Secret Agent Man John B. Murray 008

About Me

To quote Groucho Marx, I worked my way up from nothing .... to a state of extreme poverty! ************************************************************ ***************************************Undercover agent 008 here, where I am needed, when I am needed. With my antique audio tape recorder and notebook, I will go anywhere. Last year, they sent me to Romania to spy on the work of an actress. My mission was a failure though, as I got too close to the subject of my enquiry. Look out for a full report in a few years' time. ...You can't see a photo of me without sunglasses for security reasons, as I often have to work plainclothes, but it is okay to show you how I looked when first recruited. Some people think Alain Delon looks a bit like me. I think I must have influenced his looks... ......................THIS IS MY TRAINEE 009, I TAUGHT HER EVERYTHING SHE KNOWS:
Christina here's my contact with the outside world when I go into 'deep cover'. But will she ever go from undercover to under the covers? ************************************************************ ***************************************My most disastrous assignment? Isle of Skye. I nearly bought it there! Send me up there again and odds are I won't live to see tomorrow! .....One of the best of my recent postings was to Santa Monica, where I lived incognito in a beach apartment while conducting investigations into the past of Hollywood star Brett Halsey. (My confidential dossier was recently published, in the public interest.) ************************************************************ *************************************** ....."Women's flesh has in all probability always played a large part in my dreams" wrote Alain Robbe-Grillet. Oh yes, me too. This is because secret agents are often prey to temptation by exotic women who try to seduce them to pick their brains. I'm afraid Nikita below managed to plumb my darkest corners...well, spies are only human, after all. ************************************************************ ***************************************

My Interests

Chilled Bollinger Squirrels Lap sitting Margaret Lee Hotel corridors

I'd like to meet:

I would have loved to meet the late Richard Wright, to tell him how much his keyboard playing affected me. The soundtrack to my shadow world. ************************************************************ ***************************************Christina Lindberg, who when not my undercover contact is the amazing star of "Exposed", "Maid in Sweden" and the unforgettably-titled "What Are You Doing After the Orgy?". I dream about her. We have never actually met, because all our contact has been through dead letter drops and coded messages. Wonder if she could love a secret agent??***************************************************** ************************************************************ ***********I have in fact met Diana Rigg a few times but always lacked the nerve to speak to her. I sent her a 1983 article I wrote about Emma Peel for the Avengers magazine "On Target" and my books on Robert Vaughn and Michael Reeves. Never any reply. Finally, I got a big publisher interested in doing a biography on her if she would co-operate. I got a letter from her agent saying she was not interested. Tant pis! (That's a secret code.)

............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ....................................Here's the beginning of a great movie: Oggi a me... domani a te! (1968)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoCLlgLzN2s

Music:

Psychedelic, man. The Misunderstood Cosmic Sounds, Our Plastic Dream, Iron Butterfly, Dead Sea Fruit, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Orange Bicycle, Can, Amon Duul II, Soft Machine,Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett era) Mabel Greer's Toyshop, Electric Prunes, Deviants, Ultimate Spinach, Geranium Pond Gong (Steve Hillage version), Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Wards of Court Al Stewart (brilliant songwriter), Egg (former Arzachel), Dantalian's Chariot, Jason Crest, Kraftwerk.

THE MOVE - I Can Hear The Grass Grow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7oUwPIWCYI

PINK FLOYD at the UFO club IN GLORIOUS COLOUR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUHMltEOLds

Movies:

