Nat was a big friend of Don's - and mine. He frequently used to stay with me and my late wife Barbara when he was up in London busking - as that's what I was doing as well. Nat was from an older generation than us, had fought in WW2. But he was more of an old bohemian than a lot of the older buskers round the West End. Don's friend and onetime busking partner Pat Keene met him in Paris circa 1960 when he started busking there - Nat was part of the scene with Derroll Adams and Alex Cambell and others. In London, Nat used to busk a lot with Meg - well known down the Cousins, of course. They had a weird relationship as they seemed to hate each other but made money together! All this is fresh in my mind because Don Partridge, Pat and myself were/are writing a book about the busking scene as it developed in the sixties and we have a section on Nat. Don's recent sad and unexpected death slowed things down a bit - but the book is almost finished...
Re Ralph Levene, he was Nat's lugubrious sidekick for some years. They were knocking around in Amsterdam at one point with some peripheral involvement with the Provos there (the Dutch anarchists not the Irish terrorists!) - white bicycles etc. I don't know what happened to Ralph - I met him in Amsterdam in the 80's when I was playing a gig and had a few meetings afterwards over drinks - he seemed on good form but I lost contact. 'The Camel's Back' is a good read - there are still copies around on Amazon.

A lot of the West End buskers used to go to Cousins on the weekends especially, when we had finished doing the late night queues.