PETE DOHERTY’S The Libertines might have Cool Britannia to thank for their existence. Music manager and record label founder Alan McGee, who brought Oasis into Downing Street for their famous photoshoot with Tony Blair, says his resulting closeness with Labour led to the New Deal For Musicians scheme. That made access to dole money easier for musicians. Asked on The Rockonteurs podcast who benefited, McGee replied “a few… [the] Libertines did”. Neat.
Art’s weathering economic storm
NO SIGN of an economic downturn at the Frieze modern art fair, which finished yesterday. At Christie’s on Friday, the first Non-Fungible Token ever sold at auction in Europe went to a buyer in the room for £800,000, and sales totalled more than £64 million. The mood continued at Phillips auction house on Saturday, with several young artists selling for more than 10 times their estimates. Even the coffee market seemed to be thriving — one visitor reported paying £7 for a flat white.
Capital’s 48-hour party people
Dave Benett
LONDON was alive with the sound of parties this weekend. On Friday, Dua Lipa chatted to Donatella Versace at a Frieze bash in Temple. Across town, MOBOs founder Kanya King and dramatist Kwame Kwei-Armah were joined at the Savoy by presenter June Sarpong at The Black Excellence Awards, while model Lily Cole attended the premiere of director Charlotte Colbert’s new film She Will at the Curzon Mayfair.
SW1A
A candle and a photo of Sir David Amess greeted mourners at a vigil in Essex (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)
PA Wire
Sir David Amess’s sense of fun left an impression on those he met. On Twitter one of his former staffers recalled the “constant chorus” of his office in Parliament, which was full of budgies and fish. And how, whatever the topic of his speeches, he always snuck in the line: “And that’s why Southend should become a city!”
Just weeks ago Sir David spoke to us about his daughter Alexandra’s wedding, to which he brought a cut-out of Margaret Thatcher. And at Tory conference, we heard him speak passionately about how “wonderful” it was that animal welfare was now at the centre of Tory policy, adding he could “move off the scene” happy in the knowledge that new MPs were taking up his mantle.
