyphoto.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Laura Kelly</a> <a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.thelastbohemians.co.uk</a> <a href="http://www.instagram.com/lastbohemianspod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@thelastbohemianspod</a>

S1 Ep5: Cosey Fanni Tutti: sex, subversion and class with the artist and industrial music pioneer

Pamela Des Barres

Pamela Des Barres is the definitive groupie who moved to Hollywood in the 1960s, embraced free love and hippiedom, and frolicked with musicians like The Who’s Keith Moon and The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger. She documented it all in her iconic tell-all book I'm With The Band and she inspired the character Penny Lane in the film Almost Famous.    During the waves of feminism that have come since, however, Pamela's candid tales have been criticised, the supposed sexual liberation of the halcyon rock’n’roll days reevaluated.     She sat down with The Last Bohemians in east London record shop Matters Of Vinyl Importance for a controversial insight into her wild past, her thoughts on whether musicians deserve to be idolised, and looks at her groupie history through the lens of the #MeToo movement.   Presenter: Kate Hutchinson Producer: Shola Aleje Photos: Laura Kelly www.thelastbohemians.co.uk @thelastbohemianspod ​

Pamela Des Barres is the definitive groupie who moved to Hollywood in the 1960s, embraced free love and hippiedom, and frolicked with musicians like The Who’s Keith Moon and The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger. She documented it all in her iconic tell-all book I'm With The Band and she inspired the character Penny Lane in the film Almost Famous. During the waves of feminism that have come since, however, Pamela's candid tales have been criticised, the supposed sexual liberation of the halcyon rock’n’roll days reevaluated.  She sat down with The Last Bohemians in east London record shop Matters Of Vinyl Importance for a controversial insight into her wild past, her thoughts on whether musicians deserve to be idolised, and looks at her groupie history through the lens of the #MeToo movement. Presenter: <a href="http://www.katehutchinson.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kate Hutchinson</a> Producer: <a href="http://sholaaleje.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Shola Aleje</a> Photos: <a href="https://www.laurakellyphoto.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Laura Kelly</a> <a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.thelastbohemians.co.uk</a> <a href="http://www.instagram.com/lastbohemianspod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@thelastbohemianspod</a> ​

S1 Ep6: Pamela Des Barres: the definitive rock'n'roll groupie discusses Led Zeppelin, her wild past and the #MeToo movement

The Last Bohemians returns for series two with eight maverick women and fearless firebrands in arts and culture: folk legend Judy Collins, iconic British designer Zandra Rhodes, soul survivor PP Arnold, anarchic punk artist Gee Vaucher, witch queen Maxine Sanders, experimental film-maker Vivienne Dick, 80s club kid Sue Tilley and literary maven Margaret Busby.  Each episode will be released weekly and the portraits by Laura Kelly published on Instagram: @thelastbohemianspod.

The Last Bohemians returns for series two with eight maverick women and fearless firebrands in arts and culture: folk legend Judy Collins, iconic British designer Zandra Rhodes, soul survivor PP Arnold, anarchic punk artist Gee Vaucher, witch queen Maxine Sanders, experimental film-maker Vivienne Dick, 80s club kid Sue Tilley and literary maven Margaret Busby. Each episode will be released weekly and the portraits by Laura Kelly published on Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thelastbohemianspod/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@thelastbohemianspod</a>.

S2: The Last Bohemians – Series Two Trailer – Launching 2 March 2020

Judy Collins

Judy Collins is a folk music legend, with a career spanning six decades, from the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene to California, as the Flower Power movement took root, to now, at 80, still gigging hard every year with her guitar.     Judy is what The New York Times called a “master song collector”. She is celebrated for reinterpreting other people’s tracks, with an eclecticism that comes from her father, who was a blind radio DJ, singer and pianist. Notably, she covered Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne and Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now, making both of their careers.    In the first episode of The Last Bohemians series two, Judy talks about the importance of art and activism, such as the time she signed a statement declaring she’d had an abortion, in her friend Gloria Steinem’s Ms Magazine – a year before it was made legal in America.   Frank and funny, she recalls former lovers like Stephen Stills, getting mixtapes from Leonard Cohen, and going tattoo shopping with Antony Bourdain's mum, but also surviving the darkness of the hippie era, and the demons she’s battled along the way.    Trigger warning: this episode contains themes of addiction and suicide, and so listener discretion is advised.    This episode was presented by Kate Hutchinson and produced by Shola Aleje, with intro music by Emmy The Great.

Judy Collins is a folk music legend, with a career spanning six decades, from the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene to California, as the Flower Power movement took root, to now, at 80, still gigging hard every year with her guitar.  Judy is what The New York Times called a “master song collector”. She is celebrated for reinterpreting other people’s tracks, with an eclecticism that comes from her father, who was a blind radio DJ, singer and pianist. Notably, she covered Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne and Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now, making both of their careers. In the first episode of The Last Bohemians series two, Judy talks about the importance of art and activism, such as the time she signed a statement declaring she’d had an abortion, in her friend Gloria Steinem’s Ms Magazine – a year before it was made legal in America.  Frank and funny, she recalls former lovers like Stephen Stills, getting mixtapes from Leonard Cohen, and going tattoo shopping with Antony Bourdain's mum, but also surviving the darkness of the hippie era, and the demons she’s battled along the way. Trigger warning: this episode contains themes of addiction and suicide, and so listener discretion is advised. This episode was presented by Kate Hutchinson and produced by Shola Aleje, with intro music by Emmy The Great.

S2 Ep1: Judy Collins: the frank and fearless folk legend on touring at 80, art and activism, and making Leonard Cohen famous

Gee Vaucher

Gee Vaucher isn’t perhaps as well known as some of her punk peers, but she should be: she’s one of the artists who defined punk’s visuals of protest in the 1970s, especially with her arresting photo-montage covers for Crass, the cult band and art collective she was part of, who put anarchy into practice.    She had a stint in Manhattan as a political illustrator for The New York Times and she’s also designed album sleeves for bands like The Charlatans and experimental hip-hop group Tackhead. Her piece for the latter, Oh America, in which the Statue of Liberty covers her face with her hands, went viral and was published on the front cover of newspapers when Trump was elected as President of the United States.     Gee's art continues to be confrontational, whether she’s painting or, as she shows us, making an absolutely enormous book filled with millions of hand-drawn stick figures – one for every single person that died in World War I.     She is radical in every sense of the word. In this episode, Gee invites us to Dial House, on the edge of Epping Forest in Essex – a tumbling old cottage with a difference: it’s run by Gee and her collaborator Penny Rimbaud as an anarchic “centre for radical creativity” where anyone can turn up at any time for a cup of tea and a chat. So that’s just what we did, to hear Gee talk about her working relationship with Penny, why punk was a disappointment and the 'perverseness' of her art.  This episode was produced by Mae-Li Evans.

