Thanks to Stephen McCathie for the photos .
Chalkie was generous with his time and his willingness to put up with us. Over the last few years he has been regularly in touch with me via f/book, initially in response to queries and then asking me about things etc. Given his achievements and all that I'd expected a extrovert , larger than life character. Instead we got to meet a shy, self effacing man. One to one he was relatively chatty but was hesitant when he was addressing all of us. He has had heck of a week since the exhibition opened, meeting lots of people that he hasn't seen in years. He reeled of a list of the people he'd met, including having lunch on Friday with Jake Riviera.
He said he'd only been in the UK about three times in the last thirty years. This small, two room, thirty three image exhibition is very much a warm up for a major show in the National Museum, Cardiff next year. He told us that only came about after a jokey remark in a blog a few years ago, something about him being unappreciated in his native Wales. He hadn't realised how large the premises in Cardiff is and seemed daunted at the prospects of filling it. The images for it will be so big that it takes a week to print just two of them so it will take months to have everything ready.
Towards the end of our group discussion I brought up the topic of
Elvis's current activities. I said that I supposed the Broadway show with Bacharach must be his primary project. Chalkie just nodded and said 'Go on'. Myself and MOOT then related what snippets Elvis has said about it in recent interviews. Chalkie just nodded and said something about how Elvis always has a lot going on. I had made a comment a few months ago , via f/book, about the
Rome festival. Chalkie brought it up yesterday & seemed to think it was still a ongoing thing, saying Elvis had talked to him about it. We mentioned that it had vanished from the schedules which surprised him. It was clear he wasn't going to say anymore.
The heat in the gallery was a bit over powering, no allowance seeming to have been made for a sunny day. It was approaching three o'clock and Chalkie was expecting a group of Specials fans at that time so we thanked him for his time, he signed my copy of his book and that was that.
Here's the card for Chalkie's show next year in Wales-
And the price list for the ongoing Snap Galleries show -
Chalkie's dedication in my copy of his 1981 book of photographs
'Pointed Portraits'. Chalkie said a new, updated edition will be out in time for next years show.
![Image](https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/t1.0-9/1982223_10152008169157957_1391966311_n.jpg)