"a city with my name on, i will enter in disguise"~ Jackie Leven.

Jackie Leven's Funeral

Jackie Leven playing Hebden Bridge Trades Club,August  2010.Phil The -Ex-Fireman lends an ear ,far left of the photo.

Jackie Leven [wikipedia] died from Prostrate Cancer on Monday night at 8pm.

[In a Shivering Blaze by Jackie Leven]
Usually ,media announcements of death leave me cold.To mourn a passing you must,i think, have some physical connection.Only friends & family have the right of grief.
Look .I like Bob Dylan.I have seen him play often.But when he dies i doubt if I should really care.I have never  had a wish meet him.[I suspect he's as mad as a bucket of frogs]
I will mourn Bob's back catalogue.I will mourn the fact that it indicates my own mortality.But, Bob's Pulse itself doesn't really  touch me individually .

Jackie is different.in the late 70s in my grotty East London ;Acid-Soaked bedsit, i had developed a fairly eclectic taste in music.[I talked about this period of my life in this old post ].The likes of Nick Drake,The Only Ones, & a couple of LPs by a punkish band called Doll By Doll  graced my turntable... I knew little about Doll by Doll:never saw them play. +Eventually I forgot..........
In the middle 80's i was introduced to a cd by Jackie.I was attracted by the Leven /Fife connection.My Mum had lived as a child in Leven.It was only later I realised Jackie was the Voice of Doll by Doll....so it goes...
My first Jackie Leven cd had contributions from the likes of Robert Bly & the whole Mens Movement thing.
At this time I was having all sorts of Stress & Depression Problems with my teaching career . Jackie helped me find my balls again.
[Defending Ancient Springs by Jackie Leven]
From then on I was hooked.I saw him play live 5 times at The Hebden Bridge Trades Club & once at The Bury Met.It was at Bury in 2008,with Cathy,Don& Margaret, I saw Jackie play the week between my Mum Dying &  My Burying Her.

Unknown to Jackie, he told a wildly funny story about him trying to scatter his own Mum's ashes.In a very counter-intuitive way, I laughed for the only time that week...it really helped me to cope with my own loss.

'Elegy for Jackie Leven'-Interview(+LivePerformance)Kirkcaldy Acoustic Music Club Oct 09 by Harknessian on Mixcloud

I only took up 2 minutes of Jackie's Life.
Twice I talked to him in The Hebden Bridge Trades.Once ,just a simple "Good Gig Jackie".The other time, we talked about how Jackie had had a "dodgy curry in Bradford" the night before...and his fear of having to leave the stage midstream to go to the bog..........(a conversation held appropriately ,during the Interval,in The Trades Club toilets)
God Speed Dear Jackie.I Love You but,for fuck sake, say well away from that  Jimmy Savile! X

----------------------------------

*Daily Telegraph:Obituary

*Klatsch-Tratsch:Obituary

Chris Bell:Grievin At The Mish-Nish

**a 2nd Daily Telegraph Tribute**

Shield Gazette:Obituary
*Glasgow Herald:Obituary

*Caught By The River:

The Metro

Scribbling For Bread

**WILDMAN[pdf]

*The Guardian: Obituary

*The Times:Obituary

Lord Levy:The Rock&Roll Years

*INDEPENDENT;Letter 18/11/11

*Tromsø daily newspaper Nordlys  (in Norwegian !)

*Der Spiegel:Obituary

The Australian
*Frankfurt Allgemeine:Obituary

The other side of the mountain:A Tribute

*Frankfurt Allgemeine:Tribute

*Doll by Doll:The Perfect Album

A Blog Tribute

*Neil King

*The Independent*

Right Place.Wrong Time

The King of Love has Died

**the arts desk:Obituary**

Leven's Lament

BBC:Stuart Bailie
**On Formosa Street**
**The Granville Chambers:Obituary**

*The Scotsman:Obituary 

Der Tagesspiegel:Obituary
*a 2nd,amusing,Obituary in The Independent
---------------------------------------------

Jackie with Princess Di.She was the patron of the CORE TRUST that he help set up for addiction.She was one person who encouraged him to return to singing+performing  after he got his throat cut.

 Below another of my photos of dear sweet Jackie in Hebden Bridge...........

Julian! Eat Up Your Greens!

"Koichi Andoh - who came from Japan to work as a chicken sexer in Hebden Bridge in 1935 ..........." 

[click here for my latest Hebden Bridge Blog post]

Me & Cath went for a meal to Greens Vegetarian Cafe In Hebden Bridge on Friday night (And very nice too) .Who Should walk in after us butJulian Cope:[wikipedia] !He walked in with half a dozen mean looking leather-geezers .All Tats & leather (his band?).......They looked like they had been eating raw meat for a decade.I thought the guys deserved a break.
He was playing Hebden Bridge Trades Club later that evening. [The gig was sold out within 24 hours of tickets going on sale .I had no chance,]
I don't know an excessive amount about his music, but it would have been interesting to see him had i got a ticket.

