The re-Imagined Village

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 03:33 PM

Hi Will. Thinking of moving in? I'm sure you could imagine a very desireable property - especailly a it's rapidly becoming The Deserted Village (sorry, folks, are we boring you?)

SoP, thanks for the info. I managed to order a copy of The Bowed Harp for eight quid. This project ios getting really interesting. Like you, not bothered about autheticity, just the sound. I've worked out how to incorporate banjo 5th sting tuners in place of tuning posts which, in my experience, aren't totally stisfactory on the psaltery (aaaargh, I can hear the purists screaming). I'm also going to ask a guitar maker of my acquaintancde about the bracing of the face, thicknesses etc. One question though, if you'd be so kind - is the fishing line for frets tied around the neck or glued to the fretboard?

As to tuning, I'm considering the tuning I use on the cittern which, by and large, uses the 5th string as a drone.

Now then, Will, there's a lovely pair of labourers' cottages round the corner that I noticed are up for sale.......(don't listen the old wives' tales, they're very pleasnt).

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Will Fly
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 02:12 PM

I've not been participating in this thread, but I must really jump in here and pose a question about the Turkish Kemence which I've seen and heard on YouTube in two environments: there's the native Turkish environment which is interesting but a little beyond my old-fashioned ears; then there's the Suibhne O'Piobaireachd environment which - and I have to be honest here - I found absolutely fascinating.

Is this instruments difficult to get to grips with (I won't be so presumptious as to say "master")? It seems perfect for getting somehow to the heart of traditional folk song, and giving it a setting which emphasises a necessary other-world quality. I'm also fascinated by the left-hand/fingering/holding technique in which the instrument seems to float.

In passing, "Rivington" is a real village, and a very beautiful anc ancient one, at the foot of Rivington Pike (my stamping ground in the early 50s).

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 10:37 AM

My crwth bridge is footed in the Welsh style and does just fine at right angles. No doubt there is a reason for the angled bridge, given that traditionally all the strings would have been bowed at the same time, a la John Cale's viola. This is what you find in other Northern-European bowed-lyes such as the talharp and jouhikko (which have stings of twisted horse-hair) though there the bridge arrangement is more straightforward. A good book to look out for is Otto Andersson's The Bowed Harp. I ordered my edition brand new in 1982 and got a first edition (1930) from the publishers (Reeves); not sure of its availability these days, or even if it made it into a second editon...

I use nylon classical guitar strings, with the un-wound strings buffed up with emery paper to facilitate bowing. The bow I've been using for the last 10 years is from a Chinese er-hu & works like a dream. For frets I use Drennan Specimen Plus 16lb nylon fishing line.

You might gather that I consider musical pragmatics to be of far greater importance than authenticity!

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 09:19 AM

Thanks for that – I'm getting an idea now of how to proceed. I've got a pretty good indication of construction from the pictures on Michael J King's website and I'm thinking Sycamore and Spruce might be the right materials – the former should be resilient enough to take psaltery/zither tuning pegs and both are readily available. The idea of frets seems like a good idea and would mean the bridge will be at right angles to the strings rather than at an acute angle (presumably this made it easier for the bridge to rest on the face and back). Obviously, this will mean revising the soundhole positioning.

I'll have to draw up some plans and experiment a bit. I reckon this is going to be my winter project. No doubt the quiet peace of the RIV will be disturbed by loud and inventive expletives as I get it wrong.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 08:13 AM

My crwth was made back in 1987 by Tim Hobrough - thus pre-dating the current Crwth Revival by some years. Certainly it's a very different instrument to those you see these days, but it was good enough for Welsh traditional singer Suisan George (RIP) with whom I enjoyed a very memorable session at the Aust Festival in 1999. Basically, my crwth has medieval fiddle-frets (heresy!), and a slightly curved bridge (burn it!!) and it's five strings tuned concordantly in E & B. I see it more of a hypothetical early Northern European bowed-lyre than a crwth proper, as far as such instruments existed at all, but pedantry is the sad product of any revival - so CRWTH I must insist it is! That said, I like the crwths as played by Cas Muerig etc. and was actually planning to get one before The Black Sea Fiddle came into my life proving itself the ideal instrument for my particular approach to Folk, even more so than the crwth. The same Third Ear / C. Pegg influences apply of course, just that the Black Sea Fiddle (aka Karadeniz Kemence) is easier to play on the hoof & better for accompanying E. Trads, especially with an electronic Shruti Box drone, such as:
      
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3FRvTDWqnM

And a bit of Feral Tertius Auris on the crwth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTQGXIu5QHA

There's a few revival crwths on YouTube too which are worth having a look at. There was even a Mudcat thread at one point on which I roundly ignored!

