Remembering Dolores Keane

Today I thought I’d say a few words as a little tribute to Dolores Keane who sadly passed away the day before St Patrick’s Day. Dolores was a wonderful person with a lovable personality, as well as being one of the greatest singers Ireland ever produced. Nanci Griffith described her as the ‘voice of Ireland’. I hadn’t thought about Dolores for a long while until I heard that she had passed away. That is often the case, we sometimes don’t miss people until they are gone. I first became aware of Dolores and her band from Galway De Dannan in 1981 when I heard them on a compilation album called All The Folk That Fits. That was also the record that introduced me to Christy Moore, Planxty, and The Bothy Band. Dolores was brought up by her aunts Rita & Sarah whose home was an open house to any musicians who arrived. Music sessions would often go on for days. This is how Dolores without even trying, soaked up the traditional music and songs of Ireland. I well remember the Mike Harding Show on Radio 2 dedicating a whole show to the Keane household, and as well as the great music, some of the stories they related were hilarious.  Dolores was well known for her sense of fun and good humour.

I regret that I never saw Dolores perform on stage. That is annoying because she played with De Dannan and Mary Black just down the road from here in 1985 at the Village Pump Folk Festival. (See photo below) Also, sadly I only have one album by her called Solid Ground from 1993. I hadn’t played it for years until I heard of her passing. Listening to it again the last few days reminded me of what a wonderful singer she was. There are also some excellent musicians accompanying Dolores including her good friend Emmylou Harris.  One of my favourite tracks is called Emigrant Eyes which is the story of one among millions of Irish people who were forced by hardship to emigrate to America, but they always thought of Ireland as home. Another favourite track is called Never Be The Sun which Dolores dedicated to her son Joseph who was born with a rare condition called Bardet–Biedl syndrome. 

Dolores had a lot of sadness in her life and suffered with depression, alcoholism, and overcame cancer. This shows what a courageous person she was. I recently watched an interview she gave to Tommy Tiernan on Irish TV where her good nature and humour shone through despite all that she had to overcome in life. Her funeral in Galway was attended by the Irish President Catherine Connolly, and the previous President Michael D Higgins which shows the esteem in which she was held by the Irish nation. Although she is now gone Dolores has left a great legacy of timeless music and she will never be forgotten, especially in Ireland.

R.I.P Dolores Keane.

Spring In The Air.

Erysium

Spring in the air, there's magic everywhere. Spring finally arrived here last Tuesday. The sun has been shining after weeks of rainy weather. Sitting in my tiny yard I observed a Red Admiral butterfly flitting about, a ladybird on the shed door, a blackbird hopping around the garden with a beakful of nesting material, and even a couple of bumble bees buzzing around. There are a few plants already in bloom such as a nice orange Erysium, Clematis, Bleeding Heart, and a few others that I can’t remember the names of now. The garden was looking quite dilapidated though and I decided that now was the time to tidy it up. They told me at the hospital to take it easy for a while because of fatigue following my treatment, but I feel less fatigued if I have a bit of exercise than if I sit around doing nothing. So, I got stuck into the job at hand. 

Clematis.

The unsightliest part of the garden is the fence which is falling apart, faded and jaded after years of rain and high winds. Several panels needed replacing. I was going to order three panels online from B & Q but in the end just ordered one. I thought I better see if I can install one successfully before I attempt any more. Before I could do that, I made the decision to get rid of the compost bin because a little garden like mine doesn’t really warrant a great big compost bin. I never liked it much, standing there in the corner looking like a great big plastic dalek. I offered it to my mate Curly who lives three doors away and has a much bigger garden than me. He was pleased to accept it. Then I had the problem of moving it because it weighed a ton, so I had to empty it. It was full of top-quality compo, but with lots of bits of twig in it. I sieved it all over my flower beds, and also filled up about thirty pots into which I’ll sow seeds later this week. 

The new panel was delivered on Saturday morning. I was relieved that after a bit of huffing and puffing I managed to install it without too much trouble. That corner of the garden looks a lot better now, so this week I’ll order another couple of panels and carry on working my way along the fence. I must say I enjoyed working out there, getting some fresh air, and being closer to nature. I found it very mindful. While I was out there working, I forgot all about the madness that is going on in the world. That is the way forward. If everyone just minded their own business and sorted out their own backyard the world would be a much happier place. I’ll let you know how I get on with the rest of my garden in due course. Cheers.

