For those who are old enough to remember Richard Nevilles 'Playpower' & 'Oz' magazine & 'International Times' :

here is some sound advice (thanks pete):


A Sane Revolution

If you make a revolution, make it for fun,don't make it in ghastly seriousness,don't do it in deadly earnest,do it for fun.

Don't do it because you hate people,do it just to spit in their eye.

Don't do it for the money,do it and be damned to the money.

Don't do it for equality,do it because we've got too much equalityand it would be fun to upset the apple-cart and see which way the apples would go a-rolling.

Don't do it for the working classes.Do it so that we can all of us be little aristocracies on our ownand kick our heels like jolly escaped asses.

Don't do it, anyhow, for international Labour.Labour is the one thing a man has had too much of.Let's abolish labour, let's have done with labouring!Work can be fun, and men can enjoy it; then it's not labour.Let's have it so! Let's make a revolution for fun!

DH Lawrence

Getting Old


Things men have made with wakened hands, and put
soft life into
are awake through years with transferred touch, and go
on glowing
for long years.
And for this reason, some old things are lovely
warm still with the life of forgotten men who made
them

D H Lawrence

I’ve Got Those Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, John Mayall Cant Fail Blues

Yes, you are correct I have been listening to my old copies of the Liverpool Scene albums. Actually I finally got around to transferring the vinyl copies of ‘St Adrian Co. Broadway’ & ‘Recollections’ onto minidisk & from there onto cd (although as single long tracks).


Other vinyl treated this way include Pete Brown, whose albums along with the Liverpool Scene, have remained my favourites since the late 60s, early 70s. I actually caught Adrian Henri (RIP 2000), of Liverpool Scene live at what was the Third Eye Centre (now CCA) in Sauchiehall St, Glasgow. Around that same period I went nearby to see Allen Ginsberg at a venue in Blythswood Square.

Glasgow does have something weird & wonderful about it. Just last week I popped into Mono, King St for a browse though the cds. Stephen Pastel (a fellow librarian) was working in the shop & I walked past Bill Wells who was eating & chatting in the restaurant. I came home & there is the latter all over the ‘Wire’ magazine.

Naturally I was only window-shopping @ Mono. I drifted over to Paddy’s Market & bought a 50p copy of Jill Scott’s’ Beautifully Human’ (no not Gil Scott Heron, Keith…….who incidentally has strong Glasgow connections as his father/granddad? used to play for Glasgow’s no. 1 football team!). This was well within my price range.

Nostalgia is ruling my life even more. I recently got that old school photo of my classmates being excluded from school in 1970 & on Friday I was @ a colleague’ s 60th birthday celebrations & there on his office wall, there was a photo of the same school. Co-incidences cropping up all around me. Usually these are signs of some dramatic event, but I just accept them of insights into God’s power to shape our lives.

Muslimgauze


Another great musician & free thinker who has left this world at a tender young age. However if you know anything about the late Bryn Jones, you would know that this Manchester lad was possibly aware that he was running out of time. He was so prolific that his work will still re-appear & be re-released for years to come.

I was so delighted that politically he stood up for what was right & always spoke his mind, even if his statements were shocking & worse of all: unfashionable!

I am an avid collector & listener to his work & I am deeply honoured that via correspondence on various issues over the years, he asked me to use some of my travel documents as artwork on one of his cds on Staalplaat.

See the cover for Arab Quarter.

DON’T PUSH ME COS IM CLOSE TO THE EDGE



What is going on in my life! Just received a school photo through the mail that makes me proud of who I was & who I am today. It was a photo from a newspaper that showed a group of 5th year pupils excluded from school for having long hair. This was at a time when suspension from school was a rare occurrence. How proud I was to be in that photo, although you can barely see me. (On a technical note, I believe my offence was more due to either my red cord or my checked hipster trousers)

Even at 52+ I hope I haven’t lost that edge, that heart felt pride that ensures I will fight injustice where I see it. If I am to remembered for something, I would hope it would be for that.

It was strange yesterday as I was in Dumbarton at the exact same spot where the photo was taken. Yes, life is full of those flickers between the mundane & the spiritual. Sometimes we are so involved in the routines of this life that we miss the magical/spiritual elements that were so apparent to our ancestors.

I have noticed that there is another blog with a similar name to this one. I was here first matey.

