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Age becomes them ... and their work

In sport, music, fashion and film, the oldies are the best

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Saturday May 9 2009

Bob Dylan was in Dublin on Wednesday and Thursday, playing the O2 arena in the week he made chart history as the oldest ever musician to have a British number one album.

As 67-year-old Bob played in Dublin, 79-year-old Clint Eastwood was on location in South Africa, shooting his next movie with 72-year-old Morgan Freeman.

In a good week for oldies, Alex Ferguson, who is seven months younger than Dylan, guided his Manchester United team to a third Champions League Final.

In politics, Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi (73) was savouring a return to the dating scene after his wife announced she would be seeking a divorce. Fashion supremo Karl Lagerfeld (73) unveiled British pop moppet Lily Allen as the new face of Chanel handbags.

And here at home you couldn't avoid the celebrations of poet Seamus Heaney's 70th birthday and the reminders that the great man is still very much at the top of his game.

Dylan, Eastwood, Fergie, Seamus, Silvio and Karl are living proof that when it comes to everything from sport, to music, fashion or film, it's the grey-hairs who are in charge.

Look at the top 10 Irish album charts this week and you see Christy Moore at number one with Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen also in the mix. Cohen, who celebrates his 75th birthday in September, played the most-talked-about gigs of 2008 and returns to Dublin for what should be three sold-out shows in July.

Bob Dylan may have a face like a relief map of Peru, but the legendary singer-songwriter claimed his seventh British number one this week with Together Through Life.

It was a long wait in between number ones, Dylan (67) last reached the top of the charts in 1970, when he had two number one albums, Self Portrait and New Morning. Ramblin' Bob refuses to slow down. Dylan has performed about 100 shows every year since 1988, in what has come to be known as the Never Ending Tour.

When it comes to having a long and productive career, a strong work ethic is just one of the key ingredients:

Never Lose the Fire

Pablo Picasso was still creating great art right up to his death in 1973 at the age of 92.

In the 1950s, when he was in his early 70s, Picasso completely changed his style once again and started to produce reinterpretations of the art of the great masters.

Picasso actually became more daring as he advanced into his 70s.

Art historians will tell you that his final works were an adventurous mixture of styles.

As he raced against father time, the Spanish artist devoted all his remaining energy to his work, which became ever more colourful and expressive.

Works from his latter years were dismissed by many as the slapdash works of an artist who was past his prime.

It was only after his death, when the rest of the art world had moved on from abstract expressionism, did the critical community come to see that Picasso had already discovered neo-expressionism and was, as so often before, ahead of his time.

Stick to Your Guns

Clint Eastwood is the object lesson for would-be artists of any age when it comes to determination and sheer bloody-mindedness.

He was told he would never become an actor, then when he made his breakthrough on TV (in Rawhide) he was told he would never make it in movies.

It took the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone to make Eastwood an international star. And then when Eastwood decided he wanted to direct, he was told by many that actors should stay on the business end of the camera.

His last movie, the $102m-grossing Gran Torino, saw him direct and star at the age of 78 and he is currently working on The Human Factor, the story of Nelson Mandela and the South African World Cup-winning rugby team of 1995.

Remain Open to New Ideas

Johnny Cash was a much-loved but largely ignored old country star when maverick American music producer Rick Rubin approached him in 1994.

Rubin asked Cash to record an album with just his voice and his guitar and the resultant American Recordings album began an incredible last decade of Cash's career that brought huge commercial and critical success.

If Cash had not been open to Rubin's approach, he would never have enjoyed his brilliant Indian summer.

Surround Yourself With Youth

Karl Lagerfeld, Manolo Blahnik, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren. For an industry that is obsessed with youth, the fashion business remains dominated by (mostly) men of a certain age.

Karl Lagerfeld maintains a lifestyle and workrate that most 20-somethings would struggle to live with.

What all of these men have in common is the need to be surrounded by youth and beauty, whether it is their models, muses or colleagues.

joshea@independent.ie