The BBC Radiophonic Workshop by Chris Watson
Mute are issuing a series of BBC Radiophonic Workshop recordings, starting on Monday. We asked friend of the river Chris Watson for a few words about them: “I love these works. For me they range from being highly nostalgic to completely unknown and between the three discs also span a significant time in the development [...]
Letter from Arcadia
ja clocks went dark on a squint-eyed moon. garlic and silver onion bulbs purchased at the autumn fair not for a song but an aria, from dordogne dog-track onion sellers, winter onions like white-chocolate pop-ups, russian eyeballs to dib in straw beds next first quarter, betjeman’s cupolas, the purple garlic the colour of a breton [...]
The Place that Roger Built: Photographs from Walnut Tree Farm
by Justin Partyka Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to meet Roger Deakin. It was always intended that our paths would cross but it didn’t quite happen: I would send him exhibition opening invitations, but I later heard that he was too busy to attend as he hurriedly worked away to finish the writing of [...]
Notes From Walnut Tree Farm
review by Tom Hodgkinson The nature writer Roger Deakin sadly died in 2006, but luckily for us he has left behind three wonderful books. The latest of these, Notes From Walnut Tree Farm, has been compiled from his diaries by his friends Alison Hastie and Terence Blacker. They took the diaries from the last six [...]
Shop By The River
28 October 2008 // Books //Miscellany //Music
Today sees the launch of the Caught By The River shop. In the last eighteen months we’ve spent a lot of time championing everything from books to floats; CDs to beer. We’ve wanted a shop on the site since the beginning and, as of today, it’s up and running. Your one stop shop for all [...]
The Diary of a Mod
27 October 2008 // Miscellany //Music
Love this. I came across it on this ace Mod(ernist) site, ‘Jack That Cat Was Clean‘. It kinda reminded me of someone I once knew and made me wonder if Bernard ever headed back to the rivers…..(JB) Some extracts from the personal diary of 18 year old Bernard Schofield – October 1964 (Originally published in [...]
Caught By The Reaper – Ray Lowry
27 October 2008 // Remembrance
1944 – October 14, 2008 Chris Salewicz remembers; ‘A rounded human being carrying his fair share of demons.’ That was Ray Lowry’s assessment of Clash frontman Joe Strummer. But Ray Lowry, England’s greatest rock’n’roll artist, might well have been looking in the mirror at his own image, even though – strengthened by his own unremitting [...]
Fame
Paolo Hewitt tells a young mod’s forgotten story; Of course his real name is not Fame, it’s not even Georgie. It’s Clive, Clive Powell, and he was born 26th June, 1943, in Leigh Lancashire. He grew up there, grew up to be one of the most influential, stylish and underrated musicians this country has ever [...]
Vashti Bunyan
23 October 2008 // Film/TV //Music
For many cult artists, rediscovery comes to them too late, they never live to know that their art has been reappraised, is being loved by generations not even born when they were at work. In the case of Vashti Bunyan, the “Godmother of Freak Folk” (New York Press), 30 years of obscurity ended with the [...]
A key moment in American history is upon us;
Greetings all, After many months of media coverage, controversy, rancour, debate, campaigning, astronomical spending and a long, hard slog for all involved, America is finally approaching a pivotal moment in its history. Yes, that’s right: Guns N Roses’ long-awaited album Chinese Democracy has finally been given a release date. On November 23 2008 US citizens [...]
Caught by the River