I used to listen to this man when I was a student and found it both odd and amusing. I found two CDs of his in a charity shop a couple of days ago and have found a vein of nostalgia. Does anyone else here have memories of Ivor Cutler's work?
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He used to have the odd session on John Peel's shows, around the time that John Cooper Clarke and Linton Kwesi Johnson were getting good coverage in the music press.Originally posted by pastoralguy View Post
This was the one that stuck with me.
i do recall he was extremely dismissive of the Rock idiom at the time, and in particular its fixation with monotonous and unchanging beat/ Rhythm.
I ought to try to hear more of his work, I guess.I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I am not a number, I am a free man. -
Yes, that's as I remember. The only time I saw him was with a bunch of freak-out free improvisers, one of them I think wearing a gasmask, at a club in Dalston called The Klinker (which I believe is still going).Originally posted by teamsaint View PostComment
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Yes, he pops up quite frequently on the World Music sub forum - the main reason being that John Corrigan is a fan and I am also partial to the odd track,and, of course, you get a lot of odd tracks with Ivor Cutler. He did have a collection of ivory cutlery.
Here is a favourite:
and, a brief clip from younger days:
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A very funny man, if you like that sort of off-the-wall, surrealist humour, delivered dead pan. He's one of the few who has had programmes on Radios 1,2,3 and 4. I saw him perform around thirty years ago in Glasgow, I think in the Third Eye Centre. It was a great night. I remember he started the proceedings by asking the audience whether anyone was returning to Edinburgh after the show, and, if so, could they take him, and of course his harmonium. He got the lift, and the show went on.
Listen to his "Life in a Scotch sitting-room". For something shorter, his "Jungle Tips" fill the bill. As mentioned above, there's quite a lot on youtube.Comment
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'Life in a Scotch Sitting room' is wonderful stuff. My favourite is Episode 6 - 'Scotland gets its brains from the herring', said Grandpa; and we allOriginally posted by mangerton View Post
nodded our heads with complete incomprehension.' Couldn't find him reading it but here it is.
First time I was aware of him was as 'Buster Bloodvessel' the conductor of the Magical Mystery Tour bus. John Lennon was a big fan.
I saw him a couple of times once in Glasgow at the Art School where he issued severe warnings on anyone who dared to light up a fag during the show; and once in Aberdeen where he thanked the person he borrowed the harmonium from as he could no longer carry his around. He also rode past me and a pal on a bike in Crammond, Edinburgh waving, the bike looking as eccentric as he was. For me he was a genius of the absurd. I've got a few books by him too. Occasionally 4 extra rerun his radio shows. Here's 'Squeeze Bees'.
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Many thanks for the contributions! Mrs. PG was unfamiliar with Mr. Cutler's work so, after her initial bafflement, she's starting to develop a taste for yet another of her husband's strange obsessions.*
*including, Ida Haendel, Andrew McGregor and Bo Holten!Comment
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'Ivor Cutler and the Mole' was a Radio 3 offering I once recorded on cassette. Listening to his plaintive voice over the creaking harmonium late at night, one had the impression that only half a dozen Radio 3 listeners were still tuned in.
Paul McCartney had apparently spotted him on a late-night television show, which lead to his playing Buster Bloodvessel, the driver of the Tour bus who takes a shine to Ringo's Aunty Jessie.Comment
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Cutler was championed by Richard Branson on Virgin. I first heard a song of his on the 1975 2 LP V (Virgin sampler) it was the strange and hypnotic: Go and sit upon the Grass
We saw him once much later, somewhat incongruously in the Bath Assembly Rooms. He arrived on the platform with a rucksack and a good time was had by all.Comment
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A friend of mine who knew him a little attended one of his shows which he started by announcing to the audience "If so and so is in the audience would she kindly come backstage after the show". He had the same request: could she give him a lift home?! A sadly missed, entertaining eccentric. I recorded him once at a Folk Festival, a fascinating experience.Originally posted by mangerton View PostComment
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Just to knock the Ivor thread back to the top of the pile, here's 'Little Black Buzzer' - according to the comments the morse code message from Ivor is 'Here I am'.
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Me too, pastoralguy, but I posted an Ivor track on the World thread yesterday, and gurney, and Global, kindly reminded me of it, so I thought I'd bring it back to the head of the pile.Originally posted by pastoralguy View Post
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I first came across him on Radio 4 (could it still have been the Home Service?
) perhaps around 1959-60. (Jack de Manio was presenting Today then!) There was some kind of magazine programme in the evening to which Ivor Cutler contributed. He caught my attention along with some Theatre of the Absurd plays broadcast at the time, including Rhinoceros (by Ionescu, IIRC).
(This is a sort of trip down Amnesia Lane, I confess.)Comment
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