Sidetracks & Detours present PASS IT ON # 68 weekly supplement Sunday 22 9 2024

Sidetracks & Detours

present

PASS IT ON # 68

weekly supplement Sunday 22 9 2024

l

Hear The Call

COME FOLLOW YOUR ART

editor´s welcome

Hello, and thank you for joining us for our Sunday supplement, here at PASS IT ON. With Michael Higgins leading the contents with a piece on the Lancashire Society, it feels as if the world is back on an even keel. We have missed his occasional articles but are pleased to note that he has recently collected a couple a well deserved awards for his writing.

Another of our writers, Crusoe, has been figuring out  how crafts and arts can make his deserted island an even better environment. He is very excited that his fellow inhabitants of this tiny island will soon be building a footbridge over a three hundred feet deep sink hole !

We also update you on several live events that are taking place throughout the UK, such as big clock repairs and a celebration of a world famous nightclub as told by I Love Manchester newsletter.

Of course, we also report on live music events, with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra announcing its new programme even as Oxford Chamber Music Festival are bidding a fond farewell to its own recent events.

Jazz In Reading inform us of forthcoming events in their area and of course, Steve Bewick reminds us that where there is live Jazz there is also Jazz On Air, accompanied by a serving of HOT BISCUITS.

Our Americana correspondent, Peter Pearson, has delivered another fascinating article on PETER ASHER, musician, song-writer- producer and artsts manager, so why not take a couple of hours to enjoy a good read.

No doubt we´ll see you somewhere round the corner next week as we follow sidetracks and detours in search of more arts related news for you.

CONTENTS

1 An Update LANCASHIRE SOCIETY by Michael Higgins

2 Live Events

CRAFTS AND ART by Crusoe

LOOK WHAT TIME IT IS report by newsletter

HACIENDA FULLY BOOKED preview by newsletter

3 Live Jazz LATIN JAZZ QUARTET previews by Jazz In Reading

4 Jazz On Air HOT BISCUITS served by Steve Bewick

5 Live Music

UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS previews from Bournemouth S.O.

FESTIVAL FAREWELL previews from OCMF newsletter

PARRANDA LAS LABADORES folk lore  by Norman Warwick

6 Reader´s Perspective: All Points Forward PETER ASHER by Peter Pearson

7 Island Insights

FOOTBRIDGE ACROSS THE HOLE By Crusoe

KENYAN PROVERB by Crusoe

1 An Update LANCASHIRE SOCIETY

By Michael Higgins

Lancashire Society is an ad hoc gathering of musicians, singers, clog dancers and poets formed before the Coronavirus Pandemic to preserve the cultural heritage of Lancashire, England’s ‘Red Rose County’, whose current Duke is also King Charles. The loyal toast is always given in Lancashire as ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, a toast to the King, Duke of Lancaster.  As the ‘Shire Palatine of Lancaster’ or its shorter form, Lancashire, the shire is known for its regional lore of  Bury Black Puddings, Eccles Cakes, Chorley Cakes and Liverpool Lobscouse etc, not to mention its dialect poetry, prose and verse – and not just the George Formby and Gracie Fields cinematographic adventures.

The Society’s pre Covid performances were at fixed annual festivities around the county but the Covid pandemic halted things somewhat and many venues have become slow to restart. This year the Society determined to forge a newer path through steam railway trips, library visits, and even Lancashire County Archives, beginning in August with a performance at Preston Docks and steam railway museum.  In September they performed at East Lancashire Steam Railway, entertaining on station platforms and inside moving carriages. Singer and musician Mark Dowding even got to sing from the engine itself before setting off from Rawtenstall to Ramsbottom and Bury.

Further outings September to November are Barnoldswick,  Oswaldtwistle,  Preston Archives, Morecambe, Thornton and Bancroft Mill Engine .

Bancroft Mill is also in Barnoldswick, a picturesque town in the historic West Riding of Yorkshire. Given the historic differences of opinion between Yorkshire ,’the White Rose County’  and Lancashire we will have to be on our toes. As I am one of the gang I will try to perform a true Yorkshire poem or song. Yes I do know a few despite my red rose roots.

Yet, as the Lancashire Society Facebook page states that Lancashire can also pose challenges:  ‘It has been clear in recent times that our heritage has been rejected by many inhabitants of Lancashire and only enthusiastically promoted by a few. The Lancashire Society hope to redress the balance with a series of initiatives. Through communication and connection with the Community it is hoped that a greater understanding of this heritage will become apparent’.

