FOLK SINGER

She sits cross-legged,

guitar nestling

on her right thigh,

singing Tim Hardin songs,

perfect pitch,

perfect form,

like the tear in her eye.

IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME!

I was there when 
the Minoans emerged in Crete,

the Mycenaeans arrived in Greece,


civilisation collapsed,


the Dorians invaded,


the colonies were founded,


Athens entered its golden age,

and the Hellenistic era 
emerged,

only to fall when the Romans came.



My table weighs heavy with myths


as I ponder another Bushmills tumbler.



I look at Plato, Saucero, Knifeo, Forko, Spoono,

and bang my head in boredom slumber.

MANDY BINGHAM - SINGER/SONGWRITER

Every once in a while, you hear a song, music, a voice, a lyric that forces you to stop what you are doing and just listen.  So much popular music is throwaway, ho-hum stuff that is just noise at the end of the day.  But, sometimes, and not often enough, something special emerges and stops you in your tracks.

I bring you news of a stunning 6-song collection from Northern Ireland singer-songwriter Mandy Bingham.



The album can be sampled and downloaded via Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mandy-Bingham-Vol-1/dp/B00XA035S6/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1436089255&sr=1-1&keywords=mandy+bingham and, I'm sure, other outlets.  I urge you to check it out and invest £4.49 to the benefit of your head, heart and soul.

I listened to the 6 tracks on Spotify.  I'm listening now as I write this.

The opening track, Turn Out The Light, is as atmospheric a song as you are ever likely to hear.  The percussion is addictive and the lyrics are heartbreaking and sung beautifully. Stunning.

Calm Before The Storm - "It's like sleeping with the enemy, holding tightly to your hand, it's like crawling through a quagmire looking for a place to land......" A relationship is analysed with raw honesty and a weariness that just wants you to reach in, hug the singer and see her safely on her way to a better place. Sublime.

"I'm struggling with the world I'm living in....." sings Mandy on Oblivion as she yearns for some escape, some solitude, time to clear the head and escape the complications of life.  It sounds morose but the arrangement has an optimistic bounce to it. Great drums and guitar playing, as well as the vocal performance make this a memorable track. Outstanding.

The most emotional song of the 6 is If This Is Love - "If this is love, I don't think I have the heart for it......" I mentioned rawness and honesty earlier but this sad song moves us up several levels.  This is heart and soul bared, disappointment and regret on display for all to hear.  Simple guitar background and close-up singing leads you to believe that you, the listener, are a shoulder to cry on, a friendly ear.
Heartbreaking.

When I read the title - The Chicken Song - I braced myself for a daft novelty track but what I heard was a gentle country tune, almost the exact opposite of If This Is Love.  It is an upbeat song, a sort of lifestyle list of wishes, (including chickens in the yard), and lots of nice dreams and ambitions.  It bounces along and, after a few plays, I know I'd be singing the chorus. Lovely.

The 6th track is a remix by Ryan Vail of If This Is Love - moody, electronic, experimental and, sorry for the boring word, interesting.  I much prefer the original track but it is never wrong nor bad for an artist to rework or reshape material. A grower?

Mandy Bingham Vol. 1 is a classy collection of songs written and sung by one of the most refreshing and confident singers I have heard in a long time. The musicians, the arrangements and the production are all exceptional. I urge you to check it out, sample it and buy it.  If you are not impressed, then I don't know what's the matter with you.

Good luck with it, Mandy.  It deserves to be a big success and a ticket to even greater things. Roll on Vol. 2.

This blog post has been shared on Reddit, Digg, Twitter and Facebook

LETTER FROM STEPHEN BOYD'S WIFE, ELIZABETH

Stephen Boyd 4 July 1931 - 2 June 1977



When I began researching the life and work of Stephen Boyd in the early 1980s, I wrote to Elizabeth Boyd, Stephen’s wife and she sent this reply on 14 May 1984, from Tarzana, California: 

“I do not feel any reason why you should not continue with your research for a proposed biography of my most beloved and talented husband Stephen Boyd.  I would, however, ask for your assurance that it will be done truthfully, in good taste and with the dignity he deserved.  I do not go along with the too often “dirty laundry sensationalism” literature that the bookshelves seem to be filled with

these days.  

We were two very private people, devoted to each other and lived our lives very quietly away from the Hollywood scene.  I am still devastated and unreconciled that he was taken so suddenly, and it is very difficult not to keep asking “Why?”  He was so very special, and had so much talent left to give this troubled world.”  

Hopefully whatever I have written and said since has been honourable to both of them.

RIP Stephen Boyd.

RIP Elizabeth Boyd.

JAMES ELLIS IN LEICESTER SQUARE

Following on from yesterday's post - here are a couple of photographs from Saturday 3 July 2010 during the filming of the BBC NI TV documentary "Stephen Boyd: The Man Who Never Was".

Outside the Odeon cinema, Leicester Square, Davy Kilpatrick (Clean Slate TV) discussing a shot with Jimmy Ellis.  The back of the head belongs to ace cameraman Mark Garrett.

Jimmy, Davy and Mark.

Jimmy and Davy.

