We are in the auditorium of a crowded concert hall in Manchester, northern England in the late 1940s or early 1950s. The exact date is not important.
In the audience are hundreds of people. They’ve all paid their money to hear the great American baritone singer Paul Robeson, perform his greatest work.
In the audience sits a precocious 11-year-old boy. His name is Brian Blessed.
He’s saved his pocket money for months to afford his ticket and now the hour approaches when he’ll see and hear his hero sing live for the first time.
Sitting next to the young master Blessed is a man in his late 60s or early 70s. He has white hair. His skin is tanned, and he is well dressed.
In his broad Yorkshire accent and in one long, breathless sentence our young concert-goer turns to the man sitting next to him and says “’Ello my name’s Brian I’m 11 years old I go to Bolton-on-Dean Secondary Modern and I’m here to see Paul Robeson you’re not from around here are you what do you do mister?”
The white haired man with the tanned skin smiles, extends his hand, and in heavily accented English says “Hello Brian. I am pleased to meet you. I am also here to see Paul Robeson. I am from Spain. My name is Pablo. I am an artist.”
“Crickey!” says young master Blessed, “If you’re an artist you must be famous. Here—” and into the hands of the man called Pablo our young charge pushes his concert program and a nubbin of pencil. “Here, if you’re an artist, draw something!”
The man called Pablo smiles again, takes the program and pencil, and in one fluid line draws something, neatly signs his sketch, and passes the program and the nubbin of pencil back to the lad’s eager hands.
Young master Blessed looks at the drawing. He turns the program this way and that. Finally he says “What’s that then? What’s that supposed to be?”
The man called Pablo says “It is a dove”.
“A dove!” blurts the lad. “That’s not a dove! That’s rubbish that is! If you were a proper artist it’d be obvious what it was and it’d be brilliant! That’s not a dove that’s rubbish that is!”
Soon after, the houselights dim and the performance began.
Brian Blessed went on to become an actor with a larger-than-life personality that still booms across theatre stages and movie sets. As a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in the mid 1990s, Blessed recounted the rest of that evening.
He said that after the show, he pushed his way back stage and managed to get through the crowd and get into Paul Robeson’s dressing room—a space that was full or reporters busily interviewing Mr. Robeson.
Pushing through the ranks of reporters the boy asked Robeson for his autograph. “Whereupon”, said Blessed “and, much to the delight of the assembled reporters, Paul Robeson hauled me into his lap sang to me!”
Of his encounter with the man called Pablo, Blessed went on to say “If only I’d known then what I know now! You know, to this day I kick myself that I didn’t keep that bloody program!” The man called Pablo was Pablo Picasso.
