Ivor Cutler; A Life Outside the Sitting Room; Lindsay

Bruce Lindsay [+–]

Music Journalist and Social Historian

Bruce Lindsay is a freelance music journalist and social history researcher. He is the author of Shellac and Swing: A Social History of the Gramophone in Britain (Fonthill Media, 2020), Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival: The Lives, Song Traditions and Legacies of Sam Larner and Harry Cox (Equinox Publishing, 2020) and Ivor Cutler: A Life Outside the Sitting Room (Equinox, 2023).

Ivor Cutler: A Life Outside the Sitting Room is the first biography of one of post-war Britain’s most recognisable authors, poets and performers. Mr Cutler (as he preferred to be known) wrote and recorded some of the most unusual and memorable songs and poems in British popular culture, including the hilarious and unsettling ‘Life in a Scotch Sitting Room’ series. Described by fans and commentators as an outsider because of his eccentric behaviour on and off stage, in many ways he was an insider, working for thirty years as a primary school teacher, gathering a body of fans from the heart of the cultural and social establishment, and regularly appearing on mainstream media. He was one of the first – if not the first – performers to appear on BBC radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 and famously recorded more John Peel sessions than any other act except The Fall.

This book is based on evidence from official documents, print and broadcast media; archive interviews with Ivor Cutler, his close friends and family, fans and collaborators; and new interviews with fans, friends and fellow performers. Contributors include musical and acting collaborators who have never been interviewed about their experiences with Mr Cutler.

Series: Popular Music History

Prelims

Acknowledgements vii-viii

Chapter 1

An Introduction [+–] 1-2

Songwriter, poet, singer and storyteller Ivor Cutler grew up in an abusive Glasgow household headed by a violent, controlling and unpredictable grandfather who would routinely lash out at young Ivor and his siblings. The children, in turn, produced psychodramas to disturb their mother, occasionally entertained themselves with three grains of Troon sand, urinated into sponges when at home, and waited fearfully for grandfather to interrogate them about their use of the second-hand first aid book. At least, that’s the story that emerges from Ivor’s Life in a Scotch Sitting Room tales. The real story of his life is less fantastical, but equally fascinating and, in many aspects, little known or understood. This chapter briefly summarises many opinions about Ivor from his friends and from commentators such as Bernard Levin, and discusses my own love of his work, as a foundation for the rest of the book.

Chapter 2

Return to Y’Hup [+–] 3-6

In 2019 a group of musicians based in Scotland began the Return to Y’Hup project, producing a tribute album of Ivor’s work and a major concert performance of the album at the 2020 Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. Return to Y’Hup features leading members of Scotland’s folk, jazz, pop and rock communities – including Raymond MacDonald, Matt Brennan (a.k.a. Citizen Bravo), Karine Polwart and Kris Drever – as well as guest appearances from long-term Ivor Cutler associates Robert Wyatt and Phyllis King. Return to Y’Hup is an indication of the love and respect still felt for Ivor Cutler in the Scottish arts community and beyond. This chapter investigates the development of the project through interviews with MacDonald, Brennan and others who were actively involved in this development. It goes on to discuss the Ivor Cutler songs and poems selected for the project, the creation of Ivor’s imaginary island of Y’Hup and his early declaration of his work as an Oblique Musical Philosopher.

Chapter 3

Early Life [+–] 7-18

This chapter looks at Ivor’s childhood and adolescence, up to the beginning of World War II. Ivor Cutler was born in the Govan area of Glasgow in 1923 into a Jewish family, originally called Kushner, that came to Scotland as refugees from Russia a generation earlier. He spent most of the first two decades of his life in Glasgow and this chapter explores the period from the Kushner family’s arrival in the country to the outbreak of World War II. Young Ivor’s early years were not happy: according to his own account, he experienced anti-Semitism and bullying at Shawlands Academy and received corporal punishment 200 times. He also told of tensions within his family and claimed that, aged three, he attempted to murder his younger brother: the attempt failed only because of the timely arrival of his Aunt Eva. “I was held of little account at home or at school, nor was I popular” he wrote.

