I went to the launch event for the St Anthony single on Friday night- it was a ticketed event before you go imagining I'm some kind of mover or shaker. It was held in the old Granada TV studios, Wilson's place of work. After a screening of the video and some brief interview clips Mike Garry performs several of his distinctively Mancunian poems with Joe Duddell and a string quartet, finishing with St Anthony- An Ode To Anthony H Wilson. His poetry is hard edged, honest, human and real and often comes loaded with a punchline, making you both laugh and cry and his delivery is a performance- rapid fire rhymes and sudden stops. The Wilson tribute especially is moving, heartfelt without ever becoming sentimental- much like the man himself. At ten the doors to one of the filming studios opens and the thump of house music begins. Mike Pickering plays what turns out to be a blinding set followed at midnight by Bobby Langley who starts out with the Andrew Weatherall remix of St Anthony, this new version of Your Silent Face booming out with Mike Garry's voice. Manchester vibes are very much in the area.
Mike Garry & Joe Duddell - St Anthony: An Ode to Anthony H Wilson - Andrew Weatherall Remix on MUZU.TV.
It was one of the best detections you gave to me with your post last Monday. Never heard before an like Drew said: once listen to it the song/poem won't leave my brain. Now I've got to buy this brilliant masterpiece. Thank you SA.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that SA, I've just bought the Weatherall remix via the St. Anthony site. A shame though that they don't present the lyrics there (although some guy on youtube writes that they ARE available, but perhaps I'm just too stupid again to find them), because me, as a non-Englishman, I don't fully understand what they refer to, which drives me nuts!
ReplyDeleteThe lyrics can be found at Mike Garry's blog (God is a Manc), link now in my blog roll to the right.
ReplyDeleteDownloaded. Great, moving tune for a very fine cause.
ReplyDeleteHot Damn, that's got a proper Balearic vibe going on.
ReplyDeleteNice one.
thanks. purchased.
ReplyDeletePurchased...download version is only the radio mix? RAAAAAAAGE!
ReplyDeleteThere's a four song dl pack with the full length mix is't there?
ReplyDeleteCheers Adam.
ReplyDelete:)
My rage has now abided.
:)
Thanks very much for the lyrics-link, SA, much appreciated & helpful! They seem to come from the original poem though and the only bit which I still don't get is the line about elephants and dwarves, any chance you can tell me what this bloke exactly says in the video?
ReplyDeleteWilson presented the local news on TV in the 70s, Granada Reports. There was an item where elephants were washed by dwarves. It was the 1970s where that sort of thing happened
ReplyDeleteSwiss Adam
I can only echo all the other comments i've heard about this, it's so good. I'm a Lancastrian and grew up watching Anthony H Wilson till I left to live in Glasgow.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Adam, but what does he say exactly in this line? I always understand "I saw you would elephants hosing down some dwarves on black and white TV" ... which doesn't make all too much sense grammatically, right?
ReplyDeleteUnderstanding everything of the lyrics apart from this freaking line does me head in!!!
Dirk,
ReplyDeleteThat's a fuzzy bit for sure. And those lyrics are quite low in the mix, although I think that'll make the song considerably more listenable in the long term. The lyrics will become a nice wash of conciousness.
After a few listens I reckon it is:
"I saw you with elephants, hosing down dwarves on black and white tv."
Thanks a lot, Walker: what a relief!!!
ReplyDeleteTheWalker has the line right- there's a vocal only version to dl at the St Anthony site.
ReplyDelete