ALLOY WHEELS ON A SKIP INDEED!


Car tarted up as an old guys attempt to look sporty. Unlike the real deal, Davy Graham last night @ Fraser Centre made no attempt to look sporty. I was disturbed initially by his shocking mistimings & mistakes & this was played on a guitar that was obviously out of tune. By the end of his first set however he had settled & his closing piece: an Irish double jig gave us a glimpse of his huge talent.

The second set was so much better & he began by running through some Balkan & Palestinian tunes. My only complaint was that his sets were too short. Perhaps the number of intervals should have been less; maybe John Renbourn could have been persuaded to perform as he was in the audience.

All in all I cannot complain because the chances of catching this living legend live are remote. Well done again to Jason Smith for organising this event & for the tasty concerts he has coming up before the end of the year.

TENT FOR RENT


Harry, from one of my Reading Groups, has a son who wrote a recent history of the Apollo, Glasgow. This prompted me to think about more memorable gigs at that venue when it was still called ‘Green’s Playhouse’. This coincides with me digging in the crates for a 1973 live recording of the Mahavishnu Orchestra for my mate in Aviemore & who was also at an amazing concert during the same year or thereabouts by John McLaughlin’s jazzrock band.

This prompted me to think of other big nights @ Apollo e.g. my own personal favourites: Traffic/Henry Cow/John Mayall/Kevin Ayers/Ten years After. Although Glasgow has now grown so much as an entertainment capital, that we are now spoiled for choice, when it comes to live music.

For obvious reasons, my memories of this period leave a lot to be desired, but I was happier attending the Maryland, where the all night concerts might have included: Chicken Shack & the Edgar Broughton Band.

Nowadays I am more likely to be found at Mono/King Tuts/Arches or hopefully this Sunday @ the Fraser Centre, Milngavie among a select few to catch Davy Graham’s concert.

Translucent Carriages: From Scottish free folk to free Scottish folk

While listening to a 3rd/4th generation copy of the first two Pearls Before Swine albums, now finally on my cd player I was thinking about how poor the bbc ‘Folk Britannia’ series was compared to their excellent ‘Jazz Britannia’ trilogy.

In addition, I had an enquiry on important Scottish music from someone who works at the Scottish Music Centre. So here is an extremely personal attempt at stringing it all together. http://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/

Life in a Scottish Sitting Room

As they say its not where you are from, where you have been or where you are going, but where yous at, that counts.

All those years when I missed out on brazilian tropicalia, but the opportunity is there now as more material is made available. I have sourced some terrific podcasts, online radio stations & Gilles Peterson always plays a decent number of brazilian tracks. This music & afrofunk is becoming more popular as people desperately catch on to the next big thing before it fades. Look at what happened with World Music when the bubble burst.

Speaking of which, what was that silly review of Sun City Girls live at Install all about? I was there, as I jumped at the chance of catching the Bishop brothers live. I was not disappointed they were outasite!

A little bit of ethnic forgery done with reverence & good taste is fine e.g. Can or the 60s British Blues Boom.

There is a very healthy music scene at the moment that harks back to the 60s & pays respect to that period but moves it on to a new, better level. I am thinking here of Devendra Banhart, 6 organs of admittance, double leopards...etc

Ivor the Engine Driver (R.I.P)

The world is a much sadder place since the death of Ivor Cutler. Both he & Ron Geesin were big men from a small nation with big talents & big hearts & who flew in the face of fashion.

John Peel at last has decent company in heaven.

Findings by Kathleen Jamie


Being a librarian & having books for breakfast means that you very rarely get excited by books. In the previous postings some titles have obviously floated my boat. This is another quiet little number that glides by in such a sweet way. This is the sweetest poetry as prose. Kathleen Jamie uses the English language in such a beautifullly constucted way & her descriptions of Scottish wildlife just make you wantto drop the blogging temporarily & get out among those hills & lochs.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness……….

50th anniversary of ‘Howl’ Wow! Reading this opened so many doors for me. I even called my last son after the author. Recently I walked through Levengrove Park it it all came flooding back. Those golden summer days we thought would never end. Finding it more useful to dodge school & hang out in the park & this book was always in our mind or in our pockets. Sometimes we had no choice & were excluded/suspended from school for whatever reason: I don’t know choose: long hair, bad attitudes to success, red cords (I believe this or hipster trousers, was my own crime).