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 07:09 AM

SoP, I'm fascinated by the crwth – can you tell me how it's tuned? I'd actually quite like to build one – is there anywhere I can get details of dimensions, scale length, etc? I once built a psaltery but it's such a sod to tune that it just stays on a shelf now.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 06:22 AM

I'd like to hear that, SoB - turn up the volume and blast it across the village.

I tuned my big Lowden down to Csus, which gives a fantastic bass C 'thunk' combined with fast pull-offs and hammer-ons on all strings, right up the fretboard. The effect I get has overtones of John Martyn - and then I just came across this description of what John did:

"Within the following year (1972) he discovered that by tuning the guitar low and using repeat echo he could play with and over his own guitar figures, and create bass and percussion".

I also had a go at my own version of Spencer the Rover – totally different to John's but nice sound, especially with mrsleveller playing eerie whistle over it.

The only problem is, if I want to play this in public, I have to lug a hugely heavy old valve amp around (which actually gave my father-in-law, who left it to me, a hernia).

BTW: Fylde cittern – nice! Got one myself.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 05:35 AM

Having recently inherited an old Fender Twin Reverb amp, I'm currently having a huge amount of fun playing my acoustic through it (even tried the cittern but the feedback is ear-splitting). Someone once described my style of playing as "psychfolk" and it sounds even more so when amplified and given lots of reverb.

Yeah! Love it! At least a bit of real folk! My wife bought a Roland Micro Cube the other day for her Purple Heart Daisyrock; lots of sweet FX, so she can get a real Cocteau Twins vibe going on her accompaniments. Two of the songs for the new Fylde show this year (DEMDYKE! - more of which anon) feature Rachel's Daisyrock in consort with Ross Campbell's Fylde Cittern and my Crwth (both unamplified) - the effect is, of course, utterly delicious!

I'm poised on buying an electric bass; not sure what yet, but I have a notion that the bass is not only my natural instrument but also the ideal thing for accompanying traditional folk songs. The set up will include a Micro Cube bass amp, a Line 1 Delay modeller, and a fuzz/wah pedal. The bass was my first instrument, but I haven't had one for years, although in music shops I often plug in a Precision and do my Janik Topp approximations much to the bafflement of the local kids & staff alike...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 05:05 AM

"I must admit much of my own crwth playing is inspired by the Third Ear Band, Carole Pegg & John Cale - so the folk process continues!"

It occured to me recently, when listeing to Mr Fox, that the way I play cittern has some of the patterns of Carole Pegg's Yorkshire style fiddle playing. The influence is definitely there, though probably subconscious. Having recently inherited an old Fender Twin Reverb amp, I'm currently having a huge amount of fun playing my acoustic through it (even tried the cittern but the feedback is ear-splitting). Someone once described my style of playing as "psychfolk" and it sounds even more so when amplified and given lots of reverb.

So, sorry WAV, but the Folk Police have no authority in the RIV - no-one's going to stop me rocking up Reynardine (of which, incidentally Gordon Tyrall does a mean version with really weird looped effects).

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 05:04 AM

Feeling slightly more charitable this morning after my morning stroll through the deserted village. A few points to ponder before I pack up and get on my way myself; I rather fancy emigrating to Australia...

As I had to say to Jim Moray on the Sidders thread, S., "fascism" is opposed to democracy and socialism and, thus, I am opposed to it.   

You are a fascist in that you believe in one resolute authority (i.e. your own) in which every point contradicts the actual human reality of the situation. You see your ideal as being right whilst everyone else is wrong. There is nothing remotely democratic or socialist about this - on the contrary - thus you are, in truth, a Fascist who stamps his jack-booted Walkabout ignorance on the face of all human truth, culture, beauty & spirituality.

English folk who wish to perform more than the tune may venture into English classical music - with it's use of harmony and other more-sophisticated techniques.

All Classical Music is the consequence of musical developments that took place in cathedrals, churches, royal courts and universities throughout Europe since the Middle Ages. English Classical Music is but part of these very non-English influences and continues to be so to this day. If you accept an English Classical Music, you must also accept an English Jazz, an English Pop, and an English Rock.

Jazz, rock, and pop are American genres that have been copied by citizens of the above nations you mention - often to the detriment of their own trad forms and, thus, our multicultural world.