Long Live The NHS!

Dyson Centre.

Sorry for not writing much for the last month or so, but I have been quite busy and otherwise engaged. I don’t usually talk about my health on the internet as I consider that a private matter. Today however I thought that I should try and get back into things by expressing my gratitude for the medical treatment I received recently at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, and especially in the radiology department of the James Dyson Cancer Centre. I had a PSA blood test back in September and my GP referred me to the hospital. I had an MRI scan which showed that I needed a biopsy. In early October I was informed that I had prostate cancer. I feel quite lucky because it was detected early before it had spread outside the prostate. I had a course of hormone tablets and two hormone injections. Then starting in February I had to attend the radiology unit for four weeks, every day Monday to Friday for twenty sessions of radiotherapy. My last session was on March 11th. 

Linear Accelerator, 

The machine I was treated on is called a Linear Accelerator. These incredible machines cost millions of pounds each. The cost to me of my treatment? Nothing!. The people of this area are extremely fortunate to have such a state-of-the-art cancer centre right here in Bath. The facility was opened by Queen Camilla only two years ago. It was partly funded by the generosity of local inventor and entrepreneur James Dyson and dozens of other fundraisers. I met some wonderful people during the twenty days. The doctors and nurses are amazing, always greeting the patients with a smile even though they are rushed off their feet with the amount of people they have to treat every day. Also, because of seeing the same fellow patients every day I got to know some of them quite well. They all had interesting stories to tell. The whole experience has confirmed to me what a precious institution the NHS is. When the National Health Service was created in 1948 it was the envy of the world. Everyone in Britain was entitled to free health care regardless of their status. I believe that the vast majority of people in this country still support the NHS and want to see it continued and adequately funded. 

There are certain figures though in politics who would like to see it sold off and replaced with an American style insurance system. So, if you support the NHS, next time you go to vote, I hope you remember which government established the NHS and ask yourself which party is most likely to protect it for the future. The other point I want to make is that we don’t have a national screening programme yet for prostate cancer although it is the most common male cancer, so if you have any concerns ask at your local surgery for a PSA blood test. It might save you a lot of trouble further down the line. I have another blood test at the end of May and a final appointment in June when I’ll find out if my treatment is a success. I was told to take it easy for a while because of side-effects. However, the weather has been so good this week I have been doing some gardening. I’ll try and tell you about that later in the weekend. 

The Pathless Country by James Harpur

It is Sunday and as I have the day to myself, I thought I would tell you about the book I have enjoyed reading for the past couple of weeks. It is called The Pathless Country, the debut novel by an Irish writer James Harpur published in 2021. James was born in 1956 and resides near Clonakilty in County Cork. He is best known as a poet, having won many awards for the eight volumes of poetry published prior to this novel. If you have read this blog page for a while you will know that I am an admirer of the Indian spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti. In 1929 when Krishnamurti dissolved the Order of The Star in The East which had set him up as the new ‘world teacher’ he famously said, ‘I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect’. This is what drew me to reading this book because when reading Krishnamurti’s entry on Wikipedia it said that he is featured as a character in James Harpur’s novel The Pathless Country. K isn’t the only famous person to appear in the book, some of the most notable figures of British and Irish society in the early 20^th century walk across the pages of this book.

Painting by Degas

The central protagonist is a young carpenter from Galway Patrick Bowley the son of Joe a Quaker, and Bridie a Catholic. Joe experiences mystical visions such as whilst working at Tullira Castle the home of playwright and republican Edward Martyn he is transfixed by a painting of ballet dancers by Edgar Degas which has a profound effect on him. He also has a brief romantic encounter in a Galway church with Nora who later becomes the partner and muse of James Joyce. Patrick eventually moves to London to live with his aunt Faith who is influenced by theosophy and the suffragette movement. After attending a talk by the socialist and theosophist Annie Besant at the Queens Hall Patrick and Faith have a chance encounter with Jiddu Krishnamurti and his brother Nitya. This leads to a friendship and regular correspondence between Patrick and Jiddu. In London he also meets Agnes who becomes the love of his life. Later, back in Ireland he visits Achill Island and encounters the painters Grace & Paul Henry. I first thought they were fictitious characters, but on investigation I found they were real artists of repute.

Painting by Grace Henry.

