Excuse me while I kiss the sky

An adventure in wonderland.




“Excuse me while I kiss the sky,” so wrote Mr James Hendrix and surely an extremely weird thing to want to do but, at the same time, he still showed what a gentleman he really was by asking to be excused before he attempted his indulgence. The imagery did however set me to thinking about what might have been the weirdest thing I ever did in my Adventures in Wonderland – the music business.

I was working with a gentleman by the name of Eddie Kennedy. I was publicist for two of his groups, Taste and Anno Domini. Now the thing I need to admit to you here is that I was hopelessly out of my depth. It is my belief that he only gave me the Taste account because he was losing them and he hoped/thought it would be a carrot for me to work on his smaller (and soon to be only) group, Anno Domini. Taste (Rory Gallagher, guitar, sax and vocals, John Wilson, drums and Charlie McCracken, bass guitar) at that stage were quite possibly the best live band in the world and Rory Gallagher’s talent and natural stage presence was one of the most effective publicity generating machines in existence. Even John Lennon raved enthusiastically about Rory in an interview the Beatle did for Disc and Music Echo a weekly music paper.

Anno Domini was another matter altogether. They enjoyed a very pleasing Crosby Stills & Nash type of sound and approach to song-writing and Tiger Taylor, their guitarist, was, in his own right, also a force to be reckoned with. I’d spotted him in an earlier incarnation with his own band - Tiger’s Tale - and the reason he stood out in my mind was because the night I first saw him (in Belfast) he and his fine band had performed, note perfect mind you, Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album from beginning to end. His two fellow band members in Anno Domini were Terry Scott - vocals and percussion - and David Mercer - vocals and guitar. David had the gift of delivering beautiful melodies and could craft his lyrics with the best of them. Anno Domini supported Taste everywhere, it seems that they couldn’t get any other gigs. That was their main problem. Taste’s audience just weren’t really interested in Anno Domini and if they’d supported more suitable artists perhaps they’d still be on the radar today.

Anyway I digress. One day I’m in my room in Eddie’s suite of offices at Command Studios (currently the home of Waterstones in Piccadilly) and I’m on the telephone to a journalist. The journalist was most likely a true gentleman by the name of Roy Hollingsworth. Roy was famous due to the fact that during a legendary interview with Leonard Cohen, they both, disillusioned by the music business and, no doubt inspired by a fine claret, made a pact to give it all up and retire to the country to get it together… as was very in vogue in those halcyon days. As I say I was, most likely, on the phone with Roy. I’m quite confident about this fact simply because he was one of the few, if not the only, journalist who would always take my calls, on top of which he frequently gave Anno Domini the requested, “wee mention” in the Melody Maker when ever he could, which I seem to remember was probably quite frequent and was also most likely the reason why I kept the job.

So as I was saying, I’m on the phone to Roy, and Eddie is loitering around my door with intent. I’m stringing the call out with Roy as long as humanly possible in the hope that Eddie would take a wee dander elsewhere and leave me alone to work out the finer points of my world domination plan. I mean just because he employed me surely didn’t mean I had to be at his beck and call all the time? When I eventually got off the phone - as in the second I set my heavy bakelite handset back in the saddle of the phone - Eddie saunters into my room and he says something like…

“So Paul, what are your plans for tomorrow?”

“I was hoping to hop on a flight to LA…” I began and waited for the delayed effect of him nearly choking on his milky coffee, before continuing, “…but the petty cash tin is pretty low.”

He flashed me one of those I-didn’t-think-that-was-funny-but-I’m-going-to-remain-good-humoured-because-I’m-going-to-ask/order-you-to-do-something-you-won’t-want-to-do kind of looks.

“Of course I’m going to be in here bound to my desk and the phone,” I conceded.

“Ah good, because I’ve got a wee job for you.”

I’m thinking, ‘please don’t have another new group you need press for,’ knowing my friendship with Roy Hollingsworth was stretched to the limit as it was.

Then I think I hear Eddie say something that sounded like, “And ah… what will you be wearing?”

“Sorry?” I ask immediately knowing he couldn’t possibly have said what I thought he said.

He says, “I mean will you be wearing your current outfit?” as he looks at my dark blue loon pants, lavender granddad shirt and tan desert boots?”

I make a fuss over checking my diary and respond with, “The Royal Variety Performance is not on for a few weeks yet so I suspect I, most likely, will be in my normal attire.”

“Great,” he said, mentally rubbing his hands, “and ah, will you be washing you hair,” he continued looking over his glasses at my mop-top, which was more Italian Monk than the Beatles’ Rubber Soul look I’d been trying for.

A hundred scenarios flashed through my mind and none of them pleasant but none of them quite as uncomfortable as what he actually had in mind.

Eddie encouraged some of his artists and their friends to use down-time in the studio to work on songs, record demos (demonstration tapes) as they pursued the song-writing side of their careers. One such session with a co-operative of musicians from various groups had in fact produced quite a passable master recording, and Eddie had secured a record deal for the song with Deram Records (an off-shoot of Decca Records). He’d been duly paid for the recordings and then didn’t Deram only go and want to release the track as a single.

Which was good normally; in fact a release on a hip label (the home of Procol Harum amongst others) was what most artists gave their eye-teeth for. But not in this case; the main problem being that the artists in question were all contracted to other record labels and bands, so the group on the tape Deram had accepted quite simply just didn’t exist. So Eddie urgently needed to form a fictitious group and do photographs for press and artwork. This was apparently where I came in. I was to be (at least on camera) one of the members of his group. The next day we did the photo shoot on a building site in the west end. I don’t remember any of my fellow band members but we were a rag-tag and bobtail mob, which was in fact my suggestion for the group name by the way. Anyway we each got paid a fiver, signed a release (so we could be willingly exploited) and two months later an advert with our moody photo appeared in an advert in the Disc and Music Echo. There was talk about Top of The Pops and a world tour… but… well you know, I’ve always thought that Eddie held the group back just so I would have to stick around and do the press for Anno Domini.



This time I’ve read.



Damage by John Lescroart – one of the most consistent and enjoyable authors around.



A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun – the autobiography of a career criminal by Noel Razor Smith – he most definitely takes you there, an incredible read!



First Frost by – Henry James.



Chaplin by David Robinson - the read, not the book, inspired by the BBC Radio 4 series. The book is a major, not to mention wonderful, work by Mr. Robinson.



No Angel – The Secret Life of Bernie Ecclestone by Tom Bower - very unputdownable but you have to keep reminding yourself that you are not, in fact, reading a work of fiction.




And saw:



Brighton Rock – not in the same league as the good old Portrush Rock



Chaplin – excellent biopic



The Kid



Limelight



Secretariat – Seabiscuit wins by several lengths.



Animal Kingdom



Half Nelson



The Killing (BBC 4 TV series)– totally amazing, by far the best series on the telly at the moment.





And listened to:



Magic by Sean Rowe – a 100% classic.





Until the next time…





Cheers



pc

Pictures With Words In Deep Shades of Blue

The Art of The Singer Songwriter.



According to my spellcheck the word “songwriter” doesn’t exist, well at least not as a single word. Folksinger, as a single word, is acceptable, which says a lot because Singer Songwriter became the hipper name for Folksingers when record companies and managers wanted to distance their charges from the bushy beards, bulging beerbellies and sweaty caps of the minority and (apart from Mr. Zimmerman) waning folk genre for their own newer wave of charges who were not considered part of the blossoming rock market but who were very keen to become recording and performing artists.