With that in mind perhaps even those outside Lancashire might lend an ear, lend an ear etc., and enjoy one of the Society outings.

Full steam ahead?

2 Live Events

LOOK WHAT TIME IT IS

by Manchester Clock House

update by I love Manchester newsletter

Manchester Town Hall’s historic and iconic clock tower is visible for the first time in years after a loving restoration.

The 85m (280ft) tower had been shrouded in scaffolding until recently as part of the multi-million-pound restoration of the Victorian grade-I listed Town Hall, which closed in 2018.

The clock face was restored in summer 2021, when 140 years of Mancunian grime and rain were meticulously cleaned off.

Preservation work took place on the cast iron dials, glass panels, and eight-tonne bell — officially called Great Abel — have all been made to look like new, as has the 23-carat gold hour markers.

“The Town Hall clock has been keeping the time for Mancunians since New Year’s Day 1879 and its prominent tower has watched over the city for even longer,” said deputy council leader Garry Bridges on announcing the ‘milestone moment’.

“As part of the once-in-a-century Our Town Hall project to repair and restore the town hall and safeguard it for future generations, we’ve taken the opportunity to bring it back to its original glory. It’s great that we’ve now reached a stage where we have been able to remove the scaffolding and restore the view of the clock tower, giving a foretaste of the whole building being returned to the people of Manchester in magnificent shape.”

The clock, made by master clockmakers Gillet and Bland, is the largest of its design ever made and remains one of the country’s biggest and most significant tower clocks.

Currently, the hour and minute hands are connected to a temporary drive while work to clean and repair the original clock mechanism is completed off-site ahead of its re-installation, set to go ahead once works to the rest of the clock tower are complete.

Work is also concluding on the clock tower’s impressive Carillon, a set of 23 bells with which tunes can be played.

This was previously not working reliably, and restricted to playing a small repertoire of tunes automatically controlled by a pianola-style punchcard Once its restoration is complete it will be possible to play any tune on it, opening up a wealth of possibilities.

As well as general wear-and-tear, the clock underwent a major shock in 1941, after shockwaves from a Second World War bomb caused the glass to smash. The Town Hall restoration project is the largest of its kind in the country, and is being studied by the teams in charge of restoring the Houses of Parliament.

Live Events

CRAFTS & ARTS

35th Feria de Artisania de Lanzarote at Mancha Blanca

by Crusoe. September 2024

Last week, commencing 9th September 2024, was the opening day of the 35th Feria de Artisania de Lanzarote at Mancha Blanca.

I am sure that in the nineteen nineties this festival would have been a small, parochial festival of craftsmen showing their work, almost exclusively to friends and neighbours.

We had first learned of these annual events when we were browsing a copy of a high quality, quarterly, glossy magazine of which our friend Larry Yaskiel, is now Honorary Editor. There was one occasion during our fifteen to twenty holidays we enjoyed here on Lanzarote, before we finally came to live out our retirement in 2015, that we happened to be here when the festival was on. We were never usually able to book our holidays to coincide with the staging of a festival that celebrated carpentry, crocheting, and clothing. Paintings, pottery and plant-care exhibits were also on show.

Since coming here to live we have visited the festival every year and have been astonished by not only the quantity of crafts on show but also the quality of craftsmanship that makes them so unique and desirable. Man, or Woman, might have made every item but there is no manufacturing of the items, if you see what I mean, so rendering each one as being very desirable.

It is a genuinely rustic festival displaying items that reveal a great deal about the history of the island(s) and its struggles to make a living off the land. It tells us much of the health benefits of the plant Aloe Vera. The styles, colours and texture of national costume have stories about the cochineal beetle that was a native of Lanzarote, that produces a rich-coloured dye. Eventually, of course, the world found a way to mass produce an equivalent of the dye more quickly and cheaply than Lanzarote workers so painstakingly laboured to achieve. Gradually demand fell away for Lanzarote´s beautiful  shade.  

Agricultural tools, hand-honed and heavy are strong and durable, and carvings of dainty and more fragile decorations for indoors and outdoors of the home make the festival a not to be missed event attended now, over a five day period, by thousands of people.

This year the fair is dedicated to Crafts with Vegetable Fibres showcasing its techniques and traditions.

