**** (4 stars)
“What an Evening”
When I was wee, and lived in the south of England, my family and I used to listen to the radio together [this was in the days before every home had a television the size of a postage stamp]. There were the Goons, Round the Horne, the Navy Lark and the Men from the Ministry. The Goons, in particular, were a great influence on me – their ridiculous sense of humour seemed perfectly sensible to me…
One voice I remember very clearly from this time, because its accent was to me [an innocent Sassenach] the strangest and funniest I had ever heard. Instantly recognisable, it sounded completely poker-faced as it told stories from its owner’s childhood in the Gorbals and sang simple songs – but again and again there were eccentric, throwaway comments and descriptions in his anecdotes, and quirky, incongruous lines in his songs. I absolutely loved this man’s words and voice – Ivor Cutler.
So, when I saw in the Book Festival programme a session entitled Hamish Hawk: Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, vol 0, I knew I had to be there. I confess upfront that I had no idea who Hamish Hawk was, but was really excited at the prospect of what the programme described as a rare, lyrical homage to Scotland’s pre-eminent poet-eccentric. Even better, we were offered the chance to see and hear Cutler’s own harmonium, the quaintly droning sounds of which were an integral part of the joy of listening to the man’s songs.
What an evening! Not only was there the joy of hearing some of Cutler’s own words – and his inimitable songs – but there was the unexpected joy of hearing Hamish Hawk’s own words in anecdotes about his own Edinburgh childhood in Fairmilehead. I don’t know Hamish’s songs, but his prose writing is brilliant – such precise descriptions of family life that I could feel I was there with him as he tried to navigate life with his parents and two older siblings. Both Cutler and Hawk have a wonderful mastery of words, and are not above embellishing the truth while also celebrating and suffering the awkwardnesses of growing up in less than affluent circumstances.
Most of the songs were Cutler’s and I loved them all – though a special mention has to go to A bubble or two for its wonderfully macabre narrative, and Face like a lemon where a conventional love song is subverted by the descriptions of the beloved… An excellent touch in the show was the use of a wonderful red velvet fez-like hat with a giant tassel: when wearing it, Hamish was using Ivor’s words and without it, they were his own.
It was a wonderfully absurd and delightfully entertaining evening, which the audience absolutely adored. And it didn’t end when Hamish delivered his own song, Catherine opens a window – the subsequent conversation with Nicola Meighan was fascinating. Not just because it filled in some of the background of how the show was commissioned [and how Cutler’s harmonium came to be centre stage] but revealing the depth of Hawk’s admiration of the older man and the inspiration he found in his work. Another really interesting topic was the difference between writing songs and writing prose: Hamish and Nicola agreed the two used completely different sets of writing muscles.
And then it was time, reluctantly, to leave the Spiegeltent and trek off into the darkness, still glowing from the warmth of my encounter with two brilliant wordsmiths.
EIBF, Hamish Hawk: Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, vol 0, Spiegeltent, Futures Institute, for more information go to: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/hamish-hawk-life-in-a-scotch-sitting-room-vol-0
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