Modesty Blaise Spa

You've read the books, the comics, watched the films, listened to the music... now you can spend a day being rejuvenated at the Modesty Blaise spa. (If you're in Perth, Australia, that is.) Modesty Blaise Face and Body seems like an appropriate name for a place offering beauty treatments, given that in the first novel, one of Tarrant's impressions of Modesty was that "her skin held a soft, matt tan that would have made a fortune for any man who could get it into a bottle."

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Spy Music Collection

Synchronicity is a strange thing...
the day after I posted the piece Dalida's 'Modesty Blaise' song, The Purple Zombie DJ posted a downloadable CD of spy-themed music... which includes the Dalida track!
You can download the whole CD from his blog (it's zipped as a .rar file; if you need a rar extractor, a good free one is 7zip.)
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Titan Reprints: Death in Slow Motion

Titan's next reprint, Death in Slow Motion, is now listed and can be pre-ordered. Continuing with the Neville Colvin illustrated strips, it is scheduled for October 2009 release. Below is the cover graphic:
Details can be found at Amazon and other booksellers.
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Norwegian Rock Group 'Modesty Blaise'

Yet more Modesty Blaise music...

Most MB fans have heard of the British pop group Modesty Blaise... however, I didn't realize there was a Norwegian rock group by the same name. I haven't been able to find any information on them apart from this brief mention on YouTube:

"MODESTY BLAISE were one of the most successful rock bands of Norway. Take some parts of U2, Roxy Music and Curved Air and mix them with a big part of originality - ready is MODESTY BLAISE. They were very popular in their homeland (TV shows, extensive tours etc.). Their album 'Face Of The Sun' is available on CD (contains two extra tracks), vinyl and cassette."

Given the reference to cassettes, the album must be quite old. If any Norwegian readers out there know more, please let me know!
You can listen to them on YouTube (and I agree, they do sound rather like U2).

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Interview with John Dankworth in The Jazz Baroness

The BBC is making a documentary film about jazz legend Nica de Koenigswarter, entitled "The Jazz Baroness", which is scheduled for release sometime in 2009. The film features interviews with jazz musicians, artists, music critics, and others. Among the interviewees is John Dankworth, who scored the 1966 Modesty Blaise film.
You can view a clip of the interview at the Jazz Baroness site.

There is also an in-depth interview (2006) with John Dankworth on the subject of his film scores, from the Journal of British Cinema and Television, at Britmovie.co.uk. It is an interesting piece -- previous to Modesty Blaise, Dankworth had worked with Joseph Losey on The Criminal, and his list of film and TV score credits is extensive.

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Dalida - Modesty Blaise song

Modesty Blaise Music seems to be the theme of this year! I came across another Modesty Blaise song, this one even older than the others. Egyptian/French singer Dalida (1933-1987) released a Modesty Blaise song in 1964 -- quite amazing considering the character only came into being in 1963! There is a good, concise biography of Dalida at RFI Music, and there is also a website dedicated to her (with a fan group reunion this May!). Below are the lyrics to the song; and you can listen to it here.


Dalida - Modesty Blaise lyrics
Album: La Danse De Zorba
Year: 1964

Elle fait du judo et du karaté
Et court sa vie avec passion
C'est dans le genre de la féminité de la dynamite en jupon
Modesty, Modesty

C'est la beauté mêlée à l'aventure
Que tous les hommes rêves d'aimer
Et c'est une ombre qui passe les murs
Et que l'on ne peut attraper
Modesty, Modesty

C'est une femme qui aime couramment le danger
C'est une femme qui sait pourtant se faire aimer
Elle est sincère quand elle est amoureuse
Et donne tout sans discuter

Mais attention elle est très dangereuse
Avec tous ceux qui veulent tricher
Modesty, Modesty
Modesty, Modesty

C'est une femme aussi belle que la fleur du jour
C'est une femme qui ne peut vivre sans amour
Tous ceux qui l'ont approchée vous diront
Cet ange cache le démon
Mais tous ceux qui l'ont aimée avoueront
Ne jamais oublier ce nom
Modesty, Modesty
Modesty, Modesty
Modesty, Modesty
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