It would appear that the singer songwriter term was first used to help James Taylor shed his Apple Records skin for his brand new Warner Bros. coat of many colours. But because of the obvious Beatle connection I bought Mr. Taylor’s Warner Bros. Debut, Sweet Baby James, and added it to my fledging collection, which in hindsight could be classed, either directly or indirectly, as being biased towards singer songwriters.

As a reference point here is my all time



Top 20 Classic Singer Songwriter Albums.



(Listed alphabetically)



Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)

Jackson Browne - Late For The Sky (1974)

JJ Cale - Troubadour (1977)

Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)

Crosby, Stills & Nash - Crosby, Stills and Nash (1969)

Neil Diamond - Hot August Nights (1972)

Nick Drake - Bryer Layer (1970)

Lesley Duncan - Sing Children Sing (1971)

Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind (1997)

Carole King - Tapestry (1971)

Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman (1970)

Van Morrison - Moondance (1970)

Don McLean - American Pie (1971)

Gilbert O’Sullivan - Himself (1971)

Paul Simon - SongBook (1965)

James Taylor - Sweet Baby James (1970)

Loudon Wainwright III - More Love Songs (1986)

Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombone (1984)

Hank Williams - The Best of (1998)

Neil Young - Everyone Knows This is Nowhere. (1969)


How did I amass this collection? Well mostly by word of mouth. In those pre Amazon days, way, way before their, “if you like this, you might also want to try this,” approach, the key was really self-discovery. Graham Nash was a member of the Hollies and I enjoyed their singles and distinctive vocal approach and I was intrigued by the fact he’d gone to America to form Crosby, Stills & Nash. David Crosby I knew was a member of the Bryds. I’d been introduced to their music because they’d successfully covered a few Dylan songs, not to mention the fact that they’d openly praised the Beatles. Stephen Stills I only knew of his work through the Supper Session album (1968), which I’d bought because the other two key musicians on the album, Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield, has done some recording with Dylan. Anyway the CSN combination was enough to tempt me to part with my hard earned cash. I bought the CSN album the day it was released and I loved it, still do. Then there was some CSN connection to Neil Young so I bought his then current album, Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere (1969) and loved it so I also purchased his other album, Neil Young. Then David Crosby produced Joni Mitchell’s first album and I bought that, then I read somewhere – probably Rolling Stone, that David Crosby and Graham Nash sang on an album by another new artist called Jackson Browne, and what a reward his album Jackson Browne (nicknamed Saturate Before Use due to the sleeve artwork) turned out to be.

With Nick Drake I bought Bryer Layer because it was on Island Records, that was enough in those days, and I couldn’t believe the absolute heart-wrenching gem I discovered within. Tom Waits was also an Island artist, yes he started on Asylum Records but with his first release on Island (Swordfishtrombone) he totally re-invented the singer-songwriter genre using colours no one had ever dreamed of using before. Around the time of Elton John’s first album, I went to see him and his (then) band Hookfoot record a BBC Radio “In Concert” and during the performance he mentioned Lesley Duncan as being the writer of the hypnotic Love Song, one of the great songs in his set. I scouted out her album, Sing Children Sing, shortly thereafter, probably in Musicland in Dean Street. I was absolutely convinced she was going to become a major artist and perhaps if she’d been based in USA and on Warner Bros. or Asylum, she would have. I was hooked on Gilbert O’Sullivan’s head-turning, gobsmacking, classic single, Nothing Rhymed, but I still wasn’t prepared for how strong his debut album would be; absolutely every track turned out to be a perfectly crafted song. Don McLean was a similar process for me, the singles (American Pie & Vincent) hooked me and the album reeled me in the whole way. Simon and Garfunkel were another matter. I quite liked some of their songs, liked them a lot in fact but I found the production somewhat unsympathetic to the songs. Then I discovered The Paul Simon Songbook and all was fine because I’d another lifelong friend in an album. On and on I worked my way building up my record collection, some – mostly the ones on the above list became life-long friends – while others are tied to memories of a time or a face.

But these were the writers who preferred to do their own songs. At the same time other talented artists like, Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, The Carpenters, Jennifer Warnes, Otis Redding, Don Williams and Christy Moore where doing great work interpreting some of the great songwriters of the day and perhaps those albums are for a future top 20.

I apologise in advance if anyone is offended by the fact that I’ve included a few artists I was lucky enough to go on to work with, but… I would also like to point out that in all cases it was the artist’s work, that sooooo made me want to work with them in the first place. Apart from Abbey Road I have not included any bands on the list. The Beatles: okay, okay, I hear you say; it’s PC so the Beatles can’t be very far away… but… in my defense I’ll say by the time of Abbey Road they were not so much a band but more a collective of the finest English songwriters this side of Ray Davies. So what I’m saying is not that Abbey Road is my favorite Beatle album but it is my favorite Beatle album in the singer songwriter category. I’ve also not included more than one album by any artist. It was hard enough to squeeze in all I wanted to include, so several Dylans, or Jackson Brownes, no matter the temptation, was just out of the question. I opted for Van’s Moondance rather than the classic Astral Weeks for this list only because the tracks on Moondance work better as stand alone songs. I’ve also tried to resist including in the above list amazing yet obscure albums; you know, some incredible album, where no one but myself, and literally a few others are aware of said album. So, with this in mind I’ve tried to stick to albums that have enjoyed at least some degree of critical and commercial success.

It’s also most definitely worth noting that the sleeves of all of the above, maybe because of the stature of the albums or maybe because of the physical size of the artwork – 12 inches square - also became iconic.

And finally a special mention in the best-songwriter-never-to-make-an-album section: I’m talking about one of the all time great songwriters, Mr. Bob McDill. He’s had over 30 (and still counting) No. 1 hit singles on Bilboard’s US Country Charts. He’s been covered by everyone from Alan Jackson, Waylon Jennings, Perry Como, Jerry Lee Lewis to Bobby Bare, who recorded an entire album of his songs called Me and McDill. And a very fine album it was too, but, in my humble opinion his songs are at their best when showcased by Don Williams who always included 2 or 3 Bob McDill songs on his excellent collection of successful albums. When I was in Nashville once I tried to track down Bob McDill if only to see if he’d ever made an album. I ended up speaking on the phone to someone from JMI, the publishing company Bob McDill was signed to. The gentleman I was speaking to turned out to be none other than Cowboy Jack Clements and we’d a great long chat. Mr. Clements originally worked as a producer and engineer on sessions with the likes of Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash for Sam Philips at Sun Records. Word has it, it was he who ‘discovered’ and recorded Jerry Lee Lewis when Sam Philips was outta town. Anyway Jack Clements said he’d never been able to persuade Bob McDill to make a serious attempt at a recording career of his own. The writer was more than happy spending his time writing songs and lecturing English classes at a local University. Just as I was giving up hope and feeling I was in danger of overstaying his hospitable welcome, Cowboy Jack Clements mentioned in passing that Bob had recorded several of his songs, just with a few good friends you understand, and mainly for a demonstration disc to be sent out to producers who were considering recording some of the songs for artists they were working on.

“Oh, any chance of buying one of those?” I said with all the subtly of an X Factor contestant.

He laughed (as you do).

I got the picture (as you do).

