the
on the streets
Ayrshire’s arts music & culture magazine
Issue 1 Winter/Spring 2014/15
Song and dance at the heart of the community page 6
The millionaire who lost the lot and turned to art page 8
Science writer Duncan Lunan on alien signals
If you go down to the woods tonight.. How the horrbile history of Dean Castle put the fighteners on visitors page 13
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Sample the power of the written word Sound and vision: a new art collaboration
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Space: Have they been in contact?
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raspberryhorse
From millionaire engneer to artist
P8-9: Roman Nose, the interview
word is a
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Soldier On: Gigs, mods and videos
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Centrestage: a community at play
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Special mention to my hero and big brother, Mike Cassidy ;-)
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Chris Dooks: Meet a multi-artist at home
Thanks: Ian Wallace Sanchez Isle
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P13: Spooks out at Dean Castle
Not letting the sun go down: Nik Kershaw
Contributors: Scott Wanstall Craig McAllister
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Advertising: 01292 268671
Scott Nicol on life in the music business
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Sound and vision: a new art collaboration
Design and Production: Raspberry Horse Limited 97 Crofthead Road, Ayr KA7 3NE 01292 268671
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Editor: Gerry Cassidy M: 0798 543 9752 E: gerry@ theword ayrshire.com
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Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine Exhibition Programme January – March 2015
Signposts Jim Hardie 10 April 2015 – 1 June 2015 Various Venues within North Ayrshire Launch: Thursday 9 April 2015 Painter, poet, pilot and ex-Glasgow School of Art tutor Jim Hardie will exhibit his vast body of work in this North Ayrshire-wide exhibition. Pop into local libraries, the Heritage Centre in Saltcoats and other venues and follow Jim’s ‘Signposts’ to his larger exhibition at the Harbour Arts Centre.
Face and Flowers Maree Hughes and Nina Meahan 23 January – 23 February Launch: Thursday 22 January, 7pm – 9pm
In this mother and daughter exhibition of small scale oil paintings, drawings and prints, viewers will be invited to see very different approaches to a similar subject matter.
Female Trouble Rosie Dahlstrom 6 March – 30 March Launch: Thursday 5 March, 7pm – 9pm
As part of International Women’s Week, Glasgow School of Art Graduate Rosie Dahlstrom will exhibit some of her oil paintings, collages and prints thematically concerned with female behaviour, beauty and ugliness.
www.north-ayrshire.gov.uk For further information please call the Harbour Arts Centre 01294 274059
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They will, they will rock you! ROCK without mercy is promised in a hellraiser of a show featuring some of the most iconic songs of the past four decades at the Gaiety Theatre in Ayr. The high energy RoxVox describes itself as the ultimate rock compilation show, performed by some the finest male and female vocalists around. They pay homage to icons of rock including Queen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Survivor,
When Diana met Robert
Guns & Roses and The Eagles, among others. Songs by solo greats such as Rod Stewart, Phil Collins, Meatloaf, Bryan Adams, Suzi Quattro and Meatloaf are included in this two-hour rockstravaganza. Catch it at the Gaiety on January 17. Tickets on sale now via ayrgaiety.co.uk
Jim Hardie art tour Painter, poet, pilot and ex-Glasgow School of Art tutor Jim Hardie is touring Signposts, an exhibition of his work, around North Ayrshire in spring. The show launches in the Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine, on April 9 and from there it will travel round local libraries, the Heritage Centre in Saltcoats and other vernues throughout the area.
CULTURES collide in a spectacular new pro-duction from Ayrshire Opera Experience. Actéon meets Tam O’Shanter takes a tale from Greek mythology and fuses it with Robert Burns’ Tam O’ Shanter in a dark depiction of voyeurism and tragedy – told in the Scots language. Tenor David Douglas and his Ayrshire Operatic Experience will be performing the piece at the Robert Burns Humanitarian Awards night at the Burns Birthplace museum in Ayr on January 22 and later in the Spring they are planning to perform it at the Gaiety Theatre and The Albany in Greenock, with a possible date in Arran also being pencilled in. David said: “It is a reworking of the chamber opera Actéon by one of the most important French composers of his generation, Marc-Antoine Charpentier. This ground-breaking piece merges Scots Language with French
Baroque Opera and Greek mythology, retelling the story of a young hunter, who like Tam O' Shanter stumbles across an illicit vision. Unfortunately Actéon was not as lucky to escape the dark forces who, under many guises, punish voyeuristic men. Ayrshire Operatic Experience has around three dozen members, made up of amateur and community singers as well as a number of professional singers. David adds: “Opera is seen as a high art form while the Scots language is often looked down upon. This production raises Scots language up to a level where it is as good as any other language. More information on Ayrshire Operatic Experience is available via their website page. Meanwhile, David’s own website at daviddouglasmusic has details on a number of events and projects which may also be of interest.
Whit aboot this? A big yins’ panto WHEN the panto season is over and all the booing and hissing has ceased... you can do it all again at a panto with a difference in the Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine. But this time you can leave the kids at home. Scotch Broth present Dick Whittington (A Panto For Grown-ups) is aimed at an over18s audience. With
side-splitting comedy, sensational songs and plenty of audience participation, it tells the tale of Dick, who is on a quest to appear on Big Brother before he’s 20. He boldly heads for Irvine town, where Sheena the cook gives him a job in the best bakery in the toon... and so the adventure begins. But a panto wouldn’t be a panto
without a good villain to boo. Enter soor faced King Rat. Will Sheena’s eldest lassie stop eating aw the steak bakes? Will King Rat get a kick up the jacksey? Will the Good Fairy stay sober and mind her words? It’s sure to be a laugh a minute evening for these dark winter months. Tickets for the February 7 show are £8.