Gee Vaucher isn’t perhaps as well known as some of her punk peers, but she should be: she’s one of the artists who defined punk’s visuals of protest in the 1970s, especially with her arresting photo-montage covers for Crass, the cult band and art collective she was part of, who put anarchy into practice. She had a stint in Manhattan as a political illustrator for The New York Times and she’s also designed album sleeves for bands like The Charlatans and experimental hip-hop group Tackhead. Her piece for the latter, Oh America, in which the Statue of Liberty covers her face with her hands, went viral and was published on the front cover of newspapers when Trump was elected as President of the United States.  Gee's art continues to be confrontational, whether she’s painting or, as she shows us, making an absolutely enormous book filled with millions of hand-drawn stick figures – one for every single person that died in World War I.  She is radical in every sense of the word. In this episode, Gee invites us to Dial House, on the edge of Epping Forest in Essex – a tumbling old cottage with a difference: it’s run by Gee and her collaborator Penny Rimbaud as an anarchic “centre for radical creativity” where anyone can turn up at any time for a cup of tea and a chat. So that’s just what we did, to hear Gee talk about her working relationship with Penny, why punk was a disappointment and the 'perverseness' of her art. This episode was produced by Mae-Li Evans.

S2 Ep2: Gee Vaucher: the visual artist behind Crass on curiosity, communal living and where punk went wrong

The Last Bohemians is an award-winning, critically acclaimed, independent podcast series that meets maverick and radical women in arts and culture and takes listeners on a vivid, hallucinatory trip through their extraordinary lives. From subversive musicians and style icons to game-changing artists, these are women who have lived life on the edge and who still refuse to play by the rules.The series was created in 2019 by host and journalist Kate Hutchinson and is produced by a team of rising women in audio, with portraits by Laura Kelly. Season 1 features Molly Parkin, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Pauline Black and more; Season 2 stars Judy Collins, Gee Vaucher, Zandra Rhodes and P.P. Arnold; Season 3 is with Maggi Hambling, Cleo Sylvestre and Dana Gillespie. In 2020, The Last Bohemians published a lockdown special with performance artist Marina Abramović and in 2022, went to Los Angeles for a special LA series.The Last Bohemians has been a podcast of the week in the Guardian, Observer New Review, The Financial Times and on Radio 4. In January 2022, it was featured in the New Yorker. It won silver for Best New Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2020 and was a finalist for the Grassroots Production Award at the 2021 Audio Production Awards.For bonus content and more:http://www.patreon.co.uk/thelastbohemians http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk http://www.instagram.com/thelastbohospodPRAISE FOR THE LAST BOHEMIANS “This series is a delight… Run to this podcast right now”  The Observer "Unusually intimate portraits of spectacular lives… Buoyed by exquisite production, these conversations are atmospheric, contemplative and fabulously candid" Financial Times "A beautifully intimate set of portraits made by an all-female audio team – what more could you ask for to celebrate International Women’s Day?" The Guardian Feisty, heartfelt and bursting with wisdom" NME "A rhapsodic, necessary retelling of trailblazer stories" Dazed

Vivienne Dick

"Often women artists do all their best work when they're older You feel stronger, you feel like you've got nothing to lose"  Experimental film-maker Vivienne Dick moved from Ireland to New York in the late-70s and was at the heart of a scene called no-wave, an avant-garde music and art movement where people like director Jim Jarmusch, artist Basquiat, photographer Nan Goldin and musicians Sonic Youth and Debbie Harry mingled together.    Inspired by this DIY community downtown, she picked up a Super 8 camera and started shooting the women around her, in films like Guerillere Talks and She Had The Gun All Ready. Lydia Lunch, one of the most charismatic of Vivienne’s subjects, described No Wave as a “collective caterwaul that defied categorisation and despised convention."    Presenter Kate Hutchinson first heard Vivienne’s name in the song Hot Topic by dance-punks Le Tigre, which reels off a list of artists, writers, activists and feminist firebrands, putting her alongside the likes of Yoko Ono and Sleater-Kinney.   Vivienne is still an experimental film-maker to this day and has never sold out her vision. The Last Bohemians visited her at her Dublin home, as she was putting the finishing touches to her latest film New York, Our Time, which has since won the Film Critics Circle Award for Best Documentary. It transports Vivienne back to the city she left in 1982 and sees her reconnecting with some of her old friends.   Our story starts, however, in Donegal, Ireland, where a young Vivienne couldn’t wait to leave...  This episode was produced by Ali Gardiner.    Music in this episode (sourced via Bandcamp, freemusicarchive.org and archive.org): Tryad – The Rising Blue Dot Sessions – Campfire Rounds Fields Ohio – Anti-Saloon League Gallery Six – Moel Plastic Sunday – No Tomorrow Chocolate Billy - Assedic No Wave Lee Rosevere – Ennui Revolution Void – Someone Else’s Memories Phlox.s – Obey The Sun Gallery Six – Hydroscope Chris Zabriskie – Virtues Inherited, Vices Passed On Chris Zabriskie – Heliograph Chris Zabriskie – Candlepower Chris Zabriskie – Oxygen Garden 

"Often women artists do all their best work when they're older You feel stronger, you feel like you've got nothing to lose" Experimental film-maker Vivienne Dick moved from Ireland to New York in the late-70s and was at the heart of a scene called no-wave, an avant-garde music and art movement where people like director Jim Jarmusch, artist Basquiat, photographer Nan Goldin and musicians Sonic Youth and Debbie Harry mingled together. Inspired by this DIY community downtown, she picked up a Super 8 camera and started shooting the women around her, in films like Guerillere Talks and She Had The Gun All Ready. Lydia Lunch, one of the most charismatic of Vivienne’s subjects, described No Wave as a “collective caterwaul that defied categorisation and despised convention." Presenter Kate Hutchinson first heard Vivienne’s name in the song Hot Topic by dance-punks Le Tigre, which reels off a list of artists, writers, activists and feminist firebrands, putting her alongside the likes of Yoko Ono and Sleater-Kinney.  Vivienne is still an experimental film-maker to this day and has never sold out her vision. The Last Bohemians visited her at her Dublin home, as she was putting the finishing touches to her latest film New York, Our Time, which has since won the Film Critics Circle Award for Best Documentary. It transports Vivienne back to the city she left in 1982 and sees her reconnecting with some of her old friends.  Our story starts, however, in Donegal, Ireland, where a young Vivienne couldn’t wait to leave... This episode was produced by Ali Gardiner. Music in this episode (sourced via Bandcamp, <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freemusicarchive.org</a> and <a href="http://archive.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">archive.org</a>): Tryad – The Rising Blue Dot Sessions – Campfire Rounds Fields Ohio – Anti-Saloon League Gallery Six – Moel Plastic Sunday – No Tomorrow Chocolate Billy - Assedic No Wave Lee Rosevere – Ennui Revolution Void – Someone Else’s Memories Phlox.s – Obey The Sun Gallery Six – Hydroscope Chris Zabriskie – Virtues Inherited, Vices Passed On Chris Zabriskie – Heliograph Chris Zabriskie – Candlepower Chris Zabriskie – Oxygen Garden

