OCTOBER 2007
Chelsea Hotel Manhattan
by Joe Ambrose : Disparate, Desparate and Extreme Travel
Writing
Headpress
is about to publish author Joe Ambrose`s new book Chelsea
Hotel Manhattan, which is crammed with musings, notes and
conversations with various pop culture icons, artists,
writers, dealers and a whole cross section of disparate
desperate characters who all share one thing in common: a
room at New York`s Chelsea Hotel. Every space, nook and
cranny of the legendary Chelsea Hotel has a story rising
up from its well worn carpets. There are conversations,
discourse and heart to hearts regarding the Lower East
Side, William Burroughs, Sid Vicious, the loneliness of
the city crowd, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, heroin, Leee
Black Childers, Johnny Thunders, Herbert Huncke, Brendan
Behan, Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, Nico, and the island of
Manhattan
At
an exclusive Hackney event Joe will be reading, for the
first time, from Chelsea Hotel Manhattan. This event is
part of the Hackney Write To Ignite Literary Festival. As
a writer, musician and art-terrorist, Joe Ambrose has
seen a lot of the counter cultural world in his time. As
a member of rai hop terrorists Islamic Diggers Joe has
worked with Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithfull, Lydia
Lunch, John Cale, Richard Hell and Paul Bowles. This is
his first London performance in three years. Its free so
just appear from 7pm at Brown’s Shoe Shop, 61 Wilton
Way, Hackney, London E8
I
caught up with Joe to shoot the shit and find out more
about whats going on in his world.....
You
are on the eve of the publication of another fascinating
Irish history book, this time you have been looking at
IRA man Sean Treacy and the Black and Tan wars. What is
it that really grabs people about this particular part of
history?
Its
the story of the exact moment when Ireland - or rather
the biggest part of Ireland - got freedom from British
colonial rule. The IRA of that era forged the template
used in all modern wars of liberation. Last year I had a
hit in Ireland with a book - Dan Breen and the IRA -
which I wrote about the controversial guerilla leader
from that long ago fight. Sean Treacy and the Tan War
(Mercier Press) is very much a sequel to last year's one.
Treacy was Dan Breen's best friend and comrade in arms.
The new book is the story of violent revolutionary
politics in the county - Tipperary - that I come from.
Are
you accompanying the Sean Treacy book with any promo work
Joe?
Tomorrow
I'm speaking at the library in Thurles town in Co.
Tipperary. They've just opened this impressive new arts
facility in the town - The Source - and the library has
been housed within the complex. I'm reading from the new
book and taking questions along with another author from
Mercier Press and an editor from the company too. It's
the first public event I've done in my home county in
about five years. I'm also doing radio interviews. Did
one for next Saturday on Newstalk, an Irish talk radio
station which is really growing and becoming a force. The
guy who interviewed me, Brendan O`Brien, really put the
screws to me and that's always the best kind of radio to
do. I was impressed with the set-up.
You
have immersed yourself in many different art forms Joe,
including writing novels, biography, DJ`ing, spoken word
performance, album and film producer to name a few. Do
you prefer a particular one?
Generally
speaking, I prefer slouching around in the afternoons
watching Colombo and The Rockford Files on the TV. I like
all of those things and others too. I like doing radio. I
guess I prefer the things that I can do all on my own -
like writing, radio, or filming - rather than music or
film-making where I'm variously dependant on others.
What
is the central theme, the story, behind your forthcoming
book, Chelsea Hotel Manhattan?
I
went to New York for the first time expecting to be
impressed and for once my great expectations were
fulfilled. I caught the buzz right off, though of course
it's not the city that it was back in the day of Warhol,
The Ramones, or that style of dissent which I relate to.
It's just a different skewered kind of place now but
perfectly valid.
What
were you working on back then?
I
checked into the Chelsea to work on a book I was writing
called Moshpit Culture and I started taking notes on the
encounters I was having in the hotel and on the streets
of Manhattan.
There
are some key cultural icons; artists, musicians, writers
and many more who you stitch together into this tale of
seminal NYC boho Hotel life.........
After
a while these notes began to seem rather satisfying and
book-like. I was meeting people I admired a lot - like
Victor Bockris, Gerard Malanga, Danny Fields - and
talking with art dealers like Barry Neuman who was
helping me out contacting Billy Name, and while I was in
temporary exile from the Chelsea - over at the Gershwin
Hotel - I started bumping into Sylvain Sylvain from the
New York Dolls. Then I went to this event in honour of
the recently dead Gregory Corso at the Angel Orensanz
Centre, a beautiful old Russian synagogue, and Debbie
Harry and Patti Smith and Taylor Mead and loads of others
performed. That was just a slice of the adventures and
fun I was having so Chelsea Hotel Manhattan grew out of
all that. When I'd finished my own text I recruited
previously unpublished interviews with Allen Ginsberg and
William Burroughs which were done by my pal Spencer
Kansa. Frank Rynne wrote a thing about Herbert Huncke
whom we both knew. I got permission to include a couple
of essays relevant to the Chelsea which Huncke wrote.
