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I got a call one day from my friend Carole, asking if we could meet soon. It was the summer of 1978 and I had just come back from Cairo , where I'd been doing TEFL (Teaching English as a...
May 7, 2007: Adoption story (1)
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I Wasn't Born ... A freckle-faced boy with big eyes looked out from under his fringe on the front page of the Weekly News . The paper was anything but news, a predictable menu of human-interest stories, recipes and doctor's...
May 7, 2007: Songwriting: the juice and its flowing
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Some thoughts on songwriting ... It's just magic! It feels that way anyway. Writers may disagree about the proportions of inspiration and perspiration that go into making a song, but everyone recongnises that leap of the heart when you think...
May 7, 2007: Mike Heron: Smiling Men
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Step this way - How Mike Heron opened the door for me A review of Mike Heron's Smiling Men with Bad Reputations previously published in the Incredible String Band fanzine Be Glad . Sometime around 1971 I wrote to Mike...
May 7, 2007: My footpath through music (2) - post-Ghosts
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On the breakup of Hungry Ghosts, my two main collaborators were singer Polly Phillips and guitarist Gil Murray. Polly is a superb singer, who had just released her first album I Wish I Had Your Life. We had a weekly...
May 7, 2007: My footpath through music (3) - the Innocents
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Towards the end of 2001 I entered a competition called Musician of the Year run by Allie Fox's String Jam Club in Galashiels. To my surprise I found myself in the finals, and although I did not win, I received...
May 7, 2007: My footpath through music (1) - Hungry Ghosts
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Edinburgh - Hungry Ghosts The final Hungry Ghosts lineup: l-r Lamont, Stephen Malloch (violin), Tricia Thom (voice), Sean Doyle (bass), Dave Haswell (percussion) When I moved to Edinburgh in 1990 I discovered a lively music scene where the open-mic scenario...
May 7, 2007: The Edinburgh Songwriters Showcase
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I was there at the start. Well, not quite the first session, but back in 1993 in the Gallery Bar (now the Car Wash) at the top of the Mound - near enough to count as an elder of the...
May 7, 2007: Desert Island Discs
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Some months ago, a discussion on the Out of the Bedroom board invited readers to choose their Desert Island Disks - the albums they would take with them if they were to be marooned on a desert island with the...
May 7, 2007: Comics (3)
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In the 60s, American comics found their way to the UK as ballast on planes, nothing more. Often they were random packages of old and new ones. Some titles would be available new (actually about four months after their American...
