Ivor Cutler - A Life Outside the Sitting Room - Bruce Lindsay
"I Will Become a Hermes"
Ivor Cutler - A Life Outside the Sitting Room - Bruce 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).
Description
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.