Crossrail on Display

There is an exhibition on at the Building Centre Store Street, off Tottentham Court Road showing the designs for the Crossrail stations, plus a very large and snazzy model of London outlining the route and stations. I went yesterday, but if you can't get there have a look at the London Reconnections site where many of the pictures are on display. There is much talk in the exhibition of 'regeneration' and 'urban quarters' around many stations but a fair amount of demolition has also been involved. Nevertheless some of the designs, especially Canary Wharf, look impressive.

Patrick Keiller

To the BFI Southbank (I hadn't realised it had changed its name from the NFT, but I haven't been for some years) to see Robinson in Ruins followed by a panel discussion. This article in yesterday's Guardian explains the background much more eloquently than I can. I managed to book the very last ticket online on Friday and the film started just after I finished work.

I liked it, but I preferred the previous two films. I must say I loved Paul Schofield's narration and found Vanessa Redgrave's less engaging, also on this occasion I felt that the camera lingered just that little too long on the locations, especially in the agricultural scenes - the lack of people was very noticeable and I'm sure deliberate, making a point about the industrialised countryside. In most locations, together with birdsong and sounds of rustling undergrowth, there was the almost omnipresent noise of aircraft or traffic.

As usual there was a great deal of useful if often depressing information and statistics about defence establishments, the amount of cereals used as animal feed, evidence for global warming and species extinction, but the kind of arcane connections made in the first two films were less in evidence here. The panel discussion at the end never really got a chance to get going as there were too many participants (including Doreen Massey and Patrick Wright) who would have been good value on their own and too little time. Apparently a book based on the film's 'research project' is on the way, written by members of the panel.

London Jazz Festival

To The Forge in Camden last night to see Troyka, part of the London Jazz Festival, described by Time Out as, ‘King Crimson for the iPod generation’, a tag I imagine the band feel a little uncomfortable about. The three-piece look very young, especially the drummer, but they play with considerable skill and imagination. The prog rock comparisons are clear from the tricksy, constantly shifting time signatures and spinning-on-the-heel changes of mood and tempo.

There are definite echoes of Robert Fripp’s accelerated arpeggios in some of Chris Montague’s constantly inventive guitar playing but the guitarists he cites as influences - Wayne Krantz and Marc Ducret - I’m not familiar with; I heard Marc Ducret on the radio recently, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard Krantz. Kit Downes provides an unusual backing on organ, only rarely soloing, on occasions Mike Ratledge seems to stand at his shoulder. It got ‘rockier’ as the evening progressed and they did a cover of Nirvana’s Heart Shaped Box; I’d go to see them again. A waiter (the manager?) said to me afterwards that the usual gigs there are not as 'hardcore', more supper jazz - give me the hardcore.

Often grouped together with the Portico Quartet and Troyka by critics, Polar Bear played at Westminster Reference Library last Saturday and I got to see their first set before having to get the train home – the second set was a collaboration with a rapper. Still interesting stuff, although I prefer seeing them live to listening to their records, there are long improvised sections where they can get pretty ‘far out’.

More music next week: Gilad Atzmon in Hastings on Monday and The Fall in Bexhill on Wednesday.

Talks, Talks

Thursday night's talk for the South East London Folklore Society in the Old King's Head near London Bridge station went pretty well - I was on in the first half talking about stuff in the new book and Scott Wood went on after a short break to speak about urban legends and a bit about ghosts. Again, a very good turnout of around 60 people, only 2 books bought, but luckily that was all I had with me.

Another talk request has been received which I have agreed to do: the Chelsea Society in the Small Hall of Chelsea Old Town Hall on Monday 10th January 2011 kicking off at 18.30. The venue looks beautiful and large, if the usual numbers turn up it should be able to accommodate them.

On Wednesday heard Prof Ronald Hutton deliver the talk 'How Pagan were English Medieval Peasants?' at the Warburg Institute. The answer was 'scarcely at all' according to all the evidence thus far available, the cult of saints making up for the panoply of pagan gods until the Reformation. He is a great speaker and indomitable question taker, his books on calendar customs and his peerless history of modern witchcraft The Triumph of the Moon are invaluable for anyone with an interest in these areas. He kindly signed my copies before his talk.

