When
war broke out, many animal owners were unable to care for their pets and
they ended up in the street. Other owners were killed or had fled the
country and their dogs, cats and other pets were abandoned. Those
that survived best were the mongrels. In the aftermath of war, you
never saw pedigree dogs: the French poodles, Chihuahuas and Lhasa
Apsos. They were war’s early victims, too far away from their
ancestral stock to live alone for very long, too slow and small to
gain advantage in the race for scraps of food. During and after the
war, the police organized hunts to cull the survivors, but, many
years later, the crafty and the hardy still roamed the streets of the
towns and cities. Some of them were heroes. One of these in Mostar,
Heki, was a footsore mongrel who hung about in the old town begging
food from cafés and passers-by. He had four separate pieces of
shrapnel in his body, one of them lodged in his brain. He limped
around and somehow survived. His home was the Ruza; the shelled ruins
of a tourist hotel constructed in the 1970’s, across a tributary
that falls into the Neretva River close to the Old Bridge. It was
completely destroyed, but you could still read the fading signs to
the “terrace bar”, the “sauna” and “hairdresser.” Heki
was its longest-standing guest and when you didn't see him there, you
could hear him padding around in the rubble. Whether from
brain-damage, resignation or because he'd had his fill of war, Heki
was a passive dog with neither bark nor bite. Buildings don’t need
their ghosts. They are ghosts. I often peered inside this hotel and
the many other shelled homes, offices and shops and felt a tangible
memory, a feeling that if you touched the bullet holes and
plaster-shattered walls, you would discover the truth of the
building, its happiness and sadness. The Second World War spy
warning - “walls have ears” could have had added to it that
“walls have memories.” If that is true of buildings, how much
more is it true of dogs. Read more about the 'Dogs of War' in 'Left Field'.
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced" - James Baldwin
Tuesday 30 June 2015
Friday 26 June 2015
From Glastonbury to Greeks against austerity
Dubioza Kolektiv's visit to my Spanish 'party' gave me the idea for the final chapter in 'Left Field'. I thank them for that, but more importantly wish them all best for their Sunday night gig at Glastonbury. If you are there go to Shanri-La stage . If not there catch them on TV. They are very exciting and not to be missed. 'Left Field' is packed full of musicians and their stories – from DK to Rachid Taha/Brian Eno, from Tom Morello to Matt Black & Coldcut, Eric Clapton to Elton John. Read about the Pavarotti & Friends gigs, Paul McCartney in St Petersburg and the War Child 'Help' album. Order your copy of LF here. STOP PRESS: Support the Greek people in the bailout referendum on 5 July. They are at the cutting edge of the fight against austerity.
Tuesday 23 June 2015
Seventy miles speeding
La Torre de
Dalt is a large 'Mas' (a Catalan traditional farmhouse) in the hills
above Girona. It's the place where, for the last five years, Anne has
run her annual writing retreats. When her course ended this June, I
hired it for a second week and invited friends and relatives to join
me. I told them this was a celebration for my 70th year, but it also
marked the completion of Left Field - bringing
together some of those who have played their part in my life and
without whom I would have had no memoir. I had worried how these
people from my past and present would mix: a political banner maker,
a businessman, a bereavement counsellor, musicians, writers and
journalists. I need not have. Widely and in some cases, wildly,
disparate people spent the week talking, eating, drinking, walking
and partying together. No one there will forget how we all fell in
love with Alice Kilroy as she encouraged us all, willingly or not,
towards the Revolution. The writers soon became known as the
'murmuration of writers' as they met in corners of the building to