American Culture is a dynamic cross-fertilisation of the European and the African wherein new forms were created and fed back to their mother countries where they were further enhanced. To call Jazz, Rock and Pop American is to miss the point of 20th century popular musical history which is, in fact, Global, with many of the more significant innovations taking place outside America. And as for such things being detrimental to so-called trad-forms, even by the time the Bright Young Things of the 1920s were jitter-bugging to the Jazz Age, such trad. forms were long dead, as far as they were ever alive at all. Folk Music is a revivalist fantasy that was never Our Own Good Culture, thus it remains the irrelevance that is today. But hardly the wonder cultural fascists such as yourself latch onto it, WAV - tainting its quaint anachronistic charm with your vile racist philosophies. Oh, and the baby boomer Folk Revival, Folk Clubs and all was inspired by what was happening in America. It is no coincidence that Mudcat and The Digital Tradition are American.

In this way, nationalism with conquest is bad, but nationalism with eco-travel and fair-trade is good for humanity. (For more on this you may like to check my Messages.

You are mired in your nonsensical repetitions and rhetoric; you have made a prisoner of yourself, hemmed in by such Messages that are racist, fascistic, misanthropic, and just plain WRONG WRONG WRONG - as you've been told, over and over and over... You're a lost cause, WAV. This time I really do give up. Let me know when you've binned the lot, and then we might have something to work with.

S O'P

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 06:23 PM

WAV - I give up.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 04:27 PM

As I had to say to Jim Moray on the Sidders thread, S., "fascism" is opposed to democracy and socialism and, thus, I am opposed to it. English folk who wish to perform more than the tune may venture into English classical music - with it's use of harmony and other more-sophisticated techniques. Jazz, rock, and pop are American genres that have been copied by citizens of the above nations you mention - often to the detriment of their own trad forms and, thus, our multicultural world. In this way, nationalism with conquest is bad, but nationalism with eco-travel and fair-trade is good for humanity. (For more on this you may like to check my Messages.)

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 02:36 PM

PS - Jazz likewise: African-American, African, American, English, German, Scottish, Scandinavian, Saturnian, Ancient Egyptian...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 02:33 PM

RI villagers may listen to Americans perform their rock - but not perform it, nor support, by way of recordings held, other English folk so doing.

Know what? I've listened to far more English Rock than I ever have English folk and continue to do so. I'm reminded of an anecdote in which it fell to some Earnest Young Folkies to put English uber-traddy Peter Bellamy up after a gig. Arriving back at the flat they thought to impress him with their LPs of English Folk, but no sooner had the stylus hit the vinyl than Bellamy objects, insisting that they take it off forthwith and play some real music, like The Rolling Stones. I'm much the same actually - a lifetime immersed in British, German and French Rock Music (albeit of the Prog Variety); likewise British, Spanish, Italian (etc.) Early Classical Music (from Middle Ages to the Baroque), which, like Rock Music is truly Universal in its Myriad National Diversities.

Another day in the stocks for you, WAV - for spouting such inhumane and unrealistic fascistic crap. Anyone would think you enjoyed it...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 12:26 PM

With all due respect, S., the rock element (along with quite-dead Dorchester - facing east) should be removed; RI villagers may listen to Americans perform their rock - but not perform it, nor support, by way of recordings held, other English folk so doing.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 08:33 AM

On patriotic grounds, I move we remove the "rock" element.

Balls. Rock Music has a good deal more relevance to Our Own Good English Culture than Folky Folk Music will ever have. Rock is a real living music that appeals to a growing audience of millions - Folky Folk is a revivalist fantasy that appeals to a dwindling audience of hundreds. Rock, in other words, is our real Popular Folk Music which allows for a far greater creative expression and experience of Englishness than Folky Folk ever can.

Folky Folk bands like Mr Fox were only too aware of this, creating two stunningly idiosyncratic albums drawing on the sonic influences of traditional Yorkshire fiddle styles fused with that of the Third Ear Band and the Velvet Underground, which featured Welshman John Cale, whose iconic viola style was inspired by what the Welsh crwth might have sounded like at a time long before the current revival of that particular instrument. I must admit much of my own crwth playing is inspired by the Third Ear Band, Carole Pegg & John Cale - so the folk process continues!

As I said elsewhere, WAV - in your understanding of Music & Culture you are a kid with a toy boat who feels himself moved to advise seasoned shellbacks on their seamanship. Time you started to listen, and learn, and really appreciate the boundless wonders of the culture you claim to love but manifestly know so little about.

