'writing the book has changed things, as has listening to the music. I feel I’ve been given all those years back again, the good times and the loveliness of sharing dreams with wonderful people. I guess I’d purposely remembered more of the difficult times in order not to feel the losses...' - rose simpson (the incredible string band)
like most british schoolchildren of a particular age horsemouth was raised on the parrot sketch by monty python. the goons were also present at his birth (and on record) and the hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy was a major influence (taped from the radio), perhaps later the young ones (but already the magic is fading off).
when horsemouth was a child the main aim was to be a be to reproduce the sketches accurately in the schoolyard the next day (while standing in the rain).
horsemouth was a child of the type little professor but it was a role he wanted out of. he showed no talent for drama (indeed he showed a great talent for forgetting lines). he showed no talent for music (he doesn't begin to show any talent for it until he gets a band together much later and to this day his music is poorly founded).
at some point he parts company with comedy. but he sees its radicality. he sees the ability of language to reconfigure the world, to play with its elements, to upend hierarchies. this was important to horsemouth because he was low down in the pecking order of schoolboy life - he wasn't good at sport, he wasn't into fighting, so anything that redressed the balance was useful to him.
horsemouth is not the smartest creature he knows. but he's decently smart and he's hardworking (so he can turn his hand to most things). he has the courage of his convictions and a willingness to try things. however stubbornness and conviction can only get you as far as exhaustion, being able to play and reconfigure situations can be a more useful skill.
leslie west (the guitarist from mountain) has popped his clogs. (strangely that term for death isn't in the parrot sketch). nantucket sleigh ride was used as the theme music to weekend world (a current affairs programme) when horsemouth was a kid, that and the shawn philips theme music to world in action had a strong sense of drama about them. they called him up and out from the welsh valleys and childhood into the adult world.
the world of horsemouth's childhood was a world where resources were not available to change anything, in fact all resources were tied up in vast traditions and institutions and communities. life was lived within these structures. while elsewhere in the world things might be moving forward at the speed of sound like concorde the valleys were already in decline - although they seemed solid and immutable the glory days of coal and steel were treading water and were about to end.
when he's 16 horsemouth's parents move to the wilds of herefordshire (that's their dream). horsemouth serves his time at the sixth form college and then goes off to university, he is homesick and out of his depth and immature. but he gets there eventually. he becomes himself. about 1990 with the help of some friends he (eventually) gets the music going (and discovers its something he can do). he gets a band together and discovers he has a talent for stringing ideas together. five years later that ends but within 5 years he's back making music again just for the fun of it.
this is where our story ends for now. horsemouth is a tax-paying, rent-paying, voting member of society. he makes music for the fun of it. he continues to think music has a power.
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