The first world war arrives and Ireland is in turmoil. Irish soldiers are dying in their thousands fighting for the British Empire, while at home people like Padraig Pearse are making fiery speeches demanding independence from Britain. In the north the unionists under Edward Carson are preparing to fight to stay with Britain. Militias are training for war throughout the country. Agnes’s husband Dominic is killed fighting in France, Agnes and Patrick are now free to marry. Due to Patrick’s Quaker sensibilities and the influence of Krishnamurti he believes violence is not the way forward and he begins giving speeches appealing for unity. This gets him in trouble with the British authorities and the Irish republicans. Finally, he and Agnes set off across Ireland on a pilgrimage of peace. The book reaches its gripping climax when they arrive in Dublin on the eve of the Easter Rising 1916. I won’t tell you anymore because you also might like to read this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it because James Harpur has a poet’s eye for detail. There are some wonderful descriptive passages of the Irish landscape and people.  If you are interested in such subjects as spirituality, philosophy, art, poetry, or Irish history then I think you might enjoy this book as well.

 

 

 

Small Prophets

I’m a bit busy for the next month or so. It’s possible I might not have time for much blogging for a little while. However, I thought I would just tell you quickly about a wonderful new TV comedy series I have been enjoying. It is called Small Prophets and is written and directed by the brilliant Mackenzie Crook. If you have read my blog for a while you will know I am a big fan of his work in such series as The Office, The Detectorists, and Worzel Gummidge. I think Small Prophets is arguably his greatest creation yet. The series stars Pearce Quiqley as Michael Sleep who is missing his partner Clea who disappeared on Christmas Eve seven years previously. You don’t need me to tell you what a comic genius Michael Palin is after Monty Python, Ripping Yarns, and his film roles and wonderful travel documentaries. After reading the script of Small Prophets Michael jumped at the chance to play Brian Sleep who is Michael Sleep’s father. Brian lives in a Care Home where he creates chaos for the other residents and carer Hilary.

Palin & Quigley

Mackenzie plays Gordon who is Michael’s boss at the DIY store. Lauren Patel is excellent as Michael’s workmate, friend and co-conspirator Kacey . There are also great performances by Sophie Willan and John Pointing as the nosey neighbours. Even the minor roles of Brigham played by Ed Kear and eccentric neighbour Olive played by Shola Adewusi are deserving of a mention. Mackenzie Crook always has great music in his programmes. In the past the likes of Johnny Flynn and The Unthanks have been featured. In this series the theme song is by a singer called Cinder Well. 

Cinder Well

I hadn’t heard of her before but will certainly listen to more of her music in the future. Mackenzie got the idea for the storyline after reading about a Swiss medieval alchemist called Paracelsus. His dad Brian gives Michael the recipe for creating little creatures called homunculi. They can predict the future and only tell the truth. Before long Michael is busy growing the Small Prophets in his shed. I won’t tell you anymore because I want you to watch it yourself. It is shown weekly on BBC, but I was greedy and binge watched all six episodes on BBC iPlayer. I just want to say that there are many worthy institutions in Britain that should be preserved and treasured, but to my mind the two greatest institutions to be proud of are the NHS and the BBC. There are forces at work in the world who would like to destroy the BBC, but I don’t think there is another television company in the world that nurtures such creative talent and produces programmes of the quality of Small Prophets, so I say well done to the BBC. I’m looking forward to the next series already.

Michael & Kacey.

The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden

It is now the ninth day of February, and it has rained here every day this sodden year. That has meant that I have been cooped up indoors most days. On the positive side I have read more than I have done in a long while. Yesterday I finished reading The Safekeep, the debut novel by a Dutch author called Yael Van Der Wouden. It was short-listed for The Booker Prize in 2024. I ordered the book because a Yorkshire friend of mine told me that she was reading it. When the book arrived, I made the mistake of reading all the snippets of reviews by other writers in the front of the book, by such people as Rachel Joyce, Ann Enright, Tracy Chevalier and Maggie O’Farrell, and noticed they were all women. This made me slightly wary, wrongly thinking that this was going to be chick-lit written for a female audience. It also made me aware of what to expect in the plot.