Here's some Third Ear Band, circa 1970, featuring an entirely acoustic quartet of oboe, violin, cello & percussion. It doesn't get any more English than this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXiR3dOeSrU

*

Getting back to the subject of bells...

Some years ago I bought a heavy brass antique cow-bell in the Trading Post antiques centre in Wells nearby where we were staying at the time.

'Aha!' said the proprietor. ' - The bell that saved the cow!'
'Beg pardon, dear boy?' says I, always on my best down south.
'That bell saved a cow's life - least it did according to the old woman who brought it in - '

And so he went on to relate as provenance a tale set in the first world war, involving a French dairyman, many miles from the front line, and a group of hungry German soldiers wandering AWOL, one of whom took a shot at a cow with their last bullet which struck the bell that hung around the animal's neck. The cowherd first heard the shot, followed by the clang, and then saw the terrified animal running pell-mell across the pasture with a group of starving German soldiers running after it. All was resolved amicably; the soldiers were fed, and sent on their way, and the bell kept as a conversation piece, passed on through the family until it ended up in the Trading Post where I bought it for the paltry sum of five English pounds.

It now has pride of place in my own collection of World Animal Bells (Chamonix bells of various grades, Egyptian camel bells, wooden bells from Tibet & Eastern Europe etc. etc.) and I might often take it along on storytelling gigs to relate the tale of The Bell that Saved the Cow in prelude to The Cow that Ate the Piper.

At no point have I ever questioned the truth of the provenance; it is an artefact with a story attached and that's the only truth that matters as far as I'm concerned.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 08:03 AM

Re: "3.       Provision of a folk/rock record library.
Following the offer from several residents of donations of vinyl LPs by folk/rock combos Mr Fox, Albion Band, Steeleye Span and Fotheringay, it was agreed to allow redundant shelving in the Pornography and Jam Making sections of the village library (available as all the books have been purloined)to be used to house this collection."...On patriotic grounds, I move we remove the "rock" element.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 05:03 AM

PS - Nigel has found something rather wonderful watch this morning on You Tube, though Kylie, having called round for young Neil, looks on somewhat baffled...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x76CeJBbJs8

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 04:35 AM

...he certainly could wing-it on those bells, S.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 04:17 AM

Well, you're partly right there, WAV - as Old Mr Dorchester, the late Noel's late father, was a prominent campanologist in his day. Not only was he tirelessly involved in bell-ringing in the village church, but amassed the collection of over 3000 bells from all ages and cultures that still reside in the family home, currently occupied by Nigel, Fiona and Neil.

Few know about Noel Dorchester's foray into cannibalism, however so unwitting that foray might have been. His wife knew about the shipwreck incident, and how his life was saved by eating albatross - indeed it was a tale he dined out on many the time, and it was her idea that they should have the albatross on that fateful night by way of celebrating their 45th anniversary. In many ways it is easier for Mr Dorchester to allow the rumours of foul play to persist, rather than face the shame if the truth was to become known. Fowl play? Heaven knows she is a proud woman, despite her long standing affairs with the likes of Harry and Billy, aka The Yeddle Twins, two bits of rough she has been carrying on with since they were in Noel's employ (as gardeners and roadies) back in the late 1960s.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 12:58 PM

...either way, when Olde Dorchester stopped ringing our C of E's national instrument,
I knew he wasn't well -
after that, he wouldn't take a pew with anyone. :-(>

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 11:49 AM

Actually, I suspect that the answer may be a lot more sinister.I heard that he was once cast adrift in an open boat with two other people. After a deep sleep he awoke to find one of the others missing but the remaining man offered him some meat, saying that their companion had gone crazy and jumped overboard but that he had managed to catch an albatross and this was Noel's share.


When Noel later tasted the albatross in Madeira, he realised that the meat tasted nothing like that which he had eaten on the open boat.......


Anthropophogy is a terrible thing to live with.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 11:29 AM

"You're getting warm, but you won't find the answer in Coleridge. "

Monty Python?

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 11:08 AM

3.55pm - Having dosed off whilst watching South Pacific, Mrs Poulton wakes suddenly on the sofa as though from a scratch. She looks in the front room mirror to find three parallel claw marks on her cheek, each yielding beads of blood.

3.57pm - Father James answers a call from a rather hysterical female from Rivington village. He is not in the least bit surprised at what she tells him and promises to be over after the racing.