Those days we had little thought of the future. We didn’t know Tony Blair would drag our little country into a war for American oil & would send my own people here, to kill my own people somewhere else.

Death has also dealt a blow to many of my friends, Lenny Moore, Bobby Cummings, Jimmy Robertson & John Mullen. They all flew too close to the sun & their wings melted.

Who is left & what are they doing? Myself & Peter working in libraries. Jim McNaught keeping it real in the highlands, Colin & Phyllis somewhere in London, Martin spreading the hare Krishna mantra & Caff just being his same old self. John & Margaret Pacetta, their grown up kids & Margaret’s 80+ year old mum & doing, what they can to try & stamp out another great injustice in this world as activists in Glasgow Palestinian Human Rights Campaign (http://www.gphrc.org/).

I hope on the 100th anniversary of this book, my 2 sons (1 of whom is a Bedouin in a tent & the other looks like an Afghani, with his shaved head & long beard) will live in a better world.

Also on a positive note, its taken me a long time to hear Laura Nyro’s, ‘ Eli & the 13th Confession’, but it was worth the wait.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow 2


What was shaking in the 60s & still does it for me now would include Soft Machine only up to the 3rd album, Wild Man Fisher, Judy Henske & Jerry Yester’s ‘Farewell Alderbaran’, Bridget St John, Michael Chapman, Roy Harper (early stuff).
Its surprising when someone like Vashti Bunyan or Linda Perhacs appear & is lauded by Devendra Banhart etc……….I certainly cannot remember them from the late 60s/early 70s, although I confess to enjoying their work now!

Review of Jonny Trunk’s ‘The Music Library’.

This is a genre of music that I pride myself on having some expertise. There is a gap in the market & a real need for literature/research on library music.
This book, although it covers all the major library music labels & has beautiful illustrations, is really a graphic art book, not supplying any details about the actual music. As a coffee table guide to the graphics of the period it is fine. However, if like me you expected an analysis of the genre you will be disappointed.
Once again, I would state that although this type of music has become trendy, there is a dire need for written materials to substantiate the buzz that is going around.
Please note his radio programme on Resonance FM called O.S.T. is well worth a listen.

A Quiet Corner

This is a space to share what is good & avoid what is bad. For instance who would have told me when I was hitting the old hippie trail to goa & katmandu in the early 70s listening to ‘Trout Mask’ that in my fifties I would be chilling to les baxter & martin denny…………..

Librarians are Boring, discuss

Countries visited: france, belgium, germany, holland, switzerland, austria, italy, greece, turkey, iran, afghanistan, pakistan, india, nepal, saudi arabia. Holy cities with strong vibes: mecca/medina, benares (varanisi), meshed. Scary non-library situations: held at tank/gunpoint during revolution of generals in greece & being locked in a 4th floor windowless bathroom, while all hell was breaking loose in saudi arabia during 1st gulf war & lastly spending 4 years working in a prison library. Beat that Indiana Jones!

Favourite Gigs

starting with most recent, john renbourn @ fraser centre, milgavie on sat 14th jan 2006. Although people mistook the venue name as the more aptly named freezer centre, it was a cold night but a great underpublicised gig.Well done jason smith! I did enjoy seeing the other half of this tag team a few years ago in Bellshill Library.

Not long ago I caught jackie leven @ king tuts, this was the 2nd time I had seen him there in the same number of years.Immense. Talking of King Tuts, how I have enjoyed concerts there with my son, keith…e.g. roy harper & jimi tenor. I have actually seen jimi twice in glasgow different both occasions. Come back.
I cannot leave out the Instal festivals at the Arches…….I have only missed 1 since they started. Reminds me of the time I saw the edgar broughton band @ the Maryland, Glasgow. You had to be there……Out demons out!!!!!!!!!!!

Slight update: the books & the clogs again @ the Arches was the best of the year, so far.


to be continued................

Road to Katmandu



Just finished this title over the weekend. This is a remarkable achievement as I am usually such a slow reader. Although this book appeared in 1971,(re-published 2005), two years prior to me making the same journey, I enjoyed this title & I would recommend it to anyone, especially now that many of the routes mentioned are now closed.
My favourite descriptions are those of the whole time travel aspects of Afghanistan at that period. If you wondered what life was like in medieval times then Afghanistan in the early 1970s, was rushing headlong into c10th century.