create new work or read excerpts from their novels and poems. They
seemed to flock and flow through the building like birds. In the
evenings, during their 'open mic' nights, they read their work and
invited the rest of us to join them. Oha Maslo, who had driven from
Bosnia to Spain with Teo Krilic and his family, apologised for
turning down their invitation to hear them: “As soon a I see the
first comma,” he told me, “I go into a coma.” If I'd told him
that one person was writing a novel about setting up a whorehouse in
Australia, he might have forgotten his problems with punctuation
marks. In any case his apology was adopted by Julian Herbert, one of
the poets there, as the opening phrase for his paean to the week: Comma coma? Trace back
through castles, Until, until
they're in the sky, And we hold
hands together, While we
fly. Teo played
guitar while Oha joined him on the cajon drum. They sang Na Klepeci Nanulama – about a woman
hearing the clogs of her dead mother on the stairs. La Torre looks
across at the Cap de Creus above Cadaqués where Dali had his summer
home. Some guests visited his museum in Figueres, but they didn't
need to go there to experience the surreal. The week took
on a weirdly wonderful quality when the Balkan rock group, Dubioza
Kolektiv, dropped by. They were en
route from Barcelona to France, a tour which was to end at the
Glastonbury Festival. When someone asked them where they were from,
they answered from practically every country of ex-Yugoslavia. “What
was that war all about?” said Mario, “Here we are all together
again.” With funky haircuts and dressed in black they didn't touch
the bottle of whisky they had brought for me, but drank tea and
coffee and ate dainty biscuits. The whisky was emptied that evening,
but with no help from me. I am no longer allowed to drink much
alcohol. Oha and Teo shook their heads in bafflement each time I
turned down an offer of another beer or glass of wine. The only
advantage of not joining in, apart from staying alive, was that I was
able to talk a bit more sense. On the last day, Maureen Larkin read a 'haiku' for me, which pretty well sums up my life in 18
syllables: '70 miles
speeding, The cops
have not caught me
yet, No point
braking now'. Check out La Torre: The Film!
(Left Field has reached its target of 100% . If you
haven't bought your copy yet it's now 100% certain to be published)
Order here
Order here
PIC: Alice Kilroy' 'banner inspired by the haiku
Monday 15 June 2015
Rock band visits La Torre de Dalt
My
'birthday' week in Spain takes on an even more Dali-ish quality when
Oha tells me that Dubioza Kolektiv are coming round for tea. They
have been gigging in Spain and are 30 kilometres away on the road
from Barcelona to France. They are on a European tour which ends at
the Glastonbury Festival on 28 June. (Shangri
La and Glade stages for those going there this year). DB are returning to the UK on 21 November to perform at the 100
Club. They are known for their fresh take on hip-hop, reggae, dub, rock and
Bosnian folklore. The concept of the band has been to show
the rest of the world that life in the Balkans exists outside the overused media
stereotypes. Many of DB's
lyrics revolve around themes of peace, understanding and tolerance,
alongside criticism of nationalism and injustice. They are known in Bosnia for
lending
support to the country's first grass-roots civil society group “Dosta!”
and
their
album release party for album “Firma Ilegal” took place in front
of the Bosnian Parliament, in a powerful statement against government
corruption. Oha had been in DB as percussionist and singer and I was at their performance at the Arena stadium in Belgrade in April 2014
when he
made a guest performance which you can see here. Check
out the last five minutes.
It
was great to meet up again with Senad Šuta, who I knew when we were
both at the Pavarotti Music Centre, Adis, Amir, Vedran, Brano,
Armin, Mario and others. Yesterday
they
arrived with
a Carhu
single malt
whisky as a present
for
me.