L T C Rolt

Interesting programme this morning on Radio 4 about the writer L T C Rolt, whose works I've consulted for background information on the history of engineering for Subterranean City - lucid and entertaining, they are a great introduction for non-experts like myself. He also helped revive Britain's waterways, wrote the classic book on train crashes Red for Danger and one of my favourite ghost stories The Bosworth Summit Pound.

Battle Bonfire

To Battle last night to witness the Battle bonfire parade. Every teenager in Sussex seemed to be there, in various states of inebriation. We stood outside the Yesterday's World museum and got a pretty good view of proceedings. Our previous experience of the Sussex bonfire societies has been at Hastings and Rye and I hadn't realised that these are relatively sedate and peaceful compared with Battle, which I imagine is very similar to the famous Lewes event on November 5th - I've never had a chance to get to that one - not sure I want to now (someone was seriously injured there on Friday night).

I'm no fan of loud bangs and there were enough deafening explosions during the parade last night to give me a powerful impression of the Blitz in London - you could actually feel the percussive effect on your body, fortunately I had some earplugs - amazingly our son slept through the whole thing. The usually sedate town is an excellent place to see the parade as the streets are wide and there are plenty of places to get a good vantage point - the centre with the 'token' bonfire with a guy was a mob scene. Hastings Old Town is a bit too narrow and confined to get the full effect, I noticed this year that there were a lot fewer flaming brands than in previous years, not the case at Battle where they made an impressive display. The atmosphere of potential anarchy was exciting, but we went to the Senlac Inn by the station when the parade entered the battlefield (site of the 1066 encounter) as we had had enough explosions for one year - the display itself was remarkably muted. We made our way back past the cars abandoned by their owners when they realised that the road through Battle was closed for the night.

Lost Steps

My friend Phil Baker was interviewed for the excellent Resonance FM programme Lost Steps last week - the results can be found here - he mainly talks about Austin Osman Spare, artist and occultist - I own a work by him - there is an exhibition of his work at the Cuming Museum for a few more days, which I don't think I'm going to be able to get to. it was featured in this recent Culture Show profile featuring the great Alan Moore. Phil's books on absinthe, Dennis Wheatley and William Burroughs are also recommended.

I was featured earlier this year on Lost Steps and the interview may still be up on the site, many of the other interviews are well worth hearing. I have not been particularly impressed by my interviews (my performance, not the interviewer's), but this is one of the better ones despite my repetitive inarticulacy.

The Social Network

We made our annual trip to the Hastings Odeon this week to see The Social Network, which I thought was great - witty, sharp script, good perfomances, especially from Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and even from Justin Timberlake as Napster founder Sean Parker. I probably need to see it again on dvd to catch some of the rapid-fire dialogue that I missed in the cinema. The obvious central irony of the film is that the man who invented the world's most popular social networking site offering the possibility of making hundreds of 'friends' has few of his own and those he had are taking him to court for a part of his multi-billion dollar empire. And nobody pulls out a gun during the entire two hours - very unusual these days in a Hollywood film.

Hadrian's Wall

Just returned from a jaunt to Northumbria and Hadrian’s Wall. Weather was pretty much lovely throughout, which was a surprise – the owner of the caravan site where we stayed said it gets down to -20C in the winter and they often get snowed in for weeks at a time. The site, Fallowfield Dene (thoroughly recommended and cheap), used to be a lead mine and our caravan stood next to a large spoil heap – today covered in trees and vegetation and looking very pretty.

The main point of the break was to see Hadrian’s Wall and we explored a variety of sections and their Roman remains: Corbridge, Chesters, Birdoswald and the most spectacularly situated Housesteads – half a mile from the car park along a pretty steep track it should be noted. The walk from Housesteads westwards along one of the best preserved sections, where it snakes along the contours of the ridges, is probably one of the finest in England, although we could only manage a couple of miles having to carry our two-year-old son – the light rain produced rainbows in the sunshine and the whole scene was impossibly beautiful.