What is doubly strange about my relationship with Mr Cope is that we were in the same year at C.F.Mott Teacher Training College in Liverpool. I remember seeing him a lot at College but we never really moved in the same circles .He did English.I did Sociology & Special Educational Needs.
I wanted to rush over and reminisce about our none -existent friendship ,but it hardly seemed the place........
We seem destined to continue eating on separate tables.
Never Mind! I nabbed the above blurry photo as a memento.............

Above,Julian .Below (restoring a  certain Zimnochian balance),one of Chris's Videos from this September.

After Greens, Me & Cathy went to the monthly Story Telling at The Stubbing Wharfe Pub A Ghost-Themed Evening. Very Nice.Being Halloween, lots of ghost stories & things that go bump  in the night...Cath introduced me to Ursula one of the organisers of Story-Telling in Hebden Bridge.Cath said Ursula used to be in Emmerdale.Ursula said they had "killed her off 5 years ago".
It told her "she was looking good on it......."

[Ursula Holden Gill:wikipedia]

The Traitor Doge,The Blind Doge,The Prophetic Doge.

I own a lovely book called "Venetian Legends And Ghost Stories" by Alberto Toso Fei. One of my favorite tales in it is The Traitor Doge,The Blind Doge,The Prophetic Doge.

Essentially, Its a scary story about 3 ghosts who share the same patch of Venetian Canal Bank for eternity.......But it's a funny story because although all ghosts ,they are eternally unaware of each others existence ! So every time they bump into each they scare themselves! [Imagine the irony, being a ghost who is scared of other ghosts!]
I am thinking a lot about ghosts myself this week.My old,loyal longtime readers will be aware that I am a regular user of The Rochdale hamam.I have been going to it since 1984.The old place is falling to bits.Things dont work too good these days.It's due to be knocked down early next year.A wee bit of my history will disappear.......
Someone visiting it for the first time today will only see a sparsely populated tatty building.To Modern eyes it looks,I'm sure, unimpressive.But to my eyes, it is rich in memories & ghosts.
I invited  Ken there yesterday for the first time.In his innocence, Ken said .."A Lot Of Bloody Doors In Here......."
Now ,although Ken is not a Ghost, he represents another strand of my life over 40 years around Halifax.I am one of those people who tend to compartmentalize my friends+situations.Things seem to be seeping through more now.
Anyway.Yesterday.I thought it would be fun to mix two distinct parts of my history together.
It was.

..a few photos from my week..i look a bit ropey & trippy because I have had a bad back & am on (for the first time ever!) painkillers [Naproxen]......

Last night, having a Whitworth Curry,Cappo Martin showed us his Photos from his recent Charity visit to Nepal on behalf of Comic Relief .Also, thanks for the online album [one photo above].I have to say that your own photos are as good (better, infact) than the "official" ones!Martin,you are far too modest!

While making this post I got The Above facebook message from Veronica in Buenos Aires. The beautiful South American branch of my family will be the subject of my next post.

The best of Sandy Denny's music inhabits the shore or the riverbank, or drifts upon the sea in the company of it's dislocated sailors

Read my latest Hebden Bridge post by clickin  here.

The Internet .She is taking over my life. [now that's a point .is the internet female or masculine?Is it "Le" or "La"?].Yesterday it was my mirror:today my reading companion..........................
"When I write songs,I often picture myself standing on a beach or standing on a rock or a promenade or something. I just put myself there sometimes and without realising it I find myself describing what I'm looking at and often it's the sea.I keep promising myself  I'll put myself somewhere else when I'm writing songs but I really can't imagine anywhere that's nicer than that........." Sandy Denny~ 1973

I'm busy reading my Folk Book (see previous post)
Sandy Denny:Wiki; 6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978:R.I.P. I saw her play at Krumlin in my yoof.
Anne Briggs :wiki

[n.b. This is a companion to my The Legendary Lost "Carry On Hippying" Movie Script! post.]

Linda Thompson:wiki

On the subject of Folk Music ,my thanks to Kimy for pointing me in the direction of the fine American  Smithsonian Folkways site.Free Downloads & much magic can be found!
I came across these two photo sites.Some striking Images of the London Riots.

blog.julesmattsson

www.dankitwood.com

Nick Drake, new glasses and old maps. : Very Nice.

Sorry Folks..A Busy Week.I Will Come A Visiting Tommorrow (Saturday).In The Meantime, why not visit some other great Sepia Saturday Posts.