We chatted some more and as he was closing he did throw me a scrap by saying he’d have a wander around the office, next time he’s a moment to spare and see if he could find a copy of the McDill demo album lying about ... before adding something like, “…but that was ages ago and we didn’t press up very many copies.”

I got back to London, forgot all about it until one day a month or so later a mint copy of Bob McDill’s extremely rare album turned up in the mail. The album was called Short Stories, It escaped (the opposite to having a proper release) in 1972, self-produced, front-room sounding, and contained 10 beautiful songs Bob McDill had written or co-written in 1971 and 1972. The, ‘some of his friends’ who played on the album turned out to be musicians who became regulars on Don Williams albums and tours. The album was in a classy sleeve, complete with lyrics on the back and made from the very stiff American cardboard, which protected the album and the art. Which is probably why I still have it today, and why it’s still in such good condition. Now the reason for the tale is not so much to show lucky I was, because I most certainly was, but more to demonstrate – with his courtesy and eye for detail - how Cowboy Jack Clements ended up being so successful. These things don’t happen by accident.

Maybe more about collecting in the future, but in the meantime...


This time I’ve seen in the cinema:



Hereafter
Something
Black Swan
Get Low
True Grit
The Fighter
Harry Potter Seven Part 1.
Fair Game
The American
Little Forkers
Rabbit Hole
King’s Speech
Blue Valentine
Love and Other Drugs
Season of The Witch
Next Three Days
Never Let Me Go
Tron
The Company Men
Barney’s Version
Inside Job
All Good Things
How Do You Know
Country Strong


What can I tell you? I was on holiday and it rained a lot! If it were up to me all the Oscars would go to Hereafter, Low, Fair Game and Inside Job with a special mention for the best trailer to Blue Valentine.


And on the small screen:



The 5th series of Bones
The Apostle



And listened to all of the above albums, which is where we came in, so, until next time…



Cheers



pc

Feathering Death Through Astral Weeks

The beauty and the magic of Astral Weeks,
Like all things pertaining to love, will last forever.

The above was the two-line review I wrote in 1968 for City Week, a Belfast newspaper, of Van Morrison’s groundbreaking album, Astral Weeks. The Editor, Chris Moore - who was more used to wielding his red pen on my double page reviews (as with the triple-disc Woodstock Album) - said, politely, “And would you like to expand even just a little on that?”

“No, I think that covers it for me,” I replied, not even realising that it was then, and still is now, an impossible album to review. Astral Weeks was and is, so totally engaging, demanding even. It’s not even that it’s haunting album; it’s more it’s an album that haunts you. It is impossible to put on your record/CD/cassette player unless you’re prepared to forsake everything else, bar breathing, for the next 46 minutes.

I remember like it was yesterday how I was initiated into the world of Astral Weeks, the album I have most definitely listened to more than any other in the intervening 42 years. I’d moved to London from Magherafelt 18 months previously and I was making one of my regular excursions from Wimbledon up to The Marquee Club in the West End, in Wardour Street, this time to see and hear Terry Reid perform. I was greeted by a notice, posted on the securely locked door of the club, stating that the show had been cancelled due to Mr Reid’s illness. On my way back to the tube station I visit Musicland’s record store in Piccadilly Circus for a browse and on said browse I happened upon a shrink-wrapped, American import copy of Astral Weeks. In those days there could be as much as a six-month delay between the US and the UK release of certain albums. So people like the Musicland chain would import copies at the time of the US release and charge a premium to impatient fans for doing so. The price for the album was a lot more than the coins remaining in my pockets so, I paid a deposit to secure the album, returned to Wimbledon, scrounged the necessary funds from my mates and returned immediately to Piccadilly Circus to collect my prize. And the reason for my excitement? Well quite simply at that stage my top five favourite albums were:

1. The Beatles - Rubber Soul

2. Otis Redding - Otis Blue

3. The Freewheeling Bob Dylan

4. Them - Them Again

5. Van Morrison - Blowin’ Your Mind


By the end of that weekend I had a new Number 1 favourite album and I spent every waking minute listening to it. If I said I was totally addicted to it you might get the picture. It wasn’t just that it was way beyond its time in 1968, because it is still beyond its time. It wasn’t just that Astral Weeks might be the best album ever made – I mean to even consider this to be so, might just, in a way, serve to sully the work somewhat.

I remember the Astral Weeks trips (never assisted by chemicals) as being full weekend sessions. People who really love music spend so much time and energy pursuing their next fix. I have found to my delight that Astral Weeks has always repaid this commitment completely and perfectly. A few years later I even wired up two stereo systems and played two copies of the album a lyric line out-of-sync with each other for a basic, but truly mind-blowing, quadraphonic sound. Most people I knew who were into Astral Weeks had bought several copies because they’d played the vinyl so much, they’d actually played it out.

One of the major points I keep coming back to with this work was the total contrast between this album and the scene it had come out of. Three minute pop songs were not just the rule; they were the regulation of the music industry. Even by hinting it was an Opera and entitling side one, “In The Beginning” and side two, “Afterwards” shows someone was aware, at least to some degree, what it was they’d tapped into.

Even the way the album concludes, it leads you to believe that it’s not really ending, it’s continuing on out there somewhere, it’s just that you’re no longer involved on the musical journey; you need to return to earth to revive yourself mentally and physically before making a return trip.

Van Morrison was a member of Belfast’s finest ever band, THEM (Decca Records). They’d recorded a couple of albums: The Angry Young Them in 1965 (featuring garage band classic Gloria recorded by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to The Doors and a US top ten hit for Shadows Of The Knight) and Them Again, in 1966. They enjoyed a couple of hit singles, Baby Please Don’t Go (the UK Top 10, and the flip side of Gloria) and Here Comes The Night. The latter single was composed and produced by Bern Berns who flew a dejected Van to the US at the demise of Them.

Blowin’ Your Mind was Van’s first solo album and was produced by Bert Berns (for his own label Bang Records). The album featured Van’s first (of 2) US top ten hits, Brown Eyed Girl. The other being Domino from 1970’s His Band and the Street Choir, where Van used what became his signature, ultra-melodic Irish Showband brass-section, led sound for the first time. Van Morrison and Bert Bern’s battles are well documented. Suffice to say, that even just a few months after his top ten hit, Van, due to the ensuing dispute, penniless and unable to record, took to the road around the Boston area, basically to pay the bills. The economic line-up was Van on Guitar and vocals, Tom Kielbania, bass, and flautist, John Payne. Months passed, Bert Berns died, and Warner Bros Records stepped in and resolved the situation and signed Van.

Warner Bros in turn co-opted Lewis Merenstein from Inherit Productions to produce the first album under the deal. Merenstein visited Van in Boston to hear the material Van intended to use and was immediately floored by the song Astral Weeks.

One of Merenstein’s first revolutionary decisions was to take Van out of his comfort zone of R &B/Soul/Pop and guide him towards the jazz world by booking veteran jazz bassist Richard Davies; guitarist Jay Belinger (who worked with Charlie Mingus) and drummer Connie Kay, from the Modern Jazz quartet. This was the core band for the planned recording sessions.

