Sidetracks And Detours

PASS IT ON

weekly walkabout volume 15

Sunday 27^th August 2023

Hello, and welcome to our Sunday supplement, Pass It On, volume 15. Our writers have wandered far and wide to collect news and comment for your reading, Michael Higgins, in doing so, travelled to Austria and Germany in fact: not all for Pass It On´s benefit, mind you , seems it might have been something of a holiday too. Peter Pearson suggests All Points  Forward by first looking to from whence we came and captures a fine recoding. Similarly Ralph Dent´s RDW column also goes back to where it began for him, Mel Torme, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Matt Monro, David Whitfield  and into the pop era, I guess, with Tom Jones. Steve Bewick delivers his always diverse and interesting and occasionally eccentric jazz playlists and serves you Hot Biscuits at the same time.  Steve Cooke´s ever-extending walks all across the arts always offer something new and Norman Warwick presents his interesting Island Insights from Lanzarote. So pour yourself a coffee, tuck into those hot biscuits and settle down  with a great read and some good music

detour ahead logo

CONTENTS

BOOM RADIO

Johnny Amd Tiggy Walker

Jazz On Air

HOT BISCUITS RADIO SHOW presented by Steve Bewick

Researching History

IN SEARCH OF TRUTHS by Michael Higgins

all  across the arts

EXCITING NEWS FOR ARTISTS by  Steve Cooke

A Reader´s Perspective

ALL POINTS FORWARD

by looking back at a fine album

Americana

LET´S HEAR IT FOR THE BOY IN THE BAND

by Norman

Island Indights.

ACATIFE AND MAJEEK by Norman Warwick

Island Insights

POETRY FROM EIGHT ISLANDS by Norman Warwick

happy trails to you

Radio

After taking sidetracks & detours

The Walkers are back!

Johnnie and Tiggy Walker return to Boom Radio this August Bank Holiday with a couple of hours of music with a summer feel.

They’ll be playing some special tracks which remind them of glorious and not so glorious summers past – and chatting over their memories. Summer ’67 will, naturally, feature

The pair were last with us at Christmas – and before that, Johnnie hosted a special programme last year marking the anniversary of the closure of the offshore pirate stations.

Johnnie Walker and Tiggy Walker – Holiday Monday at 4.00

Jazz On Air

HOT BISCUITS served by Steve Bewick

On My Hot Biscuits programme next week my colleague and researcher Gary Heywood-Everett explores the Filippo Deorsola music on the artist´s recent CD Anaphora: Lexicon One

On this Lexicon series, the trio of Italian musicians challenge the very traditions of jazz that influenced them. Anaphoira says of this first cd in the collection that Control must be taken back in order to let loose again!

Italian pianist Filippo Deorsola brings together his Anaphora piano trio this April for Lexicon I, an album set on challenging the very jazz traditions that influence them.
Highly original and frequently unexpected, 11 compositions pull at the threads of avant-garde, straight-ahead jazz, contemporary classical music and even the blues, leaving the listener guessing at every turn.

Intimate moments of solo-piano, textural explorations of upright bass and explosions of rock-fueled drum grooves all contribute to the indefinable chaos of Anaphora’s experimentations.

Born through a chance meeting at a jam session CODARTS conservatoire in Rotterdam, Anaphora is driven by a desire to explore the relationship between a musical form, improvisation, and one’s innate ability to navigate a musical landscape.

In Jonathan Ho Chin Kiat (double bass) and Ap Verhoeven (drums) Deorsola has found two fellow musicians who embrace the genreless forward-thinking nature of contemporary jazz and prove willing conspirators in the search for breaking down expectations – both their own, and those of the listener.

In Deorsola’s own words, by eroding the comforts of familiarity, structure, and time and thrusting themselves into the unexpected, “the automatisms of the body are put into question. Control must be taken back in order to let loose again”.

Turning words into action, Deorsola’s Bachelor Thesis research into Improvisation was presented at the 2020 Arts and Technology Conference in Porto, and he founded the M.A.D. Collective (Mutually Assured Deconstruction), a space where visual artists, authors, performers and academics come together to think of new ways of inquiry into the events and things around us.

All told, Lexicon I is both a fascinating listening experience for fans of contemporary music, as well as a hint at what’s to come in the future from Deorsola and his compatriots. 

credits

released April 22, 2022

Filippo Deorsola – piano
Jonathan Ho Chin Kiat – double bass
Ap Verhoeven – drums

Rebekka Salomea – voice on #11

In fact, whilst digesting your Hot Biscuits you can take the opportunity to also check out Ant Law playing through his pure imagination. Described as “An innovator” and “A gamechanger” by The Guardian, British guitarist Ant lives in London and leads his quintet, dubbed “An exciting band to hear live” by the Guardian.

His  quintet’s debut ‘Entanglement’ was released in 2013 to great acclaim, followed by ‘Zero Sum World’ in 2015. They have toured extensively and their third album ‘Life I Know’ for Edition Records was released on the 9th of November 2018. The release was very warmly received by the press. It received 5 star reviews, made numerous “best of 2018″ lists, received airplay in the UK, Europe, Australia, and hundreds of thousands of plays (and counting) on Spotify. It is being described as “career-defining”. A fourth, digital only record, “The Sleeper Wakes” (Edition Records) was released in 2020.

Ant plays in Tim Garland’s band with Jason Rebello & Asaf Sirkis, featuring on albums ‘Songs To The North Sky’, ‘Return To The Fire’ & ‘ONE’ which was shortlisted for a Grammy and won the Jazzwise Best Album award. Ant is the “L” in Trio HLK who record/tour with Dame Evelyn Glennie. He has worked with other notables Cory Henry, Thomas Gould and is featured from time to time in “Total Guitar”, “Guitar Techniques” & “Guitarist” magazines. In the latter he recently made a list of “10 Astounding Virtuosos”.

2016 saw the emergence of the Art Of Rhythm Trio featuring Matt Ridley (bass) and Asaf Sirkis (drums & konnakol), notable for the the inclusion of Indian classical elements (check out the youtube videos) such as konnakol, the South-Indian spoken percussion, amidst all the jazz.

The show will also include A  guitar solo. Julian Stringle, as a  3 minute window from the 606 Club. Also on te playlist will be The John East Project from Mr. Businessman.

photo We will also hear from The John East Project off their Mr Businessman recording.