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Artists draw ARTISTS and art lovers shared the success of the 2014 Open Studios Ayrshire event when more than 550 pieces of art were sold. Now entering its third year, the Twa’ Dugs by John Byrne 2015 event is expected to be the biggest yet as new members sign up. More than 50 Ayrshire artists opened their studios last year to welcome more than 5700 visitors who came out to support artists FOR the first time ever, the entire Mackaurin and to enjoy the Ayrshire art trail. art collection has been put on public display. Chairperson and artist Irene To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Walker is looking forward to more gallery, every painting, sculpture, drawing, or artists and makers joining the print purchased since its inception in membership. 1976 will be on view. She said: “It is going The exhibition covers the to be a fabulous entire Maclaurin Gallery and year ahead with the adjoining Rozelle opportunities to House. The collection We want to hear what raise profiles for began with a generous you’re involved with. If you many artists. It is bequest from Mrs Mary a friendly and Ellen Maclaurin, who left are planning a show or supportive event. the money to establish a We are working exhibition, Email us at gallery and an art hard to secure collection in memory of her events@thewordon venues for artists husband and is considered who do not have their thestreets.co.uk to be one of the finest own studio space. We collections of 20th and 21st are also planning some new Century art in Scotland. The exciting initiatives in 2015.” exhibition runs until February.
Maclaurin puts the whole lot on show
WHAT S GOING ON?
Green Door opens THE Green Door, a new musical by Stephen Langston and Jane Robertson is among the joint first productions by the University of the West of Scotland and the Gaiety Theatre. Book your seat on a one off journey you will never forget. Preview on January 28 with the premier on Friday 30th. See ayrgaiety.co.uk for details.
The 2014 Open Studios event was launched in March at the University of the West of Scotland with guest speakers Councillor Bill Grant and actress Libby Macarthur. The evening included free workshops to the public, which were well received and it is hoped to build on these next year. The Maclaurin Gallery also
showcased four artists’ work and Dumfries House kindly offered the Prince’s art studios to members to exhibit for a week. UWS students also participated in the event with a wonderful exhibition at the university. For further details on the 2015 event and how to join, visit ayrshirestudios.com
START HERE
GO ANYWHERE ...like Brendan Behan, BBC Media Apprentice
APPLY NOW FOR COURSES STARTING IN JANUARY www.ayrshire.ac.uk Ayrshire College is a registered Scottish charity. Reg No SC021177
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up 2015plans Burns still inspires artists of today
n FRIENDS of Irvine Harbour Arts Centre present A Pie, A Poem and a Pint, a short relaxed evening of Burns songs and poems for Burns Night, 7-8pm January 25. Tickets are £5 each.
n LEARN the skills of wire wrapping with qualified teacher and designer/ maker Sheila Kerr at the Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine on Sunday February 15 at 1-3pm. Suitable for beginners. Tickets are £10
VISUAL artist Calum Colvin and poet Rab Wilson have collaborated on a major exhibition of poetry print and ceramics. Burnsiana in the main gallery of the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock features a collection of work created over a period of 13 years. The work is a union of the mundane and surreal, as Colvin assembles everyday objects to create a 3D canvas onto which he paints directly. The result is rendered photographically and displayed alongside Wilson’s poetry. Wilson’s poetic work is created in response to Colvin’s art and in keeping with tradition, is written in the Scots language. Wilson was formerly the Robert Burns Writing Fellow – in Reading Scots and has performed his poetry at various festivals across the country including Edinburgh Fringe festival. The exhibition is free and runs from December 20 until April 18. n Complementing the Burnsiana exhibition, the James McKie Collection celebrates the life and work of the creator of the ‘Kilmarnock Burnsiana’, James McKie. A printer, a collector of Burns, McKie (1816 – 1891) was one of Kilmarnock’s most prominent cultural figures of the Victorian era. He became most famous as a printer and collector of Burns. His collection of Burns manuscripts, books, paintings, and general Burnsiana, grew to such stature that the Town purchased them to be displayed in the new Burns Monument museum.
