Julian Cope - Live Liverpool Uni 27th October 2003

Here's a great gig from 2003 from the Copester, pretty good sound quality for an audience recording.
Nice mix of Braindonor material and earlier stuff. The tracks from 'St. Julian' get a full metal overhaul which works surprisingly well considering it was his great short haired pop comeback. There's also one track, 'Shrine Of The Black Youth' from the 'Rome Wasn't Burned In A Day' Tour CD. All in all, one of the better Cope gigs I've been to.I've split the concert into 2 discs and edited it for audience noise, have a listen  Here.

Stonehenge - Where The Vikings Dwell.

I've collected lots of old maps and guide books over the years and found I have quite a few for Stonehenge. These go back to 1920 and I thought I'd share a few of my favourites with you.

This is a wonderful book dating from before the Stonehenge reconstruction of 1958. Much of the information included is now dis-proven and vastly out of date, but what can you expect from a book first published in 1919.
I found a ticket stub for the day of visit in the middle pages. I like to think that amongst the turmoil and devastation of WWI, someone took a lazy summers day to ponder the bigger picture. Some beautifully simple hand drawn illustrations to in that 1920's style.

The next batch are some photos taken from the R.J.C. Atkinson book 'Stonehenge'. I think i read somewhere that during his lifetime he never officially published any of the excavation reports for Stonehenge or Silbury Hill to name just two, and after his death, a mountain of undigested information came to light from, of all places, under his bed. He was apparently quite a secretive and paranoid man in spite of his 'professor' like public image. I can't read this book without a voice of cut glass vowels ringing in my head.

Julian Cope - Discover Odin

Julian Cope is one of my favourite musical artists, and I hope it's not to unbecoming to post this long out of print work.

Discover Odin was a Companion CD programme to 2 nights of spoken word and music at the British Museum, on the October 4-5, 2001 in London, showing that Odin, renowned as the warlike 'Allfather' of the Vikings, existed at the heart of European culture from prehistoric times, with vestiges of his influence surviving up until the 19th century.

This is what Julian's Site  Head Heritage has to say about it.

"The CD/Booklet that accompanied Julian's lectures at the British Museum on 4th and 5th October 2001 CE. A beautiful 10" x 5" presentation with 2000 word essay, this CD programme contains approximately 45 minutes of both spoken word and new music. There has been particular praise for "The 18 Charms of Odin" and the epic "Road to Yggdrasilbury".
The first 1000 copies were signed and numbered by Julian"

Well mine was numbered, but sadly, not signed. To me the best track is 'Ode to Wan' a short but crazed ditty to all the 'viking' words that still exist in the language of the UK, with some tasty mellotron too.
You can hear it Here.

Two Coil Gigs, St Johns Church, Gdansk & Megalithithomania, Conway Hall.

Ploughing through my CD archive, I turned up these two interesting shows I hadn't played in some time.
When Coil started touring again back in 2000, there was a real buzz and expectation about their shows, as many of us thought we'd never see them live in then current lineup. From then till the death of John Balance in 2004, they played around 45 shows all around the globe and a network of us grew sharing and recording various live events, as then, they were unavailable officially. The quality for most of the shows was surprisingly good for audience recordings, and a dozen or more shows came to light in that time, from places as far apart as Russia and the U.S.A. with a large swathe of  Europe taken in too. One 'official' CD/Video was produced at the time of a show in NYC dated 18 Aug 2001. The tracks for this show were the same 'Persistence Is All' set they played at the Royal Festival Hall on 19 Sept 2000. A full list of live show are listed Here.
You can pick up an official  DVD  box set release of most of these shows, but it is very limited, and tre expensive and may already be sold out. Full details at Threshold House.

 COIL - GDANSK

The first post is a great audience recording from Gdansk, Poland dated 25/10/2002. A friend from Belgium Hernando J kindly sent me this. The tracklist is the same for several other appearances from this period.
You can hear it Here.

MEGALITHOMANIA

This was a show I attended at Conway Hall dated 12 October 2002 as part of the 'Megalithomania' event.
Basically a day of talks about folklore, mythology and prehistory, it was a great day with the added buzz that Coil had recorded a special track for the event. You can hear it Here.
Drew Mullholland under the guise of 'Mount Vernon' Astral Temple' also played a wonderful show, with some amazing 'urban explorer' visuals of abandoned military sites and bunkers.
I picked up a great MVAL 'sigil' T-shirt at the time, with one of those great Cold War slogans on the back.
I particularly loved the sigil, as it looks like a simple graphical representation of 'Torquemada' from the comic 2000AD strip 'Nemesis'.

