Kit Williams

At the very end of the 1970s and into the early years of the 1980s a book called 'Masquerade' created by an artist named Kit Williams inspired a minor furore that resulted in people digging up chunks of the English countryside looking for a Golden Hare that the author had made and buried somewhere.  Hidden within the book were clues as to the location of this buried treasure.  The book became a smash and the ensuing scavenger hunt was big news for a short while.

The book itself is a series of 15 of Williams' paintings that tells the story of a hare who loses the gift he's transporting from the moon to the sun which becomes the object of the hunt.

The finding of the hare has become mired in controversy - see here - and the actual solution to the puzzle was spectacularly convoluted.  Below is an extract from the Wikipedia page (that the above link takes you to) because I'm not even going to try and explain it...

The solution to the Masquerade puzzle is elaborate. In each painting, lines should be drawn from each creature's left eye through the longest digit on their left hand to a letter in the border. Then from left eye through the longest digit on their left foot, right eye through the longest digit on their right hand and finally right eye through the longest digit on their right foot. This is only done for any eyes that are visible in the drawing. The resulting letters form individual words, revealed either by anagramming or by applying the order hinted at by the Sir Isaac Newton painting, in which all of the creatures of the book are represented as puppets hanging in a line from left to right.
Decoding and following this method reveals the nineteen-word message:

CATHERINE’S LONG FINGER OVER SHADOWS EARTH BURIED YELLOW AMULET MIDDAY POINTS THE HOUR IN LIGHT OF EQUINOX LOOK YOU

Taking the first letter indicated by each painting, the acrostic “CLOSE BY AMPTHILL” is revealed. Properly interpreted, the message told one to dig near the cross-shaped monument to Catherine of Aragon in Ampthill Park, at the precise spot touched by the tip of the monument’s shadow at the stroke of noon on the date of either the vernal or autumnal equinox.
Many additional hints and "confirmers" are scattered throughout the book. For example, in the painting depicting the Sun and the Moon dancing around the Earth, the hands of the two figures are clasped together, pointing at the date of the spring equinox.

Hope that didn't make your head hurt too much.

Williams' experience of the Masquerade phenomena caused him to distance himself from the public eye but he continues to produce work including a number of major pieces of public art including Cheltenham's 'Wishing Fish Clock' and the Dragonfly maze in Bourton-on-the-Water both situated in the county where he maintains his studio.

He remains a fascinating and unique artist utterly and triumphantly out of step with modern art trends who has spent his life creating a body of work that reflects himself and the world as he sees / wishes it.

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Wyd Britain Mix 5

After a short absence the Wyrd Britain mix makes a, hopefully, welcome return.

For your delight and delectation this time we are heading in a slightly more laid back and groovily spacey direction.

Opening proceedings is a pre Advisory Circle Jon Brooks lording it over both Woolworths and Bakerloo before we head back to the late 1960s to watch future BBC Radiophonic Workshop alumni Peter Howell along with musical partner John Ferdinando watch verbose flowers get their groove on.  Dub Syndicate serenade our favourite time traveller and The British Space Group travel to other world whilst Brian Bennett remains Earthborn.
Derek Scott treats us to some seriously groovy unusual sounds and BBC Radiophonic Workshop legend Dick Mills takes things slowly before turntablist Philip Jeck cleans up and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra explore the local fauna.

Hope you enjoy.

Wyrd Britain 5 by Quiet World on Mixcloud

The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show live

I first happened across 'The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy' via the magnificence of the TV show.  Radio was never a big part of my life growing up so the original radio play had passed me by and the lack of a bookshop anywhere near where I grew up meant the book had gone unnoticed also.  So, the TV show was a revelation. A glorious, madly funny, revelation.

I managed to track down the first two books a little while later but the radio show eluded me for years.  By the time I did get to finally hear it so entrenched was I with the TV version that it took some effort to get my head around those characters that has been recast from this original version.

One of those was the voice of Trillian. Played by Susan Sheridan who was for me a jarring change from the very distinctive Sandra Dickinson version that I'd grown up with.  Another was the Geoffrey McGivern version of Ford Prefect as opposed to the David Dixon one. The radio show is, of course, fabulous and all the cast are perfectly at home in the roles and that initial "Oh, it's a different actor" aside I soon grew to love it.

So it's with sadness that I noticed this weekend the passing of Ms. Sheridan and so, with my condolences to her family and friends, I thought this would be a good opportunity to share with you, not the original show because it's not online, but the casts triumphant return to the roles with the 2014 live show.