The book is set in The Netherlands in 1961 fifteen years after the war. The main protagonist is Isabel who lives alone apart from a maid Neelke who comes in to help with the housework. She has two brothers Hendrik and Louis. Hendrick has a partner Sebastian who Isabel initially dislikes because he looks ‘foreign’. When they meet up at a restaurant Louis introduces his new girlfriend Eva who Isabel also takes an instant dislike to. The story gets underway when Louis asks Isabel if Eva can stay at her house for a month while he is away on business. I knew from reading the publicity blurbs that Isabel and Eva would form a relationship. The tension between them is electric. The writing is very erotic, especially chapter 10. The romance isn’t the main story however. Gradually a deep dark shameful secret is revealed which concerns Dutch history during and after the war. I won’t tell you any more in case you read the book yourself. I don’t think The Safekeep is one of the best books I have ever read, not by any means. It is a page turner though, I had to know what happened next. It is a very promising debut novel, and I think a lot remains unsaid. There could be another very powerful story to be told if the author wanted to explore the history of the characters further, especially during WW11. I will look out for more writing from Yael Van Der Wouden in the future.

A Search In Secret India by Paul Brunton.

Yesterday the weather forecast told me that there was a 100% chance of rain until the late evening. It was no day for venturing out on the king’s highway, so to pass the time I thought I would write a piece about the book I have just finished reading. It is called A Search In Secret India by Dr Paul Brunton, first published in London in 1934. I first heard of this book when Eckhart Tolle mentioned it in one of his talks on Youtube. When my eBay paperback copy arrived, I was pleased to see a stamp in it from the famous Shakespeare & Company bookshop in Paris where the original owner of the book must have purchased it. Paul Brunton is the pen name of Hyman Raphael Hurst (21 October 1898 – 27 July 1981), a British philosopher, author of spiritual books, journalist and traveller. From an early age he had a fascination for the mystic east and took an interest in such subjects as theosophy and the occult. It was a chance encounter with a mysterious Indian man in a London antiquarian bookshop which determined him to set sail for Bombay in 1930 in search of the yogis and sages of India.

It was in Bombay that he had his first meeting with a remarkable man, who just happened to be staying at the same hotel. He wasn’t actually Indian; he was an Egyptian wizard or magician from Cairo by the name of Mahmoud Bey who revealed that he learned his secrets from an old Jewish magician who lent him musty old books about ancient magic. Paul Brunton asked him to demonstrate some of his skills. Mahmoud asked Brunton to write down any question on a piece of paper while he stood several yards away looking out of a window. Paul wrote in pencil, “In which town did I live four years ago?”. He was then asked to fold the paper as small as possible and clench it in his fist along with the pencil. After a few minutes he was asked to unfold the paper. To his astonishment he found the name of the town written on the paper under the question. When pressed to reveal how he achieved this feat Mahmoud Bey said he did it with the help of spirits called Jinns, one of which was his own deceased brother.  Brunton remained sceptical but couldn’t think of any logical or scientific explanation.

Meher Baba.

After leaving Bombay Paul Bruton visited Meher Baba. (1894 – 1969) who claimed that he was the Avatar, or the total manifestation of God in human form. He had taken a vow of silence and communicated by the use of an alphabet board. I knew of Meher Baba before reading this book because Pete Townshend of The Who and Melanie Safka were devotees of him. Melanie’s song Candles In The Rain mentions Meher Baba. Paul Brunton wasn’t impressed with him however. He doesn’t say that he was a fraud but felt that Meher Baba was deluded about his own greatness. Brunton also had a brief meeting with an aged Afghan female saint called Hazrat Babajaan who Meher Baba had encountered in his youth, after which he had a spiritual transformation. Brunton said of her, ‘some deep psychological attainment really resides in the depths of her being, I am certain’.

Hazrat Babajaan

As this book was written nearly 100 years ago, I find Brunton’s style quite dated, but it is still a compelling read. His attitude seems very colonial as well. He appears quite happy with the status quo of the British ruling India and doesn’t seem to have much time for Gandi and the independence movement. What I do like is his healthy scepticism of the people he meets. He has no time for the fakirs and tricksters he encounters. He has a lot of respect for many other people he met on his travels though, such as a man he called Brama who could display incredible feats of yoga including ceasing to breathe for hours, or even stop his heart from beating with no apparent ill effects. He also spent time with an elderly astrologer called Sudkei Babu. There was also Vishudhananda, the wonder worker of Benares who could produce any scent out of thin air and even bring deceased sparrows back to life. He was very impressed with Sahabji Maharaj who had founded a community near Agra called Dayalbach where the people combined modern methods of industry, farming, education, and housing with following their traditional religious beliefs of Radha Soumi. After reading the book I searched for Dayalbach on the internet and found that the community is still thriving to this very day. It was through meeting the religious leader of South India Shri Shankara that Paul Brunton was encouraged to visit Ramana Maharshi at his ashram at the holy mountain of Arunachula.

