Six of the Best 996

Sally Dawson pays tribute to Maureen Colquhoun, Britain’s first openly lesbian MP, who died earlier this month. She sat for Northampton North between February 1974 and 1979.

The coming Holyrood elections should be about the life draining from Scotland's hills and glens and the need for rewilding, argues Adam Ramsay.

"Politically speaking, Popper had lived through much. He had seen the dissolution of the old Austro-Hungarian monarchy. He was part of the subsequent intellectual revolution that, among other things, produced the Vienna Circle, of which he was a peripheral part. He witnessed first-hand the rise of the Nazis and, with equal dismay, the rise of Communism." David Cohen remembers Karl Popper.

Caitlin Green looks at the evidence that there were people named Muhammad in medieval England.

Adam Chapman studies an apparently innocent landscape by Ronald Lampitt and finds a wealth of information about the changes to British agriculture after the second world war.

"If Leeds was somewhere to escape from then the Yorkshire Dales were somewhere to escape to. Jake Thackray’s Swaledale was similar to James Joyce’s Dublin: a quasi-magical place rooted in a real geography containing the world’s multitudes." Will Ainsley celebrates the genius of Jake Thackray.

Jake Thackray in Swaledale

This documentary from 1971 finds Jake Thackray exploring Swaledale from Keld and Muker down to Richmond.

Its slight awkwardness, broken leg and all, is surely part of its charm and a reminder of the days when not everyone could provide a soundbite on demand.

The schoolchildren, says a comment on YouTube, are from Muker primary school, which closed a few years later.

Six of the Best 669

Mark Pack finds that Jeremy Corbyn does not want to raise human rights abuses backed by Russia with the Russian ambassador.

Will Brexit mean cheaper food? Harry Wallop has his doubts.

Amanda Froelich takes us to Asia's first vertical forest.

"Normally when you’ve got a British county whose name ends in -shire, it’s named after its county town (or, in a few cases, its ex county-town). But there’s no Shrop in Shropshire. So, why’s it called that?" John Elledge discovers the derivation of English county names.

"Love offers the dream of an escape from performance (‘We won’t have time for such, / Such fancy pantomimes’) – but first, it leads inexorably into it." Richard O'Brien offers a close reading of Jake Thackray's song Lah-Di-Dah.

Clint Eastwood was cast in A Fistful of Dollars only because Charles Bronson asked for too much money. Mark Harris relates some spaghetti Western history.

Six of the Best 638

The Uber judgement and Ken Loach's film I, Daniel Blake both make the case for a citzens' basic income, argues Chris Dillow.

Raheem Kassam, who pulled out of Ukip's leadership race today, had huge support on social media. But, says Guido Fawkes, but little in the real world: "This has implications for Leave.EU, the pro-Brexit campaign group set up by multi-millionaire businessman Arron Banks, which backed Raheem. ... Banks is confusing 'likes', 'follows' and casual clicktivism with active support. Leave.EU bought Facebook 'likes' essentially by buying traffic."

The Economist praises Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and says it marks her out as "a leading female voice in postcolonial literature".

"He was hugely popular from the late 60s through the early 80s, but never a critical favourite until a group of fans started, after his death, reissuing his material and promoting him as what he was - a true songwriting great." Andrew Hickey reviews a new CD of Jake Thackray songs.

Daniel Curtis visits the Catholic church of St Aloysius Gonzaga in Oxford, where Gerard Manley Hopkins was once curate.

The Hull Daily Mail offers some chilling urban legends from the city.

Six of the Best 539

Peter Black fears that the Liberal Democrats' election post mortem is being written by the usual suspects and will miss the point.

Seth Thévoz has conducted for the Social Liberal Forum a detailed study into the effectiveness of the Interim Peers Panel System for electing Liberal Democrat nominees to the House of Lords. You can download the whole report from the SLF website.

"One suspects that in today’s online world, Fischer’s paranoia and personal flaws would have tripped him up long before he became champion." Kenneth Rogoff, once one of the world's best young chess players and now a leading economist, reviews Pawn Sacrifice, the new Hollywood biography of Bobby Fischer.

Running Past discovers the former home of the GPO film unit, where W.H. Auden and Benjamin Britten worked together in the 1930s.

The Witch, The Weird, and The Wonderful has tales of drowned churches and ghostly peels of bells.

"Thackray’s handsome face and strong Roman nose, his vertical posture and watery, wisenheimer eyes – with the merest hint of vulnerability – made him a housewives’ favourite back in the day, though Thackray was also an anomaly, impossible to categorise. That is perhaps the reason the national treasure epithet evaded him in life; his cult hero status has only inflated since he died in 2002." Jeremy Allen remembers the great Jake Thackray.

New DVD: Jake Thackray and Songs

Thanks to The Jake Thackray Project for the information below.

The Jake Thackray Project is delighted to announce the release of the DVD Jake Thackray and Songs, by arrangement with BBC Music.

