ANECDOTES & PERSONAL HISTORY
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This
page covers some aspects and recollections of Peter's life. The
autobiography "My turn as a life" is a work in progress, the following are extracts. He is
considering a ghost writer but, then again ...
The Royal and Ancient Burgh of Selkirk
Around mid-day December 8th 1948, by Scottish Soldier out of Border Maiden, I made my first appearance - christened John Beattie Dempsey but always called Ian. When I later asked, "Why Ian?", I was told it was the Gaelic for John. My parents weren't Gaelic speakers, but were proudly Scots and, although we lived 'in exile' amongst the English for twelve years, their accents never changed in the slightest. Every year we made the pilgrimage back to Selkirk for the "Day of Days" - Selkirk Common Riding. it was always referred to as "going home".
Shortly before our emigration to England
Having a strong Scots Border accent did me no favours when I started school in Redditch, the local dialect was distinctly 'Brummie'. Like all children, I wanted to fit in and very quickly learned to talk like my contemporaries so, outside the house, I was as broad a 'Brummie' as you could get but, once I crossed the threshold, straight back to Border Scots. I was teased unmercifully by my cousins and relatives when we went 'home' to Selkirk: "Here comes the Englishman/Sassenach" etc. The result of this abuse led to me retaining my Scots accent to such an extent that, when I visit Selkirk today, I have a stronger local accent than most of them ... and mine's pure 1950s!
Having an ear for dialects came in useful later in my career, but it was honed in an atmosphere of self-preservation - school playgrounds. When, in 1961, we moved to Mansfield Woodhouse, it never occurred to me that I would have a problem as I spoke 'English' fluently. Nope! My first day at the new school found me surrounded by a mob of fellow pupils chanting "Ay-oop, Brummie bastard" and other such pleasantries. I quickly developed a Nottinghamshire accent and blended in as soon as possible, whilst still resorting to 'Border' once indoors.
The Wonder Years
In 1963, we returned to Scotland where any gift for English regional accents counted for nothing - I could be Scots all the time! - but, no. We'd moved to Fife and, yet again, my accent put me outside the norm. I had to learn to speak like a Fifer - "Ya bun surr" etc - but there was a worse horror awaiting me. My first morning, the boy sitting next to me was hauled out in front of the class and given three almighty blows across the hands by 'The Taws' - a vicious leather strap. His crime? Getting some sums wrong in his homework. I resolved to get out as soon as possible. I remember writing to a chum in Mansfield describing the change of school " ... like leaving Butlins and entering Colditz".
Aged 15, I entered the retail trade
1966-1980
By December 1969 - after two years in Fife and three years in Glasgow training at The Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, I had moved to London, worked in Carnaby Street by day and in Soho strip clubs at night - I found myself, to my utter delight, living in Amsterdam and appearing in 'HAIR' The American Love-Rock-Tribal musical.
I was convinced it was me on the front
Having developed a phobia about the name "Dempsey" - every time I heard it, it meant trouble - I had re-christened myself Peter Blake.
Born to be mild
By the end of 1970, I was in the London production of 'HAIR' at The Shaftesbury Theatre and a full-time professional Hippie. I had met, and fallen in love with, a very sweet Dutch girl, Mieke, and, being given a night off the show, flew to Holland in February 1971 and married her.
The scrap-heap was strangely prescient
... very aggressive hippie
"I only became an actor because I couldn't be a Beatle - the gig had gone"
Peter Blake 1970
Peter Blake 1970
Between December 1966 and mid-1976, I went from show to show. Everything dovetailed and I played eight shows per week without a break for the best part of ten years, fitting in TV work, commercials and voice-overs as well as "going out to play" most nights after the show. For years, I used to have breakfast watching 'Nationwide'. Of course, it took its toll. My marriage ended messilly and, a couple of months later, I was beaten up badly in Notting Hill and "lost the plot". I drove "home" to Selkirk overnight and cannot for the life of me remember much about the following three to four weeks, apart from my long-term agent Barry Brown taking me into his home until I was sufficiently recovered to rejoin the cast in 'What's a nice country ...' at The Mayfair Theatre.
