Russell Bentley on Polydor art director Vincent McEvoy

The Toy Project’s street festival was a highlight, complete with free Lego, arts and crafts workshops, face painting, a story teller, even a pantomime dame.

It is the brainchild of Jane Garfield, who, along with the ‘Toy Project’ toy shop in Junction Road, continues to build a community empire with a separate art gallery, displaying the work of new and local artists and the ‘playroom’ that offers weekend Lego workshops.

Then there was the annual York Rise street party, meticulously organised by my pals Dan Carrier and Anna Kusner.

It felt like a beautifully scripted scene from a Richard Curtis film as at mid-afternoon we all dashed under an awning in the pouring rain, listening to the local dads' band on the main stage while clutching recyclable plastic beer glasses and onion bhajis and basking in the glow of this community spirit. It was a joyous celebration and I loved every soaking minute of it.

Russell Bentley was hoping for a rock and roll September (Image: Archant) One of the bands I watched with keen interest, as an opportunity to dust off the cymbals and hi-hat was short-lived when my little one was sick on the morning of the band’s rehearsals, and so it was less Keith Moon (more on him later) and more Florence Nightingale. Rock and roll is brutal, like the acting profession, and so I was quickly replaced, like one of the many deceased drummers in the rockumentary spoof Spinal Tap.

No stranger to the travails of rock is local resident and former art director of Polydor records in the 1970s, Vincent McEvoy who I had the pleasure of meeting some months ago.

Now you’re getting the picture that I love all things rock and so I was immediately entranced by Vincent’s stories of The Who, Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin to name but a few, as he was instrumental in the conception, design and ideas behind many of their classic album covers in the 1970s.

I’m now the proud owner of a photograph Vincent took from behind the stage of The Who's drummer Keith Moon in 1973, when the band were on their North American tour, having released their latest rock opera Quadrophenia. 

Many of his prints are artistic gems, and even one of Vincent’s creative inspirational figures Andy Warhol held him in very high esteem, which is no surprise. In 2002 his work was exhibited as part of Rewind – 40 years of the best UK Advertising & Design at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Vincent’s limited edition prints and his expansive back catalogue of work can be found at: littleshopofrock.com/

Life, dear reader, is like rock music I often muse, as to quote Curtis Mayfield, "You’ve to keep on keeping on". Until next time….

• Russell Bentley is an actor and writer from Belsize Park.