Being the Hang Man! At Shrews
bury Festival
(pic by virtual
Shrop-
shire.)
About Me...
Born at a very early age in Lancashire having been conceived in Brittany of english/irish extraction, I did a lot of me growing up on Anglesey in North Wales.
A bit too cool for school, I majored in modern languages (Scouse, Manky and Lanky), and music
at the most informal school that is possible...The
Institute For Alternative Eddication...a/k/a/ The Armadillo Tea Rooms just up the road from where they destroyed The Cavern Club where the Flab Four used to perform. There, I mastered frets and wires, and haunted the music shops of the city, and I drank up the music, and the Guinness of course, in the Irish Centre and laid back venues like Aunt Twackeys Bazaar. There were bands EVERYWHERE and I played with a few...but when it came to it, I had to earn an honest crust and followed the more talented ones down to London and work in a dingy Camden Town office of a travel PR company...before I ran away to join the circus, which was to the glamourous offices of International Musician magazine as Assistant Supplements Editor. Wow! The mag was owned by one Richard Desmond (now media mogul) and the actual Supplements editor was his now-right-hand-man Paul Ashford. After that came a time as Copywriter in Desmond's DeMonde Advertising Agency.
My proofreading in those days was somewhat lax, and I can recall the horror of trying to phone the printers in the early hours, having noticed that the proof sheet for one advert read...
YAMAHA ORGANS - MILLSTONES IN MUSIC TECHNOLOGY.
From there I went to a variety of music magazines, before launching Guitarist magazine as Editor in 1984. Then I started hearing the sort of bands I appreciated: finely crafted rock and metal. So off to join the then-new Kerrang! for four years, and a similar time at Metal Hammer... By then my Wife and I had moved to the Forest of Dean and I started broadcasting at BBC Radio Gloucestershire when they launched in 1988. The mammoth three hour sunday rock shows that I presented moved to Severn Sound, and later to a bunch of local stations around the UK. As a writer AND broadcaster I got to interview some amazing people: my first ever artist interview was with a duo who were sent to me to give them their first ever interview, they were called Spandau Ballet. Silly name, I told them. Never get anywhere with a name like that, I said....
I got wheeldly with record companies, and got to interview notorious recluses like Mike Oldfield and Robert Fripp... And while theres not room (or reason!) to list them all here, I managed to slide me and my tape machine in front of a lot of hairy monsters...from AC/DC to ZZ Top. Favourites? Roy Harper, floating on a cloud, Type O Negative (under a table at the Marquee Club, scared of a Paddy-bombscare), Metallica (in exchange for a chip supper when they were VERY young!) and maybe even Jimmy Page (in exchange for a bacon butty, actually MY bacon butty)... But they were all fun... (Recently, a box of my interview tapes turned up. Apparently its a treasure trove of stuff with interviews with Atomic Rooster, Tony McPhee, a mammoth two hour talk with Roy Harpic and much more. They are due to be put onto the web via Rocks Back Pages. But not till after Shrewsbury OK??)
So, having learned to edit programmes, i joined OneWord Digital Radio and edited their spoken word books for broadcast.
Which brings me back to the pub in the Forest, where one night we started to tell stories...and I won !
After that came meeting up with Graham Langley, the Storytellers Hiring Fair, and then on to start doing tours and events, and eventually festivals.
So, theres the tale of where the tales came from, or something like that!
FESTIVALS...
I love festivals! I need to mention this now to explain that since I am unable to get free passes as a musician at these events, and being far too lazy to be a steward or marshall, I guess my drive to become a competent storyteller was probably down to it being the only way I could get those treasured laminates... Oh sure I got loads of them as a journalist, but its nicer to have the pass that gets you tea in the backstage bar rather than a smack in the teeth from a disgruntled rock muso who didn't like my last review of them...
So, my tale telling has got me into Wallingford, Solfest, Monmouth, Goodrich, Wychwood, Gloucester, Saul Canal, and a buncha festivals in between them. The best one was at Shrewsbury Festival last year...and what a brilliant weekend that turned out to be! And...I am booked again for this year too. Hurrah! Three nights of it, 7.30 - 8.30, including a production never before seen:
A Loud Din And The Magic Amp
(say it out loud and it makes sense...)
STOP PRESS 15/8/11
WALLINGFORD FESTIVAL (OXON) HAVE CONFIRMED MY APPEARANCE AT THE EVENT THIS YEAR...AND ALL THE MUSIC AND ARTS EVENTS THERE THIS YEAR ARE ENTIRELY FREE!!!
Photo below of me struggling to restrain Smutty The Dragon (in a stiff headwind) onstage at Shrewsbury Festival 2009. (pic by Carl The Gangstavanman).
CORACLES...
I make coracles. I need to mention THIS now to explain my total fixation with these curious little boats. I tell many stories about them, and in fact my 2008 tour was based almost entirely on Coracle Tales. They contribute to my storystory because I was asked to present talks to groups like the Women's Institute (the provisional wing of the Mother's Union)... Then I started inserting stories instead of technical and historical details, until people asked me to give the techie stuff up entirely...and just give them the yarns. I was delighted to oblige! I have built many of them, including a monster 15 footer with a mast and sails. It sailed very well too, and I am planning a 20 footer over the winter. But don't tell the wife, ok?
William Dew, with his Wye Coracle at Kerne Bridge around 1900. This boat was mislaid by the Herefordshire Museum Service...but I discovered it lurking in Worcester Museum...and then built my own...
THE SHOWS
My own storytelling shows are flexible: I can fill a three minute radio gap as happily as an hour at a festival stage....and anything in between!
The themes I cover include some very ancient stories that have come down my family from the O'Neill connections on my mothers side of the tree...maybe even from these characters who are apparently were photographed being turfed out of Coolgreaney in Ireland. By the looks on their faces, they have some rare tales to tell too...
THE MYSTERIOUS 'HANG'
I play the hang. (Amongst other things...) They are rare and strange, come from Switzerland, and the company is reclusive. The only way that you could get one was to handwrite a letter (and envelope!) to them, explaining why you wanted one. Then they would hopefully reply and give you the time and date to bring the correct money to Switzerland to collect yours. They have stopped making Hangs, but if you put Hang Drum into YouTube there are lots of clever people playing them. Hangs change hands (say that quick then!) for thousands of pounds on e bay. If you decide to buy one this way, try and make sure you get a real one, and not a look-a-like carved out of wood..
The Hang sound is very strange indeed, haunting and wonderful. It made one onlooker at a festival describe it as "The sort of music they play on TV just before the tiger eats the meercats..."
I couldn't agree more!
Last summer (2010 ) I went and told stories at the very wonderful HangOut Festival. On photo-shoot day, 52 of the creatures were laid out on the ground...it was an amazing moment.
I also played at the event (obviously), but since the week before I had played electric hang at the Magnificent Severn Festival, I took my pickup, pedalboard and amp and played Electric Hang. What a reaction! I felt a bit like Dylan when he went electric - expecting someone to shout 'Judas' at any moment...
To hear the electric hang at the Magnificent Severn festival, put Tim Oakes into youTube - oh and ignore the rugby player of the same name...lol
(Picture of me playing Hang for the matinee at Shrewbury Festival. Pic by Carl The Gangstavanman)
That was a lot of information, wasn't it...
Are you still there?
hello?? hello??...
Mystic Mog? Me in a whimsical photographic edit by Guy Maskell.
