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Post by David A. Riley on Feb 25, 2008 16:35:12 GMT
Excellent photographs of the do on your site, Mark - as per usual! They really make me wish I had been able to make it, but it's a long, long journey from here in darkest Lancashire just for one night. And I would have had to face the shock of realising that Basil Copper is now an old man! The last - and only - picture I have of him is on the back of my copy of Not After Nightfall, when he looked far different!!!! Tempus flaming fugit.
David
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Post by dem bones on Feb 25, 2008 18:18:01 GMT
i plucked up courage to show the photo to the bride and was stunned at the response - something to the effect that it was nice, "they look like a very friendly bunch" and "you all look like you've just been up to mischief!" i studied her face for any tell-tale hint of sarcasm but ... nope. unfortunately, when you see it lurking amidst all the others on mr samuel's page, you begin to appreciate the true horror of it all. great selection of snapshots (again!), by the way, mark. thanks for commemorating the occasion. steve - "gang" is probably not a million miles from the truth and 'bash street kids' is even closer. one thing that really came through was the sense of camaraderie and how affectionately everybody speaks about the board regulars. your award notwithstanding, there's no talking-behind-people's-back aspect to it, just a great fondness and much admiration. it's very uplifting. um, i think i should have written 'legible' bachelor, but you know me and words have never much got on .... glad everyone made it home safely (that's always a bit of a worry) and thanks again for a great night. franklin, the effort you put in was an example to us all and it was so good to see you again!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Feb 25, 2008 20:56:06 GMT
Oh what a marvellous photograph. I have to heartily agree with all the comments as regards our appearance as a bunch of ne'er do well troublemaking lovable mischievous tearaways (I've added lovable as I'm sure it's on all the ladies' minds).
Yes - an album 'sounds' the way to go. I even used to front a blues brothers band although how Mr Samuels guessed I'll never know.
Wish I could have stayed longer but if I had I'm sure I would have ended up in that offy with Dem!
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Post by weirdmonger on Feb 25, 2008 21:03:47 GMT
There are some more photos from the Basil Copper bash over on my website, btw. Great to see all the photos, especially of the Vault crowd, of the legendary Pam Creais of 'Dementia 13' and of my old school pal, Michel Parry!
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Post by carolinec on Feb 25, 2008 21:16:38 GMT
Oh what a marvellous photograph. I have to heartily agree with all the comments as regards our appearance as a bunch of ne'er do well troublemaking lovable mischievous tearaways (I've added lovable as I'm sure it's on all the ladies' minds). I must say I was only kidding about the photo leaving me speechless. My first thought was actually "Don't they look like a nice bunch?". I rapidly kicked myself for having such thoughts and decided I'd try to say something funny instead. But actually, yes, you do look like a nice bunch. And the rest of the pics on Mark's site are great too. Re the proposed band, I don't know whether I should tell you that I do, in fact, play rock drums. (well, I used to - sadly, the onset of reactive arthritis has put paid to that - hopefully only temporarily) By the way, no-one has suggested yet who the scantily-clad lady on the album cover should be. My vote goes to Troo!
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Post by franklinmarsh on Feb 25, 2008 21:19:29 GMT
Yipes! Steve has missed the tour bus again! Fortunately for him The Vault Gang are playing the Derby Assembly Rooms. Will he get there on time?
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Post by Steve on Feb 25, 2008 21:46:39 GMT
No problem, Franklin - as you can see, my "unfeasibly large testicles" are as good as having your own built-in Space Hopper. I'll be there in no time! And if there's a build up of traffic round the Cockpitt Island (no pun intended, honest), I can always just sling them over my shoulder and run the last part of the way. I may need some help getting my 'equipment' on stage though... my Maracas are quite a bit bigger than Bez's!
One day in the 1970s, I came home from the local library with a copy of Christopher Lee's 'X' Certificate (I was a big Christopher Lee fan at the time, and I'd also noticed that there was a Robert E. Howard story in there - the first of his non-Conan stories I'd ever come across). Over the next few nights, I lay in bed and completely buried myself in that book. I loved every page but there was one story in particular that came off those pages so vividly that it lived in my head for months afterwards. Years later when I picked up another copy, I'd forgotten most of the stories Michel Parry had included but not that one story that had made such an impression on me - the first one I turned to and re-read with the same shivering anticipation I'd felt all those years before; "Amber Print". I had similar experiences with other Basil Copper stories; "Archives Of The Dead" in Peter Haining's The Evil People, "Camera Obscura" and others in The Pan Books, but "Amber Print", possibly more than any other, was the short story that planted the seed of horror in my head.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 25, 2008 23:23:44 GMT
X Certificate is a delightful collection, maybe the best of those C. Lee put his name (and Dracula photo) to and Amber Print certainly did it for me. Much as I enjoy several of his other shorts (and Archives Of The Dead is deliciously creepy), I think it would be a straight fight between Amber Print and the Pan Horror-esque The Academy Of Pain for my all time favourite BC story. He really was at the top of his game in the 'sixties and early 'seventies. By the way, no-one has suggested yet who the scantily-clad lady on the album cover should be. My vote goes to Troo! well, we'll need some sample snapshots to study of course, but i'm sure the troodster will be most grateful that you've volunteered her for this oh-so rewarding and not in the least bit degrading assignment ....
