New Boots and Panties revisited with Baxter Dury

 

Someone posted this lovely article from The Guardian’s Harriet Gibsone on Facebook so I nicked it like a copy of Razzle magazine . . . . . . 

Baxter Dury as a 5-year-old alongside his dad Ian Dury in a '77 shot by Chris Gabrin taken near their house in front of the Axford Clothing store in Vauxhall, London, and used for the cover of Ian Dury's debut album 'New Boots and Panties!!' and again in 2023 as captured by Pål Hansen and edited in a 2001 reworking of the original photo by Sir Peter Blake. 

Baxter Dury: "There’s a fair bit of mythology generated around the shot because Dad was a bullshitter, and consequently so am I, but the recollection I have of that day is that he said: “I’m getting my picture taken. Come along with me.” Being bored, I went. I walked into the shot and said: “Can we go now?” There were four frames taken, and he decided it would become the album cover. That was that. 

We would have been pretty impoverished at the time. Dad made no money from music at this point (...) I have amazing memories of my childhood, but we were on the breadline. Dad lived in London, near the Oval, in a council flat that didn’t have a toilet, so you had to use a local bar. He used to cut my hair back then. But after New Boots and Panties!! came out, there was a boom period when all the royalties came in and we behaved like there was an endless stream of money. Dad devoured the cash and at one point he lived in the Montcalm hotel. Jemima and I would get dropped off at the entrance and the concierge would freak out at the unwashed, feral kids running through their premises. We’d end up ordering loads of club sandwiches in Dad’s room. It was pure decadence. 

...I was mostly brought up by my mum who was artistic but gentle and conventional. She wasn’t in a pot-smoking fraternity like Dad was. He got up at 12 in the afternoon; she got up at a normal hour. But when I was about 13 I moved in with Dad. He was in a chaotic state of mind, one career had drawn to a halt, and he wasn’t in the healthiest state. I exploited that to do what I wanted. 

...My son and I now live in the flat Dad bought in west London. When we moved in, our neighbours, who’ve been there for decades, were like: “Oh my God, no! They’re returning!” I was like: “No, wait! We’re different!”  

Harriet Gibsone - The Guardian