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Mike

About Me

Somewhere east of the Pecos and west of nowhere is the mythical kingdom of the Isle of Wight where a pit has been dug in the garden of an old colonial home called Dimbola where once Lewis Carroll came empty handed without a snark and Alice fell down the hole and met the white rabbit called Grace.Therein the story began and the lady Elizabeth used the top soil to grow wild flowers and vegetables in the big house that looks over the bay. Years later Dr. Hinton supervised the setting down of a statue to commemorate the meeting of psychedlia with Victoriana which the Queen, the good Queen Victoria had begun by taking a little known weed in her tea and now here was Jimi peeping over the briar hedge down to Plumbley's hotel and the bayand a bugle call rang across the high down like a breeze calling from the sea, it was trumpeter Landfrey calling the charge, the charge that sent the brave 600 into the valley at Balaclava on that very self same bugle and Tom Rapp took a transulcent carriage to Compton with Robyn Hitchcock.And all was well till Virginia Wolfe sued the Miscreant for his play Freshwater, a slight return.

My Blog

A Ticket to Ryde

A ticket to Ryde.. It is the spring of 1996, late afternoon in San Francisco, I am sat on a motel bed, having a brief phone conversation with a man born three days before me on our diamond Wight islan...
Posted by on Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:45:00 GMT

Close On Winter

This is the first of a number of articles in the 'wide string tremelo' series a loose salute to South by South Central promoting music at the Railway in Winchester   Peter Bruntnell at the Rai...
Posted by on Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:52:00 GMT

New York Tendaberry

Picked up a copy of New York Tendaberry by Laura Nyro last week and the music and my trip to New York once kinda brought this affectionate piece to her: NEW YORK TENDABERRY A cup of coffeefrom an all ...
Posted by on Mon, 05 Nov 2007 02:17:00 GMT

Six Shooter Special

  Out on the weekend   It's Sunday night at the Railway, a music pub away from the razzle of Winchester's main streets. The small empty stage is lit like an episode from Peter Kay's Phoeni...
Posted by on Tue, 09 Oct 2007 08:16:00 GMT

A tequila and a taco stand

http://www.myspace.com/sxsc  A tequila and a taco stand Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express Bob Frank and John Murray At the Talking Heads, Southampton Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 Ther...
Posted by on Fri, 05 Oct 2007 05:07:00 GMT

Zero She Flies work in progress

I stole the title off Al Stewart, work in progress for the folk club . . .   Zero She Flies We ran like the wind and Tried to fly like the birds You're touched they said, it's absurd We made b...
Posted by on Thu, 20 Sep 2007 08:40:00 GMT

Three colours and their blue . . .

www.platformtavern.com Newspapers always get things wrong and I'm glad that the Echo did this time. A friend emailed to say she'd read that JC and Angelina Grimshaw were playing at the Platform this ...
Posted by on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:53:00 GMT

The Adventures of Palamino Red

www.myspace.com/theredlandspalaminoco www.myspace.com/rachellevanzanten The Redlands Palamino Company / Rachel Van Zanten at the Railway Winchester, Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 The adventures of P...
Posted by on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:24:00 GMT

Les Payne live at Quay Arts, Newport

Always going home Les Payne and me and our dirty old river Medina www.lespayne.com Wherever I travel I have to get back home to my diamond Wight island. Such it is with all of us born here, the turn ...
Posted by on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:13:00 GMT

Bees Wing a night at Bishops Waltham Folk Club

Bees wing "she was a rare thing As fine as a bees wing" For me, music is about communication on a personal level rather than a ritualised mass. Less Nuremberg, more Billie Holiday singing Loverman in ...
Posted by on Thu, 09 Aug 2007 09:12:00 GMT