PHOTOS (INCLUDING PREVIOUS PAGE)
GETTY, JEAN JACQUES SOENEN
Yet, apart from the eerie footage of this one short film,
captured by a visiting news crewwho came to interview
him, there’s very little documentation of Gaye’s time in
Ostend. That’s why, 30 years on from his death, I’m back
to retrace his movements.
At first, aside from a rather tacky-looking statue
of the great man that stands in the foyer of the
beachfront Casino Kursaal concert venue, there seems
to be little indication that Gaye was ever here. With its
long, wide promenade, modest cafés serving plaice,
shrimp and mussels, and acres of sandy beach looking
out over the turbulent North Sea, Ostend feels like an
end-of-the-world kind of place. However, it was exactly
this laconic, easy-going atmosphere that appealed to
him, according to Pieter Hens from TourismOstend, one
of the creators of the Midnight Love Marvin Gaye ‘walk-
u-mentary’ iPod tour, which takes visitors to the key
venues visited by him. It’s an experience that brings to
life the incredible presence of an A-list star in such an
unlikely destination.
The silvery water laps against his trainers as the vapours
from his breath shoot out into the bruised evening sky.
As his pace increases, the occasional local, wrapped up
in furs and fleeces, peers across the promenade edge
towards the tide.
This solitary runner racing across this deserted beach
looks vaguely familiar – and so he should, as arguably
the greatest soul singer of the 20th century – but the
setting is less recognisable. This is the sleepy Belgian
fishing town of Ostend, which, for some 18 months in the
early 1980s, was the place that Marvin Gaye called home.
As far as rock ’n’ roll relocations go, it seems as unlikely
as Rihanna moving to Aberdeen or Justin Bieber upping
sticks for Gdańsk. But on Valentine’s Day 1981, in a move
kept secret from all but his closest friends and family, the
Prince of Motown took a ferry fromDover to this tiny port.
This unassuming Flanders outpost on the edge of the
North Sea was to be the setting for the final revival of one
of the most recognisable voices in the history of pop and
soul, inspiring his best-known song,
Sexual Healing
.
THE FOOTAGE MAY BE A TOUCH
GRAINY – AFTER ALL, IT DOES COME
FROM A VHS RECORDING SHOT IN
1981 – BUT DESPITE THE FLICKERING
PICTURE, YOU CAN JUST MAKE OUT
THE FIGURE OF A LONE MAN IN A
TRACKSUIT POUNDING ACROSS THE
PALE, BUTTERY SAND...
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