This is not the first and probably won’t be the last tribute to one of the UK’s most singular artists.
Previously there was a Vanishing Point/Citizens’ Theatre production, ‘Beautiful Cosmos‘, a few years ago, and the collective appearing tonight had an initial stab at a tribute, ‘Y’Hup‘, for Celtic Connections 2020.
For those who don’t know, Ivor Cutler was born in Glasgow but spent most of his adult life in England – holding down a regular teaching job, with his extra curricular activities of poetry and music he emerged into the avant-garde scene of swinging London. His eccentricity found favour with The Beatles, who cast him as bus conductor Buster Bloodvessel in the ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ film and while he never found real fame or fortune he remained a cult figure well into his later life, with many first coming across him on the Peel show, for whom he recorded 22 sessions, and where his numerous extracts of ‘Life in a Scottish Sitting Room’ were by turns hilarious and deeply weird. As referenced later in this review he also had some truck with the area local to this venue growing up so the setting for this seemed especially apposite.
And so it is that we are at the Glad where a massive array of instruments is piled on the stage – the Glasgow Dreamers collective take the stage and we begin, quite gently with a spoken word extract from Cutler’s partner (Phyllis King). The Dreamers are masterminded by Canadian expat Matt Brennan who plays drums and narrates at times, joined by Malcolm Benzie (guitar, occasional vocal), Clarissa Cheong (bass and double bass/vocals) along with most recent recruit (another Canadian) LT Leif on keyboards/vocals and other keyed things. Out front we have Raymond MacDonald (vocals, sax, guitar and harmonium), Emma Pollok (vocals) and Rick Redbeard (vocals).
Couple of interesting things here – the harmonium, a somewhat battered thing with carrying handles and operated by foot paddles, was originally owned by the man himself, was rejected by him as too temperamental during a Glasgow Pavilion appearance in the 80s, languished in said theatre for some time until it was purloined by Celtic Connections current director Donald Shaw, or so the story goes (sounds more like an urban myth but there you go…). Given the sweat that Raymond built up playing it, the thing might have been better left in the Pavilion…
A lot of the material used here is from Cutler’s 1959 recording ‘Ivor Cutler of Y’Hup’ which tells of a mysterious island off the coast of Britain (Cutler tried to convince people it was real) inhabited by fantastical creatures and with weird weather effects. So we got quite a few recitations and songs about birds and insects, with plenty of cowbells (ie tons!) and other percussion. There was an onstage discussion regarding whether birds are animals and Raymond had his first go of the night on the harmonium. Better know tracks like ‘I’m Happy – Punch’ were given a more vigorous treatment and the ensemble nature of the whole event was emphasised by several acapella group renditions of the ‘I’ve Got No Common Sense’ refrain by everyone.
There was an interval, a narration regarding young Ivor and his grandfather’s visit to the nearby Queen’s Park pond (which drew a lot of laughter from the audience), further songs about mud, cowdung, muscular trees and bugs – at times the players, especially Emma, were finding it hard not to corpse, particularly at Raymond’s exertions on the harmonium. There was a tribute message from Soft Machine/English rock godfather Robert Wyatt (who had worked with IC at one time) which was very sweet, a reminder that this is the centenary year of the great man’s birth (he also attended nearby Shawlands Academy for a time) and the main set ended with a rousing version of ‘Women of the World’ which to these ears sounds like an anthem whose resonance has only become stronger and more relevant over the years since Cutler wrote it in 1983.
An encore looked unlikely but the ensemble returned for a version of ‘Beautiful Cosmos’, joined by additional vocalist Anna Myles to top off a great evening – credits were also called out (and were very much due) for Kim of the Glad for the organisation, the redoubtable as usual Jer Reid on the sound desk. More cowbell!