Alan Tunbridge
Alan Tunbridge is an English artist, book dust-jacket illustrator and songwriter.
Life and work
Normally painting in oils, Alan Tunbridge has also designed a great number of book dust-jacket illustrations, mainly in Scraperboard.
He is noted for his songwriting. Many of his songs have been recorded by the folk and Country blues singer and guitarist Wizz Jones. With Jones, Tunbridge ran the MOJO Folk club[1] at the King's Arms pub in Putney, South London in the early 1960s. Often he wrote the words spontaneously to Wizz Jones' chord sequences. His songs are also in the repertoires of Ralph McTell, John Renbourn, Maggie Holland and others. McTell was inspired by Tunbridge's lyrics of the evocative "National Seven" to tread the road which bears this name down to the south of France.[2] The title of Bert Jansch's biography 'Dazzling Stranger' originated from the title of a Tunbridge song.
Alan Tunbridge spent a number of years studying the teachings of the mystic G. I. Gurdjieff (the Fourth Way) with John G. Bennett at Coombe Springs,[3] and later spent time with the Sufi teacher Idries Shah. In 1997 Tunbridge contributed illustrations to Shah's collection of folktales, World Tales, illustrating the story of Mushkil Gusha.
Alan now lives in Sydney, and no longer writes songs. From 1999 to 2009 he focussed on using his writing and design skills to help develop the Schizophrenia Research Institute in Australia, of which he was a founding Director. This commitment was undertaken because his eldest son became affected by the illness.[4] He retired from this role in 2009 to pursue his painting activities and to write his autobiography.Now lives in Ubud, Bali.[5]
Recorded songs
Alan Tunbridge's recorded songs include:
- Dazzling Stranger
- See How the Time is Flying
- The Legendary Me
- When I Cease to Care
- Nobody Told You So
- Beggar Man
- Dazzling Stranger
- Slow Down to My Speed
- Stick a Little Label on It
- Which of Them You Love the Best
- City of the Angels
- The Raven †
- Find a Man for You Girl
- Mary Go 'Round
- Deep Water †
- When You're Gone
- National Seven
- Second-Hand Mini-Me
- The Grapes of Life
- Massacre at Béziers
- Pictures
- Which of Them You Love the Best
- Find A Man For You Girl
- Teapot Blues †
- Earls Court Breakdown
† jointly with Wizz Jones