Drowning on Dry Land

Plumbing the Depths in Swansea, Ladbroke Grove and San Francisco

Very few people have seen life from as many angles as Ray Jones. After a regular upbringing in a working-class area of Swansea, Ray veered off the rails into a life of shoplifting and small-time drug dealing fuelled by alcohol and driven by gambling. Inevitably, Ray was sent to prison and eventually left Swansea for London such was his growing notoriety with the police and magistrates in his home town. In London he settled in Ladbroke Grove and became a key figure in the burgeoning music and art scene emerging from the boho pubs around Notting Hill. He toured with Joe Strummer, hung out behind the scenes in Paris fashion houses and ran Dylan's bar in San Francisco before being ripped off in a massive drugs deal, leaving him destitute.