Chapter 4

A Life in the Clouds [+–] 19-26

At the outbreak of World War II Ivor Cutler was not old enough to join the armed forces and was, briefly, evacuated along with his sisters and younger brother, but two years later he joined the Royal Air Force and started navigator training. A dangerous, but possibly glamorous, life as a member of Bomber Command beckoned, but it was not to be and Ivor (service number 1562357) was soon dismissed from the training course for what he later described as “dreaminess” – a potentially fatal characteristic for a navigator and his fellow crew members. He spent the rest of the war in a more mundane role in an engineering factory, living once more with his parents in Glasgow, then after the war ended he trained as a teacher and began his teaching career in Paisley.

Chapter 5

Back to School [+–] 27-37

Mr. Cutler (as his pupils called him) taught in the Scottish school system for just two years but was never comfortable with its rigid approaches and use of corporal punishment – he claimed that when he left Scotland’s education system he cut his tawse into pieces and gave one to each of his pupils. Ivor moved to England – he would never again live in Scotland – and took up a teaching post at Summerhill, a school known for its radical and unorthodox approach to education. After a few years he moved to London, married, became a father and spent the rest of his teaching career with the Inner London Education Authority. This chapter features interviews with ex-pupils, including his son Dan, and parents, who recall Mr. Cutler’s idiosyncratic approaches to the teaching of drama, music and dance.

Chapter 6

A Life of Whimsical Fantasies [+–] 38-59

From the 1950s to the 1980s, Ivor combined teaching with his career as a performer, writer and broadcaster. This chapter explores the early years of his career as a performer, a career that began with an apparently disastrous nightclub appearance before going on to encompass records, radio, television and movies, thanks to the intervention of music publishers Box & Cox and BBC producer Ned Sherrin. Ivor was not yet a poet, he was dismissive of his early attempts at poetry: he did not take poetry seriously until much later and reported that it took seven years before he produced poems he considered worthy of “professional” status. Others, including Sherrin, took a more optimistic view of Ivor’s talents and he made his first broadcasts in the late 1950s, establishing a reputation as a performer “whose fantasies tend to the whimsical.”

Chapter 7

When Life was Fab [+–] 60-74

Ivor Cutler’s reputation grew and he found early favour with the emerging counter-culture thanks to International Times. He worked with the iconoclastic film director Ken Russell and made a series of appearances on BBC TV’s Late Night Line-Up, including one as part of a free-jazz trio called The Three Wise Men with drummer Trevor Tomkins and bassist Dave Green, both of whom talk about the experience in this chapter. Paul McCartney became a fan. One of the most famous and recognisable people in the world, McCartney openly declared his love of Ivor’s work and offered him a role in his band’s next movie. Ivor’s appearance as the gloomy tour guide Buster Bloodvessel, in Magical Mystery Tour, was his highest-profile appearance to date and possibly the best-known appearance of his entire career. The link to the Fab Four led to George Martin producing the Ivor Cutler Trio’s 1967 album, Ludo: a prestigious move, although the recording process was a frustrating one for the producer and the main artist.

Chapter 8

Life Inside the Sitting Room [+–] 75-86

Ivor Cutler fans have their own favourites from his work – “Women of the World” perhaps, or “Gruts” – but it’s the bizarre, funny and often disturbing Life in a Scotch Sitting Room tales that attract the most attention. Ivor recorded this series of narratives on a number of albums, on radio shows (notably in sessions for John Peel) and as a print collection. This chapter explores this unique series of stories, and the follow-up story collection Glasgow Dreamer, considering the extent to which they were based on real experiences (such is their nature, it is highly unlikely that most of the events within these stories actually occurred) and attempting to explain just why so many awful things happened to Bill.

Chapter 9

A Life on the Page [+–] 87-106

Although he’s now best known as a performer and recording artist, Ivor Cutler was also a successful author, writing books and poems for children and adults and featuring in poetry anthologies. His life as an author is often seen as secondary to his fame as a performer and recording artist and his books are mostly out of print, but they have their own charms. This chapter will discuss Ivor’s work as an author for adults and children and his collaborations with illustrators including Martin Honeysett and Alfie Benge. It also looks at his work as a poet, from his earliest attempts to write poetry, to his appearances in leading poetry journals and his books of poems and short stories. It will also explore his use of “stickies,” the small sticky labels printed with his own thoughts or those of others, which Ivor used to inform, cheer and confuse people he met in his day-to-day life.