These musicians met Van for the first time when they turned up for the first session on Sept 25th 1968, in Century Sound Studios in New York. Van was less than a month over 23 years old. There were no chord charts for the material. Van showed them his guitar parts and asked them to follow him, encouraging the musicians to play what they felt. That day they recorded Cyprus Avenue, Madame George and Beside You, all with a mysterious flautist, who was replaced for the final cut of the day, Astral Weeks, by Van’s regular gigging musician, John Payne. The second session, early morning on Oct 1st, was somewhat less successful. Barry Cornfield (guitar) stood in for the unavailable Jay Berliner and the only track they managed to catch from this session was As Young Lovers Do. The revised combo and resultant studio vibe obviously explained the different feel/sound of the track compared to the rest of the album. The final session (Oct 15th) engineered (as were all the sessions) by Brooks Arthur with Jay Berliner back on guitar and John Payne on flute, produced The Way Young Lovers Do, Sweet Thing and Ballerina. Then they spent a considerable period of time searching for a track to close the album. They attempted several songs from Van’s book of songs until they settled on Slim Slow Slider, which featured John Payne on flute and soprano saxophone.

Also involved in the Astral Weeks sessions were Warren Smith, percussion and vibes, and Larry Fallon, an arranger & conductor who also played harpsichord on Cyprus Avenue.

The Astral Weeks songs were written over a five-year period. One of the earliest would appear to be Ballerina because Jim Armstrong, the guitarist in one of the constantly changing versions of Them, remembers trying to put a shape on it in the earlier Them days. Beside You and Madame George were recorded for Bang Records in December 1967. With Bert at the helm and the obvious slapstick approach we can see exactly how much Lewis Merensten and his vision added to the artistic success of the work. Sweet Thing is the only song Van has so far permitted to appear on any of his approved complication albums. Slim Slow Slider is the only track on the album not to have strings.

The album itself – a song cycle, a concept album, an opera, call it what you will and it certainly has been labelled all of the above at various times – is (still) like nothing you’ve ever heard. The major problem, I find, with trying to describe something like this is the fear that someone will read your words and think, “So it’s not a verse/chorus/verse/ chorus /middle-eight/ verse/chorus/chorus type of song, Oh I wouldn’t like that.” And pass the album by. Or they might think, “It doesn’t have a hook, I love songs that have hooks, the hook helps me remember the song. So I wouldn’t like this.” Or even, “if I can’t whistle it, I won’t buy it.” And not listen to the album. That quite simply would be the crime of the century.

All I can tell you is that you will not be prepared for the shock of experiencing Astral Weeks for the first time, nor will you have any idea of the joy you will experience by going back to it again and again.

Like all great works of literature, Astral Weeks enjoys the classic beginning, middle and end, each with their respective dramatic pay-offs.

During the first two songs, Astral Weeks and Beside You the singer and musicians jostle you along. You’re tempted to be careful because you’re unsure of your surroundings, but they refuse to allow you to relax and be comforted. The result is you’re continuously on edge, exhausted even, but too excited by the soundscape to be scared. In Sweet Thing though the singer and musicians do allow you to loosen up (a little) but by now you’re ready for your journey and keen to get on with it. Then you realise the combo have just been setting you up, setting you up to destroy you, destroy you totally with Cyprus Avenue.

“Afterwards,” (or “side 2” in old money) opens with The Way Young Lovers Do, during which you’re tempted to come out of the dream, but you find yourself resisting this because it is, “between the viaducts of your dreams,” as the artist very visually puts it, that your need to be for the next two tracks; the monumental Madame George and the vibes led Ballerina with it’s perfectly drawn poetic imagery. The string arrangements are, purely and simply, perfect. Perfect but never, ever predicable and as vital as Robert Kirby’s were to Nick Drake’s classic Bryler Layer album. Slim Slow Slider is the album closer they searched so diligently for during the final recording session. With hindsight they really couldn’t have picked any other song in the world for this slot. The artist sets up the closing scene flawlessly and we see the girl, perhaps his girl, perhaps not, “with her brand new boy and his Cadillac.” As Slim Slow Slider, and the album, ends abruptly, you’re left wondering where she is going and why she won’t be coming back.

There are many myths and legends about Astral Weeks; some factual some clearly fictional. Some say there is a 40-minute piece of this opera that was recorded at the same time but never released. Van denies this and perhaps the legend grew from the several unused tracks they attempted on the final session (Oct 15th) when they were searching for their final track. The album has always sounded like a completed piece of work to me, although Into The Mystic (from the Moondance album) and Hey Girl (from Them Again album) sound as though they could have been from the same writing vein. Interestingly enough, when Van recently attempted a live version of the album he included Listen To The Lion (from St Dominic’s Preview) in the concert. Martin Scorsese claimed that the first half of his film Taxi Driver was based on Astral Weeks. Astral Weeks was one of the biggest, reportedly THE biggest, ever selling Import album in the UK. The album continues to do well in best album polls; significantly Astral Weeks was voted the Best Ever Irish Album in Hot Press Magazine, Dublin, in 2009. Van has suggested that Astral Weeks is a total work of fiction, just stories. I don’t believe this to be true. If it is, then it just might be one if the best collection of short stories ever written.

Could he have been writing about, or even to, the same person he addressed in the devastating powerful and equally unnerving, TB Sheets, from the Blowin’ Your Mind album? Is there a code to his writing? . In American Pie Don McLean knew in detail the complicated solution to the sublimely crafted, cryptic lyric of his classic song. But what are the lyrics to Astral Weeks about? Do they all have a spiritual backdrop or is there a more sensual sub-plot? Did Van create his own code to deal with subtle sexual overtones perhaps? Around the same time Jim Morrison was publicity breaking down the sexual barriers of the late sixties. It could be argued, that, while doing so, he found it impossible to retreat from his stance and regain the treasured, hallowed, solid-ground again. Maybe the process even helped to ruin his already troubled life. Did Van find a more discreet way? You know some times, in this work, you have a hint of someone, maybe the writer, trying desperately to reclaim something or other; or perhaps longing to return to a another, perhaps, happier time. Maybe we’re talking about something as difficult to achieve as unscrambling an egg, or, put another way, reclaiming their innocence or the innocence of a third party? But, you know what? A big part of the success of writing is creating a space, a void if you will, that others can inhabit and relate to. We can’t expect sign-posts and clues at every turn and if we do we’re certainly not going to find them in Astral Weeks.

In 1979 I was in a very privileged position of working with Van as his agent and promoter. I always found him a) to have an incredible sense of humour and b) to be an extremely professional individual. I eventually became his quasi manager; the legendary Pee Wee Ellis was credited with Van’s, ‘brass arrangements’ and I was credited with, ‘business arrangements.’ When I eventually worked up the courage to discuss Astral Weeks with him, Van agreed that when first released, the album had enjoyed great acclaim and reviews, but reviews weren’t paying the bills; he had a wife and a young baby daughter and was quite literally struggling to earn enough money to survive. So, basking in the glory of Astral Weeks was not his priority. Elsewhere he seemed, on the one hand, to downplay the album, yet still occasionally confessed his pride in it. The obvious difficultly must have been: when you create such an incredible work of true genius so early on in your life, artistically speaking, where is there left to go?

In the six years I worked with Van, I attended most of his concerts and, on very rare occasions he included selections from Astral Weeks on the song list. As the intros for these masterpieces started you could actually sense the audience collectively hush and slip back into their seats in disbelief and anticipation as they embarked on a journey, a journey that left both the artist and the audience gasping for air.