The genesis of the John East Project was a conversation between John East and Steve Rubie of the 606 Club in October 2009, when Steve suggested that John put a band together and played a gig at the club. After a little nudging, John agreed and the first gig was in March 2010. The band was initially a four piece – Mark Fletcher on drums, Neville Malcolm on double bass, Phil Robson on guitar and John on Hammond Organ and vocals. To quote Steve Rubie “The gig was excellent, everyone loved it and regular dates soon followed”. A two man horn section, comprising Scott Baylis on Trumpet and Flugelhorn and Max Grunhard on alto sax, was introduced for the second gig and Carl Orr replaced Phil Robson for the third gig. Dave Lewis on tenor sax replaced Max’s alto in 2012. In 2016, Dan Hewson, who had been responsible for many of the arrangements for several years, joined the band on trombone for the recording session for the band’s second album Mr Businessman and we liked the sound so much that he is now the seventh member of the band.

The band now gigs regularly at the 606 and elsewhere and the line-up is Mark Fletcher, (drums) Neville Malcolm, (bass guitar) Carl Orr, (guitar) Scott Baylis (trumpet, flugelhorn and piano) Dave Lewis (tenor saxophone) and Dan Hewson (trombone and piano). The band released its first album, “Live at the 606” in July 2012 and its second, “Mr Businessman”, on CD and vinyl, in August 2016.

I will present too, Phi-Psonics with `Invocations from Octavia`and I will conclude the show with Phil Mulford‘s Thunder Thumbs and  the music of Louis Johnson (left). If this looks interesting then pass it on to friends and catch me anytime at

www.mixcloud.com/stevebewick/ 24/07

Live Jazz Jazz In Reading Alan Barnes (saxophone) Backed by  the Pangbourne Jazz Club rhythm section: Terry Hutchins (guitar) | Andy Crowdy (double bass) Jim Pollard (piano) | Brian Greene (drums)   pangbourne   Alan is a much loved regular guest artist at Pangbourne and we are delighted to have him back again in 2023. His range and brilliance have made him a “first call” for studio and live work since his precocious arrival on the scene more than thirty years ago. His recorded catalogue is immense.  He has made over thirty albums as leader and co-leader alone, and the list of his session and side-man work includes Bjork, Bryan Ferry, Michel LeGrande, Clare Teale, Westlife, Jools Holland and Jamie Cullum. He has toured and played residencies with such diverse and demanding figures as Ruby Braff, Freddie Hubbard, Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Ken Peplowski, Harry Allen and Conte Candoli. In British jazz, the young Barnes was recognized – and hired – by the established greats of the time:  Stan Tracy, John Dankworth, Kenny Baker, Bob Wilber, and Humphrey Lyttelton.  But he is equally respected for his longstanding and fruitful collaborations with contemporaries such as David Newton, Bruce Adams, and Martin Taylor Alan Barnes’s unique musicianship, indefatigable touring, and warm rapport with audiences have made him uniquely popular in British jazz.  He has received over 25 British Jazz Awards, most recently in 2014 for clarinet, and has twice been made BBC Jazz Musician of the Year. Barnes’ melodic sense bypasses the usual scale-running clichés that pepper the playing of lesser bop disciples. – Peter Marsh, BBC Music Review. His stylistic range is quite phenomenal… He has a wonderful capacity for suggesting a given style without actually imitating anyone. Dave Gelly, Masters Of The Jazz Saxophone. I was relishing the prospect of Barnes’s casually consummate musicianship, deadpan humour (he could be a comedian, if jazz ever fails him), and indomitable belief in a respected place for the music’s rich history in this eclectic and often forgetful world. John Fordham, The Guardian. Barnes plays music that was radical 50 years ago but he infuses it with so much passion and energy you could believe it was minted on the spot, which is always part of the story with jazz. John L. Walters, The Guardian..

Investigating History

IN SEARCH OF TRUTHS by Michael Higgins

I am currently writing up an ‘Unterwegs’ article – or should I call it Unterweger ?  (en route – underway- one who is underway etc.) on post Brexit Switzerland, Austria and southern Germany, with railway woes, language challenges, death and mourning in the Alps etc.  Also a Tiroler Zeitung (Tyrol Times) article regarding on the young and reading. And of course one on my experience of buying a historical painting via phone auction. And I have next month’s Bugle to write too. I have not yet got back to my history of the Royton Morris Dancers but perhaps tomorrow.

I will send the late Robin Parker´s partner, Anni, our link to Sidetracks And Detours k. She has been in touch and has said she would like to see anything commemorating him, and indeed we have already have.  Linda Rowe suggested at our last Medicine Tap ‘Poets on Tap’ session that we ought to do a Robin Memorial show using his writings. This is very possible as his writings are varied from sonnets to parodies and as a former mayor has a widespread legacy. Robin (right) used to write an on-going parody framework based on the Oldham Tinkers’  ‘Oldham’s Burning Sands’, which could encompass anything from Football personalities to politics. I used to sing the female parts falsetto. Ah, the good old days.

As an afterthought I spotted a burger bar in Munich called Hans im Gluck (Hans in luck or fortunate Hans). I recognised it as a Brothers Grimm fairy tale and re-read it when I got back home. Hans is actually quite luckless and trades down a bag of silver earned through seven years apprenticeship for first a horse, because he found the silver too heavy, then a cow because the horse was too fast, then a goose because he couldn’t milk the cow, then a whetstone from a knife grinder because the grinder said it was a money maker. Then he accidentally knocked the stone into a pond and thanked his luck that he didn’t have carry any more loads. A strange inspiration for a burger bar. However I now read that another of Grimms’ tales, Sneewittchen, (Snow White) is being re-made by Disney in a somewhat different fashion to their earlier 1930s effort. Apparently there will be no dwarves but ‘magical animals’ and Snow White will be an empowered woman. I often think adults, especially American adults, should be barred from having anything to do with innocent fairy tales. Ah to be young – or perhaps not to be.

The Lancashire Authors Association is publishing two of my poems and a prose piece in the annual anthology. The prose piece won the recently tested dialect contest. It was a throwaway piece entitled It’s Hard to Scribble i’ Dialect because of course it is. But I won and stand amazed. 

I shall send the Unterwegs and Tiroler Zeitung pieces when finished.

editor´s note

Regular readers might remember that the Unterwegs piece Michael is promising will refer to the subject of a recent one man show here on Lanzarote by John Malkovich (right), a review of which by Norman Warwick was published in Pass It On volume 12 and is still available in our easy to negotiate archives of very nearly 1,000 free articles. It is all a chaotic and chilling story, perhaps, of a serial killer and we look forward to Michael´s report clearing up some confusing matters..

all across the arts

A COLLECTION OF NEWS by Steve Cooke

ROCHDALE ARTISTS HAVE SOME EXCITING NEWS

Rochdale Artists announce a new day group.