S2 Ep3: Vivienne Dick: the experimental feminist film-maker digs back into New York's 1970s no wave scene

Mick Jagger

P.P. Arnold isn’t called a soul survivor for nothing. She recently made a comeback with her first album in 50 years, following a long, hard fight, at the age of 73, to get her music career back on track.     In America, she had been an Ikette with Ike &amp; Tina Turner and then moved to London at the height of the Swinging Sixties, where she hung out with Jimi Hendrix, had a sexual awakening among the rockstars of London, and was signed by Mick Jagger to his label, Immediate. She released the hit single First Cut Is The Deepest and two brilliant soul albums. But her third, 1971’s The Turning Tide, which was co-produced by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and Eric Clapton, was blocked from being released.     After that, P.P.'s career floundered. She sang with Peter Gabriel, Billy Ocean and The KLF – who burned the money to pay her in their £1million stunt – and appeared in the musical Starlight Express, but musical dead ends danced with tragedy, when she lost her daughter in a car accident. Her solo career never quite got back on track – until she encountered the British mod band Ocean Colour Scene. Steve Cradock from the band helped her finish The Turning Tide and produced her first new album in 50 years, The New Adventures of... P.P. Arnold.    And what an adventure it’s been. P.P's story is incredible and her laugh is infectious, as she remembers her first interracial relationships, hanging out with friends like Brian Jones and what she really thinks about Rod Stewart. We went back to the place where it all started, the Bag O’ Nails in Soho, now a sleek members club, to talk about being an "authentic" soul singer in 1960s London, her journey from then to now and how she’s made it – with a few famous flings along the way.    This episode contains discussions about domestic violence, which some may find triggering, and so listener discretion is advised.  P.P. Arnold's episode was produced by Cassandra Denton and presented by Kate Hutchinson, with portraits by Laura Kelly.

P.P. Arnold isn’t called a soul survivor for nothing. She recently made a comeback with her first album in 50 years, following a long, hard fight, at the age of 73, to get her music career back on track.  In America, she had been an Ikette with Ike &amp; Tina Turner and then moved to London at the height of the Swinging Sixties, where she hung out with Jimi Hendrix, had a sexual awakening among the rockstars of London, and was signed by Mick Jagger to his label, Immediate. She released the hit single First Cut Is The Deepest and two brilliant soul albums. But her third, 1971’s The Turning Tide, which was co-produced by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and Eric Clapton, was blocked from being released.  After that, P.P.'s career floundered. She sang with Peter Gabriel, Billy Ocean and The KLF – who burned the money to pay her in their £1million stunt – and appeared in the musical Starlight Express, but musical dead ends danced with tragedy, when she lost her daughter in a car accident. Her solo career never quite got back on track – until she encountered the British mod band Ocean Colour Scene. Steve Cradock from the band helped her finish The Turning Tide and produced her first new album in 50 years, The New Adventures of... P.P. Arnold. And what an adventure it’s been. P.P's story is incredible and her laugh is infectious, as she remembers her first interracial relationships, hanging out with friends like Brian Jones and what she really thinks about Rod Stewart. We went back to the place where it all started, the Bag O’ Nails in Soho, now a sleek members club, to talk about being an "authentic" soul singer in 1960s London, her journey from then to now and how she’s made it – with a few famous flings along the way. This episode contains discussions about domestic violence, which some may find triggering, and so listener discretion is advised. P.P. Arnold's episode was produced by Cassandra Denton and presented by Kate Hutchinson, with portraits by Laura Kelly.

S2 Ep4: P.P. Arnold: the soul survivor surveys the Swinging Sixties, sexual revolution and Mick Jagger

Zandra Rhodes

Zandra Rhodes OBE has spent 50 years at the forefront of British fashion, having dressed everyone from Freddie Mercury to Princess Diana in her signature printed chiffons. Her work was adopted by the Studio 54 crowd in the 1970s, her gold lamé dresses modelled by the likes of Donna Summer and Pat Cleveland. Then she lacerated her chiffons with safety pins and was dubbed the Princess of Punk, a name that matched her trademark fuchsia bobbed hair. To this day she remains independent, having never sold out her brand to a big fashion house. At 79, she is as DIY as ever.  The Last Bohemians caught Zandra at an interesting – and stressful – time as she was celebrating her career's five-decade run at the same time as getting to grips with the death of her long-term partner. Themes of life, loss, grief and relevancy weave throughout this episode, as do ruminations on creativity, routine and restlessness and stories about Studio 54, her eccentric friendship circle, her take on the royal family and more. Her work ethic is infamous – but has the death of a loved one shifted her priorities?  We meet the style icon in her multi-hued apartment on two separate occasions to find out how she manages to do it all...

Zandra Rhodes OBE has spent 50 years at the forefront of British fashion, having dressed everyone from Freddie Mercury to Princess Diana in her signature printed chiffons. Her work was adopted by the Studio 54 crowd in the 1970s, her gold lamé dresses modelled by the likes of Donna Summer and Pat Cleveland. Then she lacerated her chiffons with safety pins and was dubbed the Princess of Punk, a name that matched her trademark fuchsia bobbed hair. To this day she remains independent, having never sold out her brand to a big fashion house. At 79, she is as DIY as ever. The Last Bohemians caught Zandra at an interesting – and stressful – time as she was celebrating her career's five-decade run at the same time as getting to grips with the death of her long-term partner. Themes of life, loss, grief and relevancy weave throughout this episode, as do ruminations on creativity, routine and restlessness and stories about Studio 54, her eccentric friendship circle, her take on the royal family and more. Her work ethic is infamous – but has the death of a loved one shifted her priorities? We meet the style icon in her multi-hued apartment on two separate occasions to find out how she manages to do it all...