Chapter 10

A Life on the Stage [+–] 107-120

By the start of the 1970s Ivor Cutler was in demand as a performer on stage, as a solo artist or in support of leading rock acts. This chapter discusses his stage appearances from the early 1970s onwards: a collection of poetry readings, concerts and benefit gigs that featured him solo or in the company of a few fellow performers including Bruce Lacey, Soft Machine and Van Morrison. In 1971, one of these performers, poet and author Phyllis King, met Ivor while on holiday in Ibiza and began a personal and professional relationship with him that would last for 40 years. The chapter includes contributions from Phyllis King, DJ and broadcaster Andy Kershaw, Ivor’s “manager” David Jones and others.

Chapter 11

A Life on Screen [+–] 121-127

Ivor first appeared on television in the late 1950s, then made occasional appearances on TV throughout his life. Although he never became a regular performer on the small screen, he made appearances on chat shows and light entertainment series, starred in a documentary about “English” eccentrics and joined peak-time light chat show star Russell Harty for a Christmas special. On the big screen, he joined fellow poets and playwright Harold Pinter in Poets Against the Bomb. In 1998 he made what was possibly his oddest appearance, as interviewer and interviewee on Scottish Television’s Don’t Look Down. His final concert, in 2004, was filmed by the BBC and broadcast as Cutler’s Last Stand.

Chapter 12

Quite a Few Lives on the Wireless [+–] 128-139

Ivor may have appeared on big and small screens, but it was BBC radio that provided an outlet for his most distinctive work for over forty years. He was a regular guest on Radio 1’s John Peel and Andy Kershaw shows, an occasional guest on radio programmes for schools and joined Kenny Everett, Ron Geesin and Viv Stanshall on If It’s Wednesday, It Must Be …, but it’s his own idiosyncratic and often puzzling shows for which he’s most fondly remembered. This chapter looks at some of these shows, including King and Cutler, Ivor Cutler and …, Silence and Bat Blues, with contributions from producers, friends and fellow performers.

Chapter 13

Long Players [+–] 140-155

This chapter explores the Ivor Cutler discography, which stretched from his first EP, released in the late 1950s, to his albums of the late 1990s. Ivor’s first album after his appearance in Magical Mystery Tour, 1967’s Ludo, was credited to the Ivor Cutler Trio. Other albums were credited as solo recordings, although guest performers including Fred Frith and Phyllis King appeared on selected tracks. These albums appeared on some of the best-known and hippest record labels including Virgin, Harvest and Rough Trade – a measure of Ivor’s popularity within the fashionable arts scenes of the time. This exploration draws in detail from interviews with some of his musical collaborators, including Linda Hirst, Fred Frith, Steve Beresford and David Toop, often speaking publicly for the first time about their work with Ivor.

Chapter 14

Ivor for Hire [+–] 156-167

This chapter moves away from Ivor Cutler’s own books and albums to concentrate instead on his guest appearances on records, radio, magazines, newspapers and TV shows. Despite his undoubted popularity among musicians and the media, Ivor made few guest appearances on other people’s recordings. It may be that his distinctive voice and performing style did not lend themselves to partnerships with other musicians, it may be that he turned down most invitations to such ventures. When he did appear as a guest his contributions are memorable and artistically wide-ranging: from Robert Wyatt’s Rock Bottom album to Neil Ardley’s Symphony of Amaranths, on which he recited Lewis Carroll’s “The Dong with the Luminous Nose,” and a recording with Swiss studio engineer Robert Vogel titled “Arschloch.” In print, Ivor made notable appearances as a guest columnist as well as in interviews, revealing tales of his day-to-day life including problems with marmalade and less-than-positive opinions about the Rolling Stones.

Chapter 15

Covering Ivor Cutler [+–] 168-174

In this chapter the focus is on reinterpretations of Ivor Cutler’s songs and poems. Because Ivor’s individual songs and poems are brief – many last for less than 60 seconds and a five-minute song or poem is a rarity – his dozen or so EPs and albums offer an extensive body of work for any artist hoping to put their own mark on this material. However, until Return to Y’Hup cover versions were relatively rare. Once again, Ivor’s idiosyncratic sound may act as a barrier for mainstream artists whose own sound lacks such originality. It’s notable that choreographers, theatre companies and animators have also “covered” Ivor’s work in their own ways: this chapter includes interviews with many artists from those fields whose work has been influenced by Ivor’s own, including the leading actors from The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler. One of his best-known songs, “Women of the World,” has found recent fame thanks to U2. An adaptation of another of his most popular numbers has been adopted in the cause of fried chicken.