Perhaps, in a way, Astral Weeks over the years has outgrown the artist. For the original album Van was part of the deal, he wasn’t the entire deal; he was the singer and the writer. He allowed himself to be totally arranged and produced. Interesting to note that, artistically speaking, he never ever gave anyone that amount of control over him again. It’s not even that the original is a warm acoustic, seductive sound that caresses and soothes you. No, it’s a hard and edgy sound and because of that it keeps you attentive to the degree that you’re never disappointed with whatever it is. In a way it’s a bit like experiencing a brush with death; well on consideration maybe it’s more like feathering death. Sometimes, and I know this might sound a bit hippyville, but it actually sounds as if Van’s the instrument and the piece is playing him.

To be fully aware of how vital the production was to the success of the piece, you have to listen no further than earlier attempts Van had made on some of the pieces at previous Bang Records recording sessions. When you listen to the (December 1967) attempts of a few of the Astral Weeks tunes, on various Bang outtake sessions, the scary thing you start to think is: if Van hadn’t joined Them… if he hadn’t left Them… if Bert Berns hadn’t signed him to Bang Records and flown him to America… if Van hadn’t gotten away from Bang Records… if Van hadn’t needed to tour with a scaled down acoustic biased set-up for financial reasons … if he hadn’t signed with Warner Bros… if Warner Bros hadn’t enlisted Lewis Merensten… if Merensten hadn’t been so moved by the material… if Merensten hadn’t made the inspired choice of musicians…if… well on and on, really. The point I’m trying to make I suppose is, luckily all of those things did happen and this breath-taking thing of beauty was realised because, like all works of true genius, it came so scarily close to not happening.


And now for the bit before I go.


This time I saw:

Seamus Heaney, another one of the great voices of our time, at The Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

Stephen Fry with his entertaining and engrossing one-man show at The Royal Albert Hall, London.

Sir Stephen Hawking at The Royal Albert Hall, London – just totally amazing and perhaps the quickest two hours of my life.

Van Morrison at the Royal Albert Hall, London – a workingman in his prime, the best concert I’ve seen him do in over 20 years!

Ray Davies at The Olympia Paris – the prefect venue with the artist and audience both in perfect form.

Sir Michael Parkinson – One Man Show at the Cadogan Hall, London - now that’s entertainment!

Christy Moore and Declan Sinnott, flawless at The Royal Festival Hall, London.

The Waterboys with their triumphant An Appointment With Mr Yeats at The Grand Canal Theatre, Dublin


And read:


Howard Sounes - The Intimate Life of Paul McCartney. Even thought we all know the ending it’s still sad.

Nicholas Evans - The Brave.

Michael Connelly – The Reversal. A 10 outta 10.

Dave Fanning – the thing is this was a very quick and enjoyable read.

Deborah Cadbury – Chocolate Wars –  I felt like a silent investor so I just had to read it. A surprisingly great and informing read.


And watched:

Friday Nights Lights, DVD Season One – and it might just be the best American TV series this side of West Wing.

House – series 6. It’s getting better all the time.


And (surprise, surprise) listened to:


Van Morrison - Astral Weeks



Cheers until next time.



pc

The Men Who Would be King

Did you ever notice that the more they trailer a movie in the cinema the worse it in invariably turns out to be when, and if, you eventually get to see it?  The other thing I’ve found, and this is also quite consistent as well, is that the more The Sunday Times slags off a movie the more I seem to enjoy it. And why do you think this is Paul? I hear you say. Well gather around and I’ll try and explain.

My wife and I and a couple of our friends went out to the cinema a few weeks ago to see the highly rated Dogtooth and the weird thing was that all the reviewers seemed to get right was the fact that the movie was weird.  Dazed and Confused, the poster proclaimed, thought it just might be the best movie that the reviewer in question had ever seen, which led us all to believe that the said reviewer might just be... yes, you’ve guessed it… dazed and confused.

But the point I’m trying to make is not that The Sunday Times reviewers seem to continually get it wrong and that the Dazed and Confused reviewer might have got it wrong on this particular occasion. No, I think what I’m trying to say is that we’re all different and, yes it is a clique, but we all do have different opinions. And then the bit I’d add to that is that even with reviews, we’re all still subjected to and influenced by, the marketing machines of the big movie companies. Like, for instance, the editor or the reviewer from whichever newspaper or magazine you care to think of, realise that if they slag off a movie then there is no way they are going to get their name mentioned on the poster and adverts advertising the said movie and so they are going to miss out on a major marketing opportunity of their own.

Then from out of nowhere you’ll get a feel-good word-of-mouth movie, and it doesn’t matter how much money the movie company does or does not spend marketing the said movie it will do amazing box office.  I’m talking here about sleeper movies like Sideways, Juno, 500 Days of Summer, Lost in Translation, Dog Day Afternoon and, more recently, the totally amazing, The Secret in Their Eyes.

It’s a bit like starting a fire, how these movies get started.  My dad is brilliant at lighting a fire; he’ll get a few bits of rolled up newspaper, yes maybe even the aforementioned The Sunday Times, a few sticks of wood, two or three lumps of coal and a match and he’s away first time, every time. Whereas I’ll have all of the above, plus a pack of firelighters as well and no matter how much huffing and puffing I do my efforts will mostly fade to darkness. Again no matter how much expensive huffing and puffing the relevant record company, book publisher, or movie company do, if it’s not in the grooves, figuratively speaking, it’s never going to lift off.    

I’ve found it’s the exact same thing with bands, television shows, books, records, comedians, plays, the single most effective way to success is pure and simply word-of-mouth. Perhaps it could be argued that the various companies either think that the latest Johnny Depp - probably currently the biggest marquee name in terms of opening a movie - is going to do very well on their own thank you very much (ditto for the all mega projects in the different fields) and so the money people channel all their funds and energy into the poor cousins; the projects they have spent a lot of money on which haven’t tested well or received favourable reviews.  When the reality is it really doesn’t matter what they do or don’t do for those particular projects. If it’s a turkey it’s never going to fly and if it’s a work of considerable beauty it might be shaky at first but mostly (if enough people are exposed to the project in question) it’ll take flight.    

In my own chosen business I find that usually a project will stand a reasonable chance if the record companies only have the sense to leave it (all) to the artists.  It’s when they start to meddle and “create”, that things can, and do, go drastically wrong.  When it does work thought they’re not beyond basking in a reflected glory.  For instance the chap who just happened to be the boss of the record company involved with the current pop factory (where all music is deemed, 'product') now acts like he’s personally invented the wheel. But here’s the thing: who remembers the name of the boss of the record company at the time of the Beatles success.   Actually I do, it was Sir Joseph Lockwood, but I know his name just because when it comes to Beatle facts I’m just S-A-D and I remember reading that John Lennon invited him to manage the Beatles. But here’s another a test for you, pick your favourite movies and you’ll most probably remember the main actors, maybe even the director, and, if you’re a real anorak, maybe even the writer and if you’re an Oscar awards ceremony nut you might, just might guess the name of the producer, but you’re never ever going to guess the name of the boss of the studio at the time the movie was made. But these people, yes the very same men who would be Kings, are powerful and they do have their vanity projects, where they “create.” I suppose we’re maybe wandering off the beaten path a wee bit now, and then again, maybe not.  Such a person is quite likely to insist that we all should have an opportunity to enjoy (or be subjected to) the latest in the long line of Dogtooth type projects, which is exactly where we came in.

And now, the bit before I go.

This time I’ve seen:

Martian Child – a truly beautiful film featuring John Cusack and Bobby Coleman.

The Mystery in Their Eyes – a definite must-see film.

Solitary Man.  