Shri Shankara

Brunton visited Ramana twice on this journey. Before meeting Ramana he had prepared a list of journalistic questions to ask. After a short while in his presence Brunton realised that questions were meaningless. He was overcome by the energy of benevolence that emanated from Ramana who just sat in silence beyond thought. Ramana taught that silence was the best communication. He imparted wisdom into people’s consciousness without a word. He had been content to live in obscurity, never leave Arunachula and never sought followers, but they had arrived anyway and the ashram had grown up around him. Brunton’s journey was coming to an end, and he was due to return home, but two days before his ship was due to leave Bombay he changed his mind and returned to Arunachula for a further month because Ramana had impressed him more than anyone he had ever met. When it was finally time to leave, Brunton said of Ramana, ‘He has taken me into the benign presence of my spiritual self and helped me, dull Westerner that I am, to translate a meaningless term into a living and blissful experience’.

Ramana & Paul Brunton.

Before this book was published in 1934 the name of Ramana Maharshi was unknown in the west, but the book made him known throughout the world. It has been translated into twenty languages and Ramana’s influence continues to grow and spread through such teachers as Eckhart Tolle and such practices as mindfulness and meditation. As the philosopher Bertrand Russell once said, "Those who live nobly, even if in their day they live obscurely, need not fear that they will have lived in vain. Something radiates from their lives, some light that shows the way to their friends, their neighbours perhaps to long future ages. I find many people nowadays oppressed with a sense of impotence, with the feeling that in the vastness of modern societies there is nothing of importance that the individual can do. This is a mistake. The individual, if he is filled with love of mankind, with breadth of vision, with courage and with endurance, can do a great deal. Every one of us can enlarge our mind, release our imagination, and spread wide our affection and benevolence. And it is those who do this whom ultimately humankind reveres.”

Arunachula & Ramana.

 

Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge by Van Morrison.

There was once a fraudster in New York who sold real estate, (Sounds familiar!). His name was George C Parker (1860-1937) who sold public buildings that he didn’t own to gullible people. His most famous exploit was selling the Brooklyn Bridge. The scam was only discovered when the new ‘owners’ opened toll booths at the bridge to recoup their investment. George ended his days with a life stretch in Sing Sing prison. His memory lives on with a saying about gullible people, ‘If you believe that, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you’. It also gave Van Morrison the title track of his new album of Blues music Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge. It is the third release on Van’s Orangefield label after the excellent Beyond Words and Live At Orangefield. Van created the label to release non-mainstream archive material that wouldn’t otherwise be released on a major label.  

The sleeve design is interesting because if you look at the shadow of the musician depicted on the cover you will see that he has a tail. I guess this tells us to expect blues music because amongst conservative Christian fundamentalists in America in the early 20^th century blues music was known as ‘The Devil’s music’ as it was associated with juke joints, speakeasies, brothels, alcohol and gambling. There are twenty tracks in all, mainly blues covers with just four tracks written by Van and one by John Allair. 

Buddy Guy & Van plaque.

At nearly eighty minutes of music, you are certainly getting your money’s worth. Van’s regular touring band are mainly absent from this collection of songs, but he is joined by many illustrious blues friends such as Taj Mahal who Van has worked with many times. Taj adds excellent harmonica and vocals to four tracks including the politically incorrect Delia’s Gone which I remember Johnny Cash singing at Glastonbury in 94. 

Taj, Van, Mitch.

Elvin Bishop who I mainly know from the song Fooled Around and Fell In Love plays guitar on five tracks. There is a great video on youtube of Van and Elvin from 1977 performing Domino. Buddy Guy is still going strong at 89. You may remember that it was Buddy who unveiled the plaque on Van’s former house on Hyndford Street. I don’t think Van was very pleased about that at the time but seems to have got over it now. I love Buddy’s guitar playing and vocals here on I’m Ready and Rock Me Baby. You can see Buddy make a cameo appearance in the recent multi-Oscar nominated film Sinners. John Allair who has played piano and organ on many great Van albums contributes (Go To The) High Place In Your Mind. 