Note: In researching that last bit, I've just switched on Channel 4 and I'm sitting here in a state of mesmerised delight at the ensuing images and atmosphere here on this rainy Saturday afternoon. Can there be anything more English than horse-racing? Anyway, it's finished now, so I dare say Father James will be on his way over to Rivington in his beloved Volvo, there to attend to Mrs Poulton's singular disturbance.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 10:17 AM

You're getting warm, but you won't find the answer in Coleridge.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 10:08 AM

"The burning question is - why would a man who has everything going for him (a noted fun guy indeed) wish to take his own life after tasting a mouthful of albatross flesh?"

Could the answer lie here?


"Are those her ribs through which the Sun
Did peer, as through a grate?
And is that Woman all her crew?
Is that a DEATH? and are there two?
Is DEATH that woman's mate?"

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 09:36 AM

Having touched on the ancient combined office of sexton and undertaker in the village, a little more explanation of this may be useful. New residents to the village are often curious as to why this office remains in the one family and why the services are performed free of charge. They are usually directed to the village library and to two books there. The first, by Digby Boneburier, Catchpole's father, is entitled Necrophilia for Dummies, and the second, a much lighter read by Catchpole himself, is called How Was It For You – Unanswered Questions About Necrophilia.

In actual fact, the office was granted by charter by Richard II following the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, for the disposal of the remains of those executed in the persecutions following the uprising. When pressed and plied with a substantial amount of Sneck Lifter beer, Catchpole will produce an ancient and very grubby document, which states that "…the holder shall be called, in name and title, Bone Buryer, and the office shall be past from father to sonne in perpertuitie. For the performance of this office neither gold nor silver shall be given but the holder may, in whatsoever way he may deem fitting, use for the sateing of his carnal lusts, the bodies of the deceased."

This may, some say, account for the great age to which many maiden ladies in the village live and also for their greeting to each other: "Ah see Boneburier an't 'ad thee yet".

On cold winter days when his services are most in demand, the cheerfull whistling of Mr Fox's The Hanged Man can be heard emanating from ever-deepening holes in the churchyard, and curious passersby will stop and wonder: who will Boneburier have in his bed tonight?

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 07:41 AM

Hooray! The Kelly twins are opening their Subway today in what used to be Mr Prosser's Concertina Emporium. The opening offer is a 6" Sub + drink + cookie all for a quid. It is noticed old Mr Prosser is first in the queue...

Elsewhere meanwhile, on the advice of the Rev. Tugtodger, Mrs Poulton is trying to reach Father James McSweeney at the presbytery of Saint Mary's over in East Rivington. Father James however is out making the most of the good weather by flying his scale model Fokker Triplane (complete with web-cam) on Rivington Heath.

As she puts the phone down, Mrs Poulton catches sight of a cat jumping up on the television set. Of course there is no cat, but the antique pottery penguin on the TV falls off on to the shag-pile carpet, thankfully unharmed. At this point she changes her plans for the day and goes out to take advantage of the offers at the new Subway.

'I hear you're having a spot of bother, Mrs Poulton - '
'Bother, Mr Prosser? Well, you'd know al about that I'm sure - '
'Never any bother here, Mrs Poulton - least not that sort - '
'So why sell up to the Kelly brothers when business was booming?'
'Can't get the weasels, Mrs Poulton - not anymore - not the good ones - '
'I thought you had young Dorchester catching them for you?'
'Cleaned 'em out, pretty much - and the new houses don't help - best weasel's allus came from Peg's Yard - everyone knows that - '
'A weasel is a weasel, surely?'
'Not for concertina bellows it ain't, Mrs Poulton. So what about this 'ere ghost they're on about? Cat is it?'
'Need you ask?'
'Never thought of just - putting it back?'
'I'm not having dead animals in my house, Mr Prosser - and I'm not about to give in to - superstition and - witchcraft, which is what it amounts too.'
'Funny that, you being into all that folk singing and all - never had any folk singing in my day I must say - new fangled bit of nonsense so it is. Still - kept me in business these many years!'
'I fail to see what singing traditional folk songs has got to do with - dead cats.'
'Funny old ways, Mrs Poulton - funny old ways - or so they say.'
'Anyway - what are the sandwiches like?'
'They're better toasted - but avoid the chillies - '

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 05:12 AM

I know what the Cockneys will be saying re. Dorchester - someone's telling porky pies.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 04:55 AM

"With ref. to the resident plot-makers - we really aughta get to the village Murder sharpish dontcha think? It's a bit behindhand..."

