Dave Woodhall talks to one of Birmingham’s best-known, unknown artists.
If you’ve even a passing knowledge of the Birmingham music scene over the years you’ll have heard of, and almost certainly seen, King Pleasure & the Biscuit Boys.
King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys
Their brand of fifties-style rhythm’n’blues has enthralled audiences around the world while BB King, Ray Charles and the Blues Brothers are just some of the names to have the unenviable task of following the KPs unique stage act.
What’s not so well-known is that when His Majesty slips off his crown for the day he turns into Mark Skirving, highly-rated artist who on Sunday 7th October will be combining his twin talents at the Actress & Bishop on Ludgate Hill by playing with his side project Big Joe Pleasure’s Boogie Band while simultaneously holding a sale of limited edition prints of his work.
“About eight years ago I started an adult education course on art history and appreciation of art at Stone Hall in Acocks Green and I was absolutely enthralled by the whole thing. I loved all the art movements and particularly the Modernists. I thought ‘I’ll have a crack at this myself, I’d like to paint’. The chap running the course also did a painting class at Archbishop Ilsley school so I went to that and spent a year learning to oil paint.
“I became quite fanatical. I went on to do a BA in fine art at Solihull, and again found it totally inspiring. I loved it and had three great years there. I did a Masters at Margaret Street and loved that as well. I can’t afford a doctorate so I have to get on with proper painting now. Of course, coming at it as a mature student, it’s great because you want to be there. I could have done this when I was 18 but I might have spent all the time drinking and never turn up to lectures.
“I’d always been good at art at school. The teachers were always getting me to hold up my drawings in class, that sort of thing. So I knew I’d got that in me and I fancied the idea of painting, it became something I had to do and I couldn’t do without.”
The Biscuit Boys are known for their gruelling live schedule, which has seen them play over 250 gigs in a year. That must have caused some problems to a budding artist.
“Painting and music go together. If you’re not touring you have a lot of free time and with painting you don’t have to stick to a schedule so you can fit it around whenever you’re free. I don’t do any actual painting when I’m travelling but I do a lot of photography and think of some ideas while I’m away. We’re lucky that we’ve travelled to some exotic locations which have provided inspiration.”
It’s fair to say your band is rooted in music from the past. Is this reflected in your art?
“To an extent. Even if you’re talking about modernism, it’s not contemporary. It starts in the 19th century so that’s retro as well. I’ve looked at paintings in galleries and I love to admire the technique of great masters, but with the birth of modernism it was moving away from that towards new ideas and concepts and I found this really interesting.”
As time goes by and touring becomes less attractive, will art have a greater influence on your own life?
“It is true, it’s not intentional but as I get older it’s something I can do without having to run around singing, drinking and cavorting. I can do it in the comfort of my studio stroke spare bedroom and I can get on with the business of painting.”
But for the moment you’re the singer of a band still in big demand. How are they faring?
“We’ve just got back from the Callander jazz & blues festival in Scotland and we’re off again soon to Norway, then back on the circuit. We’ve also got another album in the pipeline which I’ve written, the first we’ve ever done of completely original material. Maybe it’s the artistic bent of wanting to do everything on your own, finally kicking in. In reality we’ve always played a lot of other peoples’ material and it wasn’t through any kind of lack of artistic interest, simply that I was so fanatical about the music that I wanted to play just that. The idea of creating and playing something new passed me by. Yet all the music I paid no attention to while I was growing up, all the stuff that was happening in my teenage years which I ignored because I was listening to rockabilly, I enjoy now. “
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You’re doing the Actress & Bishop with your own Boogie Band. What’ll happen?
“It’s part of the regular Sunday afternoon gathering at the Actress. I’ve got a four-piece band that play music a bit different from the KPs and I’ll be selling prints of my original paintings.”
A pub, particularly one where there’s a live band playing, might seem a strange place to sell artwork.
“I’ve sold quite a few originals in galleries but then my local pub suggested I stuck some prints up on their wall and see what happened. I thought there wasn’t much point – nobody in pub culture would want that – but I was totally wrong. I didn’t realise that I go to the pub, I’m pub culture. We all are. They sold well, everyone was raving and it was great. People who wouldn’t dream of going to a gallery and paying the price for oils could go to a pub and see art in print form while they’re having a night out.
It’s a sales point for me, but it’s also a genuine passion about bringing art into somewhere like a pub. Look at early twentieth century Paris, which was the centre of the art universe. All these greats such as Picasso and his contemporaries were putting up pictures in bars to try to scrape money for food. Art was part of the pub culture then.”
26 years on the road and the novelty must be starting to wear off. Is the thrill of appearing on stage being replaced by a new thrill of seeing your paintings on display?
“Song writing and painting excite me, because they’re still new. It’s like when I first heard music by someone like Big Joe Turner. It might not be the same as that first rush, because I’m older now, but it gets me feeling the excitement again.”
Big Joe Pleasure’s Boogie Band are appearing at the Actress & Bishop, 6 Ludgate Hill, Birmingham, 3-6pm on Sunday.