09 Oct 2024
We ask a different figure from the local community to choose 10 questions to answer from a list of 50. This week: Singer-songwriter Grae Wall, a senior arts development officer with St Albans Arts Team and host of the St Albans Calling Podcast. He is also a troubadour, poet and lomographer. Photo: Justine Wall.
Where do you walk when you want to think?
For contemplation it would be a stroll round Clarence Park, it’s such a beautiful spot. I went there pretty much every day during lockdown just to wander or occasionally shoot some hoops at the basketball net.
Where do you go to listen to music?
The Blue Angel Acoustic Café is always great for catching friends who are performing or there supporting other acts. I have discovered lots of acts there that I have booked for our Arts Team events. I also love The Farmer’s Boy, great beer garden and a welcoming and wholly unpretentious vibe.
What items do you always carry with you?
I’m afraid it’s my vape, I’m a complete addict. I got in on them early, when they weren’t really a thing in the UK. We had a musician friend from Finland staying who had this electronic cigar thing that I just thought was the coolest, and I was hooked!
What is your favourite single item of clothing?
I am a big fan of cardigans – always have been – it’s like me Kurt Cobain and Taylor Swift have that in common. My favourite is a lime green fluffy one, the most unapologetically dayglo hue.
CD, vinyl, download or streaming?
Mostly CD but I do still love vinyl. Justine, my wife, got me a little vintage Pye portable player last Christmas, and although we have a modern stereo in another room, we like to get that out sometimes and play old 45’s. My latest purchase is a 1968 Jaques Dutronc EP that I picked up in Angers. I still love flicking through the racks at the wonderful Empire Records.
How often do you check your phone?
Hardly ever. It winds folks up, but I often leave my phone at home and usually look at it about twice a day. I don’t feel like the mobile phone has been particularly good for humanity in any way.
If you could have a conversation with someone who had died who would it be?
That would be my dad. He took his own life around 30 years ago and whilst I understand he thought it to be the only course of action at the time, it really wasn’t. He was a man of that generation that just found it very difficult to talk and to share problems. I’d just want to share with him all the moments that he has sadly missed and tell him it’s OK, we are alright.
If you could travel back in time and offer your younger self some advice, what would it be?
Your mistrust for this system of authoritarian abuse and injustice is appropriately placed and will serve you well.
Have you ever asked for an autograph?
I had an autograph book as a kid but was a pretty rubbish autograph hunter. I had Eric Morecambe and Roy Castle, but my favourite was Charlie George. He’d come to open a new garage in Harpenden. This was the era when footballers were akin to rockstars, and for me the coolest of the cool was Charlie George.
Do you play any musical instruments?
With Los Chicos Muertos I play an acoustic Gretsch guitar and with Skull Puppets it’s my 1963 Hofner Colorama. I still love just getting together with friends to make a cool racket and produce a piece of raw untamed art. It’s led to me touring around Europe most years with all sorts of wonderful reprobates.
We’ve been fortunate enough to perform at cool festivals, Glastonbury, Bestival and the like but also many wonderful boutique gatherings. It was also my path into becoming an arts professional and the two paths remain decidedly intertwined.
