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Post by Shrink Proof on Dec 13, 2019 23:02:16 GMT
This triggered a memory. For those Vault inmates who don't know of Scarfolk (where the worst and weirdest of Britain in the 1970s sort-of lives on in suspended animation), a poster from the Scarfolk Annual, neatly encapsulating the weirdness of that age. I continue to oscillate between believing that this a parody or not...  |
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Post by helrunar on Dec 13, 2019 23:42:55 GMT
Scarfolk... more than ever, the face of Britain today. That's a pretty funny poster... not one I had seen before. If you haven't read Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand, you might enjoy it. I've read it twice and been fascinated both times. Sandy Denny and Nick Drake are two of my favorite artists and I have a few "acid folk/psych" compilation waxings sitting around so I felt the novella had been written just to me... references to old Faery lore, as well. www.goodreads.com/book/show/25010941-wylding-hallcheers, H. |
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 13, 2019 23:47:09 GMT
Scarfolk... more than ever, the face of Britain today. That's a pretty funny poster... not one I had seen before. If you haven't read Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand, you might enjoy it. I've read it twice and been fascinated both times. Sandy Denny and Nick Drake are two of my favorite artists and I have a few "acid folk/psych" compilation waxings sitting around so I felt the novella had been written just to me... references to old Faery lore, as well. www.goodreads.com/book/show/25010941-wylding-hallcheers, H. Sounds like a great book, Steve! I'll add it to my (never ending) list.... |
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Post by helrunar on Dec 14, 2019 2:40:56 GMT
I hope you enjoy it, Swampi! I don't know how much the book would attract somebody who doesn't have at least some familiarity with bands such as Fairport Convention, Traffic, Incredible String Band, Pentangle, etc. This page has a lot of album covers (some of the images won't load for me) that offer kind of a crash course in the vibe: globalpsychedelia.com/2014/08/29/60s-and-70s-psychedelic-and-acid-folk-from-england-scotland-and-ireland/Elizabeth Hand's books that I have read have had a very offbeat vibe. She's one year older than me and thus her books reflect a similar cultural background and outlook though she knows a great deal about drugs... of which I have an extraordinary ignorance. I thought this book was one of the most compelling evocations of the energy and persona of the god Dionysos from a modern author: www.goodreads.com/book/show/102887.Black_LightIt all takes place at a weekend long party populated by bohemians, eccentrics, Goth girls, and misfits--exactly where you'd expect to find Dionysos manifesting. All the best, Steve |
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 14, 2019 2:56:20 GMT
I hope you enjoy it, Swampi! I don't know how much the book would attract somebody who doesn't have at least some familiarity with bands such as Fairport Convention, Traffic, Incredible String Band, Pentangle, etc. This page has a lot of album covers (some of the images won't load for me) that offer kind of a crash course in the vibe: globalpsychedelia.com/2014/08/29/60s-and-70s-psychedelic-and-acid-folk-from-england-scotland-and-ireland/Elizabeth Hand's books that I have read have had a very offbeat vibe. She's one year older than me and thus her books reflect a similar cultural background and outlook though she knows a great deal about drugs... of which I have an extraordinary ignorance. I thought this book was one of the most compelling evocations of the energy and persona of the god Dionysos from a modern author: www.goodreads.com/book/show/102887.Black_LightIt all takes place at a weekend long party populated by bohemians, eccentrics, Goth girls, and misfits--exactly where you'd expect to find Dionysos manifesting. All the best, Steve Thanks so much for the links and further info; all the best in return! |
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Post by pulphack on Dec 14, 2019 9:18:24 GMT
Having spent the early nineties down in Balham quite a bit, in an indoor market that was once a fleapit cinema (and is now a Sainsburys carpark) esconced in the small shop from which the legendary psych/prog dealer Hugo Chavez-Smith sent original and didgy 'reissue' vinyl wending across the glob, I feel like I must have heard albums by all of the bands on the Scarfolk bill... too bloody accurate for parody, really...
Sad that its music that tempts me back to talk crap, but as the last two novels I read were 'Bleakly Hall' by Elaine DiRollo and Angela Thirkell's 'Summer Half', it has to be said that I haven't been in the Vault zone this year, book-wise. However, Elizabeth Hand looks well worth investigation, and seems to have been around for years so I'm sorry she's escaped notice before. Back in the 90's I wrote a short story (long lost) that mined similar 'psych band in haunted house making album with mysterious disappearances' territory, though there was a lot of 'Turn Of The Screw' in my lost piece, as well as a frankly libellous portrayal of a record dealing acquaintance (who becomes somewhat murderous and sexually suspect in the course of the story) - not Hugo, who was a lovely bloke, incidentally - who would have sued (he has form) and so it's probably just as well its lost.
Good gravy, that psych/folk site brought back some memories... Hugo was big on that as he was trying to direct my ex-wife's band in that direction before he recorded them, and he loved Trees particularly. A lot of it would, I think, sound drippy to me now, but the things that have really haunting quality stay strong - Pentangle and Comus particularly, for different reasons. I never got the Incredibles, though I did like COB and the first ISB album which Clive was on.
What I really wanted to do was waffle about Shagrat and JP Sunshine. Because I can, really, and only Dem can delete it...
Actually, he did have the Shagrat CD as I gave him a copy years ago, having got one myself and then been passed one by a chum. It's an up and down affair, as befits Steve Peregrine Took - erratic in life and art. However, noteable for having Larry Wallis on guitar and co-writing. I loved Lazza, who was a Pink Fairy and in the original Motorhead line-up (allegedly saying they needed a second guitarist then quitting in a huff when they got one, and - on first meeting Phil Taylor - saying to Lemmy 'he's an 'orrible little c*&t, isn't he? We've got to have him...') as well as producing for Stiff, recording the immortal 'Police Car' and writing a hit for Dr Feelgood. He died last month, I was sad to hear.
