The Medieval Cellars of Winchelsea

On Sunday we went on an excellent tour of subterranean Winchelsea. The guide was a member of the Winchelsea Archaeological Society and did a really good job of explaining the history, geology and archaeology of the town and Cinque Port (or, more accurately, Ancient Town). We visited three medieval cellars, which were much larger than I had been expecting - when I saw the size of the group I thought we would have split into two groups but there was plenty of room underground. One of the houses above was for sale, if anyone is interested in acquiring a property with a cellar large enough to host some great parties. The guide thought that they were originally used as wine shops rather than purely for storage and advanced some convincing evidence to support this thesis. At the time of their construction the wine would have come from Gascony in the two great voyages from Bordeaux to English ports that took place each year; apparently because of its low alcohol content medieval wine had to be drunk within a year and couldn't be 'put down'. There are a number of these tours each year and more information can be found here. All photos by me.

The Owl Service

Just finished watching The Owl Service on DVD - how this could have been shown on children's television seems inexplicable these days, with its very adult subject matter. I found parts of it quite disturbing and I'm still not sure if I actually understood it - no wonder Granada included a resume at the start of each installment telling you information that hadn't in fact been made clear in the previous episodes! Based on the book by once-popular author Alan Garner (I asked for it in East Sussex libraries and they don't have a single copy)it tells the story of a recurring piece of Welsh folklore and its effects on two boys and a girl in their late teens. The girl is played by Gillian Hills, a bit of a cult star, with a career in French pop and parts in A Clockwork Orange and Blow Up (now married to the manager of AC/DC apparently).

There are some amazing camera angles in the earlier episodes that make parts of it fairly avant garde and a scene at the end that prefigures The Exorcist. It's one of those productions that is supposedly 'cursed' and I was very upset to read that Michael Holden who played the Welsh boy Gywn (not a great performance but he showed promise) was beaten to death by two louts in the Rose & Crown pub, just off Piccadilly (mentioned in my Folklore of London) in an unprovoked attack in September 1977. Talking of cult early 1970s television - Found Objects (see list opposite) has a link to Penda's Fen mentioned in an earlier post (Old Weird Britain) - at last I (and you, dear reader) have a chance to see it in its entirety.

Meditations

One of the most impressive Roman works of art that I've seen is the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome (although since 1981 the original has been in the Capitoline Museums). This week I've been reading the emperor's 'Meditations' (Penguin Classics edition, 1964, trans. Maxwell Staniforth) in which the following can be found: 'When meat and other dainties are before you, you reflect: This is dead fish, or fowl, or pig; or: This Falernian is some of the juice from a bunch of grapes; my purple robe is sheep's wool stained with a little gore from a shellfish; copulation is friction of the members and an ejaculatory discharge. Reflections of this kind go to the bottom of things, penetrating into them and exposing their real nature. The same process should be applied to the whole of life. When a thing's credentials look most plausible, lay it bare, observe its triviality, and strip it of the cloak of verbiage that dignifies it. Pretentiousness is the arch deceiver, and never more delusive than when you imagine your work is most meritorious.' '...does the bubble reputation bother you? Keep before your eyes the swift onset of oblivion, and the abysses of eternity before us and behind; mark how hollow are the echoes of applause, how fickle and undiscerning the judgments of professed admirers, and how puny the arena of human fame. For the entire earth is but a point, and the place of our own habitation but a minute corner in it; and how many are therein who will praise you, and what sort of men are they?'

A talk in May

I'm giving a talk at Westminster Reference Library on Friday 18th May which will probably be called 'Secrets of Subterranean Westminster' - starts at 6.30pm, FREE entry.  It will cover the usual topics: disused underground stations, deep cable tunnels and bunkers amongst other things.  I'll have a few copies of my books for sale, although probably none of the new book, as it won't be out until late May; it's being published under the auspices of Accumulator Press.

Gimme Shelter

The new book is almost ready to go to the printer: in this case, as it's self-published, I've had to oversee everything, including the cover design, getting permission to use images, the weight of paper and printing specifications, as well as doing the index (which was fun). Not sure if I'd do it again, but I may have no choice.

It's time to start catching up on some of my other interests and books.

The excellent London Reconnections has had two interesting articles in recent days. One on the deep-level shelters of WW2 (covered in my Subterranean City book) and another on progress on Crossrail. Last week when I was in London I had a look at the work at Blackfriars: you can now cross the Thames on the Blackfriars rail bridge thanks to the new station entrance on the south bank and the underground station closed for many months has reopened. London Reconnections has covered these developments here. Picture above from London Reconnections site.

We also went on a 'heritage' train trip from Hastings to Southend last week via a fascinating route around London that travelled on part of what will, later this year, be the Clapham Junction to Dalston route, then by various freight lines in west London to the Gospel Oak to Barking line, a stop at Fenchurch Street and thence on to Southend and Shoeburyness. At Shoeburyness a mysterious line snakes away at the back of the station (which we didn't travel over) to a place with the even more unappealing name of Pig's Bay - more can be found on it here.