Nick Drake - Things Behind The Sun from Phil Bebbington on Vimeo.
i'm in the middle of reading the splendid Electric Eden.A lovely romp through the history of British Folk Music & Culture.William Blake,Nick Drake,Morris Dancing & Beyond. Many of the people mentioned I have seen/loved.Plus hosts of characters new to me.A Real Treasure of a Book.
I heard last night that Capo Martin is off to Nepal in October! I am jealous !
(Not That I'm vain, You Understand?) I bought 2 new pairs of glasses today.Here I am trying trying them on this afternoon. I'm using my blog as a mirror.Which is the bestest pair I wonder.....

New on the web is The Gough MapThe first map of Britain from the 14th Century.You Can View it Online.Below, a detail of Manchester (couldnt find "Hebden Bridge" other than something looking like the craters on the Moon)

[A Cryptic Map of sorts...........]

not fade away

In 1911, Bobby Leach survived a plunge over Niagara Falls in a steel barrel.

Fourteen years later, in New Zealand, he slipped on an orange peel and died.

“We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it.” — John Steinbeck
“Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” — Will Rogers
“Where is the Life we have lost in living?” — T.S. Eliot
[via]

Manchester 10th August 2011

Some things can only be seen in negative, some bodies only become perceptible in the interference they create.John Burnside:A Summer of Drowning

[Image looted in a non-threatening way from http://www.ou1.com/

The UK government is poised to start measuring people's psychological and environmental wellbeing, bidding to be among the first countries to officially monitor happiness.
Despite "nervousness" in Downing Street at the prospect of testing the national mood the Office of National Statistics will shortly be asked to produce measures to implement David Cameron's long-stated ambition of gauging "general wellbeing"...........
[read more]
My Car's had a bit of a funny sqeak for the past week.On Monday I booked it in the garage in Hebden Bridge this morning with a view to catching the train into Manchester for a few hours while they checked it.
While I was in Manchester I took these photos.You will notice several taken in Picaddilly Gardens.Hundreds of [mainly ]Young Folk [via facebook] can been seen collecting brooms to sweep up the broken glass & debris from last night's riot.I say "riot" but Im not sure that's the correct word?"Riot" implies some sort of Purpose + Aim...........
Dont get me wrong.Things are bad  in Britain at the moment, and if they had looted Buckingham Palace or Downing Street  or Harrods I would have had some understanding,But,really, it is bad form to shit in your own backyard.
Manchester Evening News report
+Views from  fine Manchester bloggers ....here & here

touch!

I have a new post on my Hebden Bridge blog.

I listened today to this rather good BBC 5 Live podcast .An Interview with Adam Ant..He talks about Mental Health issues and suchlike.......
"Beirut is an American band which was originally the solo musical project of Santa Fe, New Mexico native Zachary Francis Condon, and later expanded into a band. Their first performances were in New York in May 2006, to support the release of their debut album, Gulag Orkestar. The music combines elements of Eastern European and Balkan folk with Western pop music, fusing the American mainstream and indie-rock culture and the World Music market................"

download a free+legal full DVD of early Beriut here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beirut_(band)

From 1913, John Alfred Charlton Deas, a former curator at Sunderland Museum, organised several handling sessions for the blind, first offering an invitation to the children from the Sunderland Council Blind School, to handle a few of the collections at Sunderland Museum, which was ‘eagerly accepted’.
‘They were so successful that Deas went on to develop and arrange a course of regular handling sessions, extending the invitations to blind adults.’
( Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums)

[from:]

All Aboard The Brighton Line

It's My Birthday today! Looks Like I'm travelling The Brighton Line for the next 12 months!
I got to Harrogate Turkish Baths at 9 am this morning.Above is a photo Chris took of me there.
Last night I went with some of the Lads from The Rochdale Hamam for a Birthday Curry in Whitworth.
[This Time next Year Rochdale Turkish Baths Will have been knocked down.I have been going there for 28 years..what will I be  doing  then?]
This afternoon I went with Cath & Chris to The Stubbin Wharfe Pub in Hebden Bridge for a meal.

Click here for some more photos.

Postcards From Italy by Beirut

Italian Mick was due to finish my plumbing today in my place in Italy.Now it's already 80% complete (even before today) which might sound fine , but 20% missing  is a worry if you need a "#2" when you go powder your nose, if you get my drift............
Once that's sorted out ,I can invite people over to stay in it + help.Me & Phil The Ex-Fireman should be going over to Pennedomo late August..to start internal decorating.
The 3rd week in September I return again to Abruzzo to help Mick & Shelley with a LA VITA Italian Workshop.

If Push Comes To Shove; I Love This Bit Of Popery Above All Other.Think Of It as A Birthday Gift To Myself.............Is this the power peace
Or merely the connection ?

read about Gene Clark's :"No Other"

My Sepia Saturday post is on my Hebden Bridge blog this week.

