Postcard From Bodmin Moor
The Cheesewring, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall
Words & pictures from West Country correspondent, Mr. Alex Smith:
Not so much a trek as a local exploration, this short trip was about dipping into the ancient and modern Cornish mining landscape. With a new walking partner who brought a weight of knowledge to the party, this was exercise of the brain more than the heart. We drove to Minions on the only half-decent day of the week. Showers that were forecast passed to the north and the unseasonably cold winds brought cleaner air and clearer horizons to the higher vantage points. Minions is a small village on Bodmin moor, the highest in Cornwall at 300m. Towering even higher above the village is the transmitter on Caradon Hill, provider of Freeview to North Cornwall and South Devon homesteads and vital navigation tool to walkers on both moors. We headed off first to The Hurlers and The Pipers, a set of three impressive stone circles with two standing stones to their west. Restored, of course, but worth a look. Many do so, even on days like these. (more…)
Festival No.6
18 May 2012 // Events //Music
This September, Caught by the River and Faber Social will curate the Estuary Stage at the inaugural Festival No.6. The site for the festival is arguably Britain’s most unique setting – Portmeirion in North Wales (quick aside – a couple of weeks back, I was lucky enough to head to Portmeirion to help make an audioslide for the Guardian). Set up on an inlet on the River Dwyryd against a jaw-dropping vista, the Estuary Stage will present talks, readings and rock’n’roll over the three days of the festival from noon til 9pm.
After the jump, there’s a few words on some of the highlights from the Estuary Stage… there’s a load more acts to be announced soon too. (more…)
13 by Laura Barton
17 May 2012 // Books //Rivers Book
An extract from 13 by Laura Barton
Taken from Caught by the River: A Collection of Words on Water
We grew up in thrall to the Leeds-Liverpool canal. One hundred and twenty-seven miles long, a spectacular feat of engineering, begun in 1770, and completed in 1816, at a cost of more than £1 million, it ferried coal, cotton, dust, ash, pigeon dung, rags, soap, bricks, lime and clay to-and-fro between Yorkshire and Lancashire. By the time I was born, it was barely still in active service, having retired into a destination for school trips and silent Sunday fishermen. It was here that we learned about sticklebacks and water boatmen, coots and moorhens, about coal barges and collieries, and all the things that made us Northern.
Amid it all, amid all the glory and the grandeur of the canal, we almost forgot about the River Douglas. The Douglas ran nearby, a tributary of the River Ribble, it covered thirty-five miles across the countryside and out to the sea, where, for its final ten miles, it is tidal. I think of the river now, viewed from a bridge near my childhood home: a small curve hurrying off towards the cabbage fields. Its banks grown wild with bind-weed and Indian balsam. I think back to its tributaries – Tarra Carr Gutter, Strine Brook, Centre Drain, Roaring Lum, The Sluice, Wham Ditch – names that feel rough and familiar to the tongue, like the morning roll-call at school, like the kick of vinegar and pea-wet at Gaskell’s chippy. They are words that carry me home, somehow, like the stations passed on the train back to Lancashire.
And when I think of the River Douglas now, it seems to represent to me the true spirit of the North, running a route that was not cleaved from the Earth, straight and man-made, but forged by nature’s own willfulness. And I think, too, of how her path is somehow mingled with the freedom and the wildness of my own youth, how her 35-mile territory matches the stomping ground of my own teenage years. (more…)
Roll Out The Barrel
16 May 2012 // Events //Pint/Cake
Caine’s Arcade
The ever-reliable Jonny Trunk tweeted a link to this extraordinary film the other day – it’s heartwarming to the point of “No, it’s just something in my eye”.
An Antidote To Indifference – Issue 3 – Out Now
16 May 2012 // An Antidote To Indifference //Music
At last, here’s issue number 3 of our occasional foray into print and paper. This issue of An Antidote To Indifference is a ‘music special’ and features – deep breath – illustrations from Kavel Rafferty (previously responsible for the illustration and design of our Remember Roger Eagle special and the cover image of the Music Book Reader), Andrew Loog Oldham on Immediate, a previously unpublished interview that Jon Savage did with UK soul legend, Dave Godin in the early ’90s, Kevin Pearce, Nik Cohn, Ian Preece, Richard King and Caught by the River’s Jeff Barrett on the magic of the record shop. And a whole lot more.
Buy your copy here, priced £3.00 (plus p&p)
Bobbie Gentry, whisperin’ in my ear again…
15 May 2012 // Music //Radio
Interesting and enjoyable profile of the fantastic Bobbie Gentry, presented by Rosanne Cash on Radio 2 yesterday. Now on the iPlayer.
Essential reading: The Mystery of Bobbie Gentry by Bob Stanley.
A Wonder-Voyage
15 May 2012 // Books //Events //Miscellany
On May 25th, we’re throwing open the doors on the first Caught by the River Variety Show, a celebration of five years online and on the bankside. The line up is phenomenal. It features talks and readings from the likes of Chris Yates, Tim Burgess, Diagrams, Richard King, Michael Smith amongst many others. To add to that, we’ve got an utterly unique collaboration between one of the first writers we enthused about back when the site was just a few posts on a very basic Blogger site and a genius sound recordist we got to know soon afterwards. Rather than me attempt to describe it, here’s the writer – Robert Macfarlane – explaining just how his collaboration with the mighty Chris Watson will work in the Purcell Rooms in a couple of weeks. Hopefully see you there.
Two Augusts ago, I joined a crew of five sailing an old open boat from the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, to the remote skerry-island of Sula Sgeir, which lies forty miles due north of the northernmost-point of Lewis – far out into the Atlantic. (more…)
Caught by the Reaper – Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn
15 May 2012 // Music //Remembrance
An early shot of Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, bass player and songwriter in Booker T & The MG’s, who died on Sunday, at the age of 70.
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Caught by the River at The Independent Label Market
14 May 2012 // An Antidote To Indifference //Miscellany //Music
Caught by the River stalls out with Heavenly Recordings at the Independent Label Market, Old Spitalfields Market, Spitalfields, London, E1 6EW on 19th May 2012.
To kick off a week of fifth birthday celebrations Caught by the River will be sharing a stall with its very close relative Heavenly Recordings at this years Independent Label Market.
In keeping with the spirit of the event we’ll be selling issue 3 of our somewhat irregular fanzine, An Antidote To Indifference, this issue being a timely ‘music special’. We’ll also have copies of our first Rivertones release, a double A sided 45 featuring “The Dubwood AllStars’ ‘Under Dubwood’ and The Time & Space Machine’s ‘River Theme’, on sale, alongside the fresh-off-the-press paperback edition of the first Caught by the River anthology – A Collection of Words on Water. Originally published in hardback three years ago, the critically acclaimed book features contributions from Jarvis Cocker, Jude Rogers, John Niven, Roy Wilkinson (Do It For Your Mum), Bill Drummond and Irvine Welsh. Also available on the day will be other titles from the Caught by the River web shop as well as badges, prints and bags.