The Tiger Lillies

There's a great lineage of musical eccentrics littered across the history of British music and I'm going to try my best to bring as many of them to your attention as I can and so today, in the spirit of that endeavour, I'm going to tell you about one of my favourites, The Tiger Lillies.

Formed in London in 1989 by singer / accordionist Martyn Jacques and joined by drummer Adrian Huge, and bassist Adrian Stout, The Tiger Lillies have built themselves a lush and evocative freakshow cabaret populated by the lost, the broken, the doomed and the desolate.  Theirs is a world of bawdy balladeering and beautiful and poignant tales of the most human and heartwrenching of tragedies all filtered through through the blackest of comedy.

In a career spanning the best part of three decades the band have been nominated for a number of prestigious awards including a Grammy nomination for best classical crossover album and numerous Oliviers (two of which they won), created and participated in numerous theatrical productions and movies, soundtracked adverts (most recently for Cravendale milk) and have amassed a devoted fanbase that includes some very well known names... 

All these bands are my favourites, but here is a favourite, favourite. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Tiger Lillies - Matt Groening introduction at ATP Minehead, UK May 05, 2010

Just brilliant and utterly fantastic!! You'll never hear more perverse and twisted as well as haunting and sorrowful songs. Just get a ticket by hook or by crook, if there's any left (which I doubt) and catch them while you can. - Marc Almond

The Tiger Lillies discography is a substantial and bewildering affair for the neophyte so I thought I'd take this opportunity to point you in the direction of some favourites.  Be warned though some of these are not for the easily offended.

For me it all started when the album 'The Brothel to the Cemetery' (Buy it here) was handed to me by a friend with the words 'You're going to love this'.

The album features what has become the bands signature tune...



Humour has always been at the heart of the band's work as you can see above particularly when allied to a good eyebrow raising shock factor...



For me though they are at their best when the are fully subsumed in their subject matter whether it be Edward Gorey on 'The Gorey End' (Buy it here), the moral tales of 'Shockheaded Peter' (Buy it here) and my personal favourite, their sumptuous take on Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' (Buy it now).

 

As is often the case with musical outsiders this is music that will both attract and repel and probably not in equal measures either.  It is however music that rewards effort and I urge you to take this opportunity to immerse yourself in the unique world of this astonishing band.

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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.

 

Doctor Who, Penguin style

I'm a sucker for good design and as such, like I suspect is the case for many of you reading these words, the covers of the holy trinity of British book design - Penguin, Puffin & Pelican books - bring me immense amounts of eyegasm.

Check out this glorious page of Penguin sci-fi cover art.  There's so much pretty!

I know I'm anything but alone in my appreciation of these and I love it when people with more time and talent than me take that love and do something fun with it.

So, with that in mind, you might like to have a look at these pages of Doctor Who stories reimagined as Penguin books - http://doctorwhopenguin.tumblr.com.

Kudos to all involved.

The Prisoner

In 1967 Patrick McGoohan severed his connection with the popular 'Danger Man' ('Secret Agent' in the US) TV series and devoted all his energy to creating a new show about the trials of a retired spy trapped in a remote and isolated village.

The 17 episodes tell the story of an un-named spy (McGoohan always denied that the central character was his Danger Man character, John Drake) who, in the event of his retirement from the secret service, finds himself confined in an incomprehensible coastal village filled with seemingly happy people each identified by numbers rather than names.

Over the course of the series we see, our begrudgingly numbered hero, Number 6, attempt to both escape and resist the attempts to break his spirit by the various incumbents of the Number 2 position (played by Leo McKern & Kenneth Griffith amongst others).

Many aspects of the series have become firmly established in popular consciousness; the village itself  (actually Portmeirion in North Wales), the Ron Grainer theme, 'Rover' the inflatable guard ball and the two key quotes from Number 6...

and of course...

'The Prisoner' was and indeed remains a singular creation. Loved and loathed in equal measure this  wilful, obtuse, stylised and enigmatic show is quintessential cult TV.  In it's attacks on authority and conformity and it's celebration of individual integrity and personal freedom it continues to amaze and baffle viewers to this day and remains both completely of it's time and utterly contemporary for exactly the same reasons.

So, below is the pilot episode 'Arrival'.  I'm not sure how many of the other 16 episodes are available online but the series has been released in box sets a number of times and is absolutely well worth your money.

Buy it here - UK / US

Be seeing you. 


The Prisoner - Arrival by tvchannels

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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.