Elvin & Van 1977

I hadn’t heard Anthony Paule until recently, but he plays some excellent guitar on this album, and I think the backing singers here Omega Rae, Nona Brown and Larry Baptiste are members of his band.  Dave Lewis like Van is also from Northern Ireland. He played piano on the Magic Time album and wrote Madame Butterfly Blues featured on this album. Mr ‘Boogie Woogie’ Mitch Woods plays piano on twelve of the tracks. Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson whose songs Van has recorded previously wrote the first two tracks. Other songs were written by such luminaries as Junior Wells, John Lee Hooker, Fats Domino, Sonny Terry & Brownie Magee, Leadbelly, Willie Dixon, Blind Blake, BB King, and Marie Adams who wrote Play The Honky Tonks. I had never heard of Marie Adams, so I just looked her up and found that she sang the original version of Ma, He’s Making Eyes At Me which gave Lena Zavarone a number one hit in the UK. 

John Allair

If I had to choose a favourite song here, I think it is Van’s version of Fats Domino’s Ain’t That A Shame. I can’t fault this album. It is just what I expected when I ordered it. Van’s voice and sax playing are as good as ever, although the four tracks he wrote himself aren’t among his best compositions in my opinion. The musicianship of the players is excellent. I think the problem for me is that I’m not the world’s greatest blues fan. My initial enthusiasm to hear the songs began to wane after a while and I found they began to sound a bit samey to me. Don’t let me put you off though. I know a lot of music fans who are steeped in the blues will love this recording and find it a very valuable addition to Van’s great body of work

Van Morrison & The City of Bath.

I haven’t done anything worth telling you about recently because the weather has been so dull and miserable, so to pass the time on yet another rainy dark January day I thought I’d update a story I wrote a few years ago about Van Morrison and the city of Bath because Van is returning to Bath Forum for two nights in April and maybe some of the fans who are coming to Bath might like to read about Van’s links to this wonderful city.  Van lived and worked around Bath for nearly 20 years and as a Van fan who lives 12 miles from Bath I am very proud of Van’s connection with this area. Wherever Van has lived has been a source of inspiration to him. Belfast obviously, New York, Woodstock, California, Copenhagen, London and Ireland, but I feel that one of his most sustained periods of creativity was when Van lived right here in the West Country of England. When Van moved back to England after many years in the states he lived in Notting Hill London, an area he knew from the 60's, but Van had changed since then. I think he was tired of the hustle of life in London and wished to be far from the madding crowd.  Inspired by the likes of William Blake Van had become a nature poet inspired by the countryside as shown in such songs as Summertime In England and he was exploring the healing power of music. 

Wool Hall

Van set up offices in Bath which became Exile Productions. Thus began a golden age in his career. The first album he recorded in this area was Poetic Champions Compose which was recorded at Wool Hall Studios in the village of Beckington only five miles from where I am sitting at this very moment. The studio was owned at the time by the famous Bath band Tears For Fears and Van became one of its most regular clients. In 1994 after recording five albums at Wool Hall Van bought the studio. All Van's studio albums between 1987 and 2006 were recorded at the Wool Hall as far as I know. About 14 albums, a very impressive body of work indeed. 

You can see the influence the area had on Van’s work immediately. Avalon Sunset from 89 with its pastoral imagery was partly inspired by the Vale Of Avalon and nearby Glastonbury. In the song Pagan Streams on Hymns To The Silence Van says, 'And we walked the pagan streams and searched for white horses on surrounding hills, We lived where dusk had meaning, And repaired to quiet sleep, where noise abated, In touch with the silence On honey street, on honey street’. At nearby Westbury a famous White Horse is carved into the hillside. It commemorates the Battle Of Edington against the Danes where King Alfred dumped the Jutes on the burning ground. I wonder if this is the white horse that Van is referring to? It is quite visible from Beckington.  Honey Street is a small village on the Kennett And Avon Canal near Devizes. 