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MANY towns across the country have amateur operatic groups and drama clubs. Few have an entire entertainments industry on the scale of Kilmarnock’s phenomenal Centrestage musical theatre group involving thousands of people of all ages from across Ayrshire and beyond. Since their first full musical in 2007, Centrestage have evolved into a multiinterest organisation welcoming around 900 visitors on a weekly basis with a diverse range of classes, activities and shows involving members of the local community from the age of six months and upwards and including children, young adults, care home residents and people with additional support needs. There’s also an outreach group which visits Bowhouse Prison near Kilmarnock offering workshops on music, song, creative writing and poetry. A busy schedule of activities in the purpose-built building at James Little Street offers classes on music theatre, voice training, acting, dance and theatre production, with events for pre-school children and people with additional support needs. This imaginative and successful project is the brainchild of two former schoolteachers, Fiona McKenzie and Paul Mathieson, whose success with musical productions at Grange Academy in the town led to them devising a plan to maintain contact with the talented young actors and singers passing through the school. The two music teachers set up Centrestage as a social enterprise which would bring benefits to members and also to the wider community who were invited to take part in the classes and attend the shows and activities being staged. The centre
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Centrestage: Song, dance and theatre from the heart of the community has a dance and rehearsal room, an auditorium and a large communal area with a cafe where people attending classes can meet and chat or simply drop in for a coffee and a snack. Among the classes are musical theatre, a gospel and soul choir, a choral group, an acting skills group and a small company called Boys2Men formed from males aged 14 and upwards, who have performed on numerous occasions at Centrestage and are in demand for various community events. Dance, technical theater and fitness classes are also available alongside a number of community projects which reach out to various parts of the community. Sales and Marketing manager Ryan Ferguson is a former pupil of Grange Academy and is one of a couple of dozen people on the staff. Assisting them are several hundred volunteers who have become part of the fabric of
what is a very community-orientated operation. “The Choral Group meets every wednesday and a lot of them come along a bit early and have lunch before their class, then come back to the cafe afterwards to relax and chat,” said Ryan. “Some sit in the cafe and do their homework. We have so many people who love to be involved.” Throughout 2014, hardly a week has gone by without at least one production taking to the stage with a huge diversity of events on offer. Among the dance, musicals, plays and showcases, local audiences have been treated to performances of Romeo and Juliet the Musical, Steel Magnolias, Brian Kennedy with the Gospel and Soul Choir, the Proclaimers musical Sunshine on Leith, and the Little Mermaid. A busy winter schedule is also planned in the lead up to Christmas and into the New Year.
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CENTRESTAGE is more than just an amateur musical theatre group for local enthusiasts. Part of the philosophy behind the organisation is to provide arts-based activities that will enable the most vulnerable members of communities across Ayrshire to take part. On the day we arrived, the hall was packed with elderly visitors, many from care homes, enjoying the Musical Generations project. They gather every Monday afternoon to enjoy a sing-along, dancing, conversation and refreshments – all free – in the company of friends, carers and family members. Another project, Connect and reconnect, is
More than making a bit of a song and dance aimed at children who have difficulty engaging with the mainstream school system. Other projects involve people with additional support needs, and one is aimed at women with mental health issues with low self-confidence. The valuable work carried out there has been recognised with the award of Recognition of Outstanding Contribution to Centrestage director Fiona McKenzie by the Association of Scottish Businesswomen.
Visit centrestagemusictheatre.org.uk and find them on Facebook.
The Maclaurin Festival 9th No November vember - February February 2015 2015
Celebrating 35 years finestt ccollections 21stt C Century Scotland Celebrating 3 5y ears building one of the fines ollections of 20th & 21s entury Art in Sc otland For ever entire Collection display. For the first first time e ver the en tire Maclaurin C ollection will be on displa y. Every sculpture, drawing purchased E very painting, painting, sculptur e, dr awing and print print pur chased since since its inception inception in 1976. 1976.
A unique opportunity opportunity tto o see this eclec eclectic tic ccollection. ollection.
Twa by Byrne T wa Dugs b y John B yrne
Mark Market et Plac Place e Pr Protrait otrait of a Girl S St. t. Iv Ives es b by y b by y Jank Jankel el A Adler dler P Patrick atrick Her Heron on
Mystical My stical Landscape with Snake by Davie Snak e Mask b y Alan Da vie
OPENING TIMES: to SAT: SAT: 10am - 5pm MON to SUN: 12noon - 5pm
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The millionaire engineer who lost everything in the crash, joined the dole, went to college then began to sell his artwork THOUSANDS of visitors passed through the five galleries of the 2014 Art Exhibition at Rozelle Galleries in Ayr, raising many thousands of pounds for Save the Children. For one of the artists represented in the record 370 paintings on display, this sale of one of his own submissions marked another stage in a remarkable lifestory which so far has seen him leave school with no qualifications, become a first class engineer, set up phenomenally successful businesses earning him a jetset lifestyle... only to lose everything in the credit crunch. Gone was the yacht in the Algarve, the magnificent Alloway home. Brent Morrison and his wife, Lorraine, who was his business partner in a property company, were destitute and forced to start again from scratch, signing on for Jobseeker’s Allowance. But Brent’s rise to the heights of business success is all the more remarkable when you hear that he was unable to read and write until the last few years and, despite achieving an HNC then HND in art and design – and graduating as Student of the Year 2014 from Ayrshire College with straight-A passes, he is still attending adult education classes. Overcoming his dyslexia is Brent’s next target as he settles into the third year of a BA Honours degree in Art at Glasgow Kelvin College, an associate campus of Dundee University. Education was a closed book to Brent throughout his school days. Due to unhappy family circumstances, he attended 16 primary schools by the time he was 12. “I hated school,” he admits. “At high school I was put into a
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remedial class and I used to turn up for registration class and then disappear. “I left school with no qualifications, but the ironic thing is, I always knew I was clever. I’d be sitting next to someone in class and be amazed at how they could write, but I knew that I was probably cleverer than they were, if that doesn’t sound to bigheaded.” Leaving school, he joined a government work programme and learned metalwork and technical drawing, where his skills finally began to shine through. He joined Norse Fabrication as an apprentice and despite being unable to handle formal studies on his day release course due to his dyslexia, he was kept on by his employers who recognised his gifts. By the age of 21 he was a foreman and at 24 he was in charge of a team of 60 workers. His first venture into business followed with Apex Engineering, which was recognised as one of the country’s top up-andcoming businesses, with contracts as far afield as the Falkland Islands. After five years, he and Lorraine set up a property business, buying and letting, and they prospered for several years, buying a yacht, travelling the world and enjoying a cruise on the QEII to New York. Then came the collapse of Northern Rock, where they carried out their banking, and the ensuing credit crunch. “I knew that was the end for our business,” he recalls. “I said to Lorraine that this was going to take us out completely. “We sold the yacht and put the money back into the business,
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n Of all the achievements in Brent’s life, the one he treasures most is having a painting of his become a part of the Burns Cottage Museum display. The painting, left, depicts farming tools which would have been around during the lifetime of the poet. “I have been told that it will be hanging there long after I am dead. I am really pleased about that,” he said.
