Know that there is an obit thread, but as almost ever UK-based ATMer of a certain age will have run into this genuine one-off at some point, it seems a nice time to look back at gigs we went to in the 60s and 70s.
For those callow youths who’ve never heard of him, JJ was as ubiquitous a feature of gig-going forty and fifty years ago (Jesus – the other one – is it really that long ago?) as army great coats and shouts of “Wally” or “Albatross!”
Pretty sure the first time I first saw him was at The Who’s May 74 Charlton gig – certainly remember his being at loads of big shows thereafter. He was such a fixture on the music scene at that time there’s even brief footage of him talking to Neil Young in Jim Jarmusch’s Year of the Horse and three decades later onto a Chemical Brothers album cover.
Anyone care to share their own recollections – fond or otherwise -of JJ?
https://www.loudersound.com/news/legendary-music-fan-and-naked-hippie-dancer-jesus-dead-at-72
I did post about his death on the obituaries thread.
I saw him several times at the Hyde Park Free Festivals, and the Windsor Free Festival.
https://jprobinson.medium.com/the-mystery-of-jesus-the-naked-hippie-dancer-9822c0da8765.
The NME did an article about him too.
Remember reading the Medium article about him a few years back.
Surprised no one has done a doc about him, there must be loads of footage.
It would be of limited appeal, Shirley. I can only take (or do) so much naked idiot dancing.
“Loads of footage” hurrrrr
Lasted quite a lot longer than the real Jesus, to be fair.
Don’t sign any autographs in front of your house, Moose.
….now it’s ALL THIS
Just fact-checking that statement, the real Jesus rose again and lives forever. He sits at the right hand side of God the Father in perpetuity. Jesus, God the Father as well as the Holy Spirit live as one entity – not separate but one God.
This is why Bros suffered a downturn after Ken left. Ken was their Holy Spirit and they turned their back on him – not realising that they were destroying themselves in the process.
Just goes to show I bin branewashed by der muzzlums
Reading 75, he was dancing barely a todger away from where we were sitting.
His or yours?
Lmfao
Put it this way, we weren’t observing the 2 metre rule in those days
Or, more disturbingly, washing your hands
A walking enigma,
Where did he live? Did he have a job? A family?
Any other interests than dancing at gigs?
It makes me think of Stanley Green, the Protein Crusader in Oxford Street. A living landmark.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Green
The article linked in Herbert Rawlinson’s post above will tell you pretty much all you need to know. Was amazed he got an obit in today’s Times! Dare say a few Bufton-Tufton types were rustling their papers at that!
Thanks @Jaygee and @Hubert Rawlinson.
That was a very thorough piece of journalism that managed to capture his omnipresence and charisma without turning a blind eye to his mental health issues.
He was a fixture at the Roundhouse and Middle Earth, as well as the Hyde Park freebies. He seemed to live on air.
Apologies for going víolently off-piste for a second.
Talking of living landmarks….
Do any of the Stockholm AWers remember Maria, the busking missionary who played the organ , come rain, come shine, in Sergelstorg for almost 30 years?
https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/oRW5aB/orgeln-har-tystnat-i-dag-begravs-maria
Apologies for going víolently off-piste for a second.
Not like you at all, K….
Yes, of course. She was always there all through my childhood and well into my adulthood too. (Your link confused me for a while, as I distinctly remembered her dying many years ago and I thought it was a link to a new article for a second!)
She was harmless but I always thought she made an unholy racket with that bloody organ and her not-so-very-lovely voice wailing about Jesus non-stop.
But to be preferred to that unfortunate old woman with obvious mental health issues that has been roaming the city and the metro system in later years, aggressively telling everyone that they’re going to hell. Haven’t seen her around for the last year, I wonder if she’s died or is just sheltering from covid?
Ooops! Sorry to awaken unpleasant memories @Locust.
Maria is remembered by many, but it certainly is not for her musical abilities!
I read that Medium piece. God, it’s just really sad.
You’ve got to admire someone who plays bongos at a Motorhead gig!