Van became a well-known figure around the quiet streets, cafe's, bookshops and record shops of Bath and beyond. A friend of mine spotted him in a shop in nearby Frome called Raves From The Grave where Van was mooching through the blues albums. Another day, I was in a now defunct record shop in Trowbridge called The Record Collector and I asked the man if he had any Van Morrison and he said that Van had been in only the day before, buying records for his jukebox. I think that is great that someone like Van with all his fame and fortune still enjoys looking in second-hand shops for rare records. In the late 90's we used to go into a tiny wine bar just around the corner from the Theatre Royal in Bath. It was called Raincheck after a song on Van's Days Like This album.  Van was a silent partner in the place. I think he probably just lent a friend the money to open it. I never saw Van in there, but he used to frequent it regularly according to people I spoke to. One man in there told me that he had been chatting to Van about the two 1965 Them gigs at Bath Pavilion (see picture) and he said Van had told him that the supporting band on the first occasion were The Four Specs who had that name because all the band wore glasses. I looked them up and they really existed.

My partner Kim used to have her hair done in a place called Mahogany in the Corridor in Bath. The staff told Kim that Van also had his hair cut there, but he never had much to say for himself. Kim was a care worker for people with learning difficulties. One day she was taking some of them out shopping in Bath. She stopped at the pedestrian crossing near Queens Square and this familiar figure walked across, “It’s Van the Man", exclaimed Kim, Van turned round and gave her one of those looks that only he can do. A friend called Jean was in Sally Lunn’s tea shop in Bath one day with her son Ben and spotted Van who was enjoying a pot of tea and some scones in the corner. As she was leaving, she went over and said,” This is my son Ben and he would like to shake hands with you". Van wiped his hands on his napkin and shook hands with Ben aged 11 and said, "How do you do”.  

Sally Lunn's

We saw him at Lydiard Park near Swindon which is only a stone’s throw from Van’s house in Little Somerford. I think that was the first or second time Brian Kennedy appeared with him. Also, at Frome Festival at Marston House just about 3 miles from Beckington. That was the last time I saw the great Pee Wee Ellis play with Van. We saw Pee Wee play in Bradford On Avon one Sunday afternoon and met Pee Wee and his wife Charlotte and also a lady called Nicky who was Van’s PA during his time in Bath. She recognised me from the TV. I had achieved some local short-lived fame after winning on a quiz show called Fifteen To One and she said that they had all been rooting for me because on the show I said I was a Van Morrison fan. I wonder if Van watched it. After Van left the area Pee Wee continued to live here for the rest of his life in Beckington. He gave local children music lessons and was honoured with a doctorate by Bath Spa University.  He continued to support local music as patron of the Bristol International Blues and Jazz Festival until he sadly died on September 23, 2021 at the age of 80.

I saw Van seven times at Glastonbury Festival and four times at Glastonbury Abbey only 26 miles from here. Plus, Van’s almost annual concerts down by Bristol. I think of the seventy or so times I have seen Van half of the gigs have been in a thirty-mile radius of Bath, so Van has saved me a lot of money by playing locally. In 2002 Van released Down The Road and for the cover he used Nasher’s Record Shop in Walcot Street, Bath. It was a great cover because the window of the shop was filled with albums of Van's influences. Maybe it was inspired by Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home album. I know Nasher’s well because I used to have a browse in there on my way to the Hat And Feather pub or The Bell. Twenty years ago I decided to sell all my vinyl albums because I had nothing to play them on. Because of the Van connection I thought I would get a good price for my Van vinyl in Nasher’s, but they only paid me about £1.25 for each. I bitterly regret selling them now. 

Eventually Van moved away. I think these days he spends most of his time back in Belfast. Although he has recorded some wonderful music since, I don’t think he has quite reached the sustained brilliance of those albums he made at the Wool Hall. The studio was sold and became a private house for many years, but I think it has reopened as a studio recently. Nasher’s record shop is long gone, and Raincheck. Van returns to Bath quite regularly. He often records at Pete Gabriel’s Real World Studio in the village of Box only seven miles from Bath and has recorded several recent songs at the Bath Spa Hotel. He played the Forum in 2012 and an outdoor concert at the Recreation Ground in 2019, so it will be a very welcome return when he performs in the art-deco splendour of The Forum in April. See you in Bath!