Barry Miles, one of the real heroes of the so-called 60s
counterculture , is in there too. And lots of other
scrapbookish good stuff.
And
is there a theme you can trace above and beyond the
connection with staying at the Chelsea Hotel?
There
is no one theme. For instance those people who are
associated with the hotel are by no means all
"outsiders". But the ones who end up in the
book are ones that in one way or another appealed to me.
I tend to be interested in smart articulate unsentimental
individuals with a criminal streak to them. Therefore the
sort of Chelsea mythologies which appeal to me would
normally involve large dollops of sex or drugs or
rock'n'roll. Preferably all three, plus anarcho crazy
kids, disgruntled members of the black commnity, and the
other usual suspects.
When
did you realise that your diaries would make the basis of
an intriguing collection of tales from the
punk/beat/rock`n`roll alternative culture?
Right
away. It was just little bits of stuff on scraps of paper
or written on the back on a flyer for a gig but it was
exciting to me.
How
far does the outsider subject matter of Chelsea Hotel
Manhattan; the era, the drugs, music, art... reflect your
own large body of work?
I
guess it fits in with some of the other stuff I do and
not with some more of it. Burroughs and Gysin, for
instance, had their Chelsea Hotel moments. Also I've been
somewhere around where underground life is lived for a
long time now. Not that there'll be all that much
underground life going on at the Chelsea any more what
with the grevious changes.
***********************************************************************************
A PAUSE TO EXAMINE THOSE GRIEVIOUS CHANGES(J.B.EDITOR):
Note from:www.gothamcityinsider.com/
The fact that the Bard family is no longer managing the hotel is in fact a critical change. The Bard family is responsible for making the hotel what it is, a haven for creative minded individuals. Though some of us have had our differences with Stanley Bard we realize that he and the rest of the Bard family are necessary for the hotel to continue as the cultural mecca it has become. Anybody who thinks the Chelsea Hotel will remain unchanged without the Bard family is kidding themselves. Not that much has changed outwardly. BD Hotels partitioned the Grand Ballroom and turned it into office space, and they have been renovating a bathroom for an unusually long time, but that’s the only construction we know they have been doing. We know they are planning to terminate the leases of all retail tenants, though they may not be able to get away with it in all cases (for instance, El Quijote, the Spanish restaurant that has been in the Chelsea for 70 years, has a very long lease). Though they claim they are going to fix the place up, restoring the historical detail, they have, in reality, been allowing the hotel to deteriorate, refusing to take care of the famous cast iron staircase, for instance, allowing pieces of it to be stolen for souvenirs. The needs of the residents, especially the elderly and marginal residents, are not being met, and nobody knows to whom we should address these concerns.Even more significantly, the vibe of the hotel has changed. BD has been slashing rates to some of the rooms in an attempt to achieve a high occupancy rate (probably for some sort for financial scheme), and they’ve been filling the rooms with tourists—booked over the internet-- who know nothing of the Chelsea. The transient population has always been a big part of the élan of the hotel, and it has usually been composed of artists, musicians and others who value the history of the Chelsea. Besides this, and though it’s hard to describe, it’s just not the same place with a soulless corporation in charge.
|
 One
of our fellow Chelsea Hotel residents received
this bizarre and outrageous letter in her mailbox
on Friday. As you might infer from its
wrinkled condition, this resident crumpled it in
disgust and threw it into the trash, and
that’s where we found it. As, in
addition to being an attempt to intimidate a
particular family, the letter seems to articulate
a general policy, we felt that it was important
to share it with the rest of the Chelsea
community. Parents, in particular, may be
concerned to learn of the management’s
disturbing attitude toward their children.
........ “Stanley is a unique character in New York,” said Philip Taaffe, a painter who has lived in the hotel since 1991. “He’s devoted his life to this place, which has become part of the cultural heritage of New York City. It’s hard to survive in this town as a writer, artist, or actor. He’s helped many people over the years. What is going to happen to New York when that’s gone?” |
***************************************************************************************
You have arguably become part of the modern day Chelsea
Hotel extreme living counter culture yourself Joe, who
else would you place within this framework?
Well,
I don't know about that..... I wish I was livng a bit
more extreme actually but, then, I'm about to do
something about that. But people around in no particular
order who seem hip to where we're at right now include
Dylan, Victor Bockris, Ulick O'Connor, Stewart Home,
Snoop Dogg, Gregory Isaacs, Bret Easton Ellis, Stanley
Booth, Desmond Hogan, I could go on a year. Dan Sartain
is sharp as a razor.
The
first ever public reading by you of selected excerpts of
Chelsea Hotel Manhattan is on September 24th, are you
looking forward to this event?
I
was asked by Nathan Penlington from Write to Ignite to do
the event and he was telling me what a funky space it
was, with input from the likes of Peter Blake, who did
the cover of Sergeant Pepper and stuff like that. I'm big
into pop art - the Beatles suck like no others. As
regards the shop, there are a lot of working artists
associated with that magazine Le Gun, which is a
lit mag and an art mag, amongst other things, involved
with the space. They've also got dreammachines in effect.