S2 Ep5: Zandra Rhodes: Studio 54, punk and the power of fuchsia with the British style icon

Sue Tilley

Leigh Bowery

Lucian Freud

Rewind to the 1980s and London nightlife was an explosion of creativity – the new romantics were in, dramatic fashion looks were everywhere and at the back of the club, having a gossip, there’d be Sue Tilley, also affectionately known as Big Sue.     She was the best friend of the outrageous performance artist and fashion designer Leigh Bowery, who became known for his shocking stage shows and about whom she wrote a biography. Sue worked at the Job Centre during the day and the door at his infamously wild club night Taboo, which was later immortalised by Boy George in the musical of the same name, by night. This was a place, in the mid-80s, where genders and sexualities were blurred and the more flamboyant your costume, the better.     It’s also where Leigh and Sue met the painter Lucian Freud – both ended up sitting for him but Sue’s nude portrait, 1995’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, is perhaps among his most famous works, which, when it sold for $33.6 million, was the most expensive painting by a living artist ever to be sold at auction.    Sue left London to retire by the seaside on England’s south coast and it’s where she can often be found hosting quizzes and DJing in one of the local pubs, or working on her own pieces – she is now an artist in her own right and often paints the colourful characters she remembers from her clubbing days.   This episode was produced by Gabriela Jones.  Music: Ad Infinitum - Oh The City; Photosynthesis - Lagua Vesa; Waking Dreams (Nada Copyright Free Music); Santosha - Can Sandano; A Message From Your Space Cat - Felix Johansson Carne; Cotton Candy - Copse; Backplate - Joseph McDade; Waking And Dreaming - Brendon Moelleer

Rewind to the 1980s and London nightlife was an explosion of creativity – the new romantics were in, dramatic fashion looks were everywhere and at the back of the club, having a gossip, there’d be Sue Tilley, also affectionately known as Big Sue.  She was the best friend of the outrageous performance artist and fashion designer Leigh Bowery, who became known for his shocking stage shows and about whom she wrote a biography. Sue worked at the Job Centre during the day and the door at his infamously wild club night Taboo, which was later immortalised by Boy George in the musical of the same name, by night. This was a place, in the mid-80s, where genders and sexualities were blurred and the more flamboyant your costume, the better.  It’s also where Leigh and Sue met the painter Lucian Freud – both ended up sitting for him but Sue’s nude portrait, 1995’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, is perhaps among his most famous works, which, when it sold for $33.6 million, was the most expensive painting by a living artist ever to be sold at auction. Sue left London to retire by the seaside on England’s south coast and it’s where she can often be found hosting quizzes and DJing in one of the local pubs, or working on her own pieces – she is now an artist in her own right and often paints the colourful characters she remembers from her clubbing days. This episode was produced by Gabriela Jones. Music: Ad Infinitum - Oh The City; Photosynthesis - Lagua Vesa; Waking Dreams (Nada Copyright Free Music); Santosha - Can Sandano; A Message From Your Space Cat - Felix Johansson Carne; Cotton Candy - Copse; Backplate - Joseph McDade; Waking And Dreaming - Brendon Moelleer

S2 Ep6: Sue Tilley: the 1980s club kid and artist on Leigh Bowery and modelling for Lucian Freud

Maxine Sanders

Maxine Sanders is one of the country’s most iconic and possibly most controversial witches. In the 1960s and 70s, she and her late husband Alex Sanders were at the centre of Britain’s witchcraft boom. At the height of their fame, they were featured weekly in tabloid newspapers and starred in numerous documentaries and films where they would recreate their dramatic rituals…   It was the era when Flower Power and the sexual revolution were in full swing. The Witchcraft Act was repealed in 1951 making it no longer illegal to practise witchcraft, and Maxine and Alex were sexing its image up. Their coven was rapidly growing in size, as more and more people were drawn to the occult, and eventually they moved from Alderley Edge, near Manchester, to Notting Hill in London, where musicians like Jimmy Paige and Marc Bolan flocked to their wild parties. But it was also where a strange set of circumstances saw them linked to Sharon Tate and the Manson Murders in California...    Presenter Kate Hutchinson came across Maxine in a book that she'd bought on her birthday in 2019, from Donlon Books in east London – in it was a striking image of a stunning woman with long blond hair, holding a dagger, in the middle of a circle, and she knew she had to find out more.  We finally tracked Maxine down to her home in North West London, where we sat in her living room, filled with amazing antique books and ancient magic regalia.   What she told us may raise an eyebrow or two, as Maxine recounts her early years in the craft, meeting her husband – the King of the Witches, Alex Sanders, how she dealt with being the subject of a tabloid frenzy week on week, the meaning of being a witch today, what it feels like to do a spell, her experiences of astral projection, sex magic and death, and overcoming persecution.    ​It's quite a magical ride, so strap in tight.  ​This episode was produced by Hannah Fisher.  1. Malani Bulathsinhala - Wasan Karannata Bae 2. Roh Hamilton and Tiffany Seal - Enchanted Forest 3. Bishi - All Across The Universe (BISHI's 'The Telescope Eye,' EP, produced on by BISHI &amp; Richard Norris. Out on Gryphon Records on all streaming platforms now) 4. Lobo Loco - Lake of Avalon

Maxine Sanders is one of the country’s most iconic and possibly most controversial witches. In the 1960s and 70s, she and her late husband Alex Sanders were at the centre of Britain’s witchcraft boom. At the height of their fame, they were featured weekly in tabloid newspapers and starred in numerous documentaries and films where they would recreate their dramatic rituals… It was the era when Flower Power and the sexual revolution were in full swing. The Witchcraft Act was repealed in 1951 making it no longer illegal to practise witchcraft, and Maxine and Alex were sexing its image up. Their coven was rapidly growing in size, as more and more people were drawn to the occult, and eventually they moved from Alderley Edge, near Manchester, to Notting Hill in London, where musicians like Jimmy Paige and Marc Bolan flocked to their wild parties. But it was also where a strange set of circumstances saw them linked to Sharon Tate and the Manson Murders in California... Presenter Kate Hutchinson came across Maxine in a book that she'd bought on her birthday in 2019, from Donlon Books in east London – in it was a striking image of a stunning woman with long blond hair, holding a dagger, in the middle of a circle, and she knew she had to find out more.  We finally tracked Maxine down to her home in North West London, where we sat in her living room, filled with amazing antique books and ancient magic regalia.  What she told us may raise an eyebrow or two, as Maxine recounts her early years in the craft, meeting her husband – the King of the Witches, Alex Sanders, how she dealt with being the subject of a tabloid frenzy week on week, the meaning of being a witch today, what it feels like to do a spell, her experiences of astral projection, sex magic and death, and overcoming persecution. ​It's quite a magical ride, so strap in tight. ​This episode was produced by Hannah Fisher. 1. Malani Bulathsinhala - Wasan Karannata Bae 2. Roh Hamilton and Tiffany Seal - Enchanted Forest 3. Bishi - All Across The Universe (BISHI's 'The Telescope Eye,' EP, produced on by BISHI &amp; Richard Norris. Out on Gryphon Records on all streaming platforms now) 4. Lobo Loco - Lake of Avalon

S2 Ep7: Maxine Sanders: the witch queen on casting spells, surviving persecution and the power of sex magic 