but I knew it was the end.” Before long the business was gone, along with their home. “We both signed on, but I knew this wasn’t for me. After a few weeks Lorraine decided she was going to go back to college. “I had been going along to an art class for the previous two years, just for something to do, so I thought I would take my portfolio along to Ayrshire College to see whether they would let me on to one of their courses. “During the interview I asked the lecturer how soon I would know if I had been successful and she said to me: ‘Oh, you’re in. We’re giving you and unconditional.’ “I couldn’t believe it. I was shaking, but then I knew I had to tell her I was dyslexic and she said: ‘Oh, don’t worry about that, so am I. We can get you help for that.’” And so began a new chapter in Brent’s life. He was assigned a “scribe” who would sit beside him and take notes for him. Now, as a university student, Brent is achieving what he never believed would be possible. “I had always wanted to go to university, but because of my dyslexia, I thought that was something that would never be available to me. “If I had not been given the opportunity by Ayrshire College I would never have been able to do this.” That honours degree is still two years away, but Brent is contemplating a future as a college lecturer. “I get on well with the lecturers and the students, so I have a foot in both camps,” he says. “The lecturers at Ayrshire College asked me to give them a lecture on dyslexia and I managed to do that and I enjoyed it.”
There are many dyslexic people around, but hardly anybody really understands what it is like, says Brent. “Dyslexia and intelligence are two completely different things,” he says. “But some people go through life being told they are stupid because they cannot read or write, but I believe in very many cases the dyslexic people are more intelligent than the people calling them stupid. “Dyslexia is just a different was of looking at life.It’s like taking in a different view.” Brent reckons his successes throughout his life – he took up karate and excelled, then learned how to sail and was part of the winning crew in 2009 Scottish Series, winning the Tarbet Shield – have all been about proving to people that he is clever, and although he has trouble with words he is not stupid. That is part of the motivation that drives him on through his university studies. He no longer has a scribe, but through ground-breaking software and an amazing “scribe pen” he is able to record lectures and make bullet points in class which will then be transcribed for him at home on his computer. “I will always be grateful to Ayrshire College and to my Adult Learning tutor, Zoe, who has been brilliant. “I am still getting there and still learning how words are formed, but I will do it. “What I lacked in using letters I have more than made up for with figures throughout my life, but getting this degree will be the final achievement. “Because when I graduate I will have letters after my name. Letters have always been a problem, but they will no longer have me, I will have them.”
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A QUIET afternoon in a Troon tea-room. The gentle chinking of cup on saucer and the application of jam to buttered scone provides the background as we exchange pleasantries over handshakes and introductions. Over the next hour and a half, however, our conversation will cover a 12th century king, knights, a pope, interstellar travel, green-skinned children, Walter Cronkite, a Tory peer and the (possible) discovery of the first message to Earth from alien intelligences. Meet polyglot Duncan Lunan, with his degree in English and Philosophy backed with Physics, Astronomy, French and Logic – not to mention his achievement as the author of an international best-seller in the 1970s. Regarded as a bit of a visionary by some sci-fi buffs, and still quoted by aficionados of extra-terrestrial exploration, Duncan Lunan has never found the divide between science fiction and science fact too wide to bridge. On leaving university, he found early success as a science fiction short-story writer for American magazines Amazing!, Analog and Galaxy who honoured his first published story by making it their cover feature with an illustration by the awardwinning and much respected artist Jack Gaughan. With such favoured treatment from the sci-fi bible, Lunan became an instant figure of curiosity among other writers and readers, who wondered who was this new arrival on their scene. Demand for his stories mushroomed and just as it seemed that his future as a writer was signed, sealed and delivered, a postal strike in those pre-digital days brought a sudden end to the momentum. “My stories were piling up, unsent, and I knew I would never be able to sell them,” he recalls. “But things took off rather dramatically the following year – 1972 – when I stumbled upon what seemed to be the first message from another civilization,” he adds in a rather disconcertingly matter-of-fact way. He continues: “Back in the 1920s in the days of long-distance radios they started picking up echoes of transmissions from Earth which were coming from at least the distance of the Moon. They weren’t thinking in terms of space craft but what they were picking up appeared to be patterns of varying delayed time pulses all being returned by the same object and there isn’t any natural object up there that will do that.” They mystery of the transmissions was to form part of Lunan’s first book, Man and the Stars. At the half-way stage of his
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Written Science writer Duncan Lunan deals in science fiction, science fact ... and ponders the possibility that we may already have been contacted by an alien intelligence work on the book, he had written that the signals appeared to be a natural phenomenon. But something niggled at the back of his mind. Mulling over the possibility that the signals might be a coded message revealing where they had been sent from, Lunan hit on an idea and started toying with a “star map” using data from the messages. “Well, the stars are spaced at random in the sky, so a set of star map co-ordinates would be a random series of numbers,” he said. “So I started drawing graphs and turning the axes around, not expecting to find anything at all – then suddenly on the train going through Paisley on my way back home to Troon, suddenly I found myself looking at what appeared to be a recognisable message. “I was down to a tiny wee corner on the page where I had drawn a minute little
graphic and I thought ‘That looks more like an intelligent signal, in fact it looks familiar. I know what that is. A star map of the constellation Boøtes!’ “I just looked at it and I thought: ‘We are not alone. Interstellar travel is possible. They can communicate with us, logic is universal.’ And I looked at the other people on the train and I thought: ‘Shall I tell them?’ And looking at their faces, I thought; they’re just going to pull the communication cord. I just sat there.” Instinct won over emotion. The world would just have to wait for this momentous revelation. Lunan wrote up a paper on his theory and submitted it to the British Interplanetary Society. “One of their people included it in a lecture and it eventually came to the attention of the Daily Telegraph, who fell on it as a scoop and suddenly everything was up in the air.