As for JP Sunshine: I read about them in Unhinged magazine about 30 years ago (and shocked myself when I realised it was that long ago). Funded by the drug dealer who played bongos for them, the real talent was Andy Rickell on guitar, who joined the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown when they went quietly mad in Puddletown, Dorset making the unreleased for years 'Strangelands' album. Arthur departed after walking round a supermarket in Dorchester trying to scare people in a devil mask, then slinking off in disgust when the staff played 'Fire' repeatedly over the tannoy system (he must have a been a regular for them to even have this to hand. Urban myth alert). Renamed Rustic Hinge (and the Provincial Swimmers) Rickell and Drachen Theaker (drummer and tabla ace) concoted a gradually more and more complex Beefheartian stew that formed 'T on the Lawn For 4', tapes of which, like 'Strangelands', appeared 20 years later on Reckless in an out of running order and unedited form. Going more and more mad they had Rod Goodway and Adrian Shaw from JP Sunshine join them and then get alientated as they were told they were crap. Goodway and Shaw decamped to Bristol and formed Magic Muscle, who were a festival band of the Hawkwind/Pink Fairies ilk, though I don't think they got on vinyl at the time, and only really recorded when they reformed at the end of the 80's/start of the 90's and toured again. Shaw, meanwhile, had been in Hawkwind, and both he and Goodway ended up in a touring version of The Bevis Frond, as they were chums of Nick Saloman. (Incidentally, High Tide had a house in the country a short hike from Puddletown, and their poor drummer had a breakdown there from which he never recovered. I dunno about the hippy dream, there are aspects of it that sound more like a nightmare)
All of which is dreadfully boring, really, if you're not into that sort of thing, but you asked for it, Steve, dredging up some long forgotten memories of gigs and record dealers and odd recordings that littered that part of my life. God, I've wasted it. Reminds me of Wilko Johnson in the Dr Feelgood documentary where he says 'I suppose I've wasted my life...' in a tonme that says it was always going to be that way ahyway, so what fu*&k.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 14, 2019 9:21:56 GMT
Scarfolk... more than ever, the face of Britain today. That's a pretty funny poster... not one I had seen before. If you haven't read Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand, you might enjoy it. I've read it twice and been fascinated both times. Sandy Denny and Nick Drake are two of my favorite artists and I have a few "acid folk/psych" compilation waxings sitting around so I felt the novella had been written just to me... references to old Faery lore, as well. www.goodreads.com/book/show/25010941-wylding-hallcheers, H. Sounds like a great book, Steve! I'll add it to my (never ending) list.... Sounds right up my street too. Acid/psych folk is my favourite type of music, and I'm married to a Sandy Denny obsessive! |
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vaultadventcalendar
Black Crow King
Horror chav at the controls/ weird cheerleader #arts&culture
Posts: 143
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Post by vaultadventcalendar on Dec 14, 2019 10:33:39 GMT
Day Fourteen:  Shrinkproof: Manor Road cemetery, Scarborough, North Yorkshire.Another mystery author - there are a lot of them about. I can tell you absolutely nothing about Angela Blake other than that, in tribute to her late editor, she kindly forwarded a copy of her lone contribution to supernatural horror literature for inclusion on 2019 calendar. This, from Tenth Black Book of Horror, is the deliciously sick and twisted Stiff.  Chrissie DemantAttachments:angela blake - stiff.pdf (168.62 KB)
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Post by humgoo on Dec 14, 2019 12:13:11 GMT
Thanks a lot for the whole package (text, photo and illustration). Enjoyed it a lot. Fortunately, the Black Books are still available. I need to read it again on paper. |
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 14, 2019 17:05:18 GMT
Having thought long and hard about today's entry, all I can say is that it's outstanding!  |
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Post by andydecker on Dec 14, 2019 17:27:28 GMT
Also enjoyed it. Even better illustration. I really should have bought more of the Black Book of Horror.
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Post by ripper on Dec 14, 2019 19:58:56 GMT
A triple winner today! Great story, pic and illustration. I don't own nearly as many Black Books as I should, so a tale from that series is always very welcome.
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Post by David A. Riley on Dec 15, 2019 1:33:13 GMT
A triple winner today! Great story, pic and illustration. I don't own nearly as many Black Books as I should, so a tale from that series is always very welcome. The Black Books are well worth reading. Charles Black was an outstanding editor. He should have been far more well known than he was though, as those who know him are all too well aware aware, he was far from enthusiastic about fame. |
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vaultadventcalendar
Black Crow King
Horror chav at the controls/ weird cheerleader #arts&culture
Posts: 143
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Post by vaultadventcalendar on Dec 15, 2019 6:40:14 GMT
Day Fifteen Shrinkproof The moon, looking like it’s leaking, seen from Inverness in August 2018. We've friend darkbrabo to thank for not only suggesting, but providing a first English translation of Gris-Gris, the late and very great Eddy C. Bertin's horrible tale of love, jealousy, voodoo, and ... but that would be telling. Most English and American readers got their first taste of Eddie's love when his The Whispering Horror (aka The Whispering Thing) was published almost simultaneously by Van Thal and Robert Lowndes in The Ninth Pan Book of Horror Stories and Weird Terror Tales #1 respectively, having been rejected by John Spencer's Supernatural Stories! To best of my knowledge, the superb The Whispering Horror (Shadow Publishing, 2013), remains his only English Language collection to date. Charles Black featured a Bertin original, The Eye in the Mirror, in Second Black Book of Horror ("he wasn't cheap!").
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Post by Middoth on Dec 15, 2019 12:04:05 GMT
Bertin is really talented writer. I like his stories very much. It's a great loss.
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