PREVIEW By Steve Cooke

The group

There has been an artists’ group in Rochdale for 80 years; Rochdale Artists was formed in 1987. Its objectives are to advance the education of anyone living or working in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale or the surrounding area, particularly in the field of the visual arts. The group welcomes new members of any experience and ability and currently includes members ranging from professionals to beginners.

Meetings

Currently the group meets on Tuesday evenings at the Castleton Community Centre on Manchester Road. A full programme of events includes guest speakers and demonstrations. You can see the most recent events on the Newsletter page. Most months there is a theme linked in some way to the demonstration with an appraisal of members’ work later in the month.

Current Quarterly Challenge is A Film Poster or Album Cover.

It is now proposed that they form an extra group.

The group’s David Bebbington explains.

‘We are aware that many of our older and former members are no longer able to travel at night and so are missing the chance to meet with like-minded people on a regular basis to talk about and practice their art.

In order to allow people the opportunity to do this in a safe and welcoming environment, we have received funding to start a new arm of Rochdale Artists that will meet once a week during the day.

Starting on 11th October 2023, the day group (right) will meet every Wednesday between 11.00am and 1.00pm at Castleton Community Centre and initially we will run workshops, free-painting, and discussion days, very much based on the formula we use in our evening meetings.

These meetings will take place in the same rooms as the evening group, so we will have access to the resources in the art cupboards, as well as the same tea/coffee making facilities.

Subscriptions will be the same as the evening group at £12 per year membership of Rochdale Artists and £1 per visit to cover room hire. There will be no charge made if you don’t attend.

Should you choose to attend both day and night meetings, the one membership will cover both – we are just one Society which will now be holding two meetings weekly at £1 per meeting.

We do not intend to close the evening meetings, as not all members can attend during the day, especially younger members who we want to encourage but have other commitments during the day.’

Exhibitions

The group holds annual exhibitions within the area at places such as Hollingworth Lake Visitors Centre and Littleborough Coach House, as well as other venues. Members may submit up to three works in these exhibitions.

Coming up

September 5th – Miniatures Workshop

Art on a small scale can be a great way to complete works very quickly. Bring along your normal materials but maybe leave your 2” brushes at home. Paper of the appropriate size will be supplied.

September 12th– Demonstration, Lee Pickering

Lee Pickering is a graffiti and tattoo artist, and will be leading a demonstration evening based on these types of art. Bring along drawing and/or watercolour materials in order to join in the fun.

September 19th – Free-painting night

Enjoy an evening doing your own thing, or maybe completing the quarterly theme work in time to show next week.

September 26th– Theme Appraisal night

Tonight we will show off our works completed over the last quarter on the theme of A Film Poster or Album Cover. Towards the end of the evening we will choose our next Quarterly Theme

Currently meeting every Tuesday 7 – 9pm at Castleton Community Centre, Keswick Street, off Manchester Road, Castleton, ,Rochdale, OL11 3AF.

Starting on 11th October 2023, the day group also will meet every Wednesday between 11.00am and 1.00pm at the same venue.

Email: Stacey Coughlin at Rochdale Artists: stacey@rochdaleartists.com

Visit: https://rochdaleartists.com/

Phone: 01706 379609

A Reader´s Perspective

ALL POINTS FORWARD by Peter Pearson

When Norman Warwick and I compiled last week´s discussion about favourite venues and favourite gigs I have to say that John Stewart and The Turf Inn at Dalry (right) top my list. The Turf was his spiritual home in the UK and was owned by his friend and big fan Andy Fergus. After John stopped touring extensively in the UK he returned almost annually to perform at the Turf and maybe a venue in York. The Turf was normally a three day residency and I would book the gigs and accommodation for three nights. I have the live CD’s and videos to remember these by.

To jog Norm´s non-chronological memory here are some of the gigs at which I remember bumping into him. Eric Bibb at the RNCM when he turned up late. Buddy Mondlock at Chads in Cheadle, Tom Russell at High Lane CMC Stockport, John Stewart at the Winning Post York, Bury Met, The Priory at Ulverston and many other venues including Emmylou Harris at the Apollo, in Manchester, and Katy Moffatt (left) in Rawtenstall.

I used to enjoy Friday evenings at Westhoughton Folk Club (WFC) (owned by the GolfClub). Westhoughton, whilst providing a showcase for British Folk performers always had regular US Americana visitors and because they had a membership scheme and therefore a guaranteed minimum ticket income for each performance -they were able to take risks that other promoters were reluctant to take.

Tom Russell, Katy Moffatt and Dave Mallett were regulars at WFC,  I also saw Harvey Andrews there in his later years and Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott as a duo. The club´s big scoop was to put on Beth Neilsen Chapman in 2006 at the time she was more likely to play the Bridgewater Hall. In order to cater for the demand they moved the gig to a larger Golf Club venue just down the road. In support were Chris While and Julie Matthews. (what a gig that must have been !

I especially used to enjoy nights at Upstairs in The Adelphi Preston where I saw Chip Taylor, Eric Taylor, Kate Campbell, Tom Paxton.

I was lucky to gate-crash a private gig Tom Paxton gave at a large hotel in Warrington. A couple of nights earlier I had seen  him play a solo acoustic set at the Adelphi. The Kennedys

( Pete and Maura) were on tour at the same time and provided Tom with perfect back up. Pete Kennedy was on guitar and there was sublime vocal harmony from Maura. Tom was touring on the back of his Americana album, Wearing The Time I was part of a pretty exclusive gathering of around 20 people..

apf sarah More recent highlights have been Sarah Jarosz (right) at Manchester´s Band On The Wall and since seeing her live I am even more convinced that she can emulate Nanci Griffith. She has more strings to her bow, – Guitar, Mandolim, Banjo, Fiddle -, writes her own songs and has a voice and stage presence to die for.

Eric Brace and Thom Jutz at a church in Biddulph Stafford was another recent standout, which I reviewed on these pages.

I could go on for ages but it never cease to be amazed by the spartan and small venues these artists appear at and how they make touring pay. Most of the Folk Clubs have disappeared and the regular promoters are disappearing rapidly.

