A slight tangent but a conversation I’ve had with friends over the years……can you split the artist from the work.
I love the music of Wagner but his political views are appalling.
I love the poetry of Philip Larkin but his personal views are unconscionable.
My kids loved the books of Roald Dahl , I was reading them to my grandkids a couple of weeks ago but his views are also reprehensible.
A friend loves the music of Morrissey and follows him from gig to gig. I find Morrisseys political views repugnant but my friend, the most liberal and gentle of men, can seperate man from performance.
I loved the music of John Martyn but his behaviour in his personal life was awful.
Some of Kershaws private life is a dark place but his enthusiasm for music and later particularly world music introduced me to a lot of music I probably have found.
So I do split man from art but sometimes it is a difficult gymnastic act.
Yes, the list is long - Mr Bowie, Mr Page, and many others , some of whom were never convicted of anything, but one wonders.
I loved John Martyn, in particular, many years before his awful behaviour became common knowledge. I can still listen to his music, but there's a distance there which wasn't there before. I tell myself human beings are complex and imperfect, and there are a handful of things about myself and what that self has done, of which i am not proud.