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Post by Steve on Feb 26, 2008 0:27:58 GMT
I'm just wondering if I'd think of Basil Copper any differently if I'd encountered, for example, Not After Nightfall first and read a number of his stories together. I've always thought of him in the way I've described above - as an author whose stories are among those that tend to stand out in a particular anthology. I read almost no single author collections in my formative reading years (the only one that comes to mind is Manly Wade Wellman's Who Fears The Devil?), it was always anthologies. As a result, I tend to think of writers such as Basil Copper, who I discovered at that time, in terms of single stories. Whereas with say; Robert Aickman, I think of his work more as a whole because, although his stories also appeared in anthologies (and he's obviously closely associated with the Fontana Ghost Stories), it was reading his collections like Powers of Darkness and Sub Rosa that made such a strong impression on me. Maybe Aickman isn't a very good example because he escaped me for years and is perhaps a special case (Ramsey Campbell is another oft-anthologised author I still think of in terms of single author collections rather than anthologies). Anyway does anyone know what I'm talking about? I suppose this is the beauty of something like A Life In Books, which helps people like myself re-evaluate the work of Basil Copper and perhaps finally see it in its proper perspective.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 26, 2008 7:10:26 GMT
Anyway does anyone know what I'm talking about? I think I've got you, steve. Despite their contributions to the anthologies, i think of Aickman and Campbell very much in terms of single author collections - but, to me, Robert Bloch is definitely an anthology writer, and this despite the glaring fact that he's had more collections of his own stories published than Aickman and Campbell put together! By my reckoning, Basil Copper's stories are shown to their best advantage when they appear alongside the work of others: it's certainly not that the likes of Not After Nightfall, From Evil's Pillow and Here Be Daemons are in any way disappointing (far from it), but when i'd come across one i'd not read before in a Haining or Herbert Van Thal selection, i knew i was in for a good time. So in that respect, he's more of a 'Roger Malisson' or Mary Danby figure to me (now who isn't making any sense? !!!) I suppose this is the beauty of something like A Life In Books, which helps people like myself re-evaluate the work of Basil Copper and perhaps finally see it in its proper perspective. I can see A Life In Books - the book - getting a thread to itself before long as the cheapskate version was being snapped up like the proverbial hot cakes on Saturday (from someone who, thanks to the Samuels' exhaustive OK-style photo spread, I now know to be Pam Creais). I've had a cursory browse and it really is one that requires your full attention and a good few blessed hours of peace to do any kind of justice to. And I would have had to face the shock of realising that Basil Copper is now an old man! He looked very frail, David, but on particularly good form when he addressed the crowd and certainly put that whippersnapper Steve Jones in his place! Re the proposed band, I don't know whether I should tell you that I do, in fact, play rock drums. (well, I used to - sadly, the onset of reactive arthritis has put paid to that - hopefully only temporarily) sorry to hear that, caroline, but i'm sure we'll be able to accommodate your talent, albeit in a scaled down capacity. i know for a fact that steve has a magnificent pair of bongos he's eager to see go to a good home ....
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Post by weirdmonger on Feb 26, 2008 8:34:50 GMT
Despite their contributions to the anthologies, i think of Aickman and Campbell very much in terms of single author collections - The first horror book I bought and read - or what I considered to be a horror book - was the single-author collection THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK by HP Lovecarft (Panther). Probably in 1964. When Michel Parry scratched his nail under some of his favourite stories on the contents pages, us having met accidentally in Smiths where he recommeded me to get the book! I've never looked back. I later loved finding HPL in mixed anthologies after that, including that forties Boris Karloff hardback anthology of which I temporarily forget the title. The same with Aickman, Ligotti, Campbell... I can hardly differentiate between collections and anthologies. An anthology is a symphony, a collection a concerto?? The music of nemonymity. des
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Post by Calenture on Feb 28, 2008 9:58:24 GMT
I was wondering if Basil Copper's Amber Print was first published in Dr Caligari's Black Book. Surprisingly, Giant Book of Horror/ Mammoth Book of Terror does/do credit that as its first publication. But my online search proves that we shouldn't take too seriously everything we read. Witness this page A Footnote in History which has a rumour of Copper's death dated November, 1997.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 28, 2008 10:23:49 GMT
yeah, rog. first published in dr. caligari's black book - the NEL edition at least. The W. H. Allen version of 1968 has, for the most part, a different run of stories and amber print and birkin's lovely the harlem horror are among those omitted.
as to the fellow on alt.books who speculates as to when baz 'died', he should leave the wildly inaccurate research to us. ;D
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Post by Steve on Feb 28, 2008 11:24:33 GMT
as to the fellow on alt.books who speculates as to when baz 'died', he should leave the wildly inaccurate research to us. ;D Talking of wildly inaccurate research, (and I think it was Rog who first noted this), whenever I google anything related to short horror fiction or the like these days, I always seem to end up back here where I started (or the old board or the Vault website). I was just looking for more information on "Amber Print" and found myself, back in Nov 2005 in the old 'Walking Dead' days, saying much the same thing about Copper's story as I've said here ("One of the first short horror stories I ever remember reading was Amber Print by Basil Copper (in Christopher Lee's 'X' Certificate sometime in the mid-to-late 1970s). It really unnerved me at the time...") and then going on to talk about his story, "Better Dead", in Stephen Jones' Mammoth Book of Frankenstein. What a small, self-referential world the internet seems to be sometimes... and how depressing to see myself today - a couple of years down the road - a shadow of the lumbering, dead thing I once was and seemingly doomed to wander the internet endlessly repeating myself ("I'm 41, you know...") On a brighter note... it's heartwarming to see that, in just a few short years, Vault has become virtually a 'one-stop shop' for all the online community's short horror fiction needs. All roads lead to Vault.
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Post by weirdmonger on Feb 28, 2008 13:11:45 GMT
Talking of wildly inaccurate research, (and I think it was Rog who first noted this), whenever I google anything related to short horror fiction or the like these days, I always seem to end up back here where I started (or the old board or the Vault website). Indeed. I've noticed that. Also, if you google some of the mags I'm posting on the Small Press Ark or some of their contributors' names etc you arrive here post-haste! des
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