Ed´s note  Peter attached to this article an mp3 file of Sarah Jarosz singing a live version of I Wish It Would Rain written,  and recorded by Nanci Griffith (left) on her Little Love Affairs album released in 1988, more than 35 years ago. I think generally speaking that Peter and I are drawn to favour songs by the writers than to a cover version. Pete´s recording was obviously a live band version from somewhere on this recent tour. The band is superb, all big guitars (think Perfect by Fairground Attraction) but it is Sarah´s punchy, confident vocals that elevate the song: I actually loved Nanci´s softly sung version, and there was a lovely, solipsistic whisper of hope in her version, but Sarah´s is bolder. Her vocals are more defiant, angrier, like Peter Finch in Network as if she uis urging the whole world to perform a rain dance. I Wish It Would Rain, is a superbly crafted composition, and the world now has at least two very different but equally superb versions to enjoy.

live music

autumn season at THE STOLLER HALL, MANCHESTER

preview by Norman Warwick

Tenille Townes 28^th August

I wasn´t aware at all of The Stoller Hall when I left the UK for this ´retirement´on Lanzarote. I am certainly aware of it now as the venue regularly announces forthcoming concerts, in all categorisations  from classical to contemporary and from folk to funky, via its excellent newsletter service and of course its on line facilities. Don´t forget that Tenille Townes is playing there tomorrow night, Monday 28^th August 2023. If you need to know more about her and missed last week´s PASS IT ON,  you can find that article in our archives and read a lengthy and fascinating interview with her,  There are, though, several other contemporary music concerts at the venue in this next concert season.

In autumn 2023, The Stoller Hall welcome artists from across the folk and contemporary music worlds, including Shawn Colvin, Luke Jackson Trio and more. The venue also welcome Manchester Folk Festival in October when hosting a performance by Oysterband.

SHAWN COLVIN

• TUESDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2023, 7:30PM
• THE STOLLER HALL

Over the course of three decades, Shawn Colvin has established herself as a captivating performer and a revered storyteller, well-deserving of the commendation of her peers and the devoted audiences who have been inspired by her artistry. And as she enters her thirtieth year as a songwriter and performer, she continues to reaffirm her status as a vital voice in music. 

Shawn Colvin stopped the industry in its tracks with her arresting 1989 debut, Steady On. The following spring, Colvin took home the GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, establishing herself as a mainstay in the singer-songwriter genre. In the ensuing 30 years, Colvin has won three GRAMMY Awards, released thirteen superlative albums, written a critically acclaimed memoir, maintained a non-stop national and international touring schedule, appeared on countless television and radio programs, had her songs featured in major motion pictures and created a remarkable canon of work. 

“…extraordinary songs, mesmerising guitar playing, and a voice that goes effortlessly from bruise-tender to scar-hard in a matter of minutes… her lyrics are crafted and clever, full of subtlety and polished phrases…With delicious sarcasm and acerbic stories, she held the audience spellbound… her songs are so personal to her that they speak to everyone who listens.” - The Guardian

EDDI READER

• TUESDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2023, 8PM
• THE STOLLER HALL

Just perfect – Eddi Reader gets every song just right’ – The Sunday Times 

‘One of my favourite singers of all time’ – Jools Holland 

 ‘Flawless, not just perfect, world class’ – R2 Magazine 

 ‘Timeless and universal’ – The Scotsman 

Celebrating over 40 years as a live performer, Eddi Reader has effortlessly developed into one of popular music’s most thrilling and affecting performers. What sets Eddi apart is the depth and quality of the emotional performance and ability to not only move the listener but connect her experience to that of her audience. No two performances are ever the same. 

Though first brought into the limelight as front woman for Fairground Attraction, whose #1 single, ‘Perfect’ and parent album, First of a Million Kisses, both topped the British charts, it was Eddi’s subsequent solo albums that signalled her ability to assimilate different musical styles and make them very much her own. Notably, The Songs of Robert Burns (2003) is a timeless interpretation showcasing the poems of Scotland’s national bard and gained her an MBE for outstanding contributions to the Arts.  

From the traditional to the contemporary, Eddi Reader extinguishes the preordained boundaries of genre, bringing joyous life to all forms of song. Her rare blend of meltingly true vocals and towering romanticism combine with an astute and pragmatic nature to make her a unique and powerful figure in contemporary British music. With 10 critically acclaimed solo albums, 3 BRIT awards, a #1 single and an MBE in tow, Eddi continues to delight audiences worldwide. 2022 proved to be one of her busiest touring years yet, playing sell-out shows as part of her 40 Years Live Tour in addition to appearing as special guest with the Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra for an extensive UK tour. 

MARTIN STEPHENSON AND THE DAINTEES

• THURSDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2023, 7:30PM
• THE STOLLER HALL

County Durham singer-songwriter Martin Stephenson’s early love of literature and music led to the formation of the first Daintees line-up in his early teens. Never pandering to a particular scene, Stephenson’s lightness of touch on a varied mix of musical styles was immediately apparent. His path was destined to be a lifelong journey through the music he loved: folk, ragtime, jazz, rockabilly, show tunes, punk-pop and country. Eventually, this glorious collision of styles would become the trademark which Martin has carried through his career of almost 40 years.

Martin formed his band The Daintees, who became busking sensations. The band, and indeed Martin, have always been known for their incredible range of styles, each album covering a multitude of genres, tempos and moods.

Martin Stephenson and The Daintees’ live performances are an exuberant tour-de-force combining heart-in-your-mouth intimacy with playful humour and warm self-deprecation.

They will be performing a few choice songs from their stunning new album ‘You Belong To Blue’, along with many old Daintees classics.

MY DARLING CLEMENTINE

• THURSDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2023, 7:30PM
• THE STOLLER HALL

The good folk at The Stoller Hall are delighted to welcome My Darling Clementine for what will be unique concert, as they join forces with a number of remarkable young

musicians from Chethams Music School.

No stranger to diverse collaborations Lou Dalgleish and Michael Weston King, since My Darling Clementine’s  formation in 2011 have worked with artists as diverse as The Brodsky Quartet, Graham Parker, and the crime writer Mark Billingham

Their most recent album is ‘Country Darkness – the songs of Elvis Costello’  –  a collaboration between Michael and Lou, and Costello’s long-time, right-hand man, and keyboard genius, the brilliant Steve Nieve. They have taken 12 Costello songs and re-worked them for duet adding their own inimitable style.

The Stoller Hall show will feature a number of the Costello songs as well as many favourites from the duo’s 12 year back catalogue, along with songs from Michaels’ recently released solo album The Struggle.

Brass, strings and additional voices will be added to their already potent mix of supreme song craft and vocal prowess for what promises to be a truly special night.