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in the stars
For the next two or three years I was a minor celebrity, doing radio and TV all over the place. I appeared on the Walter Cronkite show in the States. I was sampling life in the fishbowl and it got to the stage where I couldn’t go out to the pub for a pint without being called back to the house because there was an American radio show on the phone.” His book became a best-seller in the US and at home and sold in huge numbers across Europe. Lunan adds: “It was a hardback and paperback in the UK, the USA and France, a paperback in Spain, serialised in Holland and Japan and was pirated in Greece – there was a Greek edition for which nobody received the proverbial drachma. So it did very well.” The story was taken very seriously by other researchers but, over the years, as technology developed and scientific
knowledge moved on, holes began to appear in the theory, says Lunan. New questions arose and eventually confidence in the theory that these were messages from another civilization began to wane. He adds: “The astronomical information was ambiguous. Parts of it made a lot of sense, but some of it didn’t quite hang together and when we got better information on the star it turned out that the best bits weren’t the right bits and the bits that didn’t fit were the right bits.” Now, four decades on from those heady Eureka! days, what is Lunan’s position on the theory?
Cont. p12
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Background image: Barassie beach, © MJFerrier Inset image: Duncan Lunan, © Thomas Brash, Ayrshire College
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From p11 He hesitates, then says: “Maybe.” So after all this time, the jury is still out on the precise nature of those signals. The original story still rumbles on over countless acres of web space, added to, twisted, augmented with false information – and the original author has no control over it. The Duncan Lunan Wikipaedia page is littered with inaccuracies. “I did a count last night and there were 13 major errors,” he says, “but you’re not allowed to edit your own page. The guy who writes it complained that ‘the author keeps interfering’ and his complaint was upheld! “So now there is a completely fictitious persona there which is still getting added to constantly because, supposedly, I am still involved in all kinds of UFO stuff.” However irritating that might be, it cannot detract from that initial rush on the train to Troon when he stumbled on the apparent origin of the message. He says: “Undoubtedly, that was one of the biggest moments in my life. If there is nothing to it in the end it won’t take away the memory of it.” But the Troon author of eight non-fiction and two fiction books could never be accused of avoiding potentially controversial subjects in his ceaseless research. One work, The Children of the Sky, deals with the story of two children who emerged from an earthworks in the Suffolk village of Woolpit during the 12th century. They wore clothes of a colour and material never seen before, spoke a language that was not recognized by anyone else and their skin was green. And this is not a work of fiction, but a piece of historical research. Lunan says: “This has been treated for more than the last 400 years as a fairytale but, whatever this is, it really happened. “In 1993 I was covering a conference on at the British National Space Centre for the Herald and I decided it was time to do something about the Green Children so I went up to East Anglia thinking I would get some background colour for an article. “Wandering around this village in Suffolk, I was made very welcome, they opened up the local history museum specially for me, but in reply to my questions they kept saying: ‘You’ll have to go to the County Records Office for that.’ So I did, and five hours later I knew I was on to something because I was finding answers to questions and it was clear I was onto a line of enquiry that nobody else had pursued.” That was the starting point for 10 years
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of meticulous research, uncovering the story of how King Henry II quarantined the village by throwing a garrison of troops around it while investigations were carried out; how the children were finally questioned about their origins – once they had learned how to communicate in English – and how Pope Alexander III, in response to questions from the Abbot of Bury St Edmunds wrote: “I am instructing the king to give it back to you (Woolpit) when he is finished with it.” Lunan continues: “It turns out the knight to whom the children were taken was Richard de Calna, who was basically
that point was Yes, because in mediaeval England it was believed there was no sun in Fairyland. So this is the question to establish whether they are human or not. And she says ‘No.’ “She could not bring herself to lie at that point and what she described was that they lived in a land of permanent twilight separated by a very broad river, from a land of very bright sunlight and that it never changed. The sun shone all the time and neither rose nor set. “They said they were herding their father’s livestock – wherever they were – when they suddenly found themselves instantaneously transported back to Woolpit.” Lunan continued: “The boy died, but I have traced the girl. I know who she was. She grew up and married Richard Barre, one of Henry II’s senior ambassadors, so she wasn’t just a runaway from some tribe in the woods. “I have got her family tree down to two descendents, one of whom was Robert Shirley, the 13th Earl Ferrars, Deputy Leader of the House of Lords under Margaret Thatcher. He was ‘outed’ by the Evening Tmes on the eve of the 1997 election under the heading ‘Tory Peer Descended from Green Woman from Outer Space’ – much to the annoyance of the SNP, who had promised