Raagnagrok - Man Woman Birth Death Infinity

(Lotushouse Records LHRCD19)
CD
The first time I played this CD I fell asleep. Not, you may think, the most auspicious first impression but it was a very nice sleep indeed - what wasn't so good was the bit where I woke up with my head slumped sideways over the arm of the chair with the worst pain in my neck. The sleep though, was deep and dark and profound. I'd got to about halfway through the album's 14 minute epic journey towards 'Infinity' and then I was gone. They'd taken me with them, entirely.

What we have here is a UK duo of Mark Pilkington on modular synth & electronics and Zali Krishna on electric sitar & guitar who have produced a set of intensely celestial kosmische jams; some live, some studio. The occasional presence of the sitar means that a vaguely Indian aspect is often shown (as is also implied by the bands name) but it is Germany of the very early 1970s that is most apparent.

With a running time of an hour and with a concise palate, many of the tracks, once the music starts to permeate the room, do run into each other and the whole becomes more important than it's parts as they paint a really rather glorious psychotropic colourfield. There are moments I'm not hugely enamoured with but even these parts often swirl by once it's achieved consonance with the room (and my head) and they are few and far between.

I've had this album here for just under a week now and it has pretty much dominated my ears since it arrived with the disc being carried from house to car and a rip sitting front and centre on my MP3 player. If big, bold Krautrock inspired kosmische excursions are your bag then really do hunt this down cause you'll love it. If they're not, hunt this down anyway because it's great and it may change your mind.

in UK available from Strange Attractor
in US or RoW available from lotushouserecords.com


NB -  This review originally appeared in the pages of one of my other blogs - http://ian-quietworld.blogspot.co.uk/

Christopher Lee - In Search of Dracula (1975 documentary)

This is a 1975 documentary narrated by Lee about the real life inspiration for Dracula, Vlad Tepez, along with the book, it's author and some of the films.  It's very much of it's time so don't expect the now commonplace cavalcade of expert talking heads just rolling images and a voiceover.  It's an entertaining and interesting overview, competently produced but entirely made by Lee's delivery of the script.

Even if the documentary doesn't appeal it's worth skipping to the 48 minute mark to catch the magnificently mustachioed narrator's closing remarks.

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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.

Wyrd Britain Mix 4

Summer officially begins today which is just as well as this months Wyrd Britain mix has, I think, a distinctly lazy, hazy, summery feel to it.

Making up the mix this month is a collision of laid back library pieces, some acid-folk wistfulness, two glorious TV themes, some proto post rock and some actual and a little bit of (ch)easy listening to round things off in suitably groovy fashion.


Opening proceedings is the god like genius that is Basil Kirchin who is followed by Reg Wale's 'Fruity Flutes' used as the theme to Farmhouse Kitchen (got to be one of the greatest theme tunes ever).
Anne Briggs is Standing on the Shore before Wayne Hill's absolute classic 'Left Bank Two' the Vision On Gallery theme.
Talk Talk tell of the 'Myrrhman' and the massively under-rated Scottish bass wranglers Ganger make a regular appearance in one of my mixes.
Paul Giovanni documents 'Sunset' over Summerisle (and Sergeant Howie), Sounds Orchestral indulge in some not entirely orchestral sounding 'Soul Coaxing' and finally Tony Hatch is 'Herbin'.' about which we'll say no more.

Hope you enjoy.

Wyrd Britain 4 by Quiet World on Mixcloud

Christopher Lee reads 'The Black Cat'

27th May 2015, the day after what would have been Peter Cushing's 102nd birthday is Christopher Lee's 93rd birthday.

The mischievous part of me thought to just repost yesterday's Dracula blog but instead I thought I'd make something more of it and take the opportunity to share with you his reading of Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Black Cat'.

Lee was born in Belgravia, London in 1922 took up acting after the war and appeared as a supporting actor in some 30 films before landing the part that would in many ways define his career, as the creature in Hammer's 'The Curse of Frankenstein' alongside Peter Cushing's Baron.

Roles as Dracula, both Sherlock & Mycroft Holmes, Duc de Richleau, Fu Manchu, The Mummy, Lord Summerisle and many more followed including major roles in some of the key movie franchises of recent years as Bond villain Scaramanga in the 'The Man with the Golden Gun', Saruman in both 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' trilogies and as Count Dooku in Star Wars episodes 2 and 3.

Seemingly never one to take time off Lee has also provided his uniquely distinctive voice to documentaries, animations, games, a series of heavy metal albums and happily for us here a selection of literary readings.