A labour of love on multiple levels, My Darling Clementine – the sobriquet of spouses Michael Weston King and Lou Dalgleish – began as a homage to classic country duets of the 60’s and 70’s á la George & Tammy and Johnny & June. During the past nine years they have played over 800 shows around the world, won numerous awards and have more than earned their own bona fides, with their wry yet heart-on-sleeve song-craft spotlighting the vagaries of romance and the human condition,  and their match-made-in-heaven harmonies.

In 1992 I spent my fortieth birthday in the company of Michael Weston King and his thden band-mate Gary Hall. Togetherf, Gary and The Storm-keepers were producing the most vibrant music in the UK but no band could have contained the individual sngwriting, vocal and performing talents of either Mike or Gary. At the time I saw that period, in which for a while it seemed every turn was a sidetrack or detour, but over the years, with the friends each skirting the outside left or right of the mainstream music highway ev eventually created canons of work reflecting their varfied talents.

LINDISFARNE – MAGIC IN THE AIR

• FRIDAY 15 DECEMBER 2023, 7:30PM
• THE STOLLER HALL

Legendary 70’s Tyneside folk-rock pioneers Lindisfarne present a classic five-piece line-up of long-time members fronted by founder-member Rod Clements on vocals, mandolin, fiddle and slide guitar.

For their 2023 tour, Lindisfarne recall a memorable period of live shows focussed on the 1977 release of live LP ‘Magic in The Air’. With a repertoire of unforgettable songs like Meet Me On The Corner, Fog On The Tyne, Lady Eleanor and Run For Home and a reputation for live performance second to none, Lindisfarne’s power to galvanize festival and concert audiences remains undimmed and is guaranteed to get the crowd on their feet and singing along.

LINDISFARNE 2023 are:

ROD CLEMENTS (1969-present) Vocal, mandolin, fiddle, guitars

DAVE HULL-DENHOLM (1994-present) Vocal, guitars
STEVE DAGGETT (1986-present) Vocal, keyboards, guitars
IAN THOMSON (1995-present) Bass, vocal
PAUL SMITH Drums

The Stoller Hall welcomes all audience members, including those who may need additional support with their booking or visit. We have set up an access scheme for our audiences with any additional needs, including free Personal Assistant tickets or wheelchair space bookings. You can find more information here.

recorded music

ROBBIE ROBERTSON SACRIFICED EGO FOR MUSIC

suggests Geoffrey Himes writing in Paste On Line

Ralph Dent learns why  

Robbie Robertson, who died Wednesday at age 80 after a long illness, was a man of many talents. One of the most crucial and least appreciated was his ability to check his own ego.

Here was a man who worked closely with Bob Dylan between 1965 and 1967 and blossomed beneath that heat lamp as one of his generation’s finest songwriters. But Robertson didn’t follow the era’s paradigm, that the songwriter should sing the songs—a concept more or less established by Dylan himself. Instead Robertson turned over the songs he wrote to his colleagues in the Band: Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel.

In one sense that was an easy decision. Helm, Danko and Manuel were, as Bruce Springsteen commented in the 2020 documentary Once Were Brothers, “three of the greatest white singers in rock history—any one of them would have been enough to carry a great band. With all three of them, they were loaded for bear.”

On the other hand, it must have been hard to create songs as powerful as “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” and “It Makes No Difference” and allow audiences to cheer for the singers while playing guitar in the background. Many a songwriter has been unable to make that sacrifice, but the modestly voiced Robertson made the right choice.

“When I wrote a song,” he told me in 2020, “I knew who was going to sing it, because I was casting a movie. It was like Bergman using the same actors in different roles for each film.”

The same self-control was true of Robertson’s guitar playing. Dylan once called him “the only mathematical guitar genius I’ve ever run into who does not offend my intestinal nervousness.” Robertson was one of those guitarists—like Keith Richards, Jimmie Vaughan, Jimmy Nolen, Leo Nocentelli, J.J. Cale and Steve Cropper—who channeled their gifts into riffs and fills and left the soloing to the show-offs.

It’s the noodling solos that get the cheers, but Robertson apparently reacted to guitar solos the way most people react to drum solos. Once again, he checked his ego, and the music was better for it.

This restraint doesn’t mean that Robertson let people walk over him. He was an ambitious man, who knew how to make the most of his collaborations with Dylan and filmmaker Martin Scorsese when the opportunities arose.

In his surprisingly well written memoir, 2016’s Testimony, he claims that he often tried to get his colleagues in the Band to write some songs or co-write with him, but they never followed through. And when recording projects foundered, he—much like such contemporaries as Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Carl Wilson—was the taskmaster who pushed things along. That often caused resentment, but it also produced results.

“Somebody had to do the songwriting,” hesaid “That had been my job all along, even back when we were with Ronnie Hawkins. Because I’d been writing songs, I knew how to do it. For a long time, I thought they were being lazy, and I had to do all the work. But then I realized that some people write songs, and some people don’t. Ringo doesn’t write songs; Charlie Watts doesn’t write songs. Other people can’t help but write songs. That’s fine; that wasn’t Levon’s job.”

He was born Jaime Royal Robertson in Toronto on July 5, 1943, to a Mohawk/Cayuga Indian mother and a Jewish gambler father. Listening to R&B, country and early rock’n’roll on the all-clear stations blasting across the border from Tennessee, the young kid fell in love with the music of the American South and taught himself how to play it on guitar.

Robertson was only 16 when he talked his way into the Arkansas band of Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks, who were visiting Toronto on the strength of the hit single “Mary Lou” featuring a 19-year-old drummer named Levon Helm. Robertson moved to Fayetteville and became the band’s songwriter, bassist and then guitarist.

He eventually brought his Ontario friends Danko, Manuel and Garth Hudson down to join the Hawks. Helm and the Canadians finally left Hawkins in 1964 to launch their own group. They released several obscure singles and collaborated first with blues revivalist John Hammond Jr. and then folk-music hero Bob Dylan. The latter not only made the Hawks famous but also helped Robertson evolve into a world-class songwriter.

“Bob and I were suited for one another,” Robertson said, “because breaking rules felt comfortable to both of us. Even joining up with him was breaking rules. We didn’t know shit about folk music, and he didn’t know much about being in a rock band. I could hear how the songs he was writing were connected to the films I was seeing by Bergman, Truffaut and Fellini.”

The 1965-66 world tour by Dylan and the Hawks deserves every bit of the legend it has acquired over the years. Robertson played on Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde and Basement Tapes albums, the latter with the rest of the band at a West Saugerties, New York, house know as the Big Pink, due to its garish paint job. That led to the Hawks’ debut album under their new name, the Band: Music from Big Pink, a record so earthshaking that it convinced Eric Clapton to quit Cream and go searching for a rootsier approach to music.