When the show closed a few weeks later, I entered "the long, dark, tea-time of the soul" and sat in my Clapham flat for weeks in a daze. It all seemed to be over. But then ...
You never know what's round the corner
Having made the Pepsi-Cola commercial, I was amazed at the reaction. By the time it came out in 1977, I was working at Chichester Festival Theatre for the season, and was deeply embarrassed when reporters from The Sun and The Daily Mirror elbowed both Ingrid Bergman and Dame Wendy Hiller out of the way to talk to me at the stage door. This was the same summer I discovered the joys of messing about on boats - a hobby which was to cost me dearly in the years to come.
Cowes 1977
Within a week I had driven up to London in my old MGB and recorded my own version of the song from the commercial, "Lipsmakin' Rock'n'Rollin", which went on to sell 125,000 copies and made it to number 39 in the charts. That many copies these days would put me at number 1 for about three years, but in 1977/8 'Mull of Kintyre' was shifting about 80,000 copies per day.
The fun begins
All my rock'n'roll dreams were coming true: I appeared on 'Top of the Pops' and 'Magpie', toured Norway and Denmark using a local band - it was an absolute blast! During the following year, I got a small taste of the madness and pit-falls of the music business. The 'follow-up' single, 'Boogie Breakout', sold less than 350 copies - ah well, back to the day job ...
Not a huge success
Back in my rented Clapham flat, I still fancied myself as some sort of decadent rock star but the facade was all that remained.
Lou Read eat your heart out
Having been to Hollywood to film the second Pepsi advert, by 1980 I realised I was on a dangerous downward spiral and decided on a life change.
Oui! Je suis un Rock Star!
"I realised I couldn't be Sergeant Troy and expect to live much longer, so I had a go at being Gabriel Oak"
Peter Blake 1980
(See "Far from the madding crowd" by Thomas Hardy)
Peter Blake 1980
(See "Far from the madding crowd" by Thomas Hardy)
I found a small semi-detached
cottage in a tiny village in Suffolk and, obviously "tired of life"
(Johnson), I turned my back on London and moved in with no furniture
save a deckchair, sleeping bag and oil lamp. I sat in front of the
log fire listening to 'The Archers' and knew, straight away, I'd made
the right decision.
Having acquired a new life, I set about absorbing a whole new lifestyle: green wellies, the lot! I took riding lessons, learned how to shoot (twelve bore shotguns remain a passion), and went into partnership with a neighbour and reared pigs, ducks and chickens. The early days, as the cottage was slowly furnished and had luxuries installed like hot water, were idyllic. I could walk across two fields to 'The Cherry Tree', in those days unspoilt (ie "modernised"), then weave back in the dark to sit by my fire, drinking Port and smelling strongly of horses and pigs - happy as Larry. In time, I bought a larger house 25 yards further down the lane and moved in with my faithful old cat, 'Marmite', who eventually lived to 21. She'd lived in Finchley, Pinner, two homes in Clapham, two homes in Suffolk, Chiswick, Putney, Manchester and on a boat, as well as going on tour with me more than once before she died in 1992. I still miss her.
The madness began to descend again. It was a great house but work commitments meant I was hardly ever there - by now, 'Agony' was successful, I was constantly travelling, had been through a string of unsatisfactory affairs and I decided I needed a London base.
"If I'd had a quarter of the liasons I've been accused of, I'd be in intensive care"
Peter Blake 1987
The great escape
Having acquired a new life, I set about absorbing a whole new lifestyle: green wellies, the lot! I took riding lessons, learned how to shoot (twelve bore shotguns remain a passion), and went into partnership with a neighbour and reared pigs, ducks and chickens. The early days, as the cottage was slowly furnished and had luxuries installed like hot water, were idyllic. I could walk across two fields to 'The Cherry Tree', in those days unspoilt (ie "modernised"), then weave back in the dark to sit by my fire, drinking Port and smelling strongly of horses and pigs - happy as Larry. In time, I bought a larger house 25 yards further down the lane and moved in with my faithful old cat, 'Marmite', who eventually lived to 21. She'd lived in Finchley, Pinner, two homes in Clapham, two homes in Suffolk, Chiswick, Putney, Manchester and on a boat, as well as going on tour with me more than once before she died in 1992. I still miss her.