It also showcases the cultural diversity of the Macaronesia, with artisans not only from all the Canarian islands but also from the Azores, Madeira and Cape Verde.

What we had on show on the day we visited this year´s event were the methodology and the outcomes of traditional pottery and traditional carpentry and wood turning. We also had embroidery, ceramics, candle making and both reed basketry and palm basketry being shown.

There were Lutiers with their musical instruments and percussion.

Each artisan had probably set out as self-employed at some time, but many of them have formed their own companies or businesses, as had become evident from reading their details in the fliers and promotional material.

Every artisan showing at the event had to have an artisan´s licence and had to agree to have his work area manned at all times by someone with an artisan´s licence to demonstrate the techniques of their work effectively.

Cutlery designers, ceramicists, tanners and fabric decorators were working side by side in their own individual open-fronted work area with names of companies or individuals proudly displayed alongside their work-tables. We visited jewellers and cigar makers, dressmakers and traditional costumers.

All this has gentrified the artisans. They are no longer lone workers producing goods they find hard to sell. Nowadays artisans know fellow artisans and share their knowledge of the market, new trends and new customer bases.

Their artisan´s licence gives them wider access to training in business techniques, news of market developments and a useful contact list.

Mancha Blanca is a town in the municipality of Tinajo. In 2022 it had just over 800 inhabitants.  Located southwest of the municipal capital, it is the seat of the hermitage of the Virgin de los Dolores or de los Volcanes.

Mancha Blanca is right on the edge of the lava fields of Timanfaya National Park. During the volcanic eruptions of 1730 to 1736, and the last major eruption in 1824, lava solidified just a few metres from the site. On both occasions locals sought divine help. On 16 April 1735 they carried in procession an image of the Virgin of Sorrows from the church of San Roque de Tinajo, and marched towards the lava flow, which stopped at Guiguan Mountain.  The residents of the village promised to build a shrine for the figure of the Virgin, which was initially completed in 1781 in the form of a small chapel. During the subsequent and last volcanic eruption of 1824, the Virgin of Sorrows again saved Mancha Blanca from the masses of lava – according to the interpretation of the believers. The current sanctuary was finally built in 1862. 

In gratitude for the rescue of Mancha Blanca, the image of the Virgin is carried every year on September 15th in a solemn procession around the hermitage-sanctuary of Mancha Blanca and an offering to the Virgin is held.

Live Events

HACIENDA CLUB FULLY BOOKED

preview by I Love Manchester newsletter

The spirit of Manchester’s legendary Haçienda will be reignited this October as the city gears up for a special night that blends nostalgia, music, and cultural history.

On Wednesday, 9th October, New Century Hall will host the launch of Haçienda Threads, an evocative new book that captures the essence of the club that defined a generation.

For anyone familiar with Manchester’s cultural history, the Haçienda needs no introduction. Opened in 1982, the venue quickly became a melting pot of music, fashion, and underground energy, playing a pivotal role in shaping not only the UK’s dance music and acid house scenes but also influencing global club culture.

The book, Haçienda Threads, promises to take readers back to those exhilarating days, weaving together the stories of musicians, DJs, fashion designers, club-goers, and staff, all of whom helped shape the legend that the Haçienda has become.

Featuring contributions from Manchester icons like Peter Hook, Noel Gallagher, John Cooper Clarke, Bez,  Rowetta, and many more, Haçienda Threads is set to be the definitive account of this ground-breaking venue.

The book’s release will coincide with an unmissable event that brings together key figures from the Haçienda’s history for a night that’s sure to stir fond memories while creating new ones.

The launch event promises to be anything but ordinary.

FAC51, the team behind the Haçienda, is taking over the historic New Century Hall for an intimate celebration.

Beginning at 6pm, attendees will be treated to a live DJ set featuring Haçienda stalwarts Peter Hook, Graeme Park, and Jon Dasilva, among others.

Special guest appearances by DJs Lady Bump and Michelle Kelly will showcase the cutting-edge sounds that once filled the club’s iconic walls.

At the heart of the evening will be an ‘In Conversation’ session, a roundtable discussion featuring some of the most influential figures from the Haçienda’s past. Hosted by journalist Paul Flynn, the panel will include Peter Hook, (shown right), DJs Graeme Park and Greg Wilson, Haçienda manager Ang Matthews, and Flesh promoter Paul Cons.