“It had been a dream of mine for years to find that clubhouse, that sanctuary,” Robertson added. “I believed if we found it, we would find our sound, and we found it in that house up in Woodstock. When we did, we gathered all the musicalities we’d experienced, blues, country, rock’n’roll, from playing in the Mississippi Delta to playing with Bob Dylan.

“Big Pink was a breakthrough for us; it didn’t resemble anything we’d ever done with Ronnie Hawkins, anything we’d done as the Hawks, anything we’d done with Dylan. It wasn’t a conscious design; we were the last guys in the world to have a plan of how to become rock stars. It was just an outgrowth of woodshedding and playing together for seven years. We finally figured out how to use everything we’d learned along the way.”

Robertson’s songwriting was a perfectly balanced blend of the blues, country and gospel influences that birthed rock’n’roll in the first place—a mix as poised as Elvis Presley’s early records. To that was added the literary ambitions of Dylan and Ingmar Bergman. But just as Dylan needed the Hawks, just as Bergman needed cinematographer Sven Nykvist and actress Liv Ullmann, Robertson needed his four Band-mates to realize his vision.

“They were the goods,” Robertson writes in Testimony. “They were road warriors we could go to battle with anytime, anywhere. This band was a real band. No slack in the high wire here. Everybody held up his end with plenty to spare. Over the years, Levon and I did a lot of foolish things and probably could have wound up in prison for some of it. In the end, we did a whole lot more beautiful things, and I am honored to have been in his musical grace.”

A key track on the Big Pink album was “The Weight,” a song that went on to be recorded by Aretha Franklin, Mavis Staples, Ringo Starr, Eric Church, Joe Cocker, Dionne Warwick, the Dead, Cassandra Wilson, Joan Osborne, Weezer, Garth Brooks and the Ventures. It’s not just the fable-like lyrics that make the song so memorable; it’s also the fusion of the hymn-like melody and the rumbling, rambling country-rock behind the vocals.

“I saw ‘The Weight’ as this movie that goes from one episode to another,” Robertson told me. “A guy’s trying to leave, and somebody says, ‘While you’re there, check in with Joe,’ and that changes everything. I had Luis Bunuel in the back of my mind. There was something outrageous about his films like Viridiana and Simon of the Desert that I was trying to capture. Bunuel’s people are trying to be righteous, and it turns inside out on them as they realize the impossibility of sainthood.”

Sainthood certainly proved impossible for members of the Band. With success came easier access to drugs, alcohol and fast cars. Robertson dabbled in these himself, but he never lost his work ethic, and that led to tensions in the group—especially with his former best friend Helm.

Despite the backstage problems, there were many triumphs. The group’s second album, The Band, boasted a dozen songs written or co-written by Robertson, songs that evoked a fading, pre-Elvis American South of farmers, Civil War veterans, union organizers, unhappy servants, moonshiners and pioneers. It’s widely regarded as the group’s best studio album.

“I certainly didn’t want it to be Music from Big Pink, Part II,” Robertson told me. Music from Big Pink was a whole movie unto itself. To me, those two albums don’t sound alike; you want to do your best not to repeat yourself. I wanted to make the next discovery; I wanted to get to the next chapter. Now we were moving deeper into America, a mythical America.”

But each studio album had enduring gems on it, and the live albums added a new dimension to the songs—reminding us of what great players the quintet contained and of how many ways these mysterious songs could be interpreted. Rock of Ages, featuring Allen Toussaint’s brilliant horn arrangements for a four-night New York stand in 1972, was the best. But The Last Waltz, the group’s farewell show on Thanksgiving Night, 1976, became the most famous. That’s due to the fabulous documentary Scorsese made of the proceedings, which included such guests as the Staple Singers, Emmylou Harris, Ronnie Hawkins, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and Dylan.

But after the waltz was over, the dancers and musicians scattered. There were several solo albums; Danko’s 1977 eponymous debut was terrific, as was the same year’s Levon Helm & the RCO All-Stars. Most of the others, including Robertson’s proved underwhelming. The other four members reunited as the Band in 1983 with Robertson’s blessing but without his participation. The first two reunion records were surprisingly good even without much original songwriting, thanks to strong covers of tunes by Dylan, Springsteen, Muddy Waters and J.J. Cale.

Robertson kept working. He released more solo albums. He oversaw the reissue of the Band’s catalogue with revealing bonus tracks. He produced, co-wrote, scored and starred in 1980’s Carny, a so-so film about roustabout carnivals starring Gary Busey and Jodie Foster. He worked as music consultant and/or composer on many of Scorsese’s subsequent films, including 2019’s The Irishman and this year’s forthcoming Killers of the Flower Moon. Mostly he stayed out of the spotlight, which was in keeping with his modus operandi all along.

“I made The Last Waltz, heonce said, “because I concluded that staying on the road was not healthy for us; somebody was going to die. And I was heartbroken when somebody did die.” In 1986, a 42-year-old Manuel hung himself in a Florida hotel bathroom. “And then somebody else died.” In 1999, a 55-year-old Danko died at home of alcohol-related heart failure. “And then somebody else died.” In 2012, a 71-year-old Helm died of throat cancer at a New York hospital.

And now the 80-year-old Robertson has died. His output has been meager since 1978, but from 1965 through 1976, he enjoyed one of the best 12-year runs in American music. It only worked because he had three of the finest singers and four of the best musicians of his generation as partners. But it also only worked because he had the work ethic and controlled ego to finish many of the era’s best songs of that era and to make sure they got recorded and released the right way.

Island Insights

ACATIFE AND MAJEEK IN CONCERT

review by Norman Warwick

Despite the fact that I must have seen hundreds of folk, country and Americana gigs in the UK between 1970 and 2015  Peter´s All Points Forward column this week mostly has me regretting not seeing some of the gresat concert he mentions, and very envious of the breadth of hios listening.

Of course, since coming here to live on Lanzarote in November of 2015, I have to come to realise theast the Spanish no-speak Americana, so my concert optio0ns nw are very different. Nevertheless, we do hear traces of Mariarchi and cowboy trail songs because music in the travelling bag of every emigrant, who just cannot wait to play his country´s music to his new hosts.

