Sophie’s idol — a killer blues star
Who knew that the Countess of Wessex was a secret fan of Lead Belly, the legendary hard-living blues singer who was imprisoned for killing one of his own relatives in a fight over a woman?
Sophie will attend Lead Belly Fest, a tribute concert to the singer, to be held at the Royal Albert hall in June.
The performers include the republican singer Billy Bragg, who will offer his version of Lead Belly’s anthem for social justice, The Bourgeois Blues, which was taken up by the U. S. Communist Party, in front of the Royal Box. Musicologists debate whether huddie Ledbetter was awarded his moniker after being stabbed by a fellow inmate in the penitentiary (his assailant came off worse), or from his ability to drink moonshine.
Fortunately, the more reliably pro-royal Jools holland will be on hand to guide the Countess, Royal Patron of Shooting Star Chase Children’s hospice, the concert’s charity partner, through singalong versions of Goodnight, Irene and the African-American work song, Black Betty.
ALAN EDWARDS, the entertainment PR who crafted the public image of the Beckhams and David Bowie, is curating a festival at London’s V&A Museum, called Always Print The Myth: PR and the Modern Age. Next Thursday, he will interview a mystery guest, ‘a massively influential PR with an incredible art collection and also related to a famous British artist’.
Without wishing to destroy the myth, it might be easier to flog the £18 tickets if they simply said ‘an evening with Matthew Freud’. Or did they fear they wouldn’t sell any?