TRAILER II

TRAILER STAR?
( the photo above is a mock up using an actor)
OR OH TRAILER WHERE ART THOU?

Trailer Star is the legendary artist/poet/painter I befriended whilst he lived on the Berkshire Downs in a rickety caravan. I remain the only person to have known the real Trailer Star in those twilight years and was consequently named as executor in Trailer's estate when he died in a will which I eventually found typed on the liner notes to a Patti Smith album......

Trailer Star is not only more famous than I will ever be but also played guitar like Robert Johnson and sang like Van Morrison. Sadly my talents in both departments could never match his.I was always in awe of my more talented friend.
Such has been the meteoric rise of this 'Star that never was' since his untimely 'demise' that am beginning to wonder if he did really die after all and I am now setting out on a Odyssey to find the Star that never was.
There are unanswered questions about the body found that fateful night on the downs, Was it really Trailer Star...some suggest a conspiracy theory or a doppelganger......or even the satanic arts being involved......maybe a Faustian pact?

Working on a tip off that the real Trailer Star is now renting a trailer somewhere out in the Texas desert...the blurry shots of a man looking uncannily like him living in a trailer are inconclusive....I am looking for sponsors for an expedition to find him.

There have already been numerous false sightings and cases of mistaken identity and the Trailer Star Foundation offers sincere apologies to Mr. Don Van Vliet and Mr. J.J. Cale and any others affected for any intrusions to their privacy by over-zealous fans trying to find their hero.

Shaun Belcher artist and executor of the estate 2003

© The Trailer Star Foundation.inc.
all rights, sequels and money to be made reserved.

 

 

TRAILER I

Here the original Trailer Star R.I.P. story which when sent out as an email in January 2003 by Mr. Belcher resulted in the Tribute Charity Disc 'Moon Over The Downs'

TRAILER STAR R.I.P.

It with profound sadness and deepest regret that the Snake Song Recording Company has to announce the death of the legendary Trailer Star. This from the Reuters news agency…….

Whilst still to early to clarify all details it appears that Trailer Star’s truck left the bend on a deserted part of the Berkshire downland between Reading and Newbury late Tuesday 28th January 2003. Police who were quickly upon the scene could not revive the already ailing folk country star who it appeared had been drinking. There was a half bottle of scotch on the passenger seat and some female clothing from an as yet unidentified passenger who had notified the police. In a chilling re-enactment of the circumstances of his favourite artist Jackson Pollock’s death on Jackson's birthday and in the same manner it appears that it could have been suicide or simply coincidence. The truck had rolled three times demolishing the driver side but leaving the passenger side miraculously intact.

Tributes from Trailer Star’s chequered past started streaming in as soon as news agencies were informed. His pivotal position in the development of English country Blues is now sealed by this tragic crash. A close friend the artist Shaun Belcher said...well he went out in a truly rock and roll way which is what he would have wanted. Mr. Belcher, an abstract painter, is now heir to a considerable archive tucked away over years in the crumbling caravan where the Trailer spent his last years. “ there’s a hell of a lot in there” said an understandably upset Mr. Belcher. “Letters. Old reel to reel tapes, songs, even half completed autobiography which he was working on at his death. It’ll take years to archive and preserve it all but I’ll try. Some of the stuff goes back to the late sixties and there are even a few drawings and stuff”. Not all the tributes were so fulsome...a colleague from the pig farm the Trailer Star had recently lost his employment at said …’well ‘ee wasn’t quite the full ticket in my opinion...and he drank too much...never did quite fit in round here if you know what I mean...we is god fearing people...he talked about devil too much for my liking...probably down there with him now” For now the single late cd the Floodplain demos is all we have to remember him by.

Snake Song Recording Company is proud to have represented Mr. Star and will endeavour to promote any forthcoming posthumous releases in his name that the added publicity of his untimely demise might produce. It is understood that he left no will so in the interests of truth to his artistic vision we will exploit as much of his legacy as is retrievable.

God bless his soul.
A channel 4 documentary, a box-set and a ceramic Trailer Star anniversary china caravan is the least we could do.

Shaun Belcher artist and executor of the estate 2003 MD Snake Song Recording Co.

© The Trailer Star Foundation.inc.
all rights, sequels and money to be made reserved.

ceramic trailer courtesy The Teapottery ltd.