Thank you guys. Hey, the bottle is empty
this morning! Want
to join me at the 100 Club in November? More about Bosnia and music in 'Left Field'
PIC: Dubioza Kolektiv with me at La Torre de Dalt, 15 June 2015: Teo, Oha and Senad Šuta are 2nd, 3rd and 4th from left
Commas and comas
La
Torre de Dalt is in the hills above Girona in Spain. We are less than
20 kilometres from Figueres, Salvador Dali's hometown, and this
gathering is as wonderful as his paintings. Thirty friends
and relatives from diverse backgrounds are
here and last night Teo Krilic played guitar for us. He opened with
Na klepeci Naunulama – my favourite traditional Bosnian sevdah
song. The words are those of a daughter hearing the clogs of her dead
mother on the stairs. We all remember our missing dead and some
of us our missing living as well. There are still a few writers here. They move around together and we have named them the 'murmuration of writers'. In the evenings they read their work and
last night invited Oha Maslo to join them. He laughed and apologised
for turning down the invitation: “As soon a I see the first comma I go into a coma.” I write looking across at the Cap
de Creus above Cadaqués
where
Dali had his summer home. Some of my guests are going to visit his
museum in Figueres this week, but they don't need to go there to
experience the weirdly wonderful. It's right here. And I think I am
going to have to write another chapter for 'Left Field'. Its title? 'Commas and comas'.
Saturday 13 June 2015
Grappaling with the music
Just finished Anne Aylor's 6th novel writing course at La Torre, Spain. Here she is cooling down with some of her students after an exhausting week for her. Now for a very different week with not a book in sight! Over 30 people have arrived to celebrate my first 70 years. I am happy to see them all and honoured that they are here. Most of all my two 'Mostar sons' - Oha and Teo - who drove for over 16 hours to be here. Oha came with his homemade grappa and Teo with his guitar. One guest asked if there was going to be a a fiesta. The grappa has all gone this morning and I am listening to Manu Chao. Teo is going to perform sevdah songs for us today. The fiesta has started. (You can read about Oha and Teo in Left Field' - they have a chapter to themselves. And about Anne and her courses here)
Tuesday 9 June 2015
Naïve art
Naïve
artists work without formal technical qualifications and with a
remarkable indifference to perspective. Uninfluenced by art
traditions, they paint pictures mirroring their memories, desires and
dreams. When most people think of naïve art, the names that come to
mind are Henri Rousseau and Grandma Moses, but southeast Europe has
produced many of these painters. Among the best known, the peasant, Ivan Generalić; the
postman, Ivan Lacković and the carpenter, Ivan Rabuzin. Rabuzin's buyers included Yul Brynner and Woody
Allen - you can see one in Annie
Hall. His pastel-coloured silk screen prints sold well in the Far
East and he was known in Germany, France, Italy and Japan, but his
reputation had never been established in Britain. My job was to find
a London gallery which would represent him … There
were only two possibilities, the
Portal Gallery, who represented Beryl Cook, and the Rona Gallery. The
Portal weren't
interested, but the Rona was. A
regular visitor there
was Mervyn Levy: writer, artist and art critic who’d been a
childhood friend of Dylan Thomas. Mervyn was a small, dapper man with
a moustache and neatly-clipped white beard. We planned to write a
play together about Dylan, based on Mervyn’s memories, and he would
invite me to the Chelsea Arts Club to discuss our project. We never
got far after the first bottle of wine. Read more about my years in the art world at Left Field.
Pic. Ivan Rabuzin
Sunday 7 June 2015
Dogs are our link to paradise
I
am excited that Russell Mills will design the book
cover for 'Left Field'. He is well known for his record covers -
Michael
Nyman, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Nine Inch Nails amongst
many others. His book covers include Milan Kundera's 'The
Unbearable Lightness of Being, Samuel
Beckett and Don DeLillo. I
like this from DeLillo: “I
think it's only in a crisis that Americans see other people. It has
to be an American crisis, of course. If two countries fight that do
not supply the Americans with some precious commodity, then the
education of the public does not take place. But when the dictator
falls, when the oil is threatened, then you turn on the television
and they tell you where the country is, what the language is, how to
pronounce the names of the leaders, what the religion is all about,
and maybe you can cut out recipes in the newspaper of Persian dishes.