they would be getting the page that day. And he said: ‘Bizarre! I knew my ancestors were colourful, but not that colourful.’” The fascinating story is packed with detail, much of it gleaned through Lunan’s own translations of centuries-old records which may have been misinterpreted in the past. He also presents a theory on planetary alignment which links Duncan Lunan’s Astronomers of the the Green Children story with the Future Club meets regularly in Troon. construction of Stonehenge and Run under the auspices of the Astro the ancient pyramids of Egypt. Cosmic Terran Association, the club is Lunan’s view of the Green open to members of all ages. Meetings Children mystery is that it involved take place on the last Thursday of a piece of extraterrestrial technology, such as matter every month, the aim being to bring transmitter, which malfunctioned, together people interested in learning possibly due to irregular activity of about astronomy and space through the sun. talks, lectures and events. Find them on He adds: “If it’s not Facebook and check out the blog at extraterrestrial, here is the political actascio.org/blog.asp thriller of all time, because the involvement of the king, the pope, the head of the secret service.” de Calna and Richard Barre is definite. He describes the story of the Children of Whatever was going on they were in it up the Sky as “The X-Files of the 12th to the neck.” century,” adding: “They described the Children From the Sky is available as an planet inadvertently. The Bishop of e-book and, like Lunan’s other books, is London is questioning them. So he asks: available online and from Waterstones, Do they believe in our saviour there? The W.H. Smith and other outlets, as well as girl says ‘Oh yes, you can’t see the place from the publishers. for churches.’ And he asks: ‘Does the sun Visit the website at duncanlunan.com rise or set there?’ All they had to say at for more details.
Find out about astronomy
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SPOOKED!
Ghostly goings-on at Dean Castle as Bloody Boyds welcome visitors DEAN Castle: spooky. Dean Castle in the dark: spookier. Dean Castle in the dark with ghoulies, ghosties and severed heads lurking around every corner: heart pill territory. Everybody likes a good scare and the closer to the truth, the scarier it becomes. Which is why The Bloody Boyds, set in the grounds of Dean Castle Country Park was such a success. The history of the Boyds of Kilmarnock is fascinating and fittingly gory. Proud, powerful and ambitious, and veterans of the Battle of Bannockburn, the Boyds came close to snatching the Scottish throne when scheming family members kidnapped the eight-year-old boy king, James III, when they ambushed him on a hunting trip. But other Scottish nobles rose up against the Boyds and in the end Sir Alexander Boyd was found guilty of treason and beheaded at Castle Hill in Edinburgh. And so the stage was set for a fantastic weekend of hair-raising tours when Conflux, one of Scotland’s leading outdoor theatre groups devised The Bloody
Boyds to bring a dark period of Ayrshire history to life. Groups were met at the castle by ‘Sir Robert Boyd’ and instructed to be scouts to patrol the grounds surrounding the castle. He warned them to stick together and sent them off into the woods. The scouts came across a chanting hermit standing in the river, a lone, paranoid, scared soldier who had been waiting in the woods for years for additional
troops from the castle to arrive. Heeding his warnings to stay alert, the scouts continued on their way, encountering a headless tea party, ghostly apparitions, a stray body part or two all against a background of eerie noises from the graveyard. A battle re-enactment brought the Bloody Boyds to a dramatic end. The Bloody Boyds was organised by East Ayrshire Leisure to celebrate Homecoming 2014.
visual arts theatre live music comedy festivals museums country park athletics To find out what’s on in East Ayrshire visit:
eastayrshireleisure.com
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A spot of weeding
SHORT STORY By JAMES ROSE I don’t understand how it could have happened. I knew what it could do Paraquat. I’ve been a gardener most of my life. Don’t use weedkillers much. Well, when you get a bit behind, they help you get back on top - of the weeds, you know. So I do keep some in the shed. I do most of my weeding by hand. Out I drag them - one by one and onto the bonfire. I think that's better than poisoning them and watching them shrivel and die. I keep going until the bed looks clean. Black soil framing the flowers. Have you ever thought that weeding’s a bit like that ethnic cleansing? No? I have. I almost don’t like to do it. They’re plants too. Still, if it’s in the way of what you want, it's got to go. That's what the wife says. For the greater good of the garden, you know. Sounds a bit fascist, doesn’t it? I’m not like that at all, really. Just a gardener. See, when you’re weeding, it’s like your mind's in neutral and these strange thoughts just pop up. They grow like the weeds, spindly little things but if you don’t root them out soon, they get a hold. I had a thought since I've been here but I rooted it out. Perhaps, I should get one of those - what you call them? – an iThing. That would stop them but I would probably just get a tune I couldn't get rid of instead. And I’d miss the sound of the wind in the trees and, of course, the birds singing. On a summer’s evening, I love to hear the blackbird singing up high, while you’re sitting admiring your day's work. Can’t beat it. Do you think that I’ll ever hear a blackbird again? I know you think I won’t, but I might. I mean, there’s a chance that my liver and kidneys might recover – or just hang on – then I could manage OK with the oxygen. You can get it at home, I know that. Provided you don’t smoke. I don’t. Never have.