Marina Abramović

For International Women’s Day 2021, The Last Bohemians returns with a special lockdown episode, supported by KLORIS, starring Marina Abramović: the groundbreaking Serbian artist and self-described "godmother of performance art" who has spent the past 50 years confronting the mental and physical limits of the body and using it as a powerful canvas.   Her early work in the 1970s is famed for its extremity, with pieces where she would cut the communist star into her stomach or invite an audience to use weapons on her if they pleased. It was a radical thread she continued when she teamed up with Ulay, her one-time creative collaborator and former lover, who passed away just before the pandemic struck in 2020. Their final piece together in 1988, where they each walked from one end of The Great Wall of China and met in the middle, is one of the most elaborate break-ups of all time.   Since then, Abramović, 74, has become known for intertwining performance art with spirituality, shamanism and pop culture: she trained Lady Gaga in her ‘Marina Abramović Method’, starred in a Jay-Z video and turned her attentions to durational works. These feats of endurance include her infamous piece The Artist is Present, at the MoMa in New York in 2010, where she spent some 700 hours sitting silently across a table from spectators – over 1,500 people came to sit opposite her. Many of them were moved to tears, though critics have accused her over the years of being an exhibitionist and a narcissist.   In this interview, conducted via Zoom from her home in upstate New York at the start of 2021, Abramović talks about creative fearlessness, the importance of failure and taking risks, why she never had children, why we should be hugging trees and what she has in common with the opera singer Maria Callas, on whom she has based her own mixed-media performance (and which will return to the stage later this year following its pre-pandemic premiere last April). A retrospective of her life's work, meanwhile – her first major exhibition in the UK – will now be showing in 2023.   Presenter: Kate Hutchinson Producer: Holly Fisher Ident: Emmy The Great Logo: Rebecca Strickson www.thelastbohemians.co.uk Instagram: @thelastbohemianspod  With thanks to KLORIS (www.kloriscbd.com), the Marina Abramović Institute, Lisson Gallery, Irma Crusat, Laura Martin at Real Life PR, Ali Gardiner and Toni and Andy Shaw.  Music used in this episode: Daniel Birch - Indigo Moon Daniel Birch - Indigo Shore Chad Crouch - Algorithms Lobo Loco - Deepest Breath Salakapakka Sound System - Kapina Tiibetissa Siddhartha Corsus - Victory of Buddha Sputnic - Spiritual Dreams Tortue Super Sonic - Klezmer Uno

For International Women’s Day 2021, The Last Bohemians returns with a special lockdown episode, supported by <a href="http://www.kloriscbd.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">KLORIS</a>, starring Marina Abramović: the groundbreaking Serbian artist and self-described "godmother of performance art" who has spent the past 50 years confronting the mental and physical limits of the body and using it as a powerful canvas. Her early work in the 1970s is famed for its extremity, with pieces where she would cut the communist star into her stomach or invite an audience to use weapons on her if they pleased. It was a radical thread she continued when she teamed up with Ulay, her one-time creative collaborator and former lover, who passed away just before the pandemic struck in 2020. Their final piece together in 1988, where they each walked from one end of The Great Wall of China and met in the middle, is one of the most elaborate break-ups of all time. Since then, Abramović, 74, has become known for intertwining performance art with spirituality, shamanism and pop culture: she trained Lady Gaga in her ‘Marina Abramović Method’, starred in a Jay-Z video and turned her attentions to durational works. These feats of endurance include her infamous piece The Artist is Present, at the MoMa in New York in 2010, where she spent some 700 hours sitting silently across a table from spectators – over 1,500 people came to sit opposite her. Many of them were moved to tears, though critics have accused her over the years of being an exhibitionist and a narcissist. In this interview, conducted via Zoom from her home in upstate New York at the start of 2021, Abramović talks about creative fearlessness, the importance of failure and taking risks, why she never had children, why we should be hugging trees and what she has in common with the opera singer Maria Callas, on whom she has based her own mixed-media performance (and which will return to the stage later this year following its pre-pandemic premiere last April). A <a href="https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/marina-abramovic" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">retrospective of her life's work</a>, meanwhile – her first major exhibition in the UK – will now be showing in 2023. Presenter: <a href="http://www.katehutchinson.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kate Hutchinson</a> Producer: <a href="https://twitter.com/holly_fisher?lang=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Holly Fisher</a> Ident: <a href="https://www.emmythegreat.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Emmy The Great</a> Logo: <a href="http://www.rebeccastrickson.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rebecca Strickson</a> <a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.thelastbohemians.co.uk</a> Instagram: <a href="http://www.instagram.com/thelastbohemianspod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@thelastbohemianspod</a> With thanks to KLORIS (<a href="http://www.kloriscbd.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.kloriscbd.com</a>), the Marina Abramović Institute, Lisson Gallery, Irma Crusat, Laura Martin at Real Life PR, Ali Gardiner and Toni and Andy Shaw. Music used in this episode: Daniel Birch - Indigo Moon Daniel Birch - Indigo Shore Chad Crouch - Algorithms Lobo Loco - Deepest Breath Salakapakka Sound System - Kapina Tiibetissa Siddhartha Corsus - Victory of Buddha Sputnic - Spiritual Dreams Tortue Super Sonic - Klezmer Uno

S2 Ep8: A Lockdown Special with Marina Abramović

Maggi Hambling

Maggi Hambling (1945-) is a British painter and sculptor whose visceral work spans portraits of her bohemian friends past – from Soho dandy Sebastian Horsley to Henrietta Moraes, once the 1950s queen of London bohemia and muse to Francis Bacon, then Maggi’s own – and divisive public works that include her giant scallop on a beach in Suffolk on the English coast, near where she grew up, her Oscar Wilde bench in London and most recently, her 2020 bust of early women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft, who she depicted naked.    For the first of three special episodes for Women’s History Month 2022 – and ahead of the opening of her first ever show in New York – we find Maggi and her pug dog, Peggy, through the fog of cigarette smoke at her south London studio. As she puffs, she reminisces about her crucial life training at the East Anglian Art School, her younger years falling in and out of Soho drinking establishments, and her love affair with the 1950s queen of bohemia, Henrietta Moraes, who was Francis Bacon’s muse and later her own.     Maggi gives us a whistlestop tour through her approach to creativity and process, the controversy that some of her public artworks have caused, becoming a national treasure, how she deals with bad reviews, being a gay icon and calling herself queer in tribute to her late filmmaker friend Derek Jarman, her affinity with Oscar Wilde and why the work, above all else, comes first. An audience with Maggi is never a dull moment.    Maggi Hambling: Real Time is at the Marlborough in NYC, 10 March-30 April 2022. marlboroughnewyork.com.    This episode was produced by Hannah Fisher and presented and exec-produced by Kate Hutchinson. Additional reporting by Georgie Rogers. Sound design by Colour It In. Photography by Laura Kelly.    ​Music in this episode with thanks to freemusicarchive.org: Humbug by Crowander Carpe Diem by Dee Yan Key Lava Spout by Blue Wave Theory Be My Guest - Crowander    Intro music by Emmy The Great.