And heard:

Don McLean @ The Royal Albert Hall, London – a majestic concert.

Ray Davies @ The Canal Street Theatre, Dublin – Artist, band and audience all in perfect form for a perfect concert.

Eric Bibb @ The Bloomsbury, London – a true blues legend in the making.

John Connolly & Mark Billingham @ Waterstones Bookshop, Piccadilly, London – they’re both so sharp and so genuinely entertaining they should take their (duo) show on the road.

Jackson Browne & David Lindley @ The Hampton Court Palace - a beautiful performance with perfect sound.

And read:

Popism by Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett – a revealing period Polaroid.

The Men Would Would be King by Nicole Laporte - a must read for film fans and fans of the foibles of human nature.

You Never Give Me Your Money by Peter Doggett who very subtly reveals to us how and why the Beatles were split up, when they all individually admitted they’d have been just as happy to continue making music together albeit in a less permanent format.

Until the next time,

Cheers

pc

  

All The Great Songs Are Sad Songs

Over the Easter weekend I watched The Yellow Bittern, a film about the life and times of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem through the eyes and words of Liam Clancy and it moved me, disturbed me, upset me like nothing has since the death of George Best.

With George Best I knew, I felt, exactly why I reacted so emotionally to the news of his passing away. I never met the man (saw him on the pitch a few times though) but at the time I moved from Ireland to London he was, perhaps, the sole, role model for Ulster folk in London. A figurehead, if you will, someone to look up to who also came from Northern Ireland, a small country continuously battered with a bad negative press in the late 1960s.  George Best was an undisputed true artist, a genius who majestically carried on his frail, but agile shoulders, the hopes and dreams of each and every exiled Ulsterman and woman.

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem were different though.

The eldest two of a Carrick-on Suir family - Paddy (born 7^th March 1922) and Tom (born 29^th October 1924) – immigrated to the USA in the 1950s. They were followed a few years later by younger brother Liam (born 2^nd September 1935) and, from Armagh, Tommy Makem (born 4^th November 1932). The four aspired to become actors but accepted whatever manual work was available to finance their meagre lifestyle while, at the same time sending whatever they could back home to help keep the home fires burning. They were part of the infamous New York/Boston Irish scene.

Initially all four future members of this group concentrated on what was undoubtedly their first love: acting, choosing only occasionally to sing for their supper, or their drink, at New York’s famous Irish infested White Horse or folkie haven, Kenny’s Castaways. Although they released two albums in the 1950s – Rising of The Moon (1956) and Come Fill Your Glass (1959) – the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem didn’t really burst onto the scene until 1961. By then, after considering names as diverse as The Blacksmiths and the Druids – and, even at one point very nearly opting for, The Chieftains – they had finally, under the deadline of a fast approaching Boston concert appearance, settled on the professional name of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.  By this time they had a tried and tested concert song list and had adopted the look/image of the Betty Duggan-knit Aran sweaters.

Their theatrical training hadn't all gone to waste because their invaluable experience on the boards, in no small way, helped to mould their dramatic stage performance and they set up the pace of their shows by quite literally running on to the stage at a gallop. And boy did they make an almighty racket, albeit an immensely pleasing one, with their four distinctive voices, Liam’s guitar and Tommy’s banjo all played and delivered with such gusto and enthusiasm.  Initially this would have been an attempt (with very unsophisticated PA equipment) for them to hear what they were playing and singing and, equally, to be heard by their quickly growing audience. At the same time though they could drop to a ‘hearing-a-pin-drop’ near-silence for a dramatic, perfectly positioned ballad, or three, which could, and did, destroy many an audience in a heartbeat.

On the 12^th March 1961 they won a coveted spot on the famous and influential Ed Sullivan Show. Their fourteen minute infectious performance, natural charm and wit not only won over the massive TV audience – like they’d been doing in concerts for several months in fact – but it also resulted, first thing the following morning, in them being awarded a recording contract by Columbia Records, complete with a record breaking advance of $100,000 (around $750,000 today).

The timing of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem was perfect. They arrived on the blossoming folk music scene with the Spinners; Peter, Paul & Mary; Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and the fledging Robert Zimmerman. You’d have to say that the advantage The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem enjoyed was, thanks to Sarah Makem (Tommy’s mother and renowned song collector) and the wealth of the Irish traditional song-writing cannon, they had an in-built individuality in their repertoire.

For the next eight years The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem toured the world setting box office records everywhere they played, particularly America (where they performed for JFK in 1963), Australia, the UK and Ireland where they returned to a hero’s welcome in 1962. By 1964 one third of all the albums sold in Ireland bore the proud name of The Clancy Brother and Tommy Makem.

The group were authentic, honest and incredibly popular with the general public. They loved what they did and this was blatantly transparent in every note they sang. Their sound was based more on a tribal combination of their powerful voices than on cleverly arranged harmonies. Thanks to some of the children’s street songs the boisterous group were happy to include, audiences instinctively already knew some of their programme. The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem also sang songs of exile; patriots; regret; lost love; lack of love. They shone the bright light of song-writing into Ireland’s many darkened alleyways. When a song wouldn’t do the trick Liam would step up to the mike and deliver a WB Yeats poem with such power and passion there’d be a run on all the great man’s work in the local bookstores the following morning. Their songs were easy to remember because they (mostly) followed a clear developing story line and no more so than with Tommy Makem’s show-stopping The Cobbler. 

Their concerts were carefully constructed with a thread running throughout; a dramatic trick they’d clearly learned from their acting days. They had an overall picture they were building to reveal and when the said picture eventually emerged you could see and enjoy exactly how the concert had worked as an overall piece. Their classic 1963 live album, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem - In Person At the Carnegie Hall, catches the group at their peak.  

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem never took themselves too seriously. They all had to agree on a project before they’d commit to it as a group, meaning they all wholeheartedly supported everything they did together professionally. They wore their heartaches and heartbreaks on the sleeves of their snowy Aran sweaters. They showed one of the great endearing qualities of the nation of their birth; to care about those less well off than themselves. They were a band with a social conscious; a social consciousness that cost them dearly in concert tickets sales and album sales on several occasions. No matter how hip or unhip the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem were, they always, but always, enjoyed the genuine love of their audience.

They were relentlessly and powerfully driven by the possibility of making their dreams come true.  

And then as the 1960s came to an end they ran off stage for the final time. Yes there were to be years of replacement musicians and reunions, including a high profile gaining effort in 1985, but it has to be said that the band had run the end of its natural course by the close of the decade.

And then just over forty years later I happened upon the Liam Clancy film.

Why did it have such a powerful effect on me?

Was I upset because in the course of the film Liam took a few verbal pops at his brothers?

No, I figured he was still having a hard time forgiving them for passing on (Tom in May 1990 and Paddy on 11^th November 1998) and leaving him, even at 74 years of age still always the baby brother, alone without his mentoring siblings.

Was it because my father is also a Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem fan?

No, not really that either, although that fact did make me stop and listen to them more closely in the beginning.

But my hurt might have come from, you know, with the passing of Tommy Makem in August 2007 and Liam himself on 4^th December last year, a line had finally been drawn under their fabulous career.  I suppose the thing that hit me hardest of all was the fact that all families like to, and should, take pride in their sons’ and daughters’ successes and I figured that particularly in today’s selfish climate, what with all these weekly revelations and disclosures, I couldn’t help but feel that as a nation maybe we should have taken some time to stop and acknowledge the genuine success and real talent of our most exciting group.