Well, yes, but just bear in mind the effects on rural depopulation as witnessed in Midsomer.The only person who would be happy would be the village sexton, Catchpole Boneburier; "us Boneburiers has been putting folk underground for nigh on six centuries."

"The landlord at The Siberian Khatru"

Has the pub name changed? I thought it was The Evil Dreaming Eagle.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 04:33 AM

thinks it was fungi,

Maybe he's right at that given that Mr Noel Dorchester was not only the president of The Rivington Mycology Club but also editor of The Mycologist Monthly so if anyone would know to do it, then he would. Whilst the grisly details of Mr Dorchester's suicide have never been forthcoming, speculation amongst the villagers continues to be rife, as WAV suggests, with many suspecting foul play. The burning question is - why would a man who has everything going for him (a noted fun guy indeed) wish to take his own life after tasting a mouthful of albatross flesh?

Elsewhere - Mr Dorchester's grandson Neil is irritated to discover yet another packet of condoms in his jacket pocket. Who is putting them there? And for why? And what's that shit his father is playing down in the kitchen this morning?

One of these mysteries might be answered, for much to his delight Nigel Dorchester discovered a web-link where one might download And Now it is So Early entirely gratis. This little known album of Sydney Carter songs was recorded by Bob and Carol Pegg (with Mr Carter himself) at some point circa 1970/71 and represents something of a genuine curio in the canon of English Folk Rock. This is the link he used: http://rapidshare.com/files/175356188/sc-aniise.rar - which comes complete with full album graphics though being rar, Nigel found he had to download additional software before he could open the files. A minor inconvenience, because he can now enjoy this rare slab of vintage Wyrd which hitherto has existed only in rumour alone.

Meanwhile - Janice Poulton is making tidy for the arrival of the vicar, one Timothy Tugtodger, who is due at 10.00am...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 04:33 PM

Re. Dorchester's death, S., I heard otherwise: Eastwood's grave digger, Doug Green, thinks it was fungi, and wants to make bacon of our Village Squire.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 03:51 PM

Let's keep things in perspective here you chaps.

Mr Noel Dorchester committed suicide after taking a mouthful of the albatross served up in a restaurant whilst on holiday in Madeira. Prior to that he's been the happiest man alive - vivacious wife, even more vivacious lover, beautiful (if illegitimate) daughter, loving (if severely disabled) son, lively (if slightly manic) grandson etc. etc.

A tragic if somewhat baffling set of circumstances. Perhaps one you budding sleuths out there might provide a solution...

Meanwile, Nigel Dorchester is playing Mr Fox's The Gypsy very loud indeed whilst putting the finishing touches to his 00-scale model of Rivington Halt, circa 1935. Mendle is an especial favourite.

Elsewhere, the fastidious Mrs Janice Poulton is convinced that the breakage of a valuable piece of crockery (an identical piece was valued at £800 on a recent episode of The Antiques Roadshow) is due to poltergeist activity consequent on the discovery of a mummified cat in the wainscoting of their 17th century farm house.

Mr Peter Poulton is down at the Khatru with his mates for the Friday quiz unaware of the distress that his wife phoning the vicar for advice.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 01:37 PM

Ah yes, CS - we hadn't thought of that: how did Dorchester die?...messy inquest!

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 01:25 PM

"Minutes of the ReImagined Village Parish Council Meeting

Present:
Sir Winford Toadstrangler-Gout (Chair)" [etceteras]

Lovely re-imagined gothic/surreal stuff Leveller. Have you been at the Mervyn Peake?

With ref. to the resident plot-makers - we really aughta get to the village Murder sharpish dontcha think? It's a bit behindhand...

Possible Murder Weapon: - strange funghi in the rabbit pie. Or is that too passe?
Hypnotised ninja fluffy Morris Dancers weilding err suffocating fluffy pompoms which emit a mysterious poison gas.
The village maypole (for shock village fete/Pagan style Christ sacrifice scene possibilities).
A deadly poisonous hybridised orchid, bred by local orchid fanatic/librarian/pyscho.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 12:21 PM

Furhter to this..."4.       Removal of Noel Dorchester from the Parish Council.
It was proposed that Mr Noel Dorchester be removed from the Parish Council on the grounds that he had been dead for over two years and was attracting an abundance of flies. Mr Dorchester was asked to leave the room while this was discussed but, as parts of him remained, a decision was put on hold."...Some six years ago, Dorthester told me, on the quiet, that he MUST face east.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 12:09 PM

How about Rivington? Then we get a reference to one of the more obscure Doo-Wop groups of the early 60s who actually came up with this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edYQiZxyw0I

The landlord at The Siberian Khatru keeps his gleaming vintage Rock-Ola Jukebox well stocked in this respect. Neil and Kylie might be seen jiving to such stuff most nights as WAV looks on muttering into his mead 'n' chips about Our Own Good English Culture whilst missing the point that this is Our Own Good English Culture... Rivington Soul Nights? You bet!

