black hole space echo box

horsemouth is intrigued by busker and musical instrument inventor michael o'shea - it turns out horsemouth has heard of him before - sometime (presumably during the late 70ies/ early 80ies) he was interviewed by tommy vance for the friday rock show (or possibly on the jazz show) about his black hole space echo box - the name itself being enough to excite the teenage horsemouth's interest. michael o'shea was mainly famous for playing the mo chara - a kind of combination hammer dulcimer/ sitar and several albums of him playing this exist.

 horsemouth is also intrigued that he's mainly reported playing on the platform of covent garden station (something you can no longer do under the current restrictions on busking underground) - but even more so by a blog that seems to describe covent garden as quite a 'happening' place (early 80ies?), this may be a false memory but it does seem to be the case that there were plenty of punk and new romantic themes shops, plenty of clubs. now it seems to horsemouth like an airport departure lounge, it seems scrubbed clean of interest.

it being a small world it turns out that one of horsemouth's friends (jim bermingham) actually knew michael. this is a discovery horsemouth owes to the combinatorial powers of facebook - or at least the internet - or perhaps a steampunk rapid postal service and daguerrotype photocopying would do it (with mule delivery for inaccessible spots).

 jim bermingham says;

'' I remember Mick O'Shea well. sorry to hear he's passed away. We used to busk together in London and Dublin. Even got thrown out of O'Donnahue's together cos Mick was drinking his own whiskey. He had a talent for getting thrown out of places. 

Mick was essentially a percussionist. He built several instruments that I know of. Me and him [on percussion] and Cahir O'doherty [on bass] used to busk outside the bank of Ireland and in Grafton street, Dublin one Summer c. '79.'80.He also used to play the platform at Covent Garden Tube. 

His *Mo chara* [pron. ma kara] Gaelic for "my friend", was essentially a self built hammer dulcimer played with chop-sticks. It had two pick-ups and was amped through two seperate phaser pedals, giving it an incredible spacy cyclic pulsing effect. That album track doesn't do him justice. 

He was also know to dress up in ladies atire in public.He somewhat resembled the Vulture from Spiderman comics. I had to pull his ma cara out of a campfire on a beach in Wicklow once after he'd drunkenly thrown it on the fire. "Interesting" is an understatement."

horsemouth has never busked (perhaps this awaits him as a retiree) but playing music for money has always struck horsemouth as an honourable profession whether it be in the club. the coffee shop or in the street. he thinks attempts to sanitise or regulate the trade should be resisted.