Above, Mr Kanye West and his wife, Bianca Censori at the 2025 Grammys.
My friend, Dr. Richard North has today posted another valuable contribution (https://www.turbulenttimes.co.uk/news/trade/politics-the-new-reality/) to the “blog-a-sphere” to enlighten and inform the masses (who choose to surf onto his website) about the very serious issues relating to international trade.
I on the other hand have decided to blog about what many will regard as trivia!
However, I do not regard today’s blog-post as trivia.
The “popular press” are all over the story of how Bianca Censori removed her coat to “reveal all” under what is described as a “sheer dress”. The incident has raised much comment and contained within many of these comments are questions over whether or not Bianca Censori was happy to “reveal all” to the gathered press or not.
It is very much to be hoped that Bianca Censori did what she did because she very much wanted to do this and that she was under no pressure from any other person – including Mr West.
So as I see it, IF Bianca Censori was happy “revealing all” that’s OK with me!
However: IF Bianca Censori was happy “revealing all” that’s NOT OK with me!
OK then…… Why am I getting so exercised about this?
Because of an incident which happened at the location below, years after the image was taken.
The above is the Swinegate Tram Depot what was – until it became the “Queen’s Hall” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_Hall,_Leeds) in 1961!
To us locals however it was always known as the “tram shed” on Swinegate!
In 1984 I was made redundant. Between the autumn of 1984 and the summer of 1985 I attended Leeds Polytechnic on a “full time” course; the “Diploma in Management Studies” or “DMS”. I was still at that time “living at home” with Dad & Mum and the reason why I was attending the course was that “Mum” very much wanted me to get a good PAYE job and not be a self employed sole trader practising as a photographer. He father had been employed at the Midland Bank all his working life and this security of employment – and the associated pension – was what she wanted for me.
I did find such employment and started work that summer (1985) but was sacked in February 1986! Thus, T/AS Peter Rogers Photography, between February 1986 and April 1995 I supplied as a commercial retail supplier a Prestinox 35mm daylight slide viewer. This formed part of a package which included me taking a series of 35mm E6 colour / Agfa DiaDirect B&W slides to customer requirements.
Between the same period I provided E6 medium format slides together with copyright to commercial customers including the owners of stately homes.
Between the same period (from time to time) I organised (in function rooms of hotels and public houses) glamour (non pornographic) photographic sessions for male amateur photographers using semi-professional female models.
One of my corporate customers for the Prestinox 35mm daylight slide viewer was an advertising and marketing agency specialising in the construction industry. Their customers were mostly making or distributing hand tools used on building sites and elsewhere.
It was through my contact with one of the office managers (or more precisely manageress) that enabled me to secure this firm as a customer. It was good business as this agency was able to recommend my product and service to their customers. In fact, this relationship accounted for most of my Prestinox sales!
This particular office manageress had in fact been a fellow mature student on the DMS course at the “Poly’”! Like me she managed to find employment quickly. Unlike me, she held down her job and was not sacked!
So…… How does this possibly relate to the experiences of Mr & Mrs West at the “Grammys”?
Here’s how:
In early December 1986 there was a trade exhibition at the “tram shed” aka the Queen’s Hall. I attended; not as an exhibitor but on the lookout for potential customers of those firms who were exhibiting. It being 1986 and the trades being the engineering and construction industry quite a number of exhibitors had hired glamour models dressed either in bikinis or lingerie to assist in the promotion of their business.
It being cold outside on Swinegate and having parked a fair distance away I was wearing an overcoat. Upon walking along one of the aisles I was gobsmacked to see the firm’s office manageress, a fellow former student, standing in a brief lingerie set and high heels! This because she was NOT a glamour model. Yes, she was beautiful with a figure any glamour model would love to have, but she saw herself as a young career businesswoman! She looked the very picture of misery!
I hurried towards her and as I did so the look on her faced changed. She smiled and was glad to see me – whilst still being out of her comfort zone.
“What’s going on?” I asked. As I spoke I took my coat off, offered it to her – an offer she accepted with alacrity. She explained that “the boss” – who happened to be away from the stand having a long boozy lunch – had required her to assume the role of his “glamorous assistant”; for the costs of hiring a professional could not be justified – in his opinion! Since she was a “very pretty girl” and had a “cracking figure” she was to “get her kit off” and save the firm money!
I stayed with her on the stand until “the boss” came back. He was somewhat “worse for wear” – having imbibed a little more alcohol than was wise – and seeing his employee in my overcoat suggested that she remove it and get back to work.
At that point I intervened. I would relate the shouting match. It was so long ago, I cannot possibly remember exactly what I said, but it was not complementary!
It did result in him cancelling all orders I had with his company. It also resulted in his office manageress (her name was Alexandra) being dismissed on the spot. After Alexandra had got dressed I escorted her to her car that was nearby and we arranged to meet in the Dexter on Wigton Lane.
We became good friends after that. Early in 1987, Alex’ managed to find another job. It was as an area manager for a company publishing technical literature. The job involved much travelling throughout Yorkshire and the North East.
I said that Alex was not a glamour model. She wasn’t. However starting the year before (1986), from time to time I organised (in function rooms of hotels and public houses) glamour (non pornographic) photographic sessions for male amateur photographers using semi-professional female models. Before the incident at Queen’s Hall, this was never an issue, but as our business acquaintance developed into a friendship and that friendship deepened into love, it became an issue.
It was resolved by Alex coming along as “feminine support” to the models I employed on a independent contractor basis – not though model agencies.
Although I employed a number of models between 1986 and when the sessions were ended in 1992 I employed one young lady in particular and from 1988 this young lady was joined by her younger sister (by two years).
In 1992, at the end of the sessions Alex and I and these two young ladies – Jeanette and Jane – were firm friends. BTW, their mother had followed the wish of her mother Jeanette’s grandmother) and had named her eldest after Jeanette MacDonald. She named her youngest after Jane Fonda.
In 1994, Alex was killed in what the police call an RTA – a road traffic accident. She was not at fault and I am not going to give any details. Just to say I was in a very bad place for a long time after this. My grief was shared by Jeanette and Jane and “Ted”, brother of the two girls who helped out as “security” at the sessions just in case any of the customers became amorous. In the six years of doing these there was only one potentially amorous incident and “Ted” put a stop to it before it started. “Ted” was a solider in the “Dukes”. The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, forming part of the King’s Division.
Jeanette, Jane and “Ted” are my very good friends. I am particularly close to Jane who is based in Torquay, but is currently working for an extended period in Cincinnati, Ohio. The reason why I am not in Ohio is simple – the medical insurance is unaffordable! The reason why Jane is not Mrs Rogers is the ghost of Alex, whom we both loved.
Oh, and BTW, politics can be the dirtiest business in town!
Why?
Well, as readers will know, I have been a member of UKIP on and off since the days of Alan Sked.
Well all political parties are to a greater or lesser extent broad churches. The makeup of the span of these broad churches varies with the party of course. In the case of UKIP there are those who are devout Christians and the views of some of these Christians towards those who would categorise themselves as “LGBTQ+” can be summed up in Leviticus 18 and 20.
Well, I was a member of the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Committee in 2001 and an activist in one of the other parties saw to it that one of the members of this committee had had a loving relationship with an “Alexander [surname]”. This resulted in me been harangued as “a sodomite” at a party gathering. When challenged by UKIP the activist merely replied that it was a misprint! It wasn’t! They knew jolly well my lost love was named Alexandra and not Alexander!
As I said, politics can be a very dirty business!