Chapter 16

A Life Outside the Limelight [+–] 175-198

This chapter explores Ivor Cutler’s life away from the studio or stage – a domestic life lived in a small London flat, an active campaigning life in support of issues close to his heart and a social life that included visits to London Zoo, Kew Gardens and the South Bank Centre. Ivor once declared that “Amplification is the curse of civilisation.” He was not comfortable with loud noise, often instructing sound engineers to turn down the volume and imploring audiences to clap quietly. Noise is one example of issues which he felt strongly about: euthanasia, war, politics, and the benefits of cycling were others. Sometimes, his campaigning emerged in his poems and lyrics. At other times, he campaigned through organisations such as the Noise Abatement Society, through his “stickies,” or via his album cover illustrations.

Chapter 17

“I Will Become a Hermes” [+–] 199-208

Ivor Cutler made his feelings clear in his last will and testament, in which he described himself simply as a “humorist”: “I do not want any mourning at my death.” Despite his plea, many people mourned when he died in 2006 – among them were two groups of MSPs who tabled motions of tribute and noted that he spent 50 years “entertaining and occasionally perplexing audiences.” Since Ivor’s death there have been regular tributes in the form of radio shows, TV documentaries and stage productions. This chapter discusses these tributes and also discusses his impact on the current generation of fans, his perceived “outsider” status and his own ideas about life after life.

End Matter

Notes 209-232

Discography 233

Bibliography 234-236

Index 237-245

link to BBC’s Great Lives interview with K T Tunstall (and Bruce Lindsay (April 27, 2021)
link to the artsdesk.com interview with Sebastian Scotney (December 13, 2022)

link to Word in Your Ear interview with Mark and David (December 28, 2022)

Reviews

This is a really comprehensive and conscientious look at the great man’s life and work. Straight in, we learn something about the family roots of 'Mr Cutler,’ something I was never able to quite work out: it is clear here that my assumption that he emerged from an egg, at the foot of a little known mountain in Y'Hup is highly inaccurate.
Robert Wyatt, musician and composer

Lindsay... assembles his complicated story with the help of a raft of friends and relatives - not least Cutler's two sons, and poet Phyllis April King, who as Cutler's partner for much of his later life did not need to address him as "Mr Cutler," a protocol the artist demanded of anyone meeting him for the first time. Stern and inscrutable but mischievous and at times painfully poignant... Cutler said of himself: "If I am a genius, I'm a genius in a very small way indeed." Here, his tiny light shines bright.
Uncut

Paul McCartney popping around to his flat to entice him to join the Magical Mystery Tour and his growing acceptance into the rock scene is dealt with in the same erudite, understated fashion as his dealings in the world of poetry publication or his bleak Glasgow upbringing. Social historian Lindsay's treatise researches deep into a post-war character blossoming into a rock 'n' roll universe. Cutler's deadpan utterances the icing on the cake.
Record Collector

Prodigiously researched book.
The Scotsman

Lindsay has researched Cutler well. All in all, it's a good read and gives a fine insight into a man for whom the term "a character" might well have been especially coined.
London Jazz News

Bruce Lindsay, an accomplished music journalist, has produced an incredibly well-researched book. It provides a compulsive and rewarding, if somewhat densely packed read, and is absolutely essential for all Cutler enthusiasts. But even those for whom Ivor Cutler remains an unknown quantity, this would be the ideal opportunity to correct that situation.
A truly excellent biography.
The Ileach Newspaper

It's a credit to Lindsay that he has produced such a meticulously researched and definitive biography because Cutler was such a nebulous mythmaker and entirely unreliable narrator. That Lindsay has not only managed to to root out salient fact from scattergun fiction but also written a thorough and highly readable work that is affectionate yet well short of hagiographic makes this a valuable biography of a man that even those who knew him best found contradictory and hard to pin down.
The New European

This book succeeds in giving Cutler the serious and comprehensive recognition he deserves.
The Wire

Popular Music History

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Ivor Cutler

A Life Outside the Sitting Room

Bruce Lindsay [+–]

Music Journalist and Social Historian

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