James Wilkinson
James Wilkinson has been an artist all of his life. Even when he was signed to EMI
as a singer or when he was running Deutsche Bank’s Eurosterling Bond desk.
1999 James’ ’20th Century Pop’ Exhibition ran for 3 months in the Voodoo Louge, Leicester Square, London.
2000 James joined Oasis on tour at the invitation of the band.
2002 James was invited to exhibit at Ronnie Wood’s Harrington Club, Kensington London.
2003 James was invited to join the Rolling Stones on their 40 Licks tour.
2009- James was appointed Artist in Residence at Hylands House, a 500 acre estate in
Essex.
2009 James exhibited a solo exhibition in a Normandy Museum for 65th anniversary of D-Day.
2010 James’ Exhibition ‘Forever Autumn’ was featured in news both in the UK and the
U.S.
2012 James was named Artist to the V Festival, one of the biggest music festivals in the world. He remained their only artist until the festival ended in 2017.
2015 James was commissioned to produce a portrait of Amy Winehouse for the Amy
Winehouse Foundation, by Amy’s parents.
2017 James curated his own retrospective of work from the V Festival in Chelmsford Museum.
2020 James became curator to The Fame Bureau Archive & Pop Nouveau Gallery
James’ work is owned by many members of rock royalty including The Rolling Stones, All Saints, The Prodigy, Oasis, Tine Tempah, McFly, Westlife and Happy Mondays.
His work has appeared on UK Television, in Hello Magazine and in National and
International newspapers.
The Microphone Leads
James secured the purchase of Lennon’s microphone leads for Paintpop Ltd from the sale of recording equipment from Tittenhurst park. John Lennon’s home where he set up the recording studio, Ascot Sound Studios.
John began recording the album and single ‘Imagine’ here which was later overdubbed at Abbey Road Studios and then in New York’s Record plant.
Footage of Lennon recording Imagine at Tittenhurst appears in the footage in the
documentary John Lennon Imagine.
When Lennon left Tittenhurst, Ringo Starr bought the house from him. He removed
Lennon’s equipment into storage and built his own studio. ‘Startling Studios’
When Ringo moved from Tittenhurst he sold the house to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al
Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, in 1989. Ringo sold the contents of Lennon’s equipment and his own separately.
He commissioned MJQ specialist Studio equipment auctioneers, to handle the sale.
The microphone leads came from MJQ with attached documentation
regarding their provenance. Bought with the intention of creating art at a later date.The leads are now the property of Paintpop Ltd.
Extract from MJQ original published listing.
“TITTENHURST PARK EQUIPMENT
Lennon & Ringo equipment join “Abbey Road of Barcelona” valve equipment auction
Next month a collection of equipment once owned by Ringo & John Lennon will be sold in an online
auction, together with the first half of a collection of valve equipment from the ex EMI Studios Barcelona, as part of the launch of mjQ’s rolling auction service.The equipment, which includes
Lennon’s mics, tape machines, outboard – and Ringo’s coffee maker – came from Tittenhurst Park, where John & Yoko lived & recorded. Lennon sold the house with tape studio to Ringo in 1971.
When mjQ ran the “Sale of the Century” equipment auction of Abbey Road Studios in 1980, a roll of shiny toilet paper with the words “Property of EMI Studios” stamped on every sheet, sold for £500 (later to appear on eBay for £30,000 although it failed to sell) and Ringo’s floorstanding ashtray, however the fag butts later sold for more than the ashtray itself.
https://www.prosoundnetwork.com/international/historic-audio-gear-set-for-auction
Each piece of original art will come with documentation from the artist regarding each piece of art and copies of the original letters of purchase when the leads were sold by MJQ including confirmation emails. The sale was well documented across the internet.