Weymouth visited by Angels and David Bailey (From Dorset Echo)

Weymouth visited by Angels and David Bailey

5:00pm Tuesday 7th February 2012 in Looking Back By Ruth Meech

WEYMOUTH photographer and regular Looking Back correspondent Idris Martin has been in touch with these photographs taken in Weymouth in the early 1990s.

They are of two events – David Bailey photographing an advert shoot on Weymouth Beach and the weekend the Guardian Angels came to town.

Idris was present at the Bailey shoot although he can’t remember what product the advert was selling.

He said: “David Bailey was in Weymouth making a television advert, though I can’t remember what for.

“There was a beautiful blonde woman on the swings on the seafront, so I suspect he was filming for some beauty product.

“I remember he didn’t like me there taking pictures of what he was doing and kept trying to get me moved, which I thought was a bit of an odd thing for one photographer to do to another.”

Idris is also unsure why the Guardian Angels were in town for a weekend but he does recall that they had quite a lively time in the resort.

The Angels are a non-profit international volunteer organisation of unarmed citizen crime patrollers that was founded in New York in early 1979.

They went on to have ‘chapters’ in several other countries including England for a short time.

They are easily identified through their red berets and red jackets, or white T-shirts with the red Guardian Angels logo of an eye inside a shield with wings.

Idris remembers: “They pitched up in Weymouth one weekend but I can’t recall what they were doing there. They were from New York and were strutting around like peacocks, got into an altercation and then disappeared never to be seen again.

“They said that they thought Weymouth was like Dodge City or the Wild West – I can’t say they were wrong there!”

If anyone has further details about either incident – please get in touch.