Maybe on the other hand though, it’s just like they say: all the great songs are sad songs and when I saw and heard the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem singing once again The Parting Glass, that the well aimed arrow hit its mark and proved it was still as lethal as ever.

And now the bit before I go.

This time

I’ve seen

The Waterboys:  a totally inspiring and soulful performance of An Appointment with Mr Yeats at the Abbey Theater, Dublin.

Jean Michel Jarre with his absolutely perfect combination of music and visuals at Bercy, Paris

Lisa Edkahl just keeps getting better and better all the time and this time, at the QEH, London, was just the best!

In Treatment (the HBO Series) with a career-best performance from Gabriel Byrne

And heard 

Love Is Strange the incredible new (live) double CD from Jackson Browne and David Lindley.

And read 

the enlightening The Importance of Being Kennedy by Laurie Graham

Until the next time,

Cheers

pc

Getting Started

For the past few months I’ve been out there doing readings in stores and (mostly) libraries to celebrate and promote my recent book, FAMILY LIFE. You know, really enjoying myself and pretending it’s work.

A lot of people at these events seem to have a hunger for the knowledge as to how one gets started. Not so much how does one get published but more how do you start to write a book?

I’m a book collector and particularly volumes of British Detective fiction and over the years I’d been collecting, reading, and enjoying the work of Colin Dexter, Ruth Rendell, Josephine Tey, PD James, RD Wingfield not to mention Arthur Conan Doyle and a good few Agatha Christies. I can’t remember a time when I consciously sat down and thought, I’d like to do that, I’d like to write a murder mystery. However I do remember thinking, if I ever did do that, sit down and try to write a such a story, what would my main character be like?

I definitely remember thinking I’d want my detective to be different (surprise, surprise) in that I’d want my detective to be believable and likeable. I thought if you’re going to expect your reader to be in the company of your detective for say 300 odd pages, well then he’s going to have to be a nice chap, don’t you think?

Most detectives, it seems to me, are blood-shot-eyed, white nostriled, walking disaster areas whose domestic lives are a complete and utter mess. And I suppose there is maybe some form of attraction in that, but in my stories the solving of the puzzles is a big thing and my point would be how could you expect a detective to solve anything, including the mystery of getting out of bed, if his life is such a catastrophe to start.

So, I wanted my detective to be likeable; I wanted him to enjoy the puzzle of the crime and finally I wanted him to be seen to be dealing with something that preoccupies 99% of us each and every day of our lives; trying to succeed in our romantic relationships. I could never really figure out why the majority of crime writers didn’t want to deal with this area. I mean, I am continually intrigued by this side of our lives, added to which it seems to be an endless seam to explore.

Next I found myself thinking about names. If I were to write a story what would my detective be called? I wanted a name what would be warm, friendly, strong and safe. I simply took the name from two of my biggest Irish Heroes – Christy (Moore) – a legendary singer, writer and an institution – and (John F.) Kennedy – a bit of an American institution the Irish seemed to have borrowed down the years. I remember JFK’s death having a big impact on me. I was barely a teenager in a wee village (Magherafelt) thousands of miles away from Dallas yet for some reason I felt the loss, a big loss. I spent the following ten years of my life reading every book I could find on the man. It appeared to me that one of the President’s main qualities was that he was prepared to listen to the team he’d formed around himself before making his decisions. I felt this was also a good quality for a detective to have.

So I had my detective, and I’d named him, Christy Kennedy, I was totally happy with what I had so far and so I started to flesh him out a bit. He wasn’t to be a drinker but he does like his tea. I wanted him to be a man who didn’t want to make a statement out of his dress sense. That is to say he’d wear cool, classy but never loud clothes. He’d be in a good shape, not a fighter as such, but someone who could get themselves out of (physical) trouble by some lateral thinking. I always thought Sir George Martin’s hairstyle was cool, longish but tidy and stylish. So Christy Kennedy adopted a similar style. The rest of Kennedy is pretty much based on my father, Andy. He’s a great man, he loves a puzzle and he’d sit for hours in silence working things out. He’s caring, considerate and if he doesn’t know something he’s not scared of asking. On top of which, he’s very likeable. He has, in fact, all the qualities I wanted Christy Kennedy to have.

I worked my way through the cast of characters. First there is ann rea (always lower case like kd lang and ee cummins – she’s a journalist and so she used the lower case hook to ensure people remembered her name) stunningly beautiful from Kennedy’s point of view; so beautiful in fact that every time he sees her she takes his breath away. Don’t you see that’s what I absolutely love about writing books? We have ann rea and, as I say, she’s stunning drop dead gorgeous and you describe her a bit and then the reader’s imagination fills in the gaps to make her their ideal woman. But, in the movies if the casting director doesn’t get it right – like with Bridges of Madison County for instance – the whole story can be ruined! Whereas Kennedy has spent the last fifteen years of his life so lost in his work that he neither notices it passing nor the fact that it passed without a lot of female company. When they meet ann rea has just come out of a disastrous relationship. She was in love, her ex wasn’t, and so wasn’t in fact that he married someone else near enough immediately. So when she and Kennedy meet he thinks “This is it!” with a subtext of, ‘I’ve so little experience in the affairs of the heart I better be very careful not to mess it up,’ while ann rea thinks, “well I thought it was it last time and it wasn’t, so why should I trust my feelings this time?”

Then there’s DS James Irvine who’s voice is so identical to Sean Connery it’s uncanny, he’s a snazzy dresser always in tweeds and brogues, WPC Anne Coles new on the force with ambitions and not all of them professional and the extremely theatrical and rotund Dr Leonard Taylor, the pathologist, and one who is always happy to hazard a guess at the time of death. With the above regulars, the criminals and the victims, I try to make sure I give them a history, a bit of a past in the hope that by doing so I make them real. On top of which, with little things like Kennedy always flexing the fingers of his right hand when he wants to distract himself; Irvine’s accent and dress; Taylor’s theatrical approach and ann area’s lower case name and Beatle Bob hairstyle, I’m hoping they all will last beyond the page. To me I always enjoy a book so much more when I can actually see the characters in my mind’s eye. For me the great books are the ones where everything is believable. John Dunning, Colin Dexter, Charles Dickens, Alan Bennett, Anthony Trollope and Josephine Tey are the masters at this art; they make you believe their characters and their stories.

The location was the final part of the picture for me. And I had to look no further than my own doorstep. Camden Town has some amazing locations and buildings. You go from the buzzy vibrant multi cultured Camden Lock to the picturesque and leafy Primrose Hill in a matter of a five-minute walk. You have the mix of the youth of the music business types of Camden Town to the old characters of Arlington Road. As I say, everything was right there waiting to be observed, no inventing was necessary.

So from there to actually sitting down and writing was a short and unconscious step. As I mentioned, to me it is important that each story has a unique method of murder and so obviously that takes a certain bit of working out but apart from that, like in true crimes, there is a victim and there is a detective and he and his team work their way through the life story of the victim and the facts of the crime and they follow the leads as they turn up.

I absolutely love starting a new mystery to see what’s been happening with all the characters since the last time and to see what else I can learn about their lives. I write as a reader, to find out what happens next. It’s vitally important to me that the detective, the reader and myself all discover things simultaneously. But now I need to get off and join Kennedy and the gang and see what they're up to in the new mystery, A PLEASURE TO DO DEATH WITH YOU.

