Strangers On The Shore

In the 2010s gentrification pushed Michael Smith, his partner and their infant son out of London and down to the south coast, the family settling in St. Leonards- on- Sea, a down at heel town next to Hastings. Smith is an author and flaneur* who wrote The Giro Playboy and Unreal City. When he moved to St. Leonards they decided to open a wine shop/ bar and the local community of artists and characters adopted this as the place to be. Michael found himself with a very young son, in a town he didn't know, staring out at the English Channel and sometimes wondering what on earth he'd done. Then came Covid and lockdown. 

In time he turned this part of his life into a book, Strangers On The Shore, published last month by White Rabbit. It's not a novel, it's not exactly a memoir, it's informal in tone and traces his life in St. Leonards and much more besides. The strangers on the shore are often himself and the young Raf, killing the days, making a few pounds go as far as they will. The book heads from the decision to move to St. Leonards and the early days in the town into all sorts of areas- Aleister Crowley, Michael's disgust with end stage capitalism, gentrification, mobile phones, excursions into philosophy via Diogones and quantum physics (light particles and sausage dogs), owls, items that appear before him falling out of the cliff face, his realisation that there are things cannot be explained rationally, 'perfidious Albion on speed', signs and symbols, Raf's early life and how he sees the world, fatherhood... hopping from one vignette to another, all linked by Michael's distinctive voice and life in St. Leonards. A psychic flight of fancy grounded in the very real and every day aspects of life interrupted by a global and national emergency.

There are encounters with Andrew Weatherall, a dream encounter some months after Andrew died and some real ones too. In one of them Michael talks to Andrew in Weatherall's East London studio bunker, telling him how much the song Shine Like Stars means to him, Andrew tells Michael that he really should hear the unreleased remix of Shine Like Stars (released by Primal Scream after Andrew's death). 

Shine Like Stars (Andrew Weatherall Instrumental Remix)

Copies of Strangers On The Shore bought from Gnostic Sonics came with an exclusive print and a pamphlet which described teenage Michael's life in the north east of England, his discovery of acid house (and acid) and his first meeting with Andrew. In the pamphlet Michael writes about Andrew, his craft and talent, and his abilities as a 'weather controller' (which comes from a Weatherall story in the early 90s about him being atop Silbury Hill, out of his mind on psychedelics and trying to control the weather). Michael books Andrew to play his bar in St. Leonards and the young Raf is introduced to the alchemy of a Weatherall DJ set and the power of dub. It's a evocative and very moving addition to the book, one of the best pieces of writing about Mr. Weatherall I've read. 

Back to Strangers On The Shore- Michael writes at one point that 'it's not easy trying to write your way out of a mid- life crisis'. I'll say no more but it's a highly affecting book, tender and funny, scabrous and rooted in very real life. St. Leonards becomes not just a 'rundown drinking town with a fishing problem' but the psychic motherlode. It's a book that stays with you after you've finished it, a book infused with 'magick with a K' (as Weatherall put it) a very human and readable memoir. 

In 2013 when Andrew Weatherall was Faber's artist in residence the company published Unreal City, Michael's second book. Andrew introduced himself to Michael and said he'd like to work with him. Together with Nina Walsh, Andrew created an ambient soundscape soundtrack for Michael to read Unreal City over, a spoken word/ ambient Weatherall album (which came in a beautiful special edition with annotated margins, a CD and a 10" single). 

In 2021 I strung all the different tracks together and uploaded them to Mixcloud. You can find it at Mixcloud here (with a comment from Michael himself and a link to more of his writings about the making of the album).  

Michael more recently recorded an EP with Ride bassist Steve Queralt, spoken word ruminations on modern life, mushrooms and Chaldean oracles with shimmