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2004-02-19 - 12:16 a.m.

�Archbishop in Wire Drake Interview Shock�

Its true I tell you. The Wire have interviewed Joe Boyd and in it he resolutely vows not to say anything about ND � and then proceeds to let stuff slip out. The Wire allege that the great Boyd essays were with ND and ISB and this triggers the famous Bishquote:

�Perhaps for a lot of us growing up in the late 60s and early 70s there was a gap in the heart where this very traditional bardic, even shamanistic sense of poetry, was looking for expression � and the ISB did just that. This was work of extraordinary emotional clarity and metaphorical rigour � an unusual combination.�

Boyd adds his observation:

�To me there is a straight line that runs from ISB to Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny and Nick Drake maybe John Cale and Chris McGregor.�

Well for me the straight line starts with the night at the Middle Earth when I did my first Tintagel gig with McGregor (BoB) and Thompson (FC). Judy Dyble was in FC at this stage before Boyd facilitated the arrival of Sandy who Dorris (Renbourn�s erstwhile singer) introduced Tintagel to the night we played at Cousins with her. I know Jon Cole draws the line from the time White Unicorn topped FC on the bill in Wimbledon to the morning he found Sandy at the bottom of the stairs. Chris McGregor does the piano solo on the track between the two Cale arranged tracks on BL. I would say that ISB are the glory of Cousins � just how far you could go in a smelly basement in Greek Street cooking up what was to hand. Although the Financial Times saw Doris and Tintagel as hargingers of the future in early 1968.

Williamson and Renbourn were on in Guildford tonight at the Electric Theatre � sold out well in advance. One of the great wonders on the Whistle Test DVD is a very young John Martyn doing May You Never. I had forgotten how great his vocal phrasing is � and he looks like an angel

I am listening to a CD of Cage�s Fives and I have to say I can see the link with the Gilbert-Robin-Mark-IC Fifths prank which you can hear on the KK site. This is very late Cage � the last two years before he died.

At last I have rerigged the MD which means that I have just found the version of Robin�s Caliafornia Girl with the manic flute solo tht I did a few years back in Santa Monica � and here�s my bleak version of You Are Here. Then a very Cageian 13 minute piece built around the note C � an anticipation of Bodyspace Lullabye on the Lul CD.

I am going to get very boring on the subject of my vast MD archives � ooo there s my remix of Cathy singing the Vaughn Williams Muse song � and then the Berkeley Square Nightingale duet. And my barmy version of Place To Be using some new bit of technology I can�t even remember plus Dhorn. Was it a sounfont based on a sample of some Debussy? Maybe I can get Peter to load this onto the Dhorn page on the KK site.

I was very sorry to read in the Wire an obit for Jeff Nuttall who died last month at the age of 71. Apparently he managed to fit in a blow on the cornet with his Sunday lunchtime jazz band on the day of his death � yeh!

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