Maggi Hambling (1945-) is a British painter and sculptor whose visceral work spans portraits of her bohemian friends past – from Soho dandy Sebastian Horsley to Henrietta Moraes, once the 1950s queen of London bohemia and muse to Francis Bacon, then Maggi’s own – and divisive public works that include her giant scallop on a beach in Suffolk on the English coast, near where she grew up, her Oscar Wilde bench in London and most recently, her 2020 bust of early women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft, who she depicted naked. For the first of three special episodes for Women’s History Month 2022 – and ahead of the opening of her first ever show in New York – we find Maggi and her pug dog, Peggy, through the fog of cigarette smoke at her south London studio. As she puffs, she reminisces about her crucial life training at the East Anglian Art School, her younger years falling in and out of Soho drinking establishments, and her love affair with the 1950s queen of bohemia, Henrietta Moraes, who was Francis Bacon’s muse and later her own.  Maggi gives us a whistlestop tour through her approach to creativity and process, the controversy that some of her public artworks have caused, becoming a national treasure, how she deals with bad reviews, being a gay icon and calling herself queer in tribute to her late filmmaker friend Derek Jarman, her affinity with Oscar Wilde and why the work, above all else, comes first. An audience with Maggi is never a dull moment. Maggi Hambling: Real Time is at the Marlborough in NYC, 10 March-30 April 2022. <a href="http://marlboroughnewyork.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">marlboroughnewyork.com</a>. This episode was produced by Hannah Fisher and presented and exec-produced by Kate Hutchinson. Additional reporting by Georgie Rogers. Sound design by Colour It In. Photography by Laura Kelly. ​Music in this episode with thanks to <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freemusicarchive.org</a>: Humbug by Crowander Carpe Diem by Dee Yan Key Lava Spout by Blue Wave Theory Be My Guest - Crowander Intro music by Emmy The Great.

S3 Ep1: Maggi Hambling: the great British artist on controversy, criticism and being a queer icon at 76

Ziggy Stardust

Dana Gillespie

Dana Gillespie (1949-) is one of the few remaining women who was at the centre of the Sixties and Seventies in London and in New York, having been best mates with David Bowie and pretty much anyone who was anyone back then. Eric Clapton was very nearly her guitar teacher, Led Zep’s Jimmy Page played on her early folk records and she was in and out of the tabloids with Bob Dylan as a teenage girl. She has recorded with Elton John, had her portrait screen printed by Andy Warhol's Factory, and shared a stage with rock’n’roll greats Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and the Stones. She's lived a life as starry and storied as Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg – so why hasn't anyone heard of her?   In the 1970s, Dana went glam-pop with the track Andy Warhol, which Bowie had written for her, and released the 1974 album Weren’t Born A Man, where she appears in a corset and stockings on the cover. But then Bowie’s management company went bust and The Thin White Duke stopped returning her calls. Unable to get out of her contract for years, she turned to acting and starred in musicals, though the tabloids were always distracted by her buxom image. In the 1980s, she reinvented herself as a blues singer, founded the Mustique blues festival and has now released upwards of 70 albums, including 13 in Sanskrit.   Dana is perhaps just as famous for her long list of lovers, including Keith Moon, Michael Caine and Sean Connery. But Dylan clearly recognised that she is one of a kind and, in the 90s, invited her to open up for him on his UK tour. She has also become a rock star of the spiritual world, having performed in front of a million people at her guru Sai Baba’s birthday celebrations. Her style of blues is saucy and knowing, and you can still see her performing every month at a venue called the Temple of Music And Art in south London.   Truth be told, Dana has lived such a life that we could have made an entire series about her. If you want more no-holds-barred tell-alls, check out her 2020 memoir, Weren’t Born A Man. In this episode, she talks about coming from money, her infamous basement hangout in South Kensington, her love of the blues, how she met Bowie, her freewheeling attitude to sex, love and forgiveness, her spiritual awakening, making music into her 70s and how she hopes she won't be forgotten in the pantheon of great British artists.  This episode was produced by Sarah Nichol, presented by Kate Hutchinson and sound designed by Colour It In. Portrait by Laura Kelly.  Music in this episode: Dana Gillespie - Track 06 Dems - Unreleased Blue Dog Sessions - Funk &amp; Flash Mr Smith - Badass Dana Gillespie - Track 07 Kevin McLeod - Hustle Bruce Millar - Sitar &amp; Tabla Duo Jim Barrett - Star Fragment  Ident music: Emmy The Great.

Dana Gillespie (1949-) is one of the few remaining women who was at the centre of the Sixties and Seventies in London and in New York, having been best mates with David Bowie and pretty much anyone who was anyone back then. Eric Clapton was very nearly her guitar teacher, Led Zep’s Jimmy Page played on her early folk records and she was in and out of the tabloids with Bob Dylan as a teenage girl. She has recorded with Elton John, had her portrait screen printed by Andy Warhol's Factory, and shared a stage with rock’n’roll greats Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and the Stones. She's lived a life as starry and storied as Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg – so why hasn't anyone heard of her? In the 1970s, Dana went glam-pop with the track <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b11Jw8ddigI" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Andy Warhol</a>, which Bowie had written for her, and released the 1974 album Weren’t Born A Man, where she appears in a corset and stockings <a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/239770-Dana-Gillespie-Werent-Born-A-Man" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">on the cover</a>. But then Bowie’s management company went bust and The Thin White Duke stopped returning her calls. Unable to get out of her contract for years, she turned to acting and starred in musicals, though the tabloids were always distracted by her buxom image. In the 1980s, she reinvented herself as a blues singer, founded the Mustique blues festival and has now released upwards of 70 albums, including 13 in Sanskrit. Dana is perhaps just as famous for her long list of lovers, including Keith Moon, Michael Caine and Sean Connery. But Dylan clearly recognised that she is one of a kind and, in the 90s, invited her to open up for him on his UK tour. She has also become a rock star of the spiritual world, having performed in front of a million people at her guru Sai Baba’s birthday celebrations. Her style of blues is saucy and knowing, and you can still see her performing every month at a venue called the Temple of Music And Art in south London. Truth be told, Dana has lived such a life that we could have made an entire series about her. If you want more no-holds-barred tell-alls, check out her 2020 memoir, Weren’t Born A Man. In this episode, she talks about coming from money, her infamous basement hangout in South Kensington, her love of the blues, how she met Bowie, her freewheeling attitude to sex, love and forgiveness, her spiritual awakening, making music into her 70s and how she hopes she won't be forgotten in the pantheon of great British artists. This episode was produced by Sarah Nichol, presented by Kate Hutchinson and sound designed by Colour It In. Portrait by Laura Kelly. Music in this episode: Dana Gillespie - Track 06 Dems - Unreleased Blue Dog Sessions - Funk &amp; Flash Mr Smith - Badass Dana Gillespie - Track 07 Kevin McLeod - Hustle Bruce Millar - Sitar &amp; Tabla Duo Jim Barrett - Star Fragment Ident music: Emmy The Great.

