My Heart on Rory's Sleeve

 

It's wonderful that vinyl has made such a great comeback... and with it the return of sleevenotes.

I'm particularly pleased with the 3,000-word booklet accompanying the new triple LP from Rory Gallagher – not so much because I wrote it... but because I was asked to write it. And that was genuinely one of the outstanding honours of my long career in journalism.

The blues-rock guitar genius Gallagher died prematurely in 1995, and I am glad to say that I lost count of the number of times I saw him play live. Thankfully, one of those occasions was his appearance at London's Town and Country in 1990.

It was my Evening Standard review of that night that led to my being involved in the production of the beautifully packaged new album All Around Man – Rory Gallagher Live In London.

Rory's nephew Daniel – whose father, Donal, was Rory's manager – saw a cutting of that review, tracked me down and asked if I would write an essay to accompany the release of the live recording.

I said yes immediately – even before I'd heard the tracks. Rory's performances were anyway still fresh in my mind – and a bonus was that I had also met and interviewed him around that time.

The rest is now part of blues history... and I'm beyond delighted to be a part of it too.

Chicks Storm The Castle

 

The Chicks at Cardiff   Photo©Nigel Summerley

I seem to be making a habit of attending great gigs in the grounds of ancient fortifications...

After seeing Dylan at the Alhambra [see previous blog], I found myself at Cardiff Castle for another sublime performance – this time by the Chicks.

Formerly the Dixie Chicks (but dropping the politically incorrect Dixie a while back), the Chicks are Texans with a twist: they opposed the Iraq war and they have pilloried the fakeness of Donald Trump. Their liberal and feminist standpoints didn't play well with some US country fans and radio stations, but they did cement the band's reputation for being unafraid of singing "protest" songs and handling the attendant controversies.

These three country women also rock and swing like the proverbial clappers – and their sweet vocal harmonies combined with razor-sharp songwriting are an irresistible combination.

They are the most acceptable face of so-called "new country", much of which is formulaic and anodyne. These women have immense talent – and they're not afraid to use it.

On A Night Like This...

 

On stage, Bob Dylan tends to be a man of few words – but then, why would the most creative and articulate lyricist of the 20th and 21st centuries need to say anything between his songs?

He made an exception the other night, however, when he played an extraordinary gig in the gardens of the Alhambra in Granada.

"Such a beautiful place to play... I wish it was like this every night," he said.

I think those of us privileged to be there in the audience had similar feelings. A Dylan concert is almost guaranteed to be memorable... but this one really was something else.

The Spanish ladies and gents were dressed in their finery, the gardens were warm and fragrant, and Dylan and his travelling band played great song after great song, beneath the darkening sky and amid the lovely trees and greenery of the Generalife.

Everything sure felt right... on a night like this...

A Sign That Something's Wrong

 

Photo©Nigel Summerley

Pictured above is the new sign that has appeared at the entrance to the most remarkable site on Ithaca... 

It's difficult to believe this is how the authorities are promoting a place that was described by Homer as the Palace of Odysseus – and unequivocally confirmed as such in recent times by the esteemed archaeologist Thanasis Papadopoulos, who studied the extensive Mycenaean remains here.

There's a further "explanatory" sign nearby (pictured below), which conveys precisely nothing – apart from labelling the site as Agios Athanasios (the name of the latterday church on the site which had absolutely no connection with Odysseus, apart from employing building material purloined from the much older palace).

The epic The Odyssey was arguably one of the greatest stories ever told and the foundation of western literature... Does Ithaca care nothing for the fact it has a site of such huge cultural significance crumbling away in a neglected corner of the island?

It is certainly not caring for the site, which lost vital coverings in a hurricane three years ago.

Nor is it providing any real information for curious visitors to the site, who can end up wandering about, not knowing what they are looking at.

The architect Dimitris Skirgiannis produced beautiful and detailed representations of what the Palace of Odysseus probably looked like, based on the work of archaeologist Litsa Kontorli-Papadopoulou. These drawings could be reproduced at the site, with a key to all the relevant locations there. This would cost almost nothing.