The Street of Crocodiles

Storm Goretti was battering the South-West last evening, so I wasn’t venturing out anywhere. That gave me a chance to finish reading the book that arrived here last week. It is called The Street of Crocodiles, a collection of short stories by Bruno Schulz. It was Patti Smith who led me to discovering Bruno Schulz when she mentioned him on page 338 of her Book of Days. Patti said that Bruno Schulz was shot dead in the street by a Gestapo officer on November 19^th, 1942. This made me curious to find out more about him. I discovered that Bruno Schulz (12 July 1892 – 19 November 1942) was a Polish Jewish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher born in Drohobych, Poland (Now in Ukraine) where he lived all his life. He was the son of cloth merchant Jakub Schulz on whom the main protagonist of the book is based. At a very early age he developed an interest in the arts, writing and drawing. Bruno became recognised as a writer when several of his letters were brought to the attention of the novelist Zofia Nałkowska who encouraged Bruno to have them published as short fiction. They were published as The Cinnamon Shops in 1934, and when published in English in 1963 as The Street of Crocodiles. 

My Copy

Several of Bruno's manuscripts were lost in the Holocaust, including short stories from the early 1940s and his final, unfinished novel The Messiah. When WW2 began in 1939 Drohobych was occupied by the Soviet Union, but when the Nazis launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviets in 1941 Bruno along with thousands of other Jews was forced into the Jewish Ghetto. Most of the Jewish population were sent to the death camps, but Bruno was kept alive by a Nazi Gestapo officer called Felix Landau who liked Bruno’s artwork and wanted him to paint a mural in his house. Bruno even had a pass to enter the Aryan Quarter. In 1942 he was walking home carrying a loaf of bread when another Gestapo officer called Karl Günther casually shot and killed him. This murder was in revenge for Landau having murdered Günther's own "personal Jew," a dentist named Löw.

The thirteen stories which make up the book are all fictionalised boyhood memories set in his hometown and concern his immediate family, other relatives, and the employees of the shop downstairs. His father Jacob features in most of these fantastical tales. This is one of the strangest books I have ever read because of Bruno’s incredible imagination which begins in some sort of reality but then takes flight in all directions. For instance, in one of the most amazing stories simply called Birds Jacob in order to relieve the monotony of their drab existence takes up ornithology and begins importing exotic bird’s eggs from all over the globe. The eggs hatch and before long, their apartment is full of parrots, pelicans, vultures, and even a condor which bears an uncanny resemblance to Jacob. Finally, the housekeeper Adela tires of the noise and the droppings all over the floor, opens the windows and doors and shoos them out. They do return in a later story to visit their ‘master’. 

There is great humour in this book. At times Jacob with his bizarre experiments reminds me of De Selby in Flann O’Brien’s masterpiece The Third Policeman where bicycles also feature prominently. In Jacob’s universe there is even a new constellation called ‘The Cyclist’. Time and space are twisted like a bicycle wheel; In The Night of The Great Season the year grows another 13^th month at the end of August which is stunted like a hunchback. Jacob is tired of the tyranny of the Demiurge who created the physical world and wishes to create his own universe of pseudoflora and pseudofauna. 

In this strange world, houses, Apartments, Streets, and roads become labyrinths full of long forgotten rooms where even the wallpaper comes alive. The seamstresses Pauline and Polda are forced to listen to lectures by Jacob such as his treatise on tailors’ dummies. Every paragraph has vivid descriptions, a flock of crows resemble flakes of soot, Jacob’s face looks like an old plank full of knots and veins. Uncle Charles leaves his room in the morning while simultaneously walking in the opposite direction into the depths of a wardrobe mirror to a world that doesn’t exist. Nimrod is the pet dog who meets a cockroach, Pan is a tale of meeting an old tramp in the weeds of an overgrown garden. The Gale describes an account of a storm which is so strong his brother has to fill his pockets with irons and other metal objects as ballast in order to leave the house. 

The Street of Crocodiles itself is a sleazy area of the city where you can venture into the shallow mud of companionship and dirty intermingling. Tailor’s shops sell dirty books and there is a black market in railway tickets. One story called Cockroaches is very Kafkaesque where Jacob’s obsessive fear of cockroaches leads to him metamorphosing into one. I won’t tell you any more in case you read it yourself. 

I’d just like to add one thought about the cruel death of Bruno Schulz where the world was robbed of the work of his brilliant mind. Casually shot dead on the street by a fascist. You would think that we have progressed and such depravity has no place in a modern ‘civilised’ society. Then you look at the BBC News and see that Renee Nicole Good, an acclaimed poet, guitar player, mother of three, and peace activist is shot dead in Minnesota by a government official who enjoys full immunity. The lesson of Bruno Schulz is that we cannot afford to take our hard-won freedom for granted because it could easily be taken away again.

Bruno Schulz