The discussion will also feature contributions from fashion designer Ian Griffiths, Manchester alt-cabaret star ‘The Divine’ David Hoyle, and music legends Noel Gallagher and Mani of the Stone Roses.

For fans of Manchester’s music and clubbing history, this promises to be an evening of insight, reflection, and, of course, celebration.

Following the discussion, attendees will have the chance to purchase signed copies of the book and mingle with the Haçienda alumni who have kept its legacy alive.

Proceeds from the event will go towards three important charities: AKT (the Albert Kennedy Trust), Mind, and Sarcoma, ensuring that the night not only honours the past but also gives back to those in need.

Tickets for the event are priced at £51, which includes a complimentary Haçienda cocktail on arrival.

With limited capacity, this is a rare opportunity to relive the magic of a venue that changed Manchester—and the world—forever.

Don’t miss your chance to be part of this one-of-a-kind celebration of music, fashion, and culture.

Date: Wednesday, 9th October

Location: New Century Hall, Manchester

Schedule:

• 6pm-8pm: Doors open, DJ sets, Welcome Cocktails
• 8pm-9pm: ‘In Conversation’ panel discussion

9pm-1:30am: Book signings and DJ sets

3 Live Jazz at Progress Friday 27 September 2024

STEVE WATERMAN Latin Jazz Quartet,

preview brought to you by Jazz In Reading

Steve Waterman trumpet & flugelhorn
John Donaldson piano**
Rob Stratham bass
Buster Birch drums

Steve Waterman Latin Jazz Quartet

For a couple of decades, Steve Waterman has been regarded as one of Britain’s finest and most versatile trumpet and flugelhorn players, winning awards as the Number One on several occasions. He began his career while studying at Trinity College of Music, and since then has worked regularly on the British, European and International jazz scene. His Latin jazz credentials are of the highest quality including being a favourite and regular participant at the Havana Jazz Festival, to which he was first invited in 2002 to perform in the Chucho Valdes Band, alongside some of the greatest Cuban instrumentalists.

He has played at the top London venues with several UK based Latin bands. He formed his own Latin piano quartet in 2019 which plays the precise core rhythms from Brazil, Cuba and Dominican Republic and compositions by Jobin, Puente, Mendez and others, but also revitalises some more familiar American Songbook classics playing them using the same Latin core rhythms.

John Donaldson is a gifted pianist and composer who began playing jazz gigs at the Cambridge Modern Jazz Club’s resident trio along with Chucho Merchan and Nic France. He won the prize for best soloist at the San Sebastian International Jazz Competition in 1980 moving to California in 1982 where he stayed for eleven years working with most of the well known West Coast bands. He returned to London in 1993 where he continues to work with all the big names on the British jazz scene. Along side him is Rob Stratham on bass who teaches bass at BIMM Music Institute in London, and Buster Birch is an award winning drummer who studied at the top schools in London and New York. He is also a jazz educator, author, promoter and broadcaster.

4 Jazz On Air

HOT BISCUITS

served by Steve Bewick

Have you ever visited the South Downs? If so, tune into this weeks snack of HOT BISCUITS because you’ll be thrilled with a recent release featuring The Full Circle Quartet, including Terry Pack,  reviewed by my colleague, Gary Heywood-Everett 

Additionally there is Jazz from Pat Metheny, with `Forward March` SoSaLa, ´that is, intriguingly, from one of his early recordings.

Kate Luck-Hille and composer-musician Paul Hornsby merge skills and originality on Hilsby, as `The Last Time I Looked.`

Il Mare Una Scatola (The Sea, A Box) is from Ugo Rossi & Alan Pasqua.

We will be playing Chris Allard‘s Melodic Collective and closing with Terence Collie asking, What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?

 If this looks interesting follow the link at the foot of this news item then PSDD IT ON and continue to follow us weekly at www.Mixcloud.com/stevebewick/ 24/07

xxx

5 Live Music

UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS

previews from Bournemouth Symphony Orch.

F.T.A.O. readers of PASS IT ON

We’re thrilled to be back with our 2024/25 Concert Season, and we can’t wait to share with you some truly phenomenal orchestral evenings! The season is nearly upon us so if you haven’t booked your tickets already, now is the time to do so.