S3 Ep2: Dana Gillespie: the Swinging Sixties wild child on sex, spirituality and Ziggy Stardust

Cleo Sylvestre

Resilience

Cleo Sylvestre (1945-) is a woman of many firsts: she is the first Black woman to play a leading role at the National Theatre in London, one of the first Black actors to have a recurring role in a primetime British soap and one of the first Black Brits to release a single in 1964 – with none other than her friends, The Rolling Stones. The Guardian called her “the Black actor who should have been one of Britain’s biggest stars”. So why isn’t she a household name?    Sylvestre was born in Euston, London, and attended Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts before launching into a life on stage and screen: she made her West End debut in 1964 alongside British acting legend Alec Guinness and went on to star in some of the definitive shows of the Sixties, those that put working class actors on TV for the first time, including visionary director Ken Loach’s Up The Junction, Cathy Come Home and Poor Cow, as well as Doctor Who, Coronation Street and Crossroads.    Like Dana Gillespie, who is also featured this season, Cleo hung out at the Marquee Club in Soho, which is where she met the Rolling Stones, who invited her to record the 1964 single, To Know Him Is To Love Him, while rock’and’roll royalty like Jimmy Page and the Hollies would often come for one of her mother’s home cooked meals.     It wasn’t easy being one of the few Black women breaking through in the entertainment industry, as she explains, discussing race, resilience, rejection and wanting to pave the way for working class actors, as well as how she’s returned to singing after 50 years with her blues alter ego, Honey B Mama. It’s interesting to compare Cleo’s and Dana’s stories – they moved through the Swinging Sixties differently but have both ended up performing the blues later in life. And they didn’t meet each other till later in life, either!    If you liked this, listen to our PP Arnold episode, another singer who Mick Jagger was quite taken with early on… And you can catch Honey B Mama and her band playing at the Rosemary Branch Theatre in London, where Cleo served as co-director for 20 years.   This episode was produced by Antonia Odunlami, and presented and exec-produced by Kate Hutchinson, with sound design by Hana Walker-Brown. ​ Music in this episode via FreeMusicArchive: Gary War - Bounce Four Joel Holmes - African Skies Shaolin Dub - Overthrow Jahzzar - Boulevard St Germain

Cleo Sylvestre (1945-) is a woman of many firsts: she is the first Black woman to play a leading role at the National Theatre in London, one of the first Black actors to have a recurring role in a primetime British soap and one of the first Black Brits to release a single in 1964 – with none other than her friends, The Rolling Stones. The Guardian called her “the Black actor who should have been one of Britain’s biggest stars”. So why isn’t she a household name? Sylvestre was born in Euston, London, and attended Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts before launching into a life on stage and screen: she made her West End debut in 1964 alongside British acting legend Alec Guinness and went on to star in some of the definitive shows of the Sixties, those that put working class actors on TV for the first time, including visionary director Ken Loach’s Up The Junction, Cathy Come Home and Poor Cow, as well as Doctor Who, Coronation Street and Crossroads.  Like Dana Gillespie, who is also featured this season, Cleo hung out at the Marquee Club in Soho, which is where she met the Rolling Stones, who invited her to record the 1964 single, To Know Him Is To Love Him, while rock’and’roll royalty like Jimmy Page and the Hollies would often come for one of her mother’s home cooked meals.  It wasn’t easy being one of the few Black women breaking through in the entertainment industry, as she explains, discussing race, resilience, rejection and wanting to pave the way for working class actors, as well as how she’s returned to singing after 50 years with her blues alter ego, Honey B Mama. It’s interesting to compare Cleo’s and Dana’s stories – they moved through the Swinging Sixties differently but have both ended up performing the blues later in life. And they didn’t meet each other till later in life, either! If you liked this, listen to our PP Arnold episode, another singer who Mick Jagger was quite taken with early on… And you can catch Honey B Mama and her band playing at the Rosemary Branch Theatre in London, where Cleo served as co-director for 20 years. This episode was produced by Antonia Odunlami, and presented and exec-produced by Kate Hutchinson, with sound design by Hana Walker-Brown. ​ Music in this episode via FreeMusicArchive: Gary War - Bounce Four Joel Holmes - African Skies Shaolin Dub - Overthrow Jahzzar - Boulevard St Germain

S3 Ep3: Cleo Sylvestre: the veteran actor on resilience, rejection, the Rolling Stones and representing the working class

The Last Bohemians has gone to LA for a brand new series, supported by Audio-Technica, starting in July and starring LA icon Angelyne, subversive fashion disruptor Michéle Lamy, punk-rock widow Linda Ramone, feminist surrealist Penny Slinger, punk performance artist Johanna Went, artists and sculptors Betye Saar, Alison Saar and Maddy Leeser, cult musician – and LA's first female barber – Lynn Castle and Bond girl Gloria Hendry.   Heartbroken and feeling adrift during the pandemic, host and creator Kate Hutchinson decamped to Hollywood in search of the wildest women in the City of Angels to help her get her mojo back. From Sunset Strip sexpots to Downtown artists, she meets a diverse range of incredible women – and one artistic dynasty! – who have lived life on the edge and who, even in their seventies, eighties or even nineties, still refuse to play by the rules.   Series four stars:  Angelyne, the blonde bombshell who rose to fame in the 1980s when billboards of the then-unknown pin-up started mysteriously appearing around the city and about whom Peacock released a major biopic last month.  Michéle Lamy: the subversive French fashion disruptor at the Chateau Marmont on style, inspiration, how she works with her husband Rick Owens and her one-time notorious LA nightspot, Les Deux Cafe.  Gloria Hendry: the former Bond girl, blaxploitation-era star and Playboy Bunny talks about being 007’s first black love interest, breaking taboos onscreen and paving the way for the Black Panther generation.  Linda Ramone: the punk-rock widow shows us around her home, the Linda and Johnny Ramone Ranch, with its themed Elvis and Disney rooms, and discusses love triangles, legacies and the demise of rock’n’roll.  Betye Saar, Alison Saar and Maddy Leeser: a joyous encounter with the 95-year-old African-American artist Betye Saar, her artist daughter Alison and grand-daughter Maddy, at home in Laurel Canyon.  Lynn Castle: the 83-year-old musician and first lady barber of Los Angeles on cutting Jim Morrison and Neil Young’s hair, being Phil Spector’s high school sweetheart, her relationship with Elvis, and Nancy Sinatra stealing her style.  Johanna Went: the most notorious performance artist on the 80s LA punk scene – and the Lady Gaga that never was – gets frank about the power of ageing.  Penny Slinger: the forgotten feminist surrealist and British bohemian – who escaped England for California – explores the divine feminine, exorcisms, making counterculture films in the 1960s and how her work came to define Women’s Lib.  ABOUT THE LAST BOHEMIANS  The Last Bohemians is the vivid, hallucinatory podcast-portrait series started in 2019 by journalist Kate Hutchinson and now in its fourth series. It won silver for Best New Podcast at the 2020 British Podcast Awards and was a finalist at the 2021 Audio Production Awards, stealing hearts with 86-year-old Molly Parkin’s stories of self-pleasuring, LSD countess Amanda Feilding’s trepanning tales and Pamela Des Barres’ reflections on supergroupiedom. If you like what you hear, feel free to support us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/thelastbohemians  LINKS www.thelastbohemians.co.uk  IG: @thelastbohemianspod; @katehutchinsonpow Twitter: @thelastbohospod; @katehutchinson  The Last Bohemians LA team:  Kate Hutchinson (exec producer/host) Holly Fisher (senior producer) Lisa Jeliffe (photographer) Matilda Jenkins (photographer, Michele Lamy),  Sue Merlino (producer) Georgie Rogers (editor)

