Bone, Ian Bone. I first met him around ten years ago, in Trafalgar Square on the edge of some demo or other. May Day I think. The radical fringe, autonomous bloc, black but very white. I crawled through a densely packed small crowd to where the anarchists were calling for revolt and attempting to clobber photographers who dared raise a lens. Elbows came in very useful, forearms parried fists and I pushed on and found myself photographing Mr Bone.
We met again over the years, and again, usually on the edges of protests, scarpering when the Bill arrived, leaving the youth death squad to be kettled, and I began to appreciate his tactical intelligence. Now it seems he’s a film star. And a director. Dark glasses. But is it the real Bone?
I’ve this memory or dream, standing in front of the lifts somewhere on the South Bank. RFH or perhaps Tate Modern, in a crowd. The lift doors open and Bone pushes in to a lift full of guys in dark glasses. No room for me. I run down the stairs to the lobby; no sign of Bone. No dark glasses. Check the bar. Not there. Sirens wail, blue lights flash along past St Thomas’s, over Lambeth Bridge.
Sitting in a chair in the cinema museum for the première on Sunday, talking to Bond, listening to him with his old mates from Swansea I sense a barrier. No trace of Swansea in him. Is this the real Bone I ask myself or have our spooks replaced him with a clone? Then on screen. Bone or an actor playing Bone? Film always lies, though some of the lies are beautiful, life seen through a glass of beer. Sparkling, not darkly.
Epiphany. London insurrection, 1661 and 2013 (minus the hanging, drawing and quartering.) Don’t miss it, Almost the latest edit on Vimeo, sans credits – watch it. Mad photographer appears at times, comes into frame around 29:50; I go left at 30:11 when everyone else goes right. Fifth Monarchists storm St Paul’s yet again, with the aid of a piked Muggletonian.
Nice film Suzy. Sorry for not writing about it. Perhaps I will one day. Looking forward to the next part on the Muggletonians. Perhaps Bone is a secret Muggletonian – or you or me. Who knows?
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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