We’ve already begun the preface to the season with two concerts just this week marking a reunion with former BSO Artist-in-Residence Nemanja Radulović in Devon and Cornwall. We continue with performances next week with our brand-new Calleva Assistant Conductor Enyi Okpara, and Elgar’s Enigma Variations opening our concert season in Exeter the week after.

Holst’s magnum opus The Planets is the big season opener at our home of Lighthouse, Poole, as well as Bristol Beacon and Portsmouth Guildhall. We’ll also be joined by one of Britain’s most eminent pianists, Paul Lewis, playing Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. The concert is sold out in Poole but why not see us in Bristol or Portsmouth, or book it as a Digital Concert!

The season continues with many orchestral highlights both in the concert hall and online.

Finally, as you may have seen, we’ve been marking Remember A Charity Week – a nationwide campaign that raises awareness of gifts in Wills and the incredible difference they make to charities like the BSO.  

We can’t wait to welcome you back in to the concert hall!

Live Music Oxford Chamber Music Fest

FESTIVAL FAREWELL

previews from OCMF newsletter

Read on for information about a lunch-time concert the ´Oxford´ interpretation of Water Music, alongside a unique workshop with Emme Bennici and the finale concert of this years Oxford Chamber Music Festival.

Singer and performer Emma Bonnieci presents a unique workshop for lovers of story and song. This practice based workshop focuses on the initiation of folk songs and its roots in landscape and a life lived – its trials and growths. It explores its connection and relevance to the singer now and how songs can both teach us about life as well as be a vehicle to express our own.

No prior experience is necessary. All are welcome. The work is physical as well as vocal, looking at voice as being connected to the body. Please let us know of any access needs and come in comfortable loose clothing, bring water and a pencil and paper to take down the words to the song.

In the 1970s an eighteenth-century manuscript was discovered in Christ Church library containing Handel’s chamber arrangement of his immortal Water Music, originally written for an evening Royal pageant on the Thames – with a barge accommodating 50 musicians. Perhaps the royal party also saw the fireflies which buzz through Bridge’s fine Phantasy, or finished their excursion in the beautiful twilight of the Phantasy’s ending. In between Handel and Bridge, will be Oxford-based Jennifer Walshe’s very funny performance piece for a multi-tasking cellist, and some Radiant Romance.

Handel The ‘Oxford’ Water Music – chamber suite
Linda Suolahti, Tetiana Lutsyk, Sascha Bota, Brian O’Kane, Jordi Carrasco Hjelm

E.J. Moeran Prelude for cello and piano
Brian O’Kane, Dirk Mommertz

Jennifer Walshe That’s a lot of money at the top of a rocket
Natalie Clein

Deborah Pritchard Radiance
Natalie Clein

Vaughan Williams Romance
Priya Mitchell, Dirk Mommertz

Bridge Phantasy piano quartet
Dirk Mommertz, Tetiana Lutsyk, Marc Sabbah, Brian O’Kane

There will also be a BOOK SIGNING of newly published ‘Singing England’ by Steve Roud at this lecture, sold by Blackwell’

A talk by Steve Roud, author of the celebrated Folk Song In England and the New Penguin Book Of English Folksongs, will give a concise history of English traditional folk song – from a time when singing out loud was normal everyday behaviour.

Follow our sidetracks & detours post through w/c 30^th September for our take on musical migration.

Live Music

PARRANDA LAS LABADORES folk lore 

at the 35th Feria de Artisania de Lanzarote, Mancha Blanca September 2024

by Norman Warwick

I have mentioned before on these pages, I find it remarkable that Lanzarote, its people and its government and its churches and its social services try, and succeed in doing so, to create a powerful unity of politics and religion and the arts and the artisans into almost every public event. I am sure that is what puts the smiles on the faces of those partaking and those in the audience.

That was obvious again today. As so many people wandered the trade stalls, so many other people were sitting in a front of a smallish, temporary stage waiting for the folklore group Parranda Los Labradors to begin their outdoor concert in the centre of all the artisanship. To be honest, nobody was getting too impatient because even the sound checks and individual runs and riffs sounded pretty good. The 150 or so seats had all been taken by us and 148 others, and we enjoyed an hour of folk music. Thirteen musicians and four vocalists sent rhyme and rhythm racing into the blue-sky day. Four female singers, one of whom was also playing guitar, created a huge, and beautifully sung Spector-like wall of sound.