The Last Bohemians has gone to LA for a brand new series, supported by Audio-Technica, starting in July and starring LA icon Angelyne, subversive fashion disruptor Michéle Lamy, punk-rock widow Linda Ramone, feminist surrealist Penny Slinger, punk performance artist Johanna Went, artists and sculptors Betye Saar, Alison Saar and Maddy Leeser, cult musician – and LA's first female barber – Lynn Castle and Bond girl Gloria Hendry. Heartbroken and feeling adrift during the pandemic, host and creator Kate Hutchinson decamped to Hollywood in search of the wildest women in the City of Angels to help her get her mojo back. From Sunset Strip sexpots to Downtown artists, she meets a diverse range of incredible women – and one artistic dynasty! – who have lived life on the edge and who, even in their seventies, eighties or even nineties, still refuse to play by the rules. Series four stars: Angelyne, the blonde bombshell who rose to fame in the 1980s when billboards of the then-unknown pin-up started mysteriously appearing around the city and about whom Peacock released a major biopic last month. Michéle Lamy: the subversive French fashion disruptor at the Chateau Marmont on style, inspiration, how she works with her husband Rick Owens and her one-time notorious LA nightspot, Les Deux Cafe. Gloria Hendry: the former Bond girl, blaxploitation-era star and Playboy Bunny talks about being 007’s first black love interest, breaking taboos onscreen and paving the way for the Black Panther generation. Linda Ramone: the punk-rock widow shows us around her home, the Linda and Johnny Ramone Ranch, with its themed Elvis and Disney rooms, and discusses love triangles, legacies and the demise of rock’n’roll. Betye Saar, Alison Saar and Maddy Leeser: a joyous encounter with the 95-year-old African-American artist Betye Saar, her artist daughter Alison and grand-daughter Maddy, at home in Laurel Canyon. Lynn Castle: the 83-year-old musician and first lady barber of Los Angeles on cutting Jim Morrison and Neil Young’s hair, being Phil Spector’s high school sweetheart, her relationship with Elvis, and Nancy Sinatra stealing her style. Johanna Went: the most notorious performance artist on the 80s LA punk scene – and the Lady Gaga that never was – gets frank about the power of ageing. Penny Slinger: the forgotten feminist surrealist and British bohemian – who escaped England for California – explores the divine feminine, exorcisms, making counterculture films in the 1960s and how her work came to define Women’s Lib. ABOUT THE LAST BOHEMIANS The Last Bohemians is the vivid, hallucinatory podcast-portrait series started in 2019 by journalist Kate Hutchinson and now in its fourth series. It won silver for Best New Podcast at the 2020 British Podcast Awards and was a finalist at the 2021 Audio Production Awards, stealing hearts with 86-year-old Molly Parkin’s stories of self-pleasuring, LSD countess Amanda Feilding’s trepanning tales and Pamela Des Barres’ reflections on supergroupiedom. If you like what you hear, feel free to support us on Patreon! <a href="http://www.patreon.com/thelastbohemians" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.patreon.com/thelastbohemians</a> LINKS <a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.thelastbohemians.co.uk</a> IG: @thelastbohemianspod; @katehutchinsonpow Twitter: @thelastbohospod; @katehutchinson The Last Bohemians LA team:  Kate Hutchinson (exec producer/host) Holly Fisher (senior producer) Lisa Jeliffe (photographer) Matilda Jenkins (photographer, Michele Lamy),  Sue Merlino (producer) Georgie Rogers (editor)

S4: The Last Bohemians: Los Angeles - Trailer - Launching July 2022

This podcast covers some of the grand bohemian dames!  I hope it continues!

So great!

I totally love this podcast ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤🖤

Beautiful

The Last Bohemians is an award-winning, critically acclaimed, independent podcast series that meets maverick and radical women in arts and culture and takes listeners on a vivid, hallucinatory trip through their extraordinary lives. From subversive musicians and style icons to game-changing artists, these are women who have lived life on the edge and who still refuse to play by the rules. The series was created in 2019 by host and journalist Kate Hutchinson and is produced by a team of rising women in audio, with portraits by Laura Kelly. Season 1 features Molly Parkin, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Pauline Black and more; Season 2 stars Judy Collins, Gee Vaucher, Zandra Rhodes and P.P. Arnold; Season 3 is with Maggi Hambling, Cleo Sylvestre and Dana Gillespie. In 2020, The Last Bohemians published a lockdown special with performance artist Marina Abramović and in 2022, went to Los Angeles for a special LA series. The Last Bohemians has been a podcast of the week in the Guardian, Observer New Review, The Financial Times and on Radio 4. In January 2022, it was featured in the New Yorker. It won silver for Best New Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2020 and was a finalist for the Grassroots Production Award at the 2021 Audio Production Awards. For bonus content and more: <a href="http://www.patreon.co.uk/thelastbohemians" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.patreon.co.uk/thelastbohemians</a> <a href="http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk</a> <a href="http://www.instagram.com/thelastbohospod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.instagram.com/thelastbohospod</a> PRAISE FOR THE LAST BOHEMIANS “This series is a delight… Run to this podcast right now”  The Observer "Unusually intimate portraits of spectacular lives… Buoyed by exquisite production, these conversations are atmospheric, contemplative and fabulously candid" Financial Times "A beautifully intimate set of portraits made by an all-female audio team – what more could you ask for to celebrate International Women’s Day?" The Guardian Feisty, heartfelt and bursting with wisdom" NME "A rhapsodic, necessary retelling of trailblazer stories" Dazed

The Last Bohemians

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