I thought the best Roman site that we visited was not one of the English Heritage places but Vindolanda, a short distance from the wall, sited on the earlier Stanegate. It is the most heavily excavated with really impressive ruins of a fort and associated buildings; the magical dell with recreated temple at the far end was a pleasant surprise. The museum, while old-fashioned in layout, had many interesting and unusual artefacts, particularly the well-preserved leather and textiles which I’ve never before seen in such quantities. The world-famous Vindolanda Tablets are kept at the British Museum and none could be seen here, which was a pity, although there was an extensive display about their discovery and contents. Just down the lane outside stands the only Roman milestone in its original position.

We also had a day in Newcastle: first we went to the Laing Art Gallery, where strangely there was a display of work by David Jones, a poet and artist I had been reading about recently and wondering where I could see some of his work – most of it was on loan from the Tate. There are also two classic Burne-Jones paintings and Holman Hunt’s Isabella and the Pot of Basil.

The Hancock Museum nearby houses the contents of the former Museum of Antiquities, mainly from the Wall. The best section for me was the recreated Mithraeum from Carrawburgh, which we had visited a couple of days previously – the carving of Mithras being born from the Cosmic Egg with some of the earliest depictions of the astrological signs was fascinating. I have visited Mithraea in many parts of the Western Empire – if only the sad remains in London could be re-housed more sensitively and with a suitably numinous atmosphere. The whole trip made me realise that Hadrian’s Wall and its associated forts probably provide the most important group of Roman remains in Britain.

Cocteau and Hallogallo

Last Monday’s screening of Blood of a Poet by Jean Cocteau at St Mary’s in the Castle Hastings was a great success in my opinion. The screen was as large as a full-size cinema and the projection quality and sound were great. About 50 people were there, more than I had expected; apparently only 8 tickets were sold in advance, one to me. Steven Severin provided a ‘live’ soundtrack with his Powerbook which, despite my initial reservations, fitted well with the bizarre images. I had not seen this film before and it still impresses after all these years: the image of the talking mouth superimposed on a hand is famous and I finally realised the origin of the still used on the sleeve of a Rip Rig and Panic single I once owned. Lee Miller, Surrealist muse, major photographer and wife of Roland Penrose puts in an appearance – they lived near the Downs in Sussex and I believe their house is sometimes open to visitors – I must investigate. Met Severin briefly outside afterwards when he was having a smoke – he signed a cd I bought of the soundtrack – told him how much I loved The Scream; it’s great that events like this are taking place in Hastings.

On Thursday night I hurried along to the Barbican after work to catch Hallogallo 2010, a trio consisting of Michael Rother on guitar and electronics, Steve Shelley (drummer in Sonic Youth who I used to see very often in the 1980s) and Aaron Mullen on bass. It was billed as ‘Michael Rother and friends present the music of Neu’, although I only fully recognised one Neu song (Hallogallo itself) - I read later that they also played Fur Immer and Negativland, I believe some Harmonia music was in there as well. Nevertheless the Neu incessant motorik beat was ubiquitous throughout and it was exciting to hear this music played live and at a reasonably loud volume – someone kept shouting out to turn the guitar up, which Rother obligingly did.

Rother looks in remarkably good nick for a 60-year-old – I can’t imagine they (original drummer Klaus Dinger died in 2008) played live much over here in the 1970s, if at all, but their music has gradually become very influential on a number of rock groups. In my naivety I assumed, when I used to go to early Stereolab concerts, that the monotonous driving two chord sound was all their own – imagine my surprise when I heard the first Neu lp some years later. Neu’s music is timeless - my own favourite is probably the second lp even though most of the second side consists of slowed down and speeded up versions of the pieces on the first side – the second song seems to have invented the Jesus and Mary Chain 10 years early. Last week Rother introduced a number of ambient sections, but the drums soon re-entered, Shelley doing sterling work at bashing away relentlessly. The guitar was much more ‘rocky’ and overdriven than on the records - one of the interesting features of the originals is the relatively self-effacing guitar sound and I imagine some members of the audience might have had problems with that; I did, but I got used to it fairly quickly. This was after all a modern interpretation of the music and these days Rother seems to favour a heavier approach.

Support was from Seefeel, although I suppose Stereolab would have been the (too) obvious choice – only caught 15 minutes of their set – the live sampled guitar seemed a bit old hat now. I used to love their cd Quique in the early 90s but never got to see them live.