There were many obviously humorous songs, with all kinds of hollers and hoops and other strange sounds but I always think that what is common to the best of such groups is the instruments. Today there were guitars, and round back mandolins. There were timples and castanets and big drum percussion.

Suddenly, a new party of people were at the side of the stage. These folk were some of the old and frail of Lanzarote who had been invited by the organisers and were accompanied by their professional carers, and now was the time for another concert by the same group for this new audience.

We were all asked on the microphone by one of the band members if we would all kindly vacate our seats for our special guests.

The audience rose as one and retreated to stand behind the back row of seats immediately occupied by, happy, smiley people, and their equally happy, smiley carers.

One of the carers distributed around 150 red roses between the elderly, who were soon on their feet, rose in hand, or mouth, and were swaying happily to the music and singing along to old songs, much-loved.

When the concert was over we took a long tour through the artisan market and then wandered fifty yards down the hill, and sat outdoors at a corner bar. Dee´s white wine was beautifully chilled she said and I told her it couldn´t possibly compare to my cold beer in a frosted pint glass. These drinks were a great complement to two very full bowls of chickpeas. We each then had another drink and our bill still only came to 22 Euros including tip.

Half an hour later we followed across the road to where the carers and their charges were gathered in front of the village´s beautiful church.

Also in front of the church was a statue of Virgin de los Dolores (Virgin of Sorrows) the Patron Saint of the Island of Lanzarote brought outside so that the elderly and their cares could each lay their single rose on the statue.

There was nothing false or forced about any of this. It was just another joyful, and joyous, moment on a day of so many such moments.

We heard no bad language, nobody was barging past people and in fact it was a day with patience in abundance: the kind of patience the artisans have shown over a life-time of honing their crafts

6 Reader´s Perspective: All Points Forward

PETER ASHER

by Peter Pearson

Peter Asher (shown right as Peter and Gordon) has had a massive influence on the music industry for well over sixty years. He has been a performer, (as half of the Peter & Gordon duo, right) artist manager, producer, arranger, and major label executive.

Not only has he been successful in such a wide variety of roles in an industry where specialism is the norm, but he has been able to do so whilst earning the respect and admiration of all with whom he has worked.

Born in London in 1944, he came from an accomplished family. His mother, Margaret Eliot, was a teacher at the Royal Academy of Music whose private pupils included the future Beatles producer George Martin. His father, Dr. Richard Asher, was a pioneering medical theorist, who first identified and named Munchausen’s Syndrome.

Like his younger sisters, Jane and Clare he was a childhood actor. Unlike Jane, who continued with an acting career into adulthood, Peter focused on his studies at the  prestigious Westminster School, where he met his future musical partner Gordon Waller. Both sang and played guitar and soon became firm friends. In 1962 they began performing as a duo in cafes and bars as Peter and Gordon. After gaining a recording contract with EMI records in 1963 they were in dire need of material. Fortunately Peter’s sister, Jane, had become the girlfriend of Beatle Paul McCartney and they were given three unrecorded Lennon and McCartney songs to record. The first song, World Without Love, became a big hit in 1964.

Over a four year period of touring and recording they had ten hits before breaking up in 1968. It was an amicable split with Gordon keen on a solo career and Peter interested in record production.

As an artist in the studio he had kept a close eye on producers and the way in which they were able to create the sound to make the duos classic hits. He also learned the different ways to relate to artists and studio musicians.

After being drafted by Paul McCartney to head up the A&R department of the Beatles’ new Apple label, he promptly signed a promising young American singer and songwriter named James Taylor.

There is an interesting link here with Chip Taylor and with James Taylor’s pal Danny (Kootch) Kortchmar, who was instrumental in putting James in touch with all the right people. Kootch was in a group called The King Bees which came to Chip and Al Gorgoni’s attention when talent scouting for a music publisher. Kootch kept telling Chip to give a listen to his pal James Taylor’s tapes. When he did he signed him on the spot but the deal went wrong. A dejected James Taylor (left) was then pointed by Kooch in the direction of Peter Asher at Apple, who he had got to know as a friend when Peter and Gordon toured the States.

By then Peter Asher had started a production career at Apple producing records for Paul Jones from Manfred Mann. Asher promptly saw the potential with James Taylor and produced his self titled 1968 debut album for Apple. Whilst critical reaction was good, it failed to take off, partly due to Taylor’s health and drug addiction issues restricting his ability to promote it and in spite of the album credits showing Paul McCartney on bass guitar and, on one track, George Harrison on backing vocals. In common with many producers Peter invariably participates in the sessions as a musician, generally on back up vocals, and this was no exception, in this case adding percussion and tambourine on some cuts .He has never lost that high harmony vocal of his days in Peter and Gordon.