Dennis Wheatley - Gunmen, Gallants & Ghosts

This is one of my favourite Dennis Wheatley reads. First published in 1943, It's  a compendium of stories and articles he'd written up to that point, with the later Arrow edition (the one I have)  containing  several extra essays on the occult and black magic. I can see why it's out of print at the minute, as some of the language is, how shall I say, not very PC.
The first four stories are about a 'psychic' detective called Neils Orson.  Each story is prefaced with a short but informative author's note, and we learn that the psychic sleuth was modelled on Wheatleys 'psychic' friend Henry Dewhurst. The outcome of these stories inevitably have a 'rational' twist, but barrel along at a fairly enjoyable pace. The main characters for these tales seems owe more than a nod to psychic detective 'Flaxman Low' by E & H Heron  and W H Hodgeson' 'Carnacki'  supernatural investigator.
You can read a few Flaxmen tales online Here.
   Perhaps my favourite tale is a chapter taken from the Wheatley book 'Old Rowley, A Very Private Life of Charles II' which fairly gallops along at a pace that would make it a very favourable film adaption.
Here's a few pics of the edition I have with the contents page. The book is easily picked up on eBay or Amazon for cheaps, and I'd highly recommend it

Cover of Arrow Edition July 1971

Contents Page

Rear Cover

Weird Buys From Woolworths - Encyclopeadia Of Witchcraft & Demonology

From about 8 onwards, I became slightly obsessessed with all things Witchy & Supernatural. Amongst all the Mr Picwick records and Woolco odds and ends I spied this book which promised to answer all the questions that 'Dracula Lives, Children Of The Stones', 'Rentaghost', 'Monster Fun' and 'Scooby Do'  threw up in my tiny mind. I spent many a trip after school scouring It's pages till one Saturday I'd pooled enough pocket money and plucked up the courage to actually take it to the check out.
Needless to say, in 1977, the staff were having non of it.  So It became my 'raison D'etra' to obtain this item, and I vowed to my friends that I would have it!. On numerous occations I'd arrive at the counter bearing the book, often hidden under something less conspicuois, but the staff at my local Woolies turned me down time and time again, deeming it an unsuitable read for one at such and impressionable age. In the end, I bribed and cajolled my older sister into getting it for me, though I had to hide it from my Mom & Dad for years as I knew they wouldn't approve or understand my interest. To say I was chuffed as mustard to have it would be an understatement, and I became quite the 'Cause Celebre' amongst my pals for a while. The fact that some 32 years later I still own it is some indication that the book is actually worth keeping. Stuffed full of lavish illustrations, woodcuts and photos from all periods of witchcraft, and with a fairly informative text for such a 'general' account of the subject, it's something i still dip into from time to time. Most of the notorious witches and practitioners of the 70's are covered in the book , with Alex Sanders turning up more than most.
Fairly in depth accounts of Gerald Gardener, Aleister Crowley and all aspects of modern witchcrft are covered, as well as tools and practices, and a hefty 'gimoire' of demons and devils. All in all, it's a great read. And being slightly larger than A4, its a sizable book too. The AOS illustration used to freak me out a little back then though if I'm honest, as did the 'hand of glory'. Here's a few pics.

Cover Flysheet

Crowley Tarot 1

Crowley Tarot 2

Gerald Gardiner and Windmill Home

Witch Initiation In Graveyard - Cabbage Looking In Mufti!

Don't Mess With The Animals!

Austin Osman Spare Illustration

Back Flysheet - Alex Sanders & Initiates

Alex Sander Inner Flysheet - Tools Of The Trade

Leah Hirsig Illustration for Crowley, His Cane &  A Leah Hirsig Photo

Final Bunch Of Broadcast Compilation Appearances Collected.

Here's the last bunch of Broadcast compilation tracks I have. Most are from Warp albums celebrating 10 or 20 years of the label, with one 'cover' of 'I Found The F' by Gravenhurst.
There's also the all on his lonesome 'Green Pete'r track included, though I'm sure you have it already.
Have a listen Here