By the way, the new book is nothing to do with the above.

The Lamb lies down on Hammersmith Broadway

To the HMV Apollo (I used to go regularly when it was the Hammersmith Odeon) last night to witness a re-enactment of the Genesis double lp from 1974 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, a record that affected me greatly when I first heard it that year as an impressionable teenager; it's still one of my favourite records, if not the favourite. I have always given tribute bands a wide berth (although most reformed groups these days are their own tribute acts) but I'd heard good things about The Musical Box from Canada.

The recreation of the group and the show from this period was uncanny and at times I had to tell myself that this wasn't actually Genesis playing. The level of detail even extended to the narration delivered by 'Peter Gabriel' in a pretty good impersonation of his speaking voice (albeit with a slight French accent) including his habitual nervous coughs and hesitations - bizarre. I was interested in seeing the original slides that had accompanied the 'real' concerts in 1974 and 1975 projected onto 3 screens above the group - Musical Box had purchased them off the band. Apparently on the original tour they rarely worked properly but last night seemed to function perfectly, the contemporary shots of New York now look like period pieces, but certain songs such as Counting Out Time benefitted from the visual accompaniment. What do you know - they're also available to view on You Tube.

The playing was immaculate and some songs really came off well live - The Chamber of 32 Doors for example. The Waiting Room, probably the most avant garde track Genesis ever recorded, sounded even better than the one on the lp: a tribute group improvising in the style of Genesis, very strange.

Not as great as the first time I saw the real group in 1977 at Earl's Court but surprisingly good and the only chance I'll ever have to see the live version of the Lamb.

Lanterns on the Lake

So much of my free time has been taken up finishing my new book that I have little time for anything else. That work is almost done, so posts should increase soon. Earlier this month I ventured into darkest Hoxton to see Lanterns on the Lake at Cargo, underneath the arches. Venue extremely full, so I stood at the side of the stage and had a very enjoyable experience. Surely, the most reverential and silent crowd I have witnessed in decades. I'm always complaining about how you can barely hear the music over the sound of chattering punters these days, but in this instance silence reigned, until about half-way through someone shouted out, 'What a band, what a fucking band!' There's some bowed guitar a la Sigur Ros and a definite resemblance to Mazzy Star at times, but the soundworld they create is enticing and hypnotic. Read a review here.

Those records of the year in full

As the amount of new music I have time and inclination to listen to continues to dwindle I haven't got a lot to recommend for this year, but I did like:

Huntsville For Flowers, Cars and Merry Wars (Norwegian Krautrock, if you know what I mean)with guest vocals from the lovely Hanne Hukkelberg whose 2008 release Blood From a Stone I can heartily recommend.

Wire Red Barked Tree - as good as their first two 'comeback' records in the 1980s.

The Robert Mitchell 3io (yes I know it's a crap name) The Embrace - jazz interpretations of an eclectic selection of modern songs by the likes of Aphex Twin and Little Dragon - much better than similar efforts by The Bad Plus.

A perfect one to write to, although it didn't come out this year, but I was given it in 2011, is Inlandish by Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Tim Story: very reminiscent of Harold Budd's Eno collaborations with bits of Boards of Canada floating in and out and fragments of other Eno ambient classics such as On Land. Only with the recent re-release of a lot of the Cluster material can it be now be proved how much Eno 'borrowed' from these progenitors of ambient.

Alan Moore

A great interview with comics genius Alan Moore - in three parts - whenever he talks I find myself agreeing with almost everything he says, an example below:

'Taking responsibility for something is generally a good way of gaining some measure of control over it. That’s certainly true when it comes to one’s own life. You take responsibility for it and all of a sudden you have control over it. And I think it extends to other things as well. If we take responsibility for the way we’re governed and the way that we’re ruled economically and the way that the Anonymous and Occupy protesters seem to be doing, then that potentially can have a huge world-changing effect. That’s the same whether you’re talking about politics or whether you’re talking about the arts. If I hadn’t believed that it would be possible for me to have some sort of effect then I’d never have tried. As it turns out, my ideas have been communicated to a fair number of people. But back at the beginning, that was far from obvious. All that you had was your own belief in yourself. So yes, it’s vital that individuals believe that they can have an impact upon society. For one thing, it’s historically true. For another thing, it is the best thing to believe because if you believe otherwise that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is the philosophy of a natural-born slave in many respects.'

Philosophytown on the radio

So much time is being spent finishing my next book - it should be done by Christmas - that I can only post sporadically here at the moment.

On Friday morning there was an interesting programme on Radio 4 about the Malmesbury Philosophytown Festival that I spoke at last month. You can listen again here for a week.