Caught by the River

Run Run Run

19th August 2012

A few months back I went along to one of Roy Wilkinson and Luke Turner’s Klüb Gütenberg nights in Islington, London. That night they had Davy Henderson and his group The Sexual Objects down from Scotland. There was talk of a secret guest who, after not much grilling, I found out was going to be Vic Godard, someone I am very fond of. Davy Henderson, Vic Godard, doing Subway Sect songs. A no brainer and an exciting show. The other good thing that happened to me that evening was meeting Douglas Macintyre, proprietor of the Creeping Bent record label and a full time enthusiast. Douglas plays guitar, wets a fly and keeps the flame burning for the venerable institutions of Scottish art/pop/punk rock. He’s a good bloke and I’m going to recommend you read a column he writes called RunRunRun which posts on the excellent fanzine/blog Racket Racket. As he tells us below, it’s not just about the Velvets:

August 12th 2012

These random notes were spewed out between April – July 2012, encompassing a four month period in which I turned 50 and ran a marathon for the first time. Everything I wrote was a first take, no editing or self reflection was added (for better or for worse), just spilled live and direct on to the page and then posted monthly via the excellent Racket Racket website. On re-reading them as a collected work for the first time since writing them, the words and tone seem to inhabit a hinterland somewhere between Haruki Murakami’s marathonadelic What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and Warhol’s From A to Be and Back Again, … albeit without the literary technique. Murakari’s favourite group is the Lovin’ Spoonful which he used to listen to whilst out running – my preferred listening is Cage’s 4.33.

Over the four months Run Run Run vaguely touched many bases including the following; the existential nature of running, training for a marathon, the natural beauty of South Lanarkshire and the countryside surrounding Strathaven, the genius of Vic Godard and Subway Sect / 7th May 1977, the collective nouns of corvids, Fast Product and Postcard Records kicking Scotland into life, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, the majesty of the Fender Mustang bass guitar, gels and jelly beans, Jazzateers, Scars, Fire Engines, Beefheart’s Magic Band, Josef K, etcetcetc.

Douglas with daughter Matilda, after the 2012 Edinburgh marathon

I ran the Edinburgh Marathon on 27th of May 2012, and have thus far raised around £3,000 for Down’s Syndrome Scotland, which is extremely generous (my Just Giving site is still active if you’d like to make a donation ). It’s been a ride, it’s been a gas,.. . Hope you find some of the scribbling an amusing dislocation of the norm.

Read ’em and run.