During the filming on that Saturday evening, Leicester Square was busy, as usual, but made even busier by additional people in London for that day's Gay Pride march.  Crowds in high and good spirits watched and wondered what was going on.  A couple asked me who Jimmy was.  I explained and they followed him around, as he was being filmed, as if he was a rock star. 

A memorable weekend.

JAMES ELLIS, STEPHEN BOYD & ME

Film star Stephen Boyd would have been 84 this coming Sunday 4 July.  Here's a little memory from five years ago, when I was contributing to a TV documentary on his life and work.  On 3 July 2010, I met James Ellis for the first time.

Me, Jimmy Ellis, Davy Kilpatrick, Conor Kilpatrick

outside St Pancras Station, London, Sunday 4 July 2010

Sometime in 2007 or 2008, I had a notion to really do something positive with all the valuable biographical material I had accumulated on Stephen Boyd.  I sent out a brief pitching note to various film, TV and radio production companies and heard nothing back, apart from one notable exception, about eighteen months later.

Davy Kilpatrick, from Belfast-based Clean Slate TV, contacted me to say that he was making a documentary of Stephen Boyd’s life and career for BBC Television in Northern Ireland.  The 30-minute film was to coincide, more or less, with what would have been Boyd’s 80^th birthday.  Davy asked, based on my archive, if I would like to get involved and I said yes in a heartbeat.  

The icing on the cake was the mention that veteran actor James Ellis, a friend of Boyd’s, was on board already. The project was called “Stephen Boyd: The Man Who Never Was”.

On 3 July, 2010, I travelled to London to meet Davy and the other crew members, cameraman Mark Garrett and Davy’s son Conor. In addition, I was to meet Jimmy Ellis, a thrill beyond belief, for James Ellis is, of course, a Belfast acting icon (“Z Cars”, “The Billy Plays” and so much more).  From the first handshakes in the hotel lobby, we were all at once at ease, perhaps due to that Irish hospitality thing that just tends to work anywhere in the world. 

We filmed that Saturday evening in Leicester Square, outside the Odeon cinema where Stephen Boyd had guarded the door all those years ago. Jimmy, in his pieces to camera, got genuinely emotional at times as he remembered his friend. I was happy to carry a piece of gear and observe the technical expertise of Davy Kilpatrick et al, and to watch Jimmy Ellis in action.

Later, after a Chinese meal in Soho, we all headed back to the hotel bar for a drink and chat.  Jimmy was on fine form with his stories and as the night of the 3 July eased into the early morning minutes of the 4 July, we toasted Stephen Boyd’s birthday.

TWO SUPERB BOOKS - TERRY PRATCHETT & CARLO GEBLER

I have read a lot of great books in the past few months but two stand out for particular reasons - or one reason they both share.  They are written by writers talking a lot about writing and the business of being a writer, as well as other things that affect them, interest them, annoy them and inspire them.

I recommend both books highly as they are especially useful and entertaining for writers trying to be better writers.  Don't miss them. Outstanding.

The first is a collection of non-fiction pieces by Sir Terry Pratchett, including speeches, newspaper articles, notes and observations, etc.

Terry Pratchett in his own words. With a foreword by Neil Gaiman Terry Pratchett earned a place in the hearts of readers the world over with his bestselling Discworld series - but in recent years he became equally well-known as an outspoken campaigner for causes including Alzheimer's research and animal rights. A Slip of the Keyboard brings together the best of Pratchett's non fiction writing on his life, on his work, and on the weirdness of the world: from Granny Pratchett to Gandalf's love life; from banana daiquiris to books that inspired him; from getting started as a writer to the injustices that he fought to end. With his trademark humour, humanity and unforgettable way with words, this collection offers an insight behind the scenes of Discworld into a much loved and much missed figure - man and boy, bibliophile and computer geek, champion of hats, orang-utans and the right to a good death.

Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 9780552167727

The second is by Carlo Gebler, a collection comprising memoir, opinions on literature and the literary business, why he writes and how he must keep going to earn a crust.

Catastrophist, a person who regards historical or political events as progressively disastrous; a pessimist.   - Oxford English Dictionary
Over a long career, Carlo Gébler has written an enormous variety of material including drama for the screen, stage and radio, long and short fiction, memoir, history and travel. He has not, however, written a cookery book though he realizes he might have to. If he does it will be called Burnt Dinners, of course.
When he started writing seriously in the late 1970s there was no internet and publishers liked to lunch. Three decades on the literary world has changed: most significantly, it seems no longer congenial or welcoming to literature or those who try to make literature.
As a catastrophist who never doubted from the moment he started that conditions in what he calls the Kingdom of Letters would only get worse, Carlo Gébler is not in the least surprised by how things have turned out. It was always going to go downhill (how could it not?) and in his Confessions he describes that process but in his own personal, idiosyncratic and caustic way.
The book is an intriguing mixture of pungent, fierce and striking memoir with pithy mordant notes on the literary trade, on the books he’s written and why he wrote them, and on the difficult business of negotiating a way through the thickets and trying to make a living.
It is not a sour book (hopefully): it is a funny book (hopefully), it is unquestionably a true book, true about literature and the innumerable humiliations peculiar to it.

Publisher: Lagan Press

ISBN : 9781908188372