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Cecil McCartney (1938-01-05 - 2018-10-24), also known as King Om, was a Northern Irish artist & musician who lived in Bangor "where much of his early life was spent" and who as a painter worked with the Kenny Gallery in Galway, Ireland. On the gallery's site the bio also states that "Cecil McCartney was born in County Tyrone and received his early education in Omagh and Belfast. He studied at Belfast College of Art and Kennington College, London, where he became president. His subsequent travels resulted in influences from Paris, Rome, Madrid and Greece as well as museums of modern art in the United States (...) Travelling in many European countries, the USA and Hawaii, McCartney derived inspiration from the lives and work of the great composers, notably Wagner, Beethoven and Bach, and his studies (...). The artist has been deeply involved in the world of rock music and his work is in the collections of John Lennon, George Harrison, Eric Clapton and members of The Who and Traffic. Former Queen Frederica of Greece owns examples of McCartney's work, as do astronauts Wally Schirra and Colonel J B Irwin, Steve McQueen, the eminent actor Martin Sheen and the Dahl collection. He also features in the art collections of Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Keith... Read More ... Moon, David Carradine, Steve Winwood of Traffic, Bono of U2, or Colin Middleton."
He used to hang out with Roger Daltrey (according to Joe Creighton) and apparently, he was "the inspiration behind [m14541]" and possibly a "distant cousin of Sir Paul" (though that remains unconfirmed). Cecil McCartney & Van Morrison met around 1966 in Belfast, during which time the painter was being named "Belfast’s answer to Andy Warhol". According to Morgan Enos in Billboard (2018-11-29), "Back in 1966, Morrison visited the Belfast, Ireland, home of his friend, painter Cecil McCartney. He’d been working on some paintings themed around astral projection, and they caught the singer’s eye ; he’d go on to translate the visuals into a song."
Cecil McCartney & Van Morrison remained friends, apparently "going off on walks on Bangor Golf Course", but in 1989, the two Irishmen fell out "following a row over whether Myra Hindley, the Moors murderer, could be forgiven for her sins. During a heated debate inside the Crawfordsburn Inn in County Down, McCartney cast doubt on the sincerity of her conversion. This prompted Morrison, a committed born-again Christian who believes in the 'cleansing power of the blood', to throw his keys at his friend and storm out", according to the Guardian.
Later on McCartney tried to reconcile. On 2006-02-12 the Guardian's Henry McDonald wrote about a peace offering involving an abstract painting : "Throughout his career McCartney has sold paintings to a host of stars including Eric Clapton, Roger Daltrey, Robin Williams and Bono. However, he is offering his large abstract titled Astral Nano Seconds to Morrison for free. 'In the Sixties and early Seventies I was selling paintings to the Who and Clapton but Van never bought one. But this is for nothing if we can be reconciled.' (...) The artist, who lived in Hollywood (California not County Down) and became a friend to Steve McQueen and the Who's drummer Keith Moon, tried to privately reconcile with Morrison once before. (...) 'The fall-out broke my heart because I was like his big brother. When we met I was 24 and he was only 18. I can remember we used to chase girls in my mini-van.'"
Apart from his records on Columbia, Cecil McCartney aka King Om has apparently made other recordings e.g. short cd albums titled "Om 4" (20') and "Om 5" (30') have turned up on Amazon in 2012-05, and on YouTube an undated, more recent song called "Runaway child" can be found. Presumably albums titled "Om 2" and "Om 3" may also exist.
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