There are usually around thirty artists on stage when ever (left) perform and my wife, Dee, counted 32 singing and playing members in the folk lore group Acetife, when we recently saw them play Teguise, as a further part of the Nuestra Senora Del Carme celebrations on which we have reported over the past two or three weeks

This was the third or fourth live gig we have seen by a band that is a much cherished treasures on the Lanzarote folk scene. Acatife is more than a band, however, and the clue as to why lies in their posher, proper name: The Acatife Cultural Association was founded in 1983 in Villa de Teguise, Lanzarote, and is an organisationentity dedicated to Canarian popular music. 

Since its inception, Acatife has had as its main mission the investigation, recovery and dissemination of the island’s folklore, contributing to its enrichment with its own contributions. This work has materialized in the realization of more than five hundred performances throughout the Canary Islands, in other cities of the Spanish State, as well as in Germany and France.

This should sound familiar to our English readers who have learned about English Folk Expo (EFE) in our poages over the past cou’ple of years. The remit for that organisation is very similar to that described above, and it is good to learn the model is transferable and successful.

The playing arm of The Acatife Cultural Association (ACA), Acetife, is a model EFE have not yet replicated and it serves as a wonderful example of the4 heights can be achieved with talent, self-dedication and a supporting infrastructure.

Acatife has recorded eight albums, (three of which we have on our play-lists in the office) which are testimony to this commitment to Canarian popular music and its evolution over the years. The association has had a presence on both national and international television programs, bringing Canarian music and culture to audiences around the

Acatife’s work is based on three fundamental pillars: the rescue of songs still present in the collective memory of the Canary Islands, the musicalization of lyrics by coplistas and popular poets, and the composition of their own songs. Emigration, a phenomenon that has deeply marked Lanzarote, is a recurring theme in his repertoire.

Acatife’s latest achievement is the recording and presentation of their eighth album  Mi Pueblo y César  This album (left), recorded live at the Jameos del Agua in November 2022 , is a journey through the geography, customs, traditions, legends, oral tradition, ways of being, behaviours and events of Lanzarote. The album was presented for the first time at the Víctor Fernández Gopar Theater “El Salinero” in Arrecife on June 9, 2023 , an event that included the participation of invited artists such as Isabel Cabrera and Almudena Hernández.

Now, the fiesta jubilations of 2023 scheduled  to another concert to  be delivered in Teguise, to follow the Classic cars and Mariarchi music and the muscal El Relejero de Los Suenos the very special musical written and performed for young children that we have previously reported.

To see that musical, wed had followed an incredible calculatged to the second of watching England win a test match during the day, arriving in time for the 5.30 performance, taking a sunset drive past the beach at Famarfa and arriving back in our home town of Playa  Blanca to rely on the rapid service and great food at Lani´s Snack Bar for a quick supper and back in our house at 9.59 in time for the ten o´clock Wimbledon highlights.

Tonight´s start time of 9.00 pm allowed us three hours to take a leisurely (red velvet steering wheel) drive and stroll down to the wonderful side-street restaurant, with tables on the cobbled road at the fron and a secluded courtyarfd  at the side. Only three of the tgen tables on the road were occupied at this time so we took one that was free, under the shade of a huge parasol and enjoyed one of the most surprising we´d wever had.

the special guests for tonight´s event were Tenerife folk-lore group Magec, who seem to spell their title in half a dozen diofferent ways, although it may be reporters who are actually responsible for that.

Magec represents the renewing force that popular Canarian culture acquires and since its inception it has not stopped promoting cultural activities. The group, led by Juan Pablo Pérez López from Orotava, currently has around thirty members. Magec’s musical offer is very varied, since it performs music from the Canary Islands (isa, folía, malagueña, etc.), South American (Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc.) and Spanish (songs by Nino Bravo, Mocedades, José Luis Perales, etc.).

The Magec de Honor distinction created by the group has been awarded to Ezequiel de León (2001), Celestino Hernández Mesa (2002), Elfidio Alonso (2004), Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria (2005), Mary Sánchez (2006), Totoyo Millares (2007), Los Huaracheros (2008), The Social and Cultural Work of Caja Canarias (2009), Francisco Fariña (2010), Luis Morera (2011), Alfredo Ayala (2012), José Vélez (2013), Chago Melián ( 2014), Mestisay (2015), Los Gofiones (2016) and the Villa de La Orotava Association of Carpet Makers (2017).

VISUAL ARTS EXHIBITIONS AND CLASSES

THE ADSUBIAN GALLERY, SPAIN

preview by Norman Warwick

Artist ESTHER FELIU TORRES (left) told The owners, management and staff at The Adsubiuna Art Gallery  in Spain on August 4, 2023 that  The attraction of a blank sheet, that empty space to fill, attracted me from a young age.  Dump the inexplicable, even transfer the experience of another person, through me. As something metaphysical.  Make use of line, volume, light, color and assemble all this with the silent word. The soul. Sometimes wounded, sometimes exultant.  Already graduated in Fine Arts, I wanted more objectivity, more rigor and I studied a master of scenography. Profession to which I have been dedicated for 27 years.  I parked painting in large format, writing as a balm and I dedicated myself to raising my great work, my children Jaime and Jimena.  To whom I dedicate this return to me and behave with you with the humility that he returns from a long journey

At around the same time another atist well known to the The Adsubian, REBECKA JARVENKLINT told them that

I found my passion for painting during confinement in Madrid.  I found that it has a very calming and therapeutic effect, plus a great joy that it is!  I started with graphite pencil and charcoal and continued with watercolors and then acrylics.  I moved from Sweden to Jávea in 2010 and now live in Madrid. I find inspiration when I travel to all the beautiful corners of Spain.  I love painting animals, but also nature scenes, seascapes and abstract art. But what has haunted me from the beginning is capturing moods and feelings in my figurative portraits.

POETRY AND PERFORMING ARTS

preview by Norman Warwick

It may be that the idea for a major Poetry Reading, to be held  at the Salon El Foneadero, in Puerta Del Carmen on Lanzarote on Friday 1^st September  was born in last November´s hugely successful, and enjoyable first Lanzarote Poetry Festival, 2022. That was an event that both my weekly column at Lanzarote Information and mu own daily blog at Sidetracks And Detours previewed in the weeks preceding the event. The event´s success was also very brought about by the hard-working artist and writer Mercedes Minguela.

She must have worked countless hours over the past months, in contact with poets she knows from all across The Canary Islands, offering them the chance to come over to Lanzarote and give their own time to a three day event that she must have promised them would be worthwhile.

How hard she worked, and the high regard she must have already been held in by these friends, was evident on Sunday 27^th November with a public recital in The Plaza de la Consticucion in Teguise, more popularly known as the Plaza de los Leones. More than twenty much loved poets from The Canary Islands each read a poem and a couple of tourist-visitors to the island also stepped forward to volunteer a contribution of their own.  Everyone who contributed was asked to post a photo of his contribution or her contribution to their favourite social network, associating that with the festival hashtag.

