Owning Up: The Trilogy

by George Melly

This single volume includes three famous memoirs - Scouse Mouse, Rum, Bum & Concertina and Owning Up. Scouse Mouse is a funny and frequently touching story of the author's 1930s childhood in a middle-class Liverpudlian household. Rum, Bum & Concertina, the naval equivalent of wine, women and song, describes Melly's National Service as one of the most unlikely naval ratings ever. He becomes an anarchist and connoisseur of Surrealist Art while self-educating himself on some of the wilder shores of love. Once demobbed, Melly comes to London to work in an art gallery, and in Owning Up he describes how he slipped into the world of the jazz revival, revelling in an endless round of pubs, clubs, seedy guesthouses and transport caffs while surrounded by a mad array of musicians, tarts, drunks and arch-eccentrics.

Genres: Music, Jazz, Biography, Autobiography, Nonfiction

612 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2000

About the author

Alan George Heywood Melly was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer, and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for The Observer; he also lectured on art history, with an emphasis on surrealism.

Reviews

[Aileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a long time to read this book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. In three parts, the first dealt with Melly's childhood in Liverpool and gave an insight into the city in the 30s and 40s as well as a good portrait of his large family. The second, my favourite was his days in the Navy, it sounds like he had a great time amongst all the sailors, but also discovered women along the way! The final part was in the time of the 50s and 60s, his days on the road with the band, meeting the jazz greats such as Louie Armstrong, and also telling how Humph, Acker Bilk etc developed and grew into the bands I remember. I felt I understood Melly the man a lot better when I finished the book, only having seen him as a camp, outrageous performer before.

[Mike Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most significant part of the trilogy is "Rum, Bum and Concertina" which covers Gorgeous George's early days from prep schooldays to life as a naval rating, where he discovers his sexuality, and his entry into the London art world. It was only after his school mates read this book that George's son first discovered his dad was bi-sexual.
The third part, "Owning Up", will be partricularly appreciated by musicians, as George describes in great detail the decadent life of a 1950s jazz singer.

[Hewitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Melly was prodigiously gifted, deliciously camp and profoundly unconventional. He seems to have known everything and met everyone.

These three volumes of candid autobiography, originally published between 1965 and 1984, and collected here in reverse order of original publication to form a linear narrative (anarchistic old George told his life story backwards!), take the reader on a journey from Melly’s 1930s childhood in a posh part of Liverpool, to his gay old time in the Royal Navy and encounters of the surreal kind in the 40s, and on to notoriety in the Jazz clubs of Soho and provincial dance halls of 50s Britain.

Outrageous and hilarious memoirs that are also richly aromatic cultural history.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this some years ago, but just recently re-read one of the memoirs in this super volume. George Melly was an eccentric, who was bi-sexual, surrealist-fan, and a blues/jazz singer as well. Witty, charming, and "Owning Up" is a memoir about his years as a traveling jazz singer in the UK during the 50's. Great touring stories, with a great cast of characters. British to the core, you can taste the post-war years of London via this book.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sharp, funny and insightful memoirs from a great cultural commentator - as cool at 80 as he had been at 20.