POETRY
By CATHERINE LANG
Death is Neutral A church, a town, a river running through. Some simple words, stone carved, enduring. The names of men beneath. I read the words. Remember how they sound in English, not this foreign tongue. ‘No greater love…’
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What's it at now? Six litres. Bit more than yesterday. Makes my nose dry but it does help. See I can talk. Well in short bursts. Yes, thanks. Just a sip to wet my whistle. Gardening makes you dry. That’s why I always had a bottle of lemonade in the shed. Just go in and take a slug. Of course I knew as soon as I swallowed it that it wasn’t lemonade. Spat out what was left in my mouth straight away. But quite a lot had gone down. I tried to be sick but I just couldn’t. Not more than a spoonful of puke. Sorry! That’s not nice. Still you’re a nurse; you’ll understand. So here I am. Well for the time being, if I look on the bright side. I know some people keep their weedkillers in lemonade bottles but I’m sure I never did. Different bottles. Different shaped bottles. Up on the shelf; not down on the bench. I can still remember the feel of the bottle in my hand. Long and thin. Lemonade. Definitely. I never looked. Why would I? I always just go in, grab, unscrew and take a swig then straight out into the sunshine. Of course, the shed’s dark inside when you’ve been in the sun, so I couldn’t see what was in the bottle. But it was the right bottle. That’s what I don’t understand. Anyway Nurse, you’ll need to be off now. Thanks for listening. Visiting time soon. Wife’ll be coming as usual. She’s been so good while I’ve been in. Never misses. And she calls every morning, you know. Always asking. I’m ashamed to say, a little while ago I thought she felt I was in the way. That’s how the garden became my place – and the shed. But since I've had this happen, she seems a changed woman. Bright and cheery. Never down like she was before. I think she’s trying to keep my spirits up. Off you go! Here she comes.
They died our foes. They’re them, not us. Yet still my eyes blink back the tears, for hope destroyed and dreams denied. They fought, not for a piece of land a leader’s rant, a country’s pride. But more to keep a mother safe, to see again a sweetheart smile. Cold stone alone now speaks their name, a stranger’s tears their requiem.
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It’s the write thing to do By ANN BURNETT, AYR WRITERS’ CLUB WE have a very active membership of around 60 and are delighted that this year among our new members is a group of very keen and talented young people. November 19 saw a group of us entertaining Troon OIR (Opportunities in Retirement) to an afternoon of readings from our work, some published, some still awaiting that magic moment when an editor says Yes. There was poetry, flash fiction, short stories, travel articles, science fiction and a brief history of the club as well. We meet every Wednesday and have a great variety of activities. Between now and February, there will be workshops on drama and writing short stories as well as a speaker, Kate Blackadder, on writing women's fiction, and Doug Skelton talking about writing true crime. Michael Malone is organising a Dragon's Pen, like the Dragon's Den but scarier when we have to pitch our ideas for books, and of course, we have our annual pre-Christmas night at Waterstones when the poor manager has to entertain us and talk books to us. In the New Year, we have further workshops on researching true crime and also on writing children's TV scripts, with a speaker, Malcolm McGonigle, giving us the benefit of his knowledge about children's TV. Preparations for the Scottish Association of Writers' Annual get-together at the Westerwood Hotel, Cumbernauld next March are also keeping us busy. Entries for the many competitions are due in by mid January at the latest so we are all busy writing towards that. The novel entries are due in at the end of November so heads are bowed and keyboards red hot from the efforts to meet that deadline. And many of us are publishing our work both in print and online. Our success book is filling up nicely for this year with the magazines Scottish Memories and Prima providing great outlets for our efforts. Members Kirsty Wyllie and the Litereight group have brought out a children's story and an anthology respectively. Make sure you follow us on Facebook. Our website is www.ayrwritersclub.co.uk Visitors are welcome on payment of £3 and new members are especially welcome. We meet at the Carlton Hotel, Prestwick at 7.15 for 7.70 every Wednesday.
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Read an Ayrshire author
THE VICTIMS
Crime and punishment in Glasgow, Ayrshire & Algeria, centuries apart
DOUGLAS SKELTON Crow Bait Luath Press £9.99
MICHAEL MALONE The Guillotine Choice Contraband £8.99
CATHERINE CZERKAWSKA The Physic Garden Saraband £8.99
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THREE authors, three books, three very diverse styles and three incredibly gripping stories. Douglas Skelton’s second novel, Crow Bait, was launched in October, the second in a series of four books tracing the chaotic life of a volatile young man tortured by the memories of his violent, psychopathic father. Davie McCall is a bit of a fighter himself, struggling between a life of violent crime and the desire to carve out a new life without the burden of his darker side. It’s set in 1990s Glasgow, 10 years after Blood City, which saw McCall put away for a crime he did not commit, and reintroduces the characters who survived the blood bath of that opening tale. Skelton’s books are bursting at the seams with hordes of all-toobelievable characters, the dialogue leaping off the page for readers familiar with West of Scotland conversation. There’s an honesty about his people, crooks and non-crooks alike, as he exposes their foibles with the skill of a master butcher setting about a carcass. As a journalist and author of 11 non-fiction crime books, Skelton brings a grisly reality to his pages, with vivid descriptions of places and people plus a plot which twists and turns like the road through the Carrick hills. Readers had a year to wait for this second instalment after the superb opener and the good news is that the third in the series is undergoing final revisions and the fourth is already largely written. Bring ’em on. MICHAEL MALONE’s The Guillotine Choice is a change of direction from his previous crime novels. This tale also revolves around a murder, but it is a story of humanity, dignity, compassion and family loyalties. Set in French-controlled Algeria
of the 1920s, it is based on the true-life story of Kaci Mohammed Saoudi, who faced a lifetime sentence in the notorious Devil’s Island penal colony rather than send his cousin to the guillotine as the actual murderer of a colonial Frenchman. The book was written in conjunction with the central character’s son, Bashir Saoudi, who spent 30 years researching his father’s story, and is so much more than a report of a historical wrongdoing. Malone’s lyrical style ushers in a fascinatingly exotic landscape against which the story unfolds of cultural sensibilites which stood between an innocent man and his freedom. A beautifully written roller coaster of a novel. CATHERINE CZERKAWSKA also deals with cultural sensibilities in a historical setting in her fascinating novel The Physic Garden. It takes place in Glasgow and Ayrshire, but time, as they say, is another country and the Scotland of the early 19th Century presents a setting which is both familiar and strange. The story is told by an elderly William Lang, looking back on his life as a young man besotted with Jenny, the love of his life. Both are from humble backgrounds; he works in the garden of a Glasgow professor while she is a needleworker. They are perfectly matched, or so it seems, until a series of shocking discoveries turns William’s life upside down. Purity, morality and class are a potent mix in this story of restraint, self-respect and betrayal in which the pieces are gradually brought together as William concludes his account of a bitter-sweet life. Written in the style of a period novel, this wonderful book is a thought-provoking and absorbing read.