Yorkshire-born Jake Thackray (1938-2002) was a unique talent, a brilliant writer and performer
whose songs are full of humour, wit, irreverence and humanity. He became known to tens of millions through his regular performances in the 1960s and 1970s on programmes such as 'Braden's Week', 'The Beryl Reid Show' and 'That's Life'. His distinctive appearance, deadpan delivery, clever wordplay, occasional, artful use of vulgarity and surreal imagination delighted many viewers and outraged some.

Jake is most famous for his comedy songs, such as Bantam Cock (a fowl tale of farmyard lust), Sister Josephine (about a burglar disguised as a nun) and Lah-di-Dah (about marriage and putting up with the in-laws). However, there was much more to the man than clever, surreal comic storytelling: in truth, he was a chansonnier, a singer-poet, in the tradition of his hero, Georges Brassens. He had his own unique take on the world, standing squarely on the side of the underdog, and was capable of writing songs of wit and real depth. 'The Remembrance' is surely one of the greatest ever anti-war songs, whilst 'The Bull' is a song for our times - a hilarious, vulgar attack on authority, hierarchies, deference and celebrity culture.

In 1981 the BBC gave Jake his own six-part TV series, Jake Thackray and Songs. Jake was a brilliant, if nervous, live performer who built a superb rapport with audiences. The programmes capture Jake at the height of his powers and paint an intimate portrait of him, playing to audiences in the small venues where he felt most comfortable. They feature performances of thirty of his greatest songs, along with his inimitable between-songs chat and storytelling.

'Jake Thackray and Songs' marked a peak for Jake. Following this and the accompanying live album (his last and, sadly, not currently available), he continued to be a popular live performer, but his television appearances became less frequent. It is wonderful, therefore, that Jake's performances from this series at last have seen the light of day again, and we can watch this brilliant and truly original performer at work, taking chances on a stage, in front of the punters, with 'no frig', as Jake would put it.

This is the only DVD available of Jake performing. It also includes previously unreleased performances by three of the outstanding guest artists who appeared in the series: Ralph McTell, Alex Glasgow and Pete Scott.

Jake Thackray: The Hair of the Widow of Bridlington

Some good news from The Jake Thackray Website:

The DVD of the BBC series Jake Thackray and Songs is now available to buy online via Amazon. 

Jake Thackray and Songs, broadcast in 1981, captures him at the height of his powers; it paints an intimate portrait of Jake as a live artist, playing to audiences in the small venues where he felt most comfortable. 

This DVD features all of his performances from the series: thirty of his greatest songs, along with his inimitable between-songs chat and storytelling. Also included are previously unreleased performances by three outstanding guest artists: Ralph McTell, Alex Glasgow and Pete Scott.

Six of the Best 466

Stephen Tall looks at Lord Ashcroft's poll of Lib Dem/Tory marginals on Liberal Democrat Voice.

"I suspect ... this is the symptom of an underlying disease - that the media exists entirely within a Westminster bubble. Mr Collins thinks the deficit is a "real" problem not because there's empirical or theoretical evidence that it is, but simply because the groupthink of Very Serious People says so." Stumbling and Mumbling introduces us to the useful concept of 'bubblethink'.

Europe's domination of the Ryder Cup means the event is losing popularity in America, explains Art Spander for Bleacher Report.

Internet Curtains visits the north Nottingham suburbs of Bulwell, Highbury Vale and Basford.

"These North Country witches have no need for fancy, expensive props and familiars, instead relying on their ‘Woolworth’s broomstick and a tabby cat’." The Downstairs Lounge celebrates the genius of Jake Thackray.

A Guiding Life attended the recent revival of Arts Fresco here in Market Harborough.

Jake Thackray: The Remembrance

Jake Thackray on BBC2 tonight

Late this evening (11.20 England, 11.30 Scotland, 11.50 Wales) BBC2 is showing Jake on the Box. This is a programme:

Exploring the life and work of Jake Thackray, the undervalued genius famous for his biting satire and understated irony. A rare example of a British singer-songwriter in the troubadour tradition, Thackray could be darkly vicious, but was also able to write haunting and romantic songs. His words and music have influenced a generation of musicians and writers.

There is more about Jake Thackray elsewhere on this blog.

Jake Thackray: On again

This Sunday's video celebrates the late, great Jake Thackray.

As my readers are so young these days, I had better introduce him with this extract from the biography on a website devoted to him:

Jake Thackray was a singer-songwriter in the French tradition, a "chansonnier" whose songs are nevertheless convincingly and idiosyncratically English. This is scarcely surprising. After graduating from Durham University, Jake spent four years in France as a teacher where the likes of Jaques Brel and his particular hero Georges Brassens made their indelible mark.
The influence of their songs and story telling propelled Jake towards his own writing and singing style. But despite this Gallic background his songs are no mere copies; they are firmly and recognisably rooted in the English countryside, character and language.
They are also painfully funny, sad, tragic, rude, irreverent, incisive and happy, and often enough all these things at the same time. In short, they are unique.