.........In Sociology, the Harrogate Effect pertains to occasions where something awful happens to someone in the company of a group, but no one does anything to help. The phenomenon was first observed by the renowned sociologist Jeremy Clarkson on a visit to the town in 1987. On that occasion, a child laid dying in the street whilst Clarkson and a number of the town's residents stood around giving the child a severe ticking off for increasing traffic congestion and lowering house prices. .........[read more]

Nickies Cafe demolition

Nickies Cafe demolition

This is A Sepia Saturday post


From:
See Jack's Photos here
Jack Uttley (1918 - 2003)
was born in Heptonstall. He grew up living at Mytholm and later moved to Mythomroyd where he lived for the rest of his life.
At the age of 14, he started work at Maudes Clog Soles, Hebden Bridge where he was employed until his retirement in 1975.
Throughout his life he had a keen interest in photography and, over the years, was fortunate to be given many old photographs in the form of glass plates, postcards, prints and 35mm negatives.
These, together with his own photographs of the local area taken over the period 1950 to 2000 have resulted in a significant collection.
After retirement, he was free to concentrate on his main interests of Photography and Local History. He combined both interests in slide show presentations and illustrated books about the history of the local area.
He was a member of the Hebden Bridge Literary and Scientific Society, The Calder Camera Club and was heavily involved in establishing the Mytholmroyd Historical Society.

To put a selection of the photographs on the internet, it was necessary to give the collection an indentity. We have therefore named it:
"The Jack Uttley Photo Library".

John Uttley
(son)
December 2007

Gravity Is A Wonderful Thing

Jeeze.These Images Are Blurry.They Look Like They Have Been Faxed From Outer Space.
The Photo Below Is Of Me & My Big Brother Ziggy.
This Week's Sepia Saturday  theme is in & around the subject of Space Travel.
I have no family photos of such things.West Yorkshire in the 1960's was a tad short of Rockets & such like (except in our heads!)But I remember following all those spacecrafts and stuff......it seemed to me, Russians;Dogs;Americans;Everybody was going up there.I pondered, maybe everyone was going there & pretty soon , I would be left alone here on Earth! Happily , they all seemed to return (in one fashion or another) Gravity Is Such  A Wonderful Thing!

Robb Johnson:wiki

Finally for today, Here are some book buying ideas for the Sepian in Your Life......................

halt!

During the Black Hawk War, Abe Lincoln was leading 20 men through a field when he saw they’d need to pass through a narrow gate.


“I could not, for the life of me, remember the proper word of command for getting my company endwise, so that it could pass through the gate,” he later recalled.


“So, as we came near, I shouted, ‘Halt! this company is dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in again on the other side of the gate.’”

from:Futility Closet

Me,Phil The Ex-Fireman ,Bryn & Mick The Italian went into Halifax tonight for Drinks.here are some photos taken.

Hacked With Permission & Thanks From ou1

For North American Readers , Here Is Some Of The Backstory.

A Video Chris Made.Nothing To Do with Rupert Murdoch!

Ed Milliband ate my hamster

The Northern Echo
Here Is Rebekah Brooks announcing that the News of the World and the Sun were being integrated: last week.

 A first class article  from (of all places!) The Daily Telegraph this (Thursday) morning here.
One of the many thoughts raised was that the reason Cameroon refused to condem (sic) Rebekah Brooks was that she holds too many secrets about the workings of the government machine.Better she is inside the tent pissing out.............?
Can I be the first person to coin,use & copyright the term "Murdochgate"? The comments under the piece are even better (i must have too much time on my hands if I'm reading the Telegraph website !) For example................."The closed world of the Liberal elite now firmly in control of this country has more than a whiff of pre-revolution France about it. They bask in their largesse while we the people are expected to absorb even more pain and misery........."
Orff with their heads...........!but,while we gather our knitting, here is how to Contact advertisers to get them to pull ads from The News Of The World  this Sunday

here

Jeremy Hunt has just said he'll allow Murdoch to own all of BSkyB. We have just three days to flood the government's public consultation with requests to stop the deal.

We've done it before -- in the last consultation Hunt said our avalanche of 40,000 messages delayed the deal as his officials had to read each email carefully, fearing a legal challenge. But the government is pushing the deal through despite the hacking scandal of murdered Milly Dowler -- the latest grim episode that shows how Murdoch's media tramples standards and ignores ethics.

Murdoch already controls more of our media than is legal in many countries – and is notorious for using his power to skew our politics. The official consultation ends this Friday -- let's tell the government we don't want his media empire to control our largest commercial broadcaster. Send a message now -- using your own words to make it stand out -- calling on Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron to refuse Murdoch's BSkyB deal until there's a full Competition Commission review and a full public inquiry into phone hacking.
If you have a UK postal code, click this Link to an extremely easy way of sending a quick & effective message of protest to The Powers That Be.