The Lanzarote Poetry Festival 2022 had actually opened two days earlier, on Friday 27^th November with an evening recital at The Timple Museum with the participation of the twenty featured poets from The Canary Islands and the archipelago.

The following day was given over to a street recital led by Luisa Molina from the literary group, Letras para el Alma and Delia Martin, a tour guide from Patrimonio,in a strolling recital through the historic streets of Teguise. The almost two hour pilgrimage included nine or ten short presentations about historical buildings, corners and streets, and at every juncture a different pair of poets each read a self-penned poem about the location.

Then came the glorious Sunday morning that closed what must surely prove to be the inaugural annual Lanzarote Poetry Festival.

Having been invited by Mercedes to make an English contribution from the square, I arrived fairly early, with Teguise still setting up for a day of thousands of visitors to the Sunday market in one town square and for hundreds of watchers and passers-by in a square only a hundred yards away. We saw the restaurant staff putting out their tables and chairs on the pavements, and we found the sound technicians putting up the system and check, check, checking one, two three, two two. two.

We helped Mercedes and her poet-friends hang samples of the poems to be read on stringed off perimeter of the performance area. There was a little stage, with a microphone set up, and a little registration desk for people to volunteer to deliver a poem. Mercedes was busy putting finishing touches to everything and making last minute conversation with the performers. So, after making sure my name was on the list as a contributor, my wife Dee and I headed over to The Chiringuito for a breakfast of  Tortilla Espanol and chicken croquets, with a cup of frothed up cappacino for me and café con leche for Dee. We had a lovely spot at a table in the sun, the service was great, the price was more than reasonable and the staff were friendly and hard-working.

Although I hadn´t performed in my role as a poet for several years now, other than when I gate-crashed a writing-group reading at El Patio in Teguise a few years ago, I returned to the performance arena feeling pretty confident and at ease. All I had to do was step on stage and, like riding a byke, I was unlikely to fall off. Just as that thought popped into my head I remembered an incident seven years ago when I rode a bike that the previous occupants of our new home here on Lanzarote had left in the shed,….straight into my garden wall and banged my head. My wife says she doesn´t think I´ve ever been right since.

We found a spot to sit and listened as the twenty guest poets each read a poem, themed to the festival title Versos, Volcanoes Y Vientos. Throughout the concert I was growing more and more doubtful of my rights to be in this company. I began to worry that the poem I had selected might not be as appropriate as I might have hoped. I listened to words I couldn´t understand as the Spanish poems were all beautifully read. Each reader produced gentle rhythm and careful cadence and delivered their work with the respect it deserved. There seemed nothing savage here, (how could there be there in paradise?) but there were, nevertheless, reference made to climate change and social needs.

Mercedes Minguela was the epitome of this approach of delivering with absolute sincerity,……and then I was introduced.

The poem I had chosen was one I had written in 1971 just after Mankind´s first moon-landing, and subsequently was recorded as a song in four very different versions. I mentioned the poem, Doing The Spacewalk, in last week´s post on these pages in an article about how NASA Astronauts will be coming to Lanzarote to train on our ´lunar landscape´ next year.

The poem is very simplistic in form but addresses some contentious issues in its lyric,…. the ´colonisation´ of space, the future of the only planet we have made our home, how space exploration might affect our notions of eternity and immortality and perhaps even our relationships with our Gods. The short poem also looks at how Mankind has, in some cultures, romanticised the moon as a symbol of love.

I moved to the stage, though, by shouting up to the skies the lines of Can You Hear Me Major Tom from Bowie´s Space Oddity. I did this purely as an attention-grabber, as I knew the audience might not understand the language of my English poem, but that if they understood and recognised that chorus they might then put together what the poem was about.

I read at many. many poetry festivals in the UK,…standing soaked wet through in a thunderstorm close a radio mic-stand that was struck by lightning in a deserted town hall square in Bolton comes to mind,….but coming on to a crowd of a hundred or so, all wondering what the heck, on a tiny stage shadowed by a huge church tower etched into a clear blue sky in a temperature of almost thirty degrees is something I will remember forever.

The first thing that struck me, (if we don´t count that lightning a few years ago) was the politeness, the courtesy and the attentiveness of the people around the square. It was typical of Canarian good manners, with audience members properly listening, and my fellow poets also paying me the courtesy of listening to the words. That is a long way from the sound of pints being served and slurped,  tills clanging, and the barmaid shouting ´time gentlemen, please´ just before I was due to read, all of which was part of soundtrack to many readings in  England.

So, after reading Doing The Spacewalk, I stepped down to polite applause and a couple of handshakes, and listened to one young female tourist who stepped out of the crowd to follow me, and delivered her work in Spanish.

So it transpired I was the only English-Language poet to appear among twenty well respected Spanish Language poets at the Lanzarote Poetry Festival 2022 and even at the age of seventy, I was thinking that would look pretty good on my cv.

So there were more than twenty poets, al fresco, reading original poetry  in the Plaza de Leonnes in Teguise last year. They had arrived by boat and plane from all of the other seven Canary Islands. Next Friday 1^st September  A hundred an d fifty newly written poems, inc luding those from plast year have been compiled into what looks like a well-presented and prestigious volume of work much of which will be the body of the readins by their writers.

Amazingly, tickets for the event are  ´free until full´, but as eve r tickets for these sort of deliveries are difficult to locate, so the best idea is to arrive at the venue as early as possible to find out what the admission procedure is going to be.

If I can´t get in, I´m prepared to stand in the corner serving ice creams so that I will be able to deliver a report for you.

Watch this space !

what´s next? Next week, our five free, not-for-profit Monday to Friday blogs will see us head to Glasgow for a fashion exhibition showing the work of a sixties icon. and then pay our respects to Michael Parkinson, Robbie Robertson of The Band and Tony Bennett. What a dreadful year to lode three masters of their genres. Just when we think we might not have to work on that bigger bookshelf next week, we find we have to make room for a new a book about all the songs Fit For A Prince. We take the Saturday off, and return then on Sunday 3^rd September with Pass It ON 16

acknowledgements

The primary sources for  this piece was written for the print and on line media Authors and Titles have been attributed in our text wherever possible

Images employed have been taken from on line sites only where  categorised as  images free to use.

For a more comprehensive detail of our attribution policy see our for reference only post on 7^th April 2023  entitled Aspirations And Attributions.