Review: Wayward, Just Another Life To Live, by Vashti Bunyan.

I stayed up late last night until about 2.00 in order to finish reading an autobiography called Wayward, Just Another Life To Live by Vashti Bunyan. I had seen an advert on the internet that it had been published and you could buy signed copies, so I ordered one and it arrived on Monday. I have been a fan of Vashti for about fifteen years, ever since I first heard her album Just Another Diamond Day which I am listening to at this very moment. The music is perfect for a spring morning with the weather getting warmer. I already knew that Vashti had led an unusual life, so knew it would be a good read. It is a very attractive book just to look at with the dust jacket having a beautiful photo of Vashti gazing wistfully at the camera. Inside, the pages are tastefully illustrated with photos and drawings by Vashti herself. She seems to have had quite a middle-class childhood. Her father was a dentist and part-time inventor, and her mother had an interest in music which was never fulfilled, which seems very similar to Nick Drake’s mother Molly. Vashti attended Ruskin School of Art in Oxford where she was befriended by Michael Palin & Terry Jones. 

It seems to me that people from these sorts of backgrounds often have fortunate chance meetings with people at parties. Vashti met an agent who introduced her to Andrew Loog Oldham the manager of the Rolling Stones. She made a single of a Jagger/ Richards song with one of her own compositions on the flip side. It didn’t get anywhere. She was compared to another Andrew Oldham prodigy Marianne Faithfull which irked her, and she told friends that Marianne didn’t write her own songs. (That isn’t quite true because Marianne co-wrote Sister Morphine, Broken English and others, but Vashti wouldn’t have known that at the time) When I wrote a piece about Vashti a few years ago I also said that she reminded me of Marianne, (sorry Vashti). This period seems to have been quite an unhappy time in her life. You get the feeling that a lot of events were too painful to write about, or they are just hinted at, such as when she mentions ‘the little ghosts of lost babies’. Her mental health declined, and she had a bad experience with LSD which seems to be a similar story to another singer who disappeared for decades Shelagh Macdonald.

She met Robert Lewis when he was hitch-hiking, and they eventually got together. Through a friend of Robert’s, they knew Donovan who had plans to start a commune on The Isle Of Skye. Donovan lent them £100 towards the cost of a horse called Bess and a wagon which was made from an old baker’s van.  Together with a dog called Blue they set off on their epic adventure to walk from London to the north of Scotland. Along the way they picked up another dog, a crazy Afghan hound called May. The journey took nearly two years, with stops along the way. This is the best part of the book in my opinion with vivid descriptions of the people they met, and their trials and tribulations, bad weather, accidents, hospitality, and inhospitality. Their horse Bess is the star of the story for me. 

It was on the journey that she wrote the songs that became Just Another Diamond Day. I did know about their journey previously, but reading the book dispelled any romantic ideas I had about it. It was often a very hard life, but I think it was good for Vashti because being so close to nature, having to survive from day to day, and having animals and later children to look after stopped her from dwelling on her own problems. On a trip south she met the famous music producer Joe Boyd and a year later recorded her album. It featured Robin Williamson of The Incredible String Band. He was into Scientology and in one amusing episode she found Robin had wired Robert Lewis up to an E- Meter. She got to know the ISB very well indeed because later she lived at Glen Row cottages in Scotland which they owned. I see that Mike Heron of ISB is thanked in the acknowledgements. Also on the album were Simon Nicol and Dave Swarbrick of Fairport Convention who Vashti says she had never heard of. Robert Kirby famous for working with Nick Drake also arranged some tracks. Joe also arranged a song writing session for her and Nick Drake which ended in failure because of them both being so introverted.

The album flopped as usual, due to no marketing. Vashti had other priorities by then because she was expecting her first child. She gave up all interest in music making and three decades went by. Then in 2000 the album was re-released to rave reviews and was championed by the likes of Devendra Banhart among others. Live performances followed, and two more albums to critical acclaim, and now this wonderful book has been published. I enjoyed it immensely. I think that part of the reason I liked it so much is because it reminds me of a time when lots of us were young idealists who would have liked to have lived a nomadic existence or lived in a commune away from society. We never did, but can live it vicariously through those who had the courage to try. Thank you very much Vashti Bunyan for telling us your brave and fascinating story.