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In the workshop DOUGLAS YOUNG: The Frame Shop, Ayr
Douglas Skelton, left, and Miichael Malone at the launch of Sketlton’s Crow Bait
FRAMERS are sometimes the forgotten llink in the artistic chain. But a good craftsman can be the difference between a fine piece of work and a memorable exhibit. Douglas Young has been a framer for 24 years and throughout his time at the Frame Shop in Alloway Street, Ayr, he has been tasked with helping artists and photographers to present their work to its best advantage. Occasionally he has been trusted with a treasured heirloom or two which the owner wants to put on permanent display in their home. “That’s the kind of job I enjoy most,” he says. “It can be really interesting to work with a collection of different pieces and to put them together in a multi-aperture frame.” The centenary of the outbreak of World War I has seen the re-emergence of just such treasures, many of which had been gathering dust, tucked away in a drawer for the past few decades. He has also framed medals from the Boer War and many
other military encounters up to and including the Iraqi war. A chance encounter with a sporting great provided Douglas with another challenging job some years ago. He recalls: “Tiger Woods was playing in the Open at Troon and a female spectator was struck by a ball he had hit, breaking her arm. “Later she came in to the shop with the cast, which she had had signed by John Major, the Prime Minister of the time, and the actual ball which hit her. We put them in a box frame for her and she had a memento to treasure.” Professional framing is enjoying a bit of a revival as clients appreciate the craftmanship and care that is offered by a professional framer who can advise on the choice of material for any particular job and help to select appropriate glazing and frame formats. Frame Shop owner Ron Warbrick added: “Framing is our speciality and we are happy to provide this service.”
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SOUND and vision Two class acts collaborate in a project of great beauty
TAKE one Ayrshire musician, add an international multi awardwinning Hungarian photographer and what do you get? Stara Zagora, a multimedia partnership embarking on what promises to be a stunning collaboration. Of course to call Sean McGeoch just a musician and just a photographer does a great disservice to both. Sean has been crafting songs for a decade and the beautiful, haunting, ethereal tunes on the Stara Zagora Soundcloud demonstrate what a special talent he has. Árpád, meanwhile, is a photographer, film-maker and graphic artist with a list of awards as long as your arm. They met when Árpád took pictures for Selective Service, a band Sean played drums with. Sean says: “He did some really amazing and creative pictures for the band. He's really easy to work with cause you know he has a natural eye for a good picture. “He's just awesome, can't really say much more. He is able to convey in one picture what every artistic person feels about life...if that makes any sense.” Although Stara Zagora is described as “a one-man project” Árpád regards himself as very much part of the act. “Yes, I do the visual part of Sean’s music,” he observes. And that Hungarian name? “It means ‘city of poets’ in Bulgarian,” he adds. As an accomplished short film maker, Árpád made a stunning video for another Ayrshire band, Soldier On. Are there plans for Sean and Árpád to make videos? “I certainly hope so.,” Sean says. “I only started the Stara Zagora project a couple of months ago. I've been a bit of a frustrated songwriter for a while so just decided one day I would just record a bunch of songs on my own playing everything and not worry about it too much. I was delighted Àrpàd took an interest and I hope we can work together for a long time to come.’ Reflecting on his inspiration for his music, Sean says: “I have lots of influences. From an early age I fell in love with Radiohead and Sigur Ros. I have always loved ethereal sounding music and sounds that make you feel something you will never be able to explain in words. I get really into one artist and do them to death so when I got into older folk music like Dylan and Neil Young I exhausted them. I hope the music I love shines through.” Sean, who lives in Dundonald and attended Marr College in Troon says he is very keen to perform live, but has no firm plans as yet. “It's still very early days. I have 10 years worth of songs pestering me night and day and I hope to get out and play them soon. I hope to hit the ground running...” After a few evasive answers, he finally concedes: “I'm desperate to play live. I want to tear shit up! In a melancholic way of course. I would say I'll definitely have a gig by January.” I’ll be having a ticket for that one, thankyouverymuch. See you there. No go and take a look/listen at: • soundcloud.com/stara-zagora • soundcloud.com/sean • soundcloud.com/ager and both Sean’s and Árpád’s Facebook pages.
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