26 Facts About George Melly

Alan George Heywood Melly was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer, and lecturer.

George Melly was a relative of the philanthropist Emma Holt, of Sudley House Liverpool; her sister had married Melly's great-grandfather.

George Melly joined the Royal Navy at the end of the Second World War because, as he quipped to the recruiting officer, the uniforms were "so much nicer".

George Melly retired from jazz in 1962 when he became a film critic for The Observer George Melly was scriptwriter on the 1967 satirical film Smashing Time.

George Melly returned to jazz in the early 1970s with John Chilton's Feetwarmers, a partnership that ended in 2003.

George Melly released six albums in the 1970s including Nuts in 1972 and Son of Nuts the next year.

George Melly wrote a light column, Mellymobile, in Punch magazine describing their tours.

George Melly was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.

George Melly was a member of the Max Miller Appreciation Society and, on 1 May 2005, joined Roy Hudd, Norman Wisdom, and others to unveil a statue of Miller in Brighton.

George Melly's singing style in particular for the blues, was strongly influenced by his idol, Bessie Smith.

George Melly recorded a track called "Old Codger" with The Stranglers in 1978, for which the lyrics were especially written for him by then band member, Hugh Cornwell.

George Melly, who was bisexual, moved from strictly homosexual relationships in his teens and twenties to largely heterosexual relationships from his thirties onwards.

George Melly married twice and had a child from each marriage, though his first child Pandora was not known to be his until she was much older.

George Melly married his second wife, Diana Moynihan, in 1963 and they lived on Gloucester Crescent in Camden Town.

George Melly brought with her two children from two previous marriages.

George and Diana Melly had a country retreat, the Tower, at Scethrog in the Brecon Beacons, between 1971 and 1999.

George Melly was the first musician to be contracted for the opening festival and remained a supporter until his death.

George Melly was a factor in the festival's success and served as its president in 1991.

George Melly was still active in music, journalism, and lecturing on surrealism and other aspects of modern art until his death, despite worsening health problems such as vascular dementia, incipient emphysema, and lung cancer.

George Melly suffered from environmental hearing loss because of long-term exposure to stage sound systems, and his hearing in both ears became increasingly poor.

George Melly often equated his dementia to a quite amusing LSD trip, and took a lot of pleasure from his deafness, which he said made many boring conversations more interesting.

On Sunday 10 June 2007, George Melly made an appearance, announced as his last ever performance, at the 100 Club in London.

George Melly died at his London home of lung cancer and emphysema, aged 80, on 5 July 2007.

On 17 February 2008 BBC Two broadcast George Melly's Last Stand, an intimate portrayal of Melly's last months.

George Melly's sister Andree Melly was an actress, who lived in Ibiza with her husband, Oscar Quitak.

In 2018 writer, musician and film maker Chris Wade made a documentary about George Melly entitled The Certainty of Hazard, featuring his wife Diana, son Tom, and various friends and associates.