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 11:53 AM

Just realised, the RIV hasn't got a name. How about:

Cattersholme
Folkhall
Bitter End
Little Giddy (with apologies to T S Elliot)

I'm sure others can come up with some better ones.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 08:17 AM

Minutes of the ReImagined Village Parish Council Meeting

Present:
Sir Winford Toadstrangler-Gout (Chair)
Lawrence Goatdung
Noel Dorchester (deceased)
Amelia Prickgroper
Rev. Warton Pederast
Lorrinda Nicelady
Will Knot (Parish Clerk)


Current Business.

1.        Installation of a ducking stool at the village pond.
It was agreed to provide the sum of £150 from parish funds for the construction on condition that its use be restricted to recreational purposes and that resulting witch-burning be confined to fund raising at the village fete.

2.        Dog fouling.
It was proposed that the owner of any dog caught fouling the pavements should have his or her nose rubbed in it. This was agreed unanimously.

3.        Provision of a folk/rock record library.
Following the offer from several residents of donations of vinyl LPs by folk/rock combos Mr Fox, Albion Band, Steeleye Span and Fotheringay, it was agreed to allow redundant shelving in the Pornography and Jam Making sections of the village library (available as all the books have been purloined)to be used to house this collection.

4.        Removal of Noel Dorchester from the Parish Council.
It was proposed that Mr Noel Dorchester be removed from the Parish Council on the grounds that he had been dead for over two years and was attracting an abundance of flies. Mr Dorchester was asked to leave the room while this was discussed but, as parts of him remained, a decision was put on hold.

5.        An increase in lycanthropic incidents.
Rev. Pederast drew the council's attention to recent activity following the full moon resulting in several sheep having their throats torn out, the discovery of the dismembered body of village postman, Ivor Parcelforyer, and deep claw marks in the church door. It was agreed to provide Mrs Barghest with a strong set of chains and instructions on how and when to apply them to her husband.

The Chairman suspended the meeting following an unpleasant incident involving a village resident, a rabbit pie and indecent pictures of an Australian pornographer.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 07:28 AM

I used to go in the Saturday singing comps and still go to the Saturday singaround, S., and thus haven't caught you yet - but I did notice the flyers and, as you say, hopefully next year...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 07:17 AM

Lady of Spain?

That sounds about right, Ruth. That advert still haunts my dreams - transcending the realms of the mere Surreal into those of pure Dada.

S., along with Taffy Thomas, is actually a busy regular at an important folk festival of the NE...

Never seen you at any of the Gathering storytelling sessions, WAV. For the last three years Taffy and I have done a two-hander in the Millennium Garden on the Saturday evening - the increasingly popular Twilight Tales, spooky tales & supernatural ballads complete with a blazing brazier of well-seasoned beech logs. Great fun! Maybe see you next year...

On the subject of worthy storytellers, I bought a copy of Bob Pegg's Folk on ebay the other day; if the vendor does his job it ought to be arriving in the post today, or maybe tomorrow. This, along with Bob Pegg's Rites and Riots, is one of Nigel Dorchester's favourite books.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 06:58 AM

More than one story teller in the RIV then - S., along with Taffy Thomas, is actually a busy regular at an important folk festival of the NE...

Poem 193 of 230: THE 35TH MORPETH NORTHUMBRIAN GATHERING – SPRING 2002

Toward Morpeth's Gathering,
    Either side of Great North Road,
Daffodils gleefully showed
    Their stalk-dressing flowering.

And then, at the Gathering,
    Another great flowering
Of English heritage, showed
    Through competitions that glowed
With competent folk-singing,
    Storytelling, bag-piping
(The small-pipes rapidly rode
    By hands, in staccato mode),
Clogdancing and stick-dressing:
    Things that are worth addressing.

From http://walkaboutsverse.741.com (e-scroll)
Or http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 06:40 AM

"Villa in Spain we adore you - we've waited twenty years for you (sung to a tune I couldn't name);"

Lady of Spain?