Who
are the publishers and when does Chelsea Hotel Manhattan
see the light of day?
The
publishers are Headpress, who've done many innovative and
countercultural books over the years and who still bring
to book publishing a fresh spirit. It should be out
November 29th when, Inshallah, we'll launch it at
Waterstones in Islington before we launch it in Dublin
and New York.
And
finally Joe, what are you plans for the rest of the year?
When
I've finished work promoting the Sean Treacy book I'm off
to Morocco for three months of living on the road, out of
a bag and in cheap hotels with paperback books I'll throw
away when I've read them, a memory stick holding two
novels I'm writing, lots of music coming out of very
small speakers. It's kind of a farewell to the writing of
non-fiction books which has taken up a lot of my time the
last two years and led to me enduring a lot of
self-inflicted peace and quiet. As Robert Mitchum once
said, "I'm too young for peace and quiet". I
have other non-fiction I want to write, including a
memoir, but I need to push on with my fiction for a while
and I need to refocus my film-making and music-provoking
activities. Winter in Morocco marks a dramatic break with
the lifestyle I've been living in London for a few years
now. I've been getting itchy feet and the desire to
itinerant again.
Many
thanks to Joe Ambrose.
Keep
up with the latest on all Joe`s projects <a
href="http://www.joeambrose.net/">here</a>.
Throw your keys into the <a
href="http://www.myspace.com/chelseahotelmanhattan">Chelsea
Hotel Manhattan</a> myspace swingers fruit bowl as
well.
<a
href="http://www.mercierpress.ie/">Mercier
Press</a> publish Joe`s second Irish history book;
Sean Treacy and The Tan War
Chelsea
Hotel Manhattan is published by <a
href="https://securehost2.zen.co.uk/headpress/default.asp">Headpress</a>
and will be launched on 29th November.
Joe
reads for the first time from the book on September 24th
at an exclusive Hackney event thats part of the Write To
Ignite Literary Festival. Its free so just appear from
7pm at Brown’s Shoe Shop, 61 Wilton Way, Hackney,
London E8
Sean Treacy and the Tan War
by Joe Ambrose
MERCIER PAPERBACK
Now out: The second of Joe Ambrose' fast-paced histories of the crucial battles and personalities of the Tan War . These two books offer a hitherto unexplored perspective, keeping tight up against the action and elucidating these affairs within clearly structured chapters. The two people who drove on this section of the fight to free Ireland from English colonial power give titles to these two admirable portrait studies, Dan Breen (see below) and Sean Treacy, who electrified the country with their audacity, clear strategies and achievements.
Review Dan Breen,( from the
Irish Democrat:)
Dan Breen and the
IRA
by Joe Ambrose
Peter Berresford Ellis reviews Dan Breen and the IRA by Joe Ambrose, Mercier Press, ISBN 1-85635-506-3 £11.98 pbk
DAN BREEN'S My
Fight for Irish Freedom was one of the first books
on the War of Independence that I read as a teenager.
Along with Seán Tracey, he is credited with firing the
first shots that started off the war in January, 1919.
Hailed as a hero by some, a 'thug with blood on his hands' by others, a mindless murderer, a friend of George Bernard Shaw, a member of the Irish parliament for thirty years, he is a strangely controversial figure in Irish history.
Joe Ambrose's study is a fascinating analysis of the real Dan Breen, cutting through the various public images of the man to get to an understanding of this most famous and contentious son of Tipperary.
It's a absorbing book. I suppose the phrase 'essential study' may be a little overdone these days but, if anyone is really interested in this all important period in Irish history, then there is no other way of describing it. Its easy style, its arguments, makes it an involving read.
My own debates with the neo-colonial school of historians that have risen to prominence during the last thirty years, the so-called 'revisionists', made me pause and start silently cheering as I read the following paragraph from Joe Ambrose's Introduction to the book:
"The Irish are also a post-colonial people, incessantly told what to do and think by international opinion makers working in publishing, broadcasting and the arts. A colourful and curious array of nay-sayers, soothsayers and academics - not to mention pseudo-scholars fighting their own private Wars on Terror - devote entire Amazon rain forests of paper to debunking some simple facts of narrative history concerning Ireland's War of Independence.
They've taken to their task with gusto and occasional aplomb, undermining complex mythologies which have frown up around the likes of Breen, Michael Collins and Tom Barry. Trying to dismantle the reputations of these rural lads of humble origin, they have sought to create post-modern mythologies of their own from which 1916-23 guerrilla leaders emerge as political deviants from some imaginary, civilised, democratic norm, frantically in league with nebulous forces of evil, indifferent to mandate or morality."
Well, thank goodness, we have the likes of Joe Ambrose, Meda Ryan, John Borgonovo, Ruán O'Donnell and others to counteract the damage that these neo-colonist writers try to wreak in pursuance of furthering their own careers.