So now the bit before I go:

This time I’ve seen and heard:

Christy Moore and Declan Sinnott @ RCH Glasgow

Gilbert O’Sullivan @ Royal Albert Hall, London

Lisa Edkahl @ Espace Lino Ventura, Nice

Mario Rosemstock @ Vicar Street, Dublin

The Alan Price Set @ The Cadogan Hall, London

And read:

The brutal, frank but totally realistic (well, very nearly realistic) Kill Your Friends by John Niven

True Blue by David Baldacci

The revealing Gods, Gangsters and Honour by Steven Machat

The Hacienda: How Not To Run A Club by Peter Hook. If this book was a novel you’d throw it down as just too far fetched.

And listened to:

The amazing new Tom Waits CD, Glitter and Doom Live

Picture Postcards by Tracey Curtis

Happy Holidays,

Cheers

pc

Building My Religion - October 2009

My latest book is the Inspector Starrett Mystery, Family Life. That’s the second of the Donegal Mysteries. The first of The Starrett trilogy, The Dust of Death, starts of with a crucifixion in a Donegal church. So that I wouldn’t upset any of the other many churches in Ramelton I invented the Second Federation Church as being the church where the remains of local master carpenter, James Moore, were discovered.

Once I’d made that decision I started to consider my fictitious church and what faith it would celebrate. Again, so that I wouldn’t offend anyone I needed the congregation of The Second Federation Church to practice a faith that had no similarities to any of the other churches, particularly in a town whose nickname was the Holy See, and, at one point boasted fourteen churches. So I considered what would be a good religion to be part of? I wondered what religion you could be involved in that you’d be proud of.

I’ve always been impressed by congregations who go out of their way to help each other. You know on one hand you can pray to a long-haired, white-bearded man, dressed in white sheets who wanders around above the clouds to, say, come and plough your land, or, even, to help you build a barn, or, on the other hand, you can invite a few members of your congregation around, supply them with food and drink, and invite them to help you with your chosen task. Now because the man in white has been very elusive for the past couple of centuries and because on previous occasions you will most likely have gone to the aid of your fellow congregation members, seeking nothing more than food and drink in return, there is a very good chance that they will heed your request and turn up en mass to help you with your chore.

I know, I know, this is all drastically simplistic but, since an incident in my youth, I’ve always been fine with a simplistic approach to things. When I was young (pre-teens) my mother and father bought me a junior carpentry set. My father was a carpenter and I aspired to be the same. Anyway I got my new carpentry set with all it’s shiny new tools and I futtered around for absolutely ages (weeks possibly months) trying to figure out how to build a wooden chair just like the ones at our dinner table. I was going for the full Monty: legs, seat, back, and strengthening & stabilising supports. The problem was that all of my efforts would end up in a collapsed heap on the floor. My father would continue to encourage me by asking me how I was getting on with my chosen task and I’d always say I was still working on the creation of the perfect chair. Time passed, as it does, and still not a chair in sight and eventually, perhaps with a degree of gentle frustration, my father came in one day from work and on discovering his heir still hadn’t mastered the design and construction of a chair, he took three pieces of wood and he nailed them together in something similar to the shape of a “n”, creating a very primitive, yet functional, two legs and seat. He said, “There’s your chair and, until as such times as you can master better, this will suffice.” Don’t you see his well made point was: ‘at least you have your basic chair and now perhaps you can start to perfect it.’ Or, if I wanted to paraphrase it even further, ‘you’ve got to learn to creep before you can learn to walk.’

So my lesson well learnt, and better taught, I proceeded to consider building my religion.

Personally speaking I’ve always felt that religion should be like a family. For me it’s always been about family life; caring for, protecting and encouraging your family members. If we could only learn to love and look after our families behind our closed doors then once we pass over the front doorstep we’ll be much better equipped to deal with life and with people. But don’t you see as humans we generally seem to be in conflict with things and people, rather than to go along with the greatness of things; this not a criticism because this fundamental flaw seems to be built in to most of us. So, a family type support structure, as in what you’d ideally like from your family, had to be a vital ingredient for my religion

In my religion music would also have to be very important. The healing quality of music should never ever be underestimated.

When I was growing up in Magherafelt I remember going to prayer meetings in a wee hall (and in the summer in the marquee) and being totally turned on by the gospel singing. You know there’s that wonderful sound that’s created by the blend of all the male and female voices and magic is created when their unique harmony creates a third voice. I remember the very first time I experienced this chills-down-the-spine sensation like it was yesterday. I even remember turning and looking around the congregation to see where this new voice had come from.

That was my first major “musical” experience.

The second would have been the soulful sound of the voices of the great singers around the Irish Ballrooms and clubs at that time; Billy Brown, Paddy Shaw, Billy Williamson and Paul DeVieto always sounded wonderful and inspirational to me. Then on the recording front I discovered the works of Ray Charles and Otis Redding, both life-changing events for me.

This unquestionable and unquenchable thirst was heightened when I was working with Van Morrison and we went up to the Shetland Islands to hear the chanters in the churches. I don’t know if you’ve ever witnessed this chanting but the sound of a burly Scottish gentleman chanting his lines in a foreign language (to my ears) for the congregation to offer a reply in their sweet soulful harmonies was just unbelievable; truly another hairs on the back of your neck on full alert experience.

These are the times I’ve experienced the true greatness of men and women and they’ve all been connected by music.

So, when considering the foundations of the Second Federation Church there was always music running through my head and as some of you may know the music that makes the connection with me is the music of the Beatles, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Jennifer Warnes, Karen Carpenter, Neil Diamond and Van Morrison, etc etc.

The cent dropped and everything else fell into place easily for me one Saturday night when Catherine and I were in our house in Ramelton. The Town Band was heralding the triumphant return of the local football team. There was as much excitement as if Wayne Rooney had scored a double hat-trick for Manchester United. The Town Band was playing Neil Diamond’s infectious Sweet Caroline. It was just such a joyous sweet sound and they were delivering it with such passion, vibrancy and in a transparent, feel-good manner. They were, to a boy and girl, all beaming from ear to ear in such evident pleasure at the music they were creating as they danced along Ramelton’s streets.

I was so inspired by them that I immediately made them the cornerstone of the Second Federation Church’s music; I based the church choir on the Ramelton Town Band. From there it was a series of very small steps to Van’s Have I told You Lately That I Love You; Dylan’s Forever Young; Listen by Christy Moore; Here Comes The Sun by George Harrison; You Inspire Me by Nick Lowe; In The Neighbourhood by Tom Waits and then two really big ones for me, Graham Nash’s Teach Your Children, the perfect song for a family and an even better one for the church, and Jackson Browne’s The Only Child with Jackson’s unselfish vital lyric, based around the theme of taking good care of each other, becoming the overlying theme of the First Federation Church.

Yes, Take Good Care of Each Other, I mean, is there really anything more important we can do in our lives?

And now, the bit before I go.

This time I’ve been reading and thoroughly enjoying The Coroner by M.R. Hall; Nine Dragons from the master, Michael Connelly, and the sad, yet realistic and funny Last Shop Standing by Graham Jones.

I’ve been watching the DVD version of the first series of mesmerizing Fringe.

And listening to the re-mastered complete collection of Beatles’s CDs, which are all unbelievably amazing. In fact as Beatle Paul recently said, “listening to these versions of the albums is just like being back in the room with the Beatles.” and he should know he was there.


Cheers for now,

pc