Lady of Spain, I adore you
Right from the night I first saw you
My heart has been yearning for you
What else could any heart do?
Lady of Spain, I'm appealing
Why should my lips be concealing
All that my eyes are revealing?
Lady of Spain, I love you

Night in Madrid, blue and tender
Spanish moon makes silver splendor
Music throbbing, plaintive sobbing notes of a guitar
While ardent caballeros serenade:

Lady of Spain, I adore you
Right from the night I first saw you
My heart has been yearning for you
What else could any heart do?
Lady of Spain, I'm appealing
Why should my lips be concealing
All that my eyes are revealing?
Lady of Spain, I love you

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 06:01 AM

12.10pm - Billy takes a rabbit pie round to Noel who is particular impressed by the decoration on the crust.

That should of course be Nigel who gets the pie. So who's Noel? Nigel's late father - Noel Dorchester, a very worthy man who frequently turns in his grave at the antics of his grandson Neil and his FM-dancing girlfriend Kylie, especially as Kylie is the love-child of Noel's affair with Annie... Oh dear! Will Annie tell Neil that his girlfriend is, in fact, his aunt? Or will she just keep slipping condoms into Neil's coat pocket when he hangs it up in the hall against her better judgement? After all, Neil is only 13, though at 15, Kylie is a good deal more worldly. Let's hope the poaching, FM-dancing and vandalism keep them happy...

It's a very fine pie anyway - decorated with cut-out pastry patterns of sun, moon, trees and bunnies, brushed o-er with egg white to give a nice folksy glaze. Whilst Nigel doesn't let his Muscular-Dystrophy get in the way of a normal life (his passion for the more obscure end early 70's folk rock notwithstanding) he does enjoy the sympathy it engenders in otherwise curmudgeonly old bastards like Billy and Mary, who had a son of their own once...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 05:59 AM

Sorry, it was Dr Dolittle, not Bedknobs and Broomsticks:

"Offended by the construction of a concrete dam built for a film production of Doctor Dolittle at Castle Coombe, Wiltshire, Fiennes and an SAS comrade demolished the dam (using explosives Fiennes had obtained for authorised demolitions, but which by dint of efficiency he had been able to save). Both fled, and Fiennes (who had recently completed a training course on evading dogs) escaped capture - but his comrade did not, and both were subsequently discharged from the SAS and returned to their regiments."

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:20 PM

I first saw the abovementioned film "Walkabout" a couple of years ago on TV here, TL - beautiful and powerful.

Now, you better tell us the damned-stream story...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 03:46 AM

Hey, that's a point. We could rent out the RIV as the perefct location for eccentric TV and cinema commercials.

BTW, has anyone heard the story about when Ranulph Fiennes dynamited the set of Bedknobs and Broomsticks because they had damned the stream in his local village where they were filming? Hilarious!

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 03:42 AM

I do so agree with you SOP. The encapsulation of a story, a message, an idea and a sales pitch into 30 seconds is hard enough - to make it amusing and entertaining is an art form in itself.

Here's some of my favourites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkBIIZcLmQQ&feature=PlayList&p=B2A52C2AEB4268EC&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=5

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:55 AM

TV commercials fascinate me as a genre; long after the death of the product they might remain encoded in the cultural & personal subconsciousness as vivid little vignettes evocative of an entire epoch. One of my all time - er - favourites consisted of two separate jingles: the first - Villa in Spain we adore you - we've waited twenty years for you (sung to a tune I couldn't name); and the second - Happiness, happiness, is the boat the we possess sung to Ken Dodd's theme tune. Whilst it's still Ken Dodd's theme tune, I'm think maybe I'm the only one alive that remember the surreal reconstruction that remains embedded in my brain some thirty years on...

Adverts can often be consummate reductions to the very essence of an Englishness that might otherwise remain all too elusive. Here's a couple:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr-lNUyuFWE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nXO_DS6XrM

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 11:38 AM

They were for Halifax Building Society - we created the big X theme when it was still a respectable organisation. I don't think I even have copies myself - if I do, they'll be on 35mm (well you wouldn't expect Nic to shoot on anything else!)

Don't forget that many of the most respected film makers started off as commercials directors. In the past I've worked with Alan Parker, Ridley Scott (his lady, Sandy Watson, was the TV producer at the agency where I worked), Richard Loncraine, Dick Lester and Gary Sherman (who was a great friend of mine).