Afghanistan: Grains of Sand

Afghanistan rushing headlong into the 12th Century­ -horses, oxen, sheep, bells & wooden lorries.
Lorries decorated with their versions of second-hand psychedelia. One main route connects big towns: Herat-Kandihar-Kabul.
One side of the road, Russian built, the other by the Americans,
the Russians the left, perhaps ?
Courted by both sides, but mistress of none ­- her virginity intact...


Border guards too funny to be taken seriously.
Cartoon characters in uniforms inherited from the Bolsheviks found dead at the Winter Palace,
but torn & tattered greatcoats do not disguise
a familiarity with weapons of warfare.
Pistols & rifles rejected from regular wars
find their way here.
Or were these weapons hand - made at home?
One learns not to argue with these men.
Baksheesh still smoothes my way through.

Step into the Afghan lunarscape­
- it is a long distance between towns,
towns, where Afghani ecologists re-cycle used tyres making beautiful footwear, buckets...etc..





Roadside hotel, bus broken down ­it's well below freezing
& too cold to sleep on the bus.
I walk inside a hotel & see
Afghani pilgrims overcrowding floor space on their way to Mecca. A wooden stove in the centre of the room is the only source
of heat & light;
I step towards the fire & the tribesmen stand aside & let me gain access to the flames, we sit & watch each other,


they are all red beards & toothless smiles,
sheep roam freely among sleeping herdsmen.
Some other pilgrims arrive slipping out of the snowy moonscape.
I had learned the rules of the game & stood back to let the new arrivals into the fire.



I had broken through the web of silence & I am immediately shown open affection, they take me to their hearts.
The sun comes up & we go our separate ways, I go east, they go west.

Further on through the Khyber Pass,
Panthan bandits shatter front & back windows of vehicle, fighting the same war our Victorian ancestors began,
don't they know there is no longer an Empire­
. ,
-proud to be proud, they will fight on until their death

the Russians were soon to learn this lesson....


Now the Soviets have taken over (at least they believe they have ), Will we see the first Afghan rocket on the moon?
Will the Afghanis throwaway their antique rifles
& learn how to push buttons & send forth nuclear weapons?

After five years of jihad, the holy war continues, with Soviet air attacks spitting fire over hillsides. Afghanistan is the Russian Vietnam,
a superpower fighting a superior guerilla defence.
The Mujahideen believe deeply in their cause
& launch rockets & mortars with a prayer to Allah.
Soviets no longer (did they ever?) believe in their mission.



Why this offensive attack on Afghanistan?
Almost all the Afghanis are in refugee camps in Iran or Pakistan. What does the U.S.S.R. want with an empty desert landscape?
To practice moon landings for their rockets?

.......

What floats my boat these days from a musical standpoint?

In the late 60s early 70s, who was organised enough to realise that there was greater music around than tinny trannies emitting tamla or mod tunes that would eventually drift into a mish mash of psychedelia. Even among this psychedelia we were limited to what soared out our transistor radios into the ether. I never heard the Red Crayola or the 13th Floor Elevators when I was a teenager, I listened to Radio Luxembourg, The Peel shows & anything else bringing this new psychedelia to a hungry audience.

I should have listened to the Real Soul of James Brown etc…instead of Motown. I didnt know! Who could guess that Krautrock would have such an appeal to me now?
An early fan of jazz, but one who quickly knew what he liked & with a disdain for what was ordinary. I never had the money during those tender years to buy the black, spiritual esp/verve/blue note titles. I knew there was something special about the radical champions of a kind of British jazz that is impossible to find nowadays under the radar……..e.g. Michael Garrick & all those guys featured on the superb Jazz Britania series. Big up Gilles Peterson for his push in this area as well as his grip on afro funk & brazilian grooves.
to be continued……….

Tea Time

Welcome to the sister site to 'Under the Radar & Off the Map'. I am in the process of bringing more beauty and love into this increasing dark world. If, like me, you suffer during the dark days of winter, then look no further we are going to paint rainbows all over your blues. My thanks to joni for giving me a rainbow maker & I am putting it to good use to brighten up our lives.