More Hastings Characters

Rollo Ahmed, who I discovered when trawling through the Gerald Yorke Archive (in a letter sent by his wife to Frieda Harris) at the Warburg Institute (presently under threat of closure, please sign this petition) lived nearby in the mid-1950s - in fact next door to the house that would later be home to John Martyn (see earlier post), has a two part article devoted to his life in this and next month's Fortean Times.  He was a friend of Dennis Wheatley and appears in Phil Baker's excellent biography which is where I obtained most of my information on him for a footnote in Netherwood.  Ahmed's a mysterious character and someone I thought about doing more research on myself, so I'm glad Christopher Josiffe has saved me the trouble.

Personally I think that Edge of the Orison is Iain Sinclair's worst book (way too long and self-indulgent), but part of that project the walk of humble poet John Clare from Epping Forest to Northamptonshire, has been made into a film that includes Toby Jones, son of that bizarre actor Freddie (who's apparently also in it) and directed by local film maker Andrew Kotting (mentioned in earlier posts).  Funding is needed to complete the editing and can be contributed to via Kickstarter.  Northampton resident Alan Moore is also involved - he's one of the contributors to the forthcoming Lord of Strange Deaths.   A straw man from the Whittlesea Straw Bear festival plays a part - I visited this amazing event a few years ago and took some photos - one above.  

Swandown

On Sunday went to the Electric Palace cinema in Hastings Old Town to see Swandown the film of the collaborative project between Iain Sinclair and Andrew Kotting, in which they borrowed a swan pedalo from the lake on the seafront and pedalled it all the way up to the site of the London Olympics by sea, river and waterway in the Indian summer of 2011.  Interesting film supported by a limited edition book - I had to buy a copy - with emails and texts generated by the journey together with pinhole photographs taken by Anonymous Bosch using a Swan Vestas matchbox.  Kotting was on hand to explain the film and answer questions afterwards.  I couldn't agree with the questioner who found the imagery of river banks, forts and walls oppressive - I thought it seemed like a much more liberating experience.  I've still not decided whether to ask Iain Sinclair to contribute to the next book - we have a few big names onboard already.

By way of contrast with Swans, we saw 10cc in Eastbourne on Saturday: thoroughly professional and entertaining show with some very skilled and versatile musicians and singers (culminating in an acapella version of Donna) - it's easy to forget how many hits they had and the support set was Graham Gouldman (looking remarkably youthful) and most of the group playing his many memorable hits for others such as The Hollies and The Yardbirds.  Art or Art's Sake became a prog epic and I even found my foot tapping to Dreadlock Holiday, a record I loathed when it was all over the radio in 1978 and still wouldn't listen to out of choice.  Mick Wilson the singer and multi- instrumentalist also sings in Three Friends, who I enjoyed, with their new line up, at the Ropetackle Arts Centre in Shoreham a few weeks back.  Looking forward to seeing The Fall in Islington tonight and The Roller Trio in Brighton on Monday.