Meanwhile, it is left to the excellent exhibition set up by – and thanks to the passion of – Dimitris Paizis-Danias, in the nearby village of Stavros, to lay out in detail why this site is so important and why it is so clearly linked to the times and the tales of Odysseus.

Anyone with a serious interest in the remarkable legacy that Ithaca seems to be doing its best to ignore should read Papadopoulos's testament, The Excavation at Agios Athansios, which is now available on Amazon.

It would be rather good if the powers-that-be took a look at it too...

Back To The Palace

Stairway to Penelope's place   Photo©Nigel Summerley

 

Something magical always seems to happen whenever I visit the remains of the Palace of Odysseus on Ithaca.

This time I was at the apparently deserted site with friend, colleague and author Jane Cochrane.

While she disappeared up into the higher reaches of the ruins, I sat half-meditating in the remains of the megaron, the main hall, where Homer set Odysseus's bloody massacre of the suitors of his wife, Penelope.

After a while I took the ancient stairway that would have led up to the quarters of Penelope and her women. As I turned to look back down into the main hall, a young woman appeared, also apparently taking in the atmosphere of the place. 

I returned to the megaron to say hello and asked her if she knew much about the site. No, she said, but she wanted to. She had picked up on the powerful energy of the palace.

I gave her a verbal guided tour from Homer to the present day, and told her how I had worked with Jane on the hiking guidebook Walking In The Footsteps Of Odysseus.

I wanted to introduce her to Jane but she was still nowhere to be seen, and the Dutch visitor explained that she had to leave soon to catch a boat.

I gave her Jane's contact details, and the following day she was in touch to say that she had bought Odysseus' Island (prequel to Walking In The Footsteps), was really enjoying it, and was sure she would return to Ithaca – because she had drunk from the spring of Kalamos.

That's the old belief: that those who drink that water will come back to the island.

I suddenly realised that on this, my third visit to Ithaca I had visited the spring but not drunk the water, so maybe I would never return again.

Then I remembered that Jane had filled up her water containers at the spring... and I had drunk numerous cups of tea made from it.

Does that count? I guess we'll see.

Odysseus Belongs To Ithaca

There have been many attempts over recent years to suggest that  Ithaca, home of Odysseus, is not really Homeric Ithaca and not really the home of Odysseus.

Alternative theories have ranged from the bonkers to the pseudo-academically argued, and one of the most irritating is the claim of some on neighbouring Kefalonia that Kefalonia (surprise!) is actually where Odysseus ruled from.

I don't have the space here to go into the ludicrousness of all these claims. Instead, I would recommend again reading The Excavation at Agios Athanasios/School of Homer – The Archaeological Evidence for the Palace of Odysseus on Ithaca by Professor Thanasis J Papadopoulos.

On my latest visit to Ithaca I had to travel via Kefalonia – which now feels like kind of enemy territory – but I was glad to see that at least the tablecloth at the Kefalonian dockside taverna where I waited for my boat located our hero in exactly the right place (see picture above).

Beautiful Ithaca  Photo©Nigel Summerley

Clear Waters

 

I had the absolute pleasure of seeing Roger Waters in concert in London last night.

I'm no Pink Floyd fan but I have to say this was one of the most remarkable and spectacular rock shows I have ever attended.

And before I get much further into this, I'd like to make the point that Waters is clearly NOT antisemitic.

What he IS is outspokenly anti Israel's treatment of the Palestinians (along with being anti nukes, anti capitalism, and anti the military/industrial complex). That does not equate to antisemitism. If it did, then that label could be attached to a lot of us.

Waters has had the guts to stick to his musical and political guns for decades – and for that he surely deserves admiration rather than abuse. The political pygmies who have made headlines calling for a ban on his performances clearly have no interest in what he is actually saying, doing and singing about. They have their own agendas.

Of course, he is, for his own reasons, also extremely anti-David Gilmour. The overpowering light show that accompanied some of the most memorable rock songs of the Floyd/Waters past featured many images of his old band, but there was a lot of Syd Barrett and not one picture of Gilmour.

The only time during the evening that Waters allowed himself to get really nasty was when he addressed the accusation of antisemitism directed at him by Gilmour's wife, Polly Samson.

What he said about her is perhaps best not repeated here... let's just say this is a man who speaks his mind.