There's
always a period of curious fear between the first sweet-smelling
breeze and the time when the rain comes cracking down. I've
come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback
version.” I
try to follow
Becket's,
“Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” But
having just written a new chapter for my book on the dogs of war, I
love this from Milan Kundera: “Dogs
are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or
discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon
is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing is not boring--it is peace.” Watch
this space for news on Left Field's progress to publication and buy
the book here
Friday 5 June 2015
Spirit of the music
Doing
final edits on Left Field, I came across Pay-Uun
Hiu's amazing article
in de
Volkskrant from
December
1997. Writing
about the opening of the Pavarotti Music centre, she had this to say
about Eugene Skeef: "Born
in South Africa and former co-worker of Steve Biko in the Seventies,
Skeef
is
a phenomenal drummer and has an equally phenomenal gift for music
communication. In the small room, with a view of the strip of land
where an aromatic herb garden is planned to bloom, it is impossible
not to hear the forceful call of Skeef’s djembe.
With Skeef there is no place for quasi-serious or quasi-creative
playing. “Focus,” he demands, while rolling his dreadlocks into a
ponytail. “Do not play before I ask you to! Concentrate! Watch each
other. We want to get into the spirit of the music.” Gradually the
workshop takes on the air of an almost magical ritual. Every single
player gets into the rhythm of his own rhythmic pattern which
corresponds with the rhythmical pattern of the djembe
trio formed by Skeef, Oha and Peter Vilk, a young English drummer and
music psychologist. Through repetition of the pattern not a single
part of the body is left unaffected by the sound. The lower djembe
tones go right through your diaphragm and with their long waves
provide a feeling of stability and calmness. The higher tones in the
faster patterns work directly on the muscles and absorb all the
concentration until everybody’s attention is solely focused on the
music. When this level of concentration has been reached, Skeef
increases the intensity and complexity. He not only increases the
tempo, but also the difficult rhythmic combinations and the tempo in
which the patterns change. With extreme precision he moves every
participant just a tiny bit over their limits, while stimulating them
with his djembe.
His voice has become like a hurricane: 'power, power, man! Keep going!
Keep watching.' Hands no longer feel pain, legs and feet are moving by
themselves. Then Skeef lets his drummers go. The rhythms slow down
and the drummers become kids again. 'Relax, relax. That was real
power energy, man,' he says."
STOP PRESS
Russell Mills has agreed to design the book cover. He has produced record covers for Michael Nyman, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Nine Inch Nails and book covers for authors such as Milan Kundera. Left Field will be published in March 2016.
Writing in Spain
I am back at La Torre de Dalt in Spain
to help Anne Aylor run her annual creative writing course. This
is now in its 6th year and I am looking forward to this week, including G&Ts in Banyoles where this pic is taken. The work is not too onerous, her students are lovely and our chef,
Lee Pennington, is amazing. Not just for his food, but his radical Manchester humour. I have learned a lot about cooking from my time in
the kitchen with him. And after the course (pardon the pun) we are staying for a
further week with over 30 family and friends to celebrate my 70th!
My two Mostar 'sons', Oha and Teo, are coming from Bosnia so there will
be a lot of drinking and music. I am not able to drink any more so
will have to play guitar! You can read more about Anne, Oha, Teo, and my family in 'Left Field'
Monday 1 June 2015
Pavarotti dips into wall art
Writing my last blog about street art reminded me of the opening of the Pavarotti Music Centre. Weeks before the tenor arrived, children had decorated the art room with their hand prints. This gave us the idea to have Pavarotti and the other guests place theirs under the tablet we had made to commemorate
the opening. We arranged for trays of paint to be
prepared for this. When Pavarotti’s head of security saw two children standing at the side with the trays, he told me that the
last time this had happened was at an Italian school and paint had
ended up on Pavarotti’s clothes. I
was about to order the graffiti exercise cancelled when, to my
horror, the children stepped through the crowd just
as Pavarotti, Bono and Brian Eno were unveiling the memorial.
Pavarotti gleefully covered his hands with poster paint, followed by the others. No one’s clothes were splashed. More on this opening at 'Left Field'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)