"The Magnificent Seven" (John Sturges).
"Witchfinder General" (Michael Reeves). "Espionage in Lisbon" (Tulio Demicheli). "Le Samourai" (Jean-Pierre Melville). "Teenage Caveman" (Roger Corman). "Last Year at Marienbad" (Alain Resnais). "L'Immortelle" (Alain Robbe-Grillet). "The Hour of Truth" (Henri Calef) "Le Feu Follet" (Louis Malle). "La Notte" (Antonioni). "Tenebrae" (Dario Argento). "Bande a Part" (Godard). "The Maltese Falcon" (John Huston). "Thriller: A Cruel Picture" (Bo A. Vibenius). "The Warrior and the Slave Girl" (Vittorio Cottafavi). "Perversion Story" (Julio Buchs). "Exposed" (Gustav Wiklund). "Fantomas" (Louis Feuillade). "Zombie Flesh Eaters" (Lucio Fulci). "Double Indemnity" (Billy Wilder). "La Femme Infidele" (Claude Chabrol). "Devil's Garden" (Yves Boisset). Anything by Jess Franco. I increasingly watch movies on DVD now rather than in the cinema. As you can see below, it doesn't always have to be a bad thing to be a two-legged couch potato! **************************************************Here's some fantastic clips of Brett Halsey at work: ************************************************** High School Hellcats (1958) - Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjnJQj0Xt8I
Spy in Your Eye (1965)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgAAIMNEFyM
Espionage in Lisbon (1965)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=samUt9EgGFo
THE COMMANDER (1988) - Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrkwtXHe73k
Return of the Fly (1959)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P60SVD9a_bs
"Don't go, Liza!" (from Lucio Fulci's "Demonia", 1990)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgMLeHqLvyM
Today It's Me...Tomorrow You! (1968)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1o4lx0D-HM

Television:

"The Man from U.N.C.L.E." starring Robert Vaughn as my role model, Napoleon Solo. "The Avengers" (Emma Peel years).
Steed was cool. "Follow the Sun" (Brett Halsey episodes). "The Rat Catchers" (British spy show with Gerald Flood). "Danger Man". "Mission Impossible." "Callan". "Adam Adamant."

Books:

"Jealousy" ("La Jalousie") by Alain Robbe-Grillet. In my opinion, the greatest book I have ever read. I learnt only recently from a close friend of his that the book was inspired by a similar situation in his life, which I had suspected all along. "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov.(My pal K. was very shocked when I told her that was a favourite book...because of the quality of its prose.) "Journey to the End of the Night" by Louis-Ferdinand Celine. (Probably my second favourite book. Like many people, I was introduced to it by the Godard film "Pierrot Le Fou".) "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a book almost as beautiful as Ashke here (photo by Yves photographe): "The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler. (A fantastic book about male bonding.) "Nadja" by Andre Breton. (The greatest opening sentence of any book ever: "Who am I?" I lent it to a friend many years ago and when he opened it, he said, "You'd want to be careful of books that begin 'Who am I?' ") "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov. (What's this lady doing in the Books section? Search me! Why do you have to have reasons for everything, anyway?) "The Girl on the Motorcycle" by Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues. "Les Chants de Maldoror" by Lautreamont. "Tales from the Saragossa Manuscript" by Count Jan Potocki. "Obsession" by Lionel White. Doggy style...ain't it the flipping end?

Heroes:

"Brian" the talking dog from "Family Guy". Alain Robbe-Grillet (RIP). Michael Reeves (RIP). John Peel, the greatest DJ who ever pulled the triggers on the 45s (RIP). Syd Barrett (RIP). Brett Halsey. Richard Wright (RIP, Oh my God! His organ work on the early recordings of Pink Floyd was astonishing...I never wanted to be an actor but I often dreamed of playing a Farfisa organ like Rick Wright). Robert Vaughn.

My Blog

Richard Wright, a musical poet

This is one of the saddest days of my life. I just read that Richard Wright of Pink Floyd had died. I had no idea he was ill. He was my favourite musician bar none and I spent all my...
Posted by Secret Agent Man John B. Murray 008 on Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:04:00 PST

New book on Brett Halsey

I have just published a book on fabulous movie star Brett Halsey. It is available from the publishers Midnight Marquee Press at www.midmar.com It got a nice review by Gregor Hauser (thank ...
Posted by Secret Agent Man John B. Murray 008 on Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:10:00 PST

The Day I Nearly Died

In the late 90s, I was attacked on my way home one evening and ended up in hospital being treated for cuts and bruises. My face turned yellow on one side. The incident ended up in the Lond...
Posted by Secret Agent Man John B. Murray 008 on Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:35:00 PST

Vanilla Fudge

Vanilla Fudge rock! http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&vi deoid=3624046 The first Vanilla Fudge LP is one of the greatest rock debuts. I was lucky to see a reformed Vanilla...
Posted by Secret Agent Man John B. Murray 008 on Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:42:00 PST

Electric Prunes

Fascinating interview on this great clip. Jim Lowe is a bit evasive, though, about how the group was named, saying that it was a joke. The joke apparently was a reference to the then-new u...
Posted by Secret Agent Man John B. Murray 008 on Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:18:00 PST