Sir Christopher Lee we at Wyrd Britain raise a glass to you and wish you the happiest of birthdays.

Dracula (1958)

Today, 26 May 2015, marks what would have been the 102nd birthday of the late great Peter Cushing and what better way to mark the occasion than a viewing of what is arguably not only his finest hour (and 12 minutes) but also that of his friend and co-star Christopher Lee as well.

So today I wish to share with you the 1958 Hammer production of Dracula.

Directed by Hammer's legendary director Terence Fisher (who would, between 1958 and 1960, direct Cushing through roles as Van Helsing, Victor Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes and The Sheriff of Nottingham) and starring Cushing and Lee in their career defining roles as Van Helsing and the Count, future Bat-butler Michael Gough, and Catweazle himself Geoffrey Bayldon.


It's an action movie interpretation of the novel with Lee's brooding, stately and utterly cold vampire counterpointed by Cushing's vibrant and dashing action hero leaping on tables, swinging from curtains and finally dispatching his foe in one of the most recognisable of all Hammer scenes.

I know you're all going to enjoy this one.  If you're anything like me you've seen it many, many times already but there's always time for another viewing of an absolute classic.


Dracula 1958 by Alice-Bauer

The British Space Group

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." 

Leonardo da Vinci 

(attributed)

Available now on the Quiet World label is the debut album from my new music project The British Space Group called 'Eyes Turned Skyward'.

For the last 12 or so years I've been releasing music under my given name and also using several aliases.  My music is generally of the slow, low and atmospheric variety mixing deep dark drones with field recordings and spatterings of electronics.

You can hear a selection of music in this post from the end of 2014.

This new project is something slightly different for me.  It was sparked by a desire to create music on a theme.  Namely my love of British science fiction of the 50s, 60s and 70s, hence the, I hope, suitably old fashioned band name.  This urge follows on from two EPs  I released around 5 years ago - Phantasms I & II - which consisted of a couple of sets of radiophonic style miniatures - you can hear these at that link above - that spoke of my adoration of the work of a certain Workshop.

There's a follow on album to the two Phantasms EPs coming in early 2016 but in the meantime I would like to point your attention to the first The British Space Group album, 'Eyes Turned Skyward'.  It's title comes from the quote that tops this post as I thought in conjunction with the band name it most ably summed up what I was trying to achieve with this music.

Some nice folks have been kind enough to say some pretty lovely things about it.

'I cannot recommend this album highly enough. For fans of electronica, hauntology, soundtracks, minimalism and experiential music; there is something here that will touch something in all of you. Watch the skies, listen ...and wait.' - Grey Malkin, The Active Listener

'With this album, The British Space Group, have created something that is a must-buy for those into the more thought provoking side of music. It manages to bridge the gap between 70’s sci-fi soundtracks and modern ambient/drone. It’s an album that plays like a short movie with each component vital to the story. It’s an album that must be listened to from beginning to end as each song represents a chapter in this most enjoyable story.'  - Simon Tucker, Louder Than War

You can buy and / or listen via the player below.  I hope you enjoy.

Peace
ian

A Bundle of Nerves

Joan Aiken
Peacock Books

I first came across Aiken's writing in an anthology called 'Ghostly Experiences', which I loved so finding this was a real treat.

This is a collection of short stories of a ghostly, macabre or just plain darkly humorous bent all written in what I'm beginning to see as Aiken's light and playful written voice.

The tone of the book is set immediately with the brilliantly comedic and twisted 'Cricket' and 'The Man Who Had Seen The Indian Rope Trick', both of which feature tales of stuffy Englishness coming face to face with something 'other' and losing out.  Next up is a fun but insubstantial tale of music and obsession ('Do You Dig Grieg?') and another of lust and avarice ('Belle of the Ball') before the book hits a decided high point with it's sole science fiction tale, 'Five Green Moons', as an angelic alien visits a small British town looking for somewhere he can make his home.  'Smell' adds revenge into the mix before 'Furry Night' brings romance, sport, peril and lycanthropy to the table.

At this point we are only 7 stories in and with 12 still to go  - the next boasts the frankly unparallelled title of 'As Gay as Cheese' - we are already certain that it's going to be a ride unlike many others.  Indeed, as it transpires, over the 19 tales we are treated to an imagination that is playful, inventive, exploratory, refined, bloodthirsty, absurd and peerless.  I am fast becoming a devotee of the lady's work and as such cannot recommend this highly enough.