Taylor returned to America but was soon followed by Asher, who following the falling apart of Apple, was offered an A&R role at MGM Records. Soon afterwards he formed his own Management Company and took on James Taylor as his first client.

We are now entering Immediate Family territory (see last week’s piece). It was the start of the 1970’s US driven singer songwriter and classic country rock band boom. Songwriters like Carole King and Neil Diamond, instead of writing hits for others, decided to up sticks and migrate from the East Coast to California, where it was all happening, to record their own songs. There they were joined by artists like David Crosby, Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and Linda Rondstat.

A songwriting and cultural community coalesced in Laurel Canyon and the songwriters performed their music down the road at Doug Weston’s Troubador.

Peter Asher soon set about establishing James Taylor as a major artist. He needed back up studio and touring musicians.

After poaching drummer Russ Kunkel from John Stewart he agreed to produce Stewart’s Willard album and gathered together Carole King, Danny Kootch and James Taylor to take part in the sessions. As always, as well as producing the album, he added his own back up vocals. With Willard Peter also became one of the first producers to insist on studio musicians being credited on the album liner notes, in contrast to the Wrecking Crew, who were always uncredited.

Whilst Peter produced this album he did not produce John’s follow up – The Lonesome Picker Rides Again – which was produced by John’s brother – but Peter Asher features on the album on back up vocals along with Jennifer Warnes.

Peter gathered the Willard session musicians along with Chris Darrow (another poach from John Stewart’s band) soon to be Eagle, Randy Meisner and several others to produce James Taylor’s break – out second album – Sweet Baby James released in 1970.

The album was nominated for a Grammy and set up Taylor as a major force within the singer songwriter community.

Asher would go on to manage Taylor and produce a long string of multi platinum albums for him.

When Linda Rondstat became unhappy with her manager she approached Peter Asher, who went on to produce her catalogue of hit albums and manage her career through her transition from country rock through to appearing in Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta stage and film performances, albums of the Great American Songbook with Nelson Riddle and albums of songs based on her Mexican heritage.

Asher’s production credits included albums by Cher, J D Souther, Bonnie Rait, Andrew Gold, Kenny Loggins and a host of others. All the time he never stopped from performing himself. Initially with ad hoc appearances with Gordon Waller as Peter and Gordon and then on Waller’s death in 2009,with actor musician, Jeremy Clyde, of Chad and Jeremy.

In the early stages of James Taylor’s career when The Troubador had a monopoly as the venue for California singer songwriters, Peter made sure his clients made regular appearances, but owner, Doug Weston, drove a hard bargain. He would sign artists up to a contract that bound them to play at no other venue in California for a long duration. It meant that artists were bound to play at the relatively small venue for little pay even when they later became famous.

In order to break that monopoly, in 1973 Peter Asher joined with fellow producer manager Lou Adler and several others to open the Roxy Theatre. It soon took over as the place to play and The Troubador quickly went out of business.

In 1995 Asher became Senior VP of Sony Entertainment, leaving in 2002 to resume his artist management career with Sanctuary Artist Management. In 2015 he was awarded the CBE for services to music. When asked what it takes to become a great manager or a great producer? Asher said “the answer is tragically simple – great clients”. At age 80 he is still involved in the music business.

Afterthought:

Whilst writing this piece I kept thinking how succesful Peter Asher had been in managing and recording James Taylor and Linda Rondstat and whether the recording of John Stewart, the favourite artist of both myself and our editor, Norman Warwick, would have been more commercially succesful under him.

I think I have now found the answer. Here is what John had to say about Peter’s work on Willard.

“Very clinical, very methodical, very unspontaneous but very efficient. A few things were done as with the whole of (California) Bloodlines, with me singing with the musicians, but it was pretty much built up in the standard form of recording. For what it was it was very well done. He’s a real craftsman in what he does. I just didn’t feel that the two styles fitted together. James (Taylor) is a precise kind of singer, he did a great job with him. My forte is not that kind of perfection.”

