Stars Gather To Toast King of Pop Art

As Sir Peter Blake Celebrates His 75th Birthday at The Arts Club

The great and the good of stage and screen, painters, men on stilts, contortionists and jugglers all raised a glass to Chiswick’s Sir Peter Blake this week as he celebrated his 75th birthday.

250 guests attended the party thrown by Blake’s wife Chrissy at Dover Street’s Arts Club, of which he is the honorary president, including Jerry Hall, Antony Gormley, Tracey Emin, Sir Paul Smith, Adrian Mitchell, Cilla Black, and various Royal Academicians.

“Some of my friends have come all the way from Glastonbury,” remarked Blake.

During the evening's varied entertainment, guests were treated to an appearance from lingerie model and wife of Vic Reeves Nancy Sorrell who was accompanied by Blake’s former Royal College of Art pupil Ian Dury as she gave a Monroesque performance of Happy Birthday Mr President.

Sprightly by comparison, the almost 71 year old Bill Wyman chose the occasion to expose his plans to flout the imminent smoking ban saying "I'm carrying on. I don't care. Like they do in France - they've got 'No Smoking' signs everywhere and nobody takes any notice. The trouble is that people here just do as they're told."

June 28, 2007