Magic and Marillion's Garden Party

I'm going to admit here right out of the gate that I've never been a fan. Marillion were always a bit floppy and fussy for my hardcore punk and industrial leaning tastes. I'm also going to admit that I used to try and wind up a Marillion obsessed ex-colleague by humming 'Kayleigh' whenever he passed and ending random sentences with the words 'Dilly, Dilly'.

Jon, if you're reading, 'Is it too late to say I'm sorry?'

There has though always been one little thing they did that has intrigued me; the slightly malevolent video for the song 'Garden Party', the second single from their debut album 'Script for a Jester's Tear'.

Buy it here -  Script For A Jester's Tear

The song itself is a fairly typical pop prog ditty of the type they made their name doing. The music is jaunty and filled with sharp stabs and busy synths overlaid by lyrics detailing the attendees and their behaviours at the titular party.
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Garden party held today
Invites call the debs to play
Social climbers polish ladders
Wayward sons again have fathers
Hello, Dad, hello, dad
Edgy eggs and queueing cumbers
Rudely wakened from their slumbers
Time has come again for slaughter
O on the lawns by still Cam waters
A slaughter, it's a slaughter

Champagne corks are firing at the sun again
Swooping swallows chased by violins again
Strafed by Strauss they sulk in crumbling eaves again
Oh God not again

Aperitifs consumed en masse
Display their owners on the grass
Couples loiter in the cloisters
social leeches quoting Chaucer

Doctor's son a parson's daughter
Where why not and should they oughta
Please don't lie upon the grass
Unless accompanied by a fellow
May I be so bold as to perhaps suggest Othello

Punting on the Cam is jolly fun they say
Beagling on the downs, oh please do come they say
Rugger is the tops, a game for men they say

I'm punting, I'm beagling, I'm wining, reclining, I'm rucking, I'm fucking
So welcome, it's a party

Angie chalks another blue
Mother smiles she did it too
Chitters chat and gossips lash
Posers pose, pressmen flash

Smiles polluted with false charm, locking on to Royal arms
Society columns now ensured, returns to mingle with the crowds
Oh what a crowd

Punting on the Cam, oh please do come they say
Beagling on the downs, oh please so come they say
Garden party held today they say

 
Obviously the above lyrics are copyright to whoever owns them - the page I copied them from didn't say who that was.
I'm printing them here purely for those who are unfamiliar with the song.
Basically, please don't sue me, I'm poor and friendly to dogs.

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The video features the band as a gang of rag tag 'Just William' types, all scruffy school uniforms and grubby knees, discovering the party and deciding to indulge in a spot of mischief. And this is where it gets intriguing as while there's an element of sticky bun pilfering and tying shoelaces together for the most part the mischief takes the form of several displays of sympathetic magic.

They make one Princess Diana looky-likey party goer faint by mimicking her and then holding their breath and another is made to fall from her wheelchair by tossing a bicycle into the river before the video ends with them face painted, stood around a wooden sigil glaring across the river at the party goers whilst the vicar crosses himself repeatedly at the sight and a gale blows up, sweeping both the party and the guests away.

It's all very Hammer, very Dennis Wheatley and very silly. It also seems massively out of character (and please remember I'm saying this as someone whose knowledge of the band is significantly less than minimal) as they always seemed a fairly wholesome bunch; more the types to attend garden parties than the types who would destroy them using supernatural forces but then as I now see it for the first time the singles cover artwork is fairly dark and like I said, what do I know.

Well, what I do know is it's fun. Garden Party was, way back in 1983 / 84, one of the very first music videos I'd seen and even though the music wasn't / isn't to my taste the content of the video absolutely mirrored what I loved (still love) in movies and has stuck in my memory all that time which probably speaks volumes about why I now write a blog called Wyrd Britain.

Wyrd Britain Mix 3

A new mix for a new month.

A mix of  acid folk, neo-krautrock, classic indie, wannabe trailer trash and soundtracking.

Hope you enjoy.

Freddie Phillips - Trumpton theme [00:00]
Half Man Half Biscuit - Time Flies By (when you're a driver of a train) [00:53]
Ten Benson - The Claw [03:30]
Magnet - Gently Johnny [06:24]
Appliance - Number Three Channel Is Clear [09:36]
Wolf People - Village Strollin' [13:51]
Julian Cope - They Were On Hard Drugs [16:23]
Queen - In The Death Cell [23:28]
Third Ear Band - Fleance [25:49]

Wyrd Britain 3 by Quiet World on Mixcloud