Doing far too well
The madness began to descend again. It was a great house but work commitments meant I was hardly ever there - by now, 'Agony' was successful, I was constantly travelling, had been through a string of unsatisfactory affairs and I decided I needed a London base.
"If I'd had a quarter of the liasons I've been accused of, I'd be in intensive care"
Peter Blake 1987
I sold up in Suffolk and bought a
flat in Chiswick. I wanted to keep something "out of town" but
couldn't afford two homes. Then, some bright spark suggested I buy a
small boat, big enough to spend weekends on; a sort of floating
cottage. I wandered down the Deben estuary near Woodbridge, looking for
something affordable and suitable. I had found and nearly bought one, when the chap in
the boatyard pointed out a large "gin palace" craft sitting in the
mud. It seemed impossible until I learned the asking price.
I bought it.
The following six years were the most rewarding, frustrating, joyous, miserable times I ever had. I learned to do stuff: carpentry, wiring, plumbing, varnishing - some days were glorious, others I thought I was losing the will to live. I played with boats every chance I got, made new friends, and entered the fabulously expensive world of "yacht refurbishment". They do say there are only two good days with a boat: the day you buy it and the day you sell it. I have to agree, but I did have some fabulous times and, in the end, she saved my life.
I had enjoyed, in the interim, my highest profile yet thanks to 'Dear John'. Work and play were plentiful and I seized every moment. But then, in 1993, work suddenly dried up and I was wiped out. The bank and the taxman took my flat, my furniture, my BMW. I moved on to the boat full-time. She did save my life, as I think that moving in to a rented bed-sit (the only other option) would have killed me.
"I've been getting in touch with my feminine side - I'm behaving more like a c*nt every day"
Peter Blake 1994
Peter and Kim now live in Surrey. He divides his time between France where he is restoring their 18th century property and, when work dictates, England.
His father, Staff Sergeant 'Jack' Dempsey MM, passed away on the 11th day of the 11th month 2009 - a fitting day for an old soldier to "fade away". He will be missed by many.
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The proud owner
The following six years were the most rewarding, frustrating, joyous, miserable times I ever had. I learned to do stuff: carpentry, wiring, plumbing, varnishing - some days were glorious, others I thought I was losing the will to live. I played with boats every chance I got, made new friends, and entered the fabulously expensive world of "yacht refurbishment". They do say there are only two good days with a boat: the day you buy it and the day you sell it. I have to agree, but I did have some fabulous times and, in the end, she saved my life.
Before it all went horribly wrong
I had enjoyed, in the interim, my highest profile yet thanks to 'Dear John'. Work and play were plentiful and I seized every moment. But then, in 1993, work suddenly dried up and I was wiped out. The bank and the taxman took my flat, my furniture, my BMW. I moved on to the boat full-time. She did save my life, as I think that moving in to a rented bed-sit (the only other option) would have killed me.
"I've been getting in touch with my feminine side - I'm behaving more like a c*nt every day"
Peter Blake 1994
It has been said, "What doesn't
kill you makes you stronger". I survived. The best thing
that ever
happened to me was in the shape of a 'Kim' in late 1994. She left
home and moved onto the boat with me. We married in 1998.
A whole new start
Peter and Kim now live in Surrey. He divides his time between France where he is restoring their 18th century property and, when work dictates, England.
His father, Staff Sergeant 'Jack' Dempsey MM, passed away on the 11th day of the 11th month 2009 - a fitting day for an old soldier to "fade away". He will be missed by many.
IP 85 J M Dempsey MM (1916-2009)
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