Editor´s Note Just after receiving this contribution from Peter Pearson, I received another e mail from him telling me of JD Souther´s sudden and sad death. Look out for a tribute to him w/c 7th October in Sidetracks and Detorus.

7 Island Insights

FOOTBRIDGE ACROSS THE HOLE

By Crusoe

The Cabildo has received a study on the state of the road to El Golfo, which has been closed since 2021, after a massive sinkhole appeared, brought about by the constant erosion of land caused by the pounding waves. 

The study identifies five sites where erosion means that work will have to be carried out to reinforce and support the existing road, but also proposes a new element: a pedestrian footbridge that projects out over the edge of the volcanic cone area of the coastline

The curved metal footbridge would be 2.1 metres wide and run alongside the road, providing a spectacular viewing point for the many tourists who visit the Los Hervideros area.

Island Insights

LANZAROTE: by Crusoe

where man can enjoy what nature has created

Larry Yaskiel and his lovely wife Liz, posted an editorial in the current Autumn 2024 edition of their quaterly magazine Lancelot. Like all its other editions over the past forty years, Autumn 2024 is energetic and empathetic.

“Treat the Earth well. 

It was not a gift to you from your parents,

it is on loan to you from your children”

Kenyon proverb

Welcome to Lanzarote and welcome to Lancelot, now celebrating its 40th anniversary year as the oldest English-language magazine in Spain.  To answer a question from many newcomers to the Island, the name of our publication has nothing to do with the Knights of the Round Table.  It originates from the 14th century when a Genoese navigator first marked this island on the map of Europe.  His name was Lanceloto Malocello whose name translates into Spanish as Lanzarote and into English as Lancelot.  Because of its 300 volcanoes Lanzarote is also known as the Volcanic Isle which is the subject of the main feature of this issue.

Many readers wonder how this island managed to escape the concrete skyscraper syndrome that plagued so many other resorts that became popular in the 1970s and 80s especially on the Costa Brava at the same time as tourism began emerging on Lanzarote.  The answer is two words Cesar Manrique.  This internationally gifted artist was and is renowned in many fields, most especially for creating Lanzarote´s unique Tourist Centres, but above all he is remembered for his efforts, that Lanzarote was named an Isle of the Biosphere by UNESCO in 1993, the first tourist destination in the world to receive this accolade.

Having enjoyed your stay on the Island, you may consider buying a holiday home here, and why not?  It makes sense choosing a resort blessed with sunshine all year round yet only a few hours away from most of Europe! Adios, we look forward to seeing you again.

This article first appeared in the Autumn 2024 edition of Lancelot, the informed and informative glossy, quarterly magazine that reflects the lifestyle and ethos of Lanzarote.  We are pleased to share these sentiments.

Readers of Sidetracks and Detours might alos be particularly interested in this edition as it contains a fascinating feature on the Island´s volcano fields and of Roger Trend who recently published a book about them.  You may well remember that we published a couple of articles about the author and his book and those articles are still available in the almost 1,200 free to read items. Simply type the name Roger Trend into the search box on our front page of Sidetracks & Detours.

Also, look out for a couple of further stories of how Larry and Liz make such a positive impact on Lanzarote and its people. On week commencing on Monday 7th October we will look at Larry´s frequent talks to Lanzazarote students. At their best and with attentive students these talks are frequently inpirational and sometimes even life-changing when students find their preferred learning methods and ways to hone their crafts.

Larry´s talks will, too, leave little aphorisms planted in the minds of his audience. It was in this month 1964 that my English teacher and mentor, Mr. Drury, told me that if I wanted to be a writer for a living I would have to write a lot, and read even more. I have never forgotten that advice.

Another mentor, later in my life when I was a so called ´mature´ student at University at the age of fifty, wrote on the bottom of the first essay I submitted as a degree student:

¨You write in hideous gargantuan sentences and I get far too tired half way through anyone of them that I never get to the end to find out where I am.”

And yes, I know that many of our readers would echo those setiments, so thanks for sticking with us thus far !

Look up through a telescope next week to look out for bright ´stars´in the Lnazarote constellations. We will also be checking on the literature of our later lives before further exploring the musical career of English Folk Group Magna Carta. We wonder at the writing of Angela Carter and her relationship with fairy tales, and then bring back a book for our bigger bookshelf, with a title that poses another fascinating read. The book is called The Invention Of Angela, and even when first opening the cover, we found ourselves asking the question: invented by whom?