Ivor Cutler FT Mini-profile

[Tom Roche]

 http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/articles.html?id=010414003656&query=bbc



   Weekend (Cult Heroes): Ivor Cutler
   Irish Times; Apr 14, 2001
   
   Born on January 15th, 1923, in Glasgow, absurdist poet/ songwriter
   Ivor Cutler has spent the past 40 years bamboozling and bemusing
   people with his strain of circumlocutory poetry and narratives (in a
   nutshell, nursery rhymes for sophisticated adults). An austere
   childhood in Glasgow has proved to be a source of inspiration for a
   number of his books and CDs, notably Life In A Scotch Sitting Room,
   Vol II, which was rereleased on CD in 1995, recorded from a series on
   Radio Clyde in 1977.(P) In 1940, he became an apprentice fitter with
   Rolls Royce, and shortly after that, he trained as a navigator with
   the RAF. He was too absent-minded for military life, however, and
   claimed he was dismissed for dreaminess. After the second World War,
   Cutler became a teacher, dispensing his vague wisdom in drama and
   poetry to children at various schools in London.

   As the 1950s
   rolled into the 1960s, his reputation as a performance poet began to
   filter out not only to London's fringe movements but nationwide (he
   broadcast 38 stories on BBC radio's Monday Night At Home programme
   between 1959 and 1963) and it wasn't too long after this that he came
   to the attention of The Beatles.(P) In a small but suitably surreal
   role, Cutler appeared in the Fab Four's Magical Mystery Tour as the
   character, Buster Bloodvessel. True cultdom followed when he was
   picked up by John Peel, for whom he still records snippets of
   weirdness. Now a frail but flinty man approaching his 80s, Cutler
   lives in a flat in Parliament Hill Fields, London, venturing out
   occasionally to perform his unique poetry to a select, loyal group of
   fans. Should you ever wish to visit him, he gives directions to his
   home on his album Prince Ivor (where he also advises any potential
   caller to remember to bring a spoon with them - he doesn't like
   sharing his cutlery). When he has the energy, he loves cycling; he
   dislikes noise pollution, and gets most annoyed if anyone at his
   concerts whistles too loudly. At one concert a few years ago, his
   hands continually shook while holding his prose and poetry books. He
   said that if there were any medical people in the audience, he was
   not, contrary to what they might think, suffering from tertiary
   syphilis.
   
   'I am not your middle-of-the-road, big, popular 'Hi everybody!' kind
   of person,' he informed the Daily Telegraph in 1997. Surprise,
   surprise. By the way, anyone planning to go into a jungle in the near
   future should check out Cutler's savvy selection of Jungle Tips (on
   Life In A Scotch Sitting Room, Vol II). They could save your life.
   Then again, maybe not.
   
   Website: www.ivorcutler.org
   
   All Material Subject to Copyright






and while i'm here, on a totally unrelated matter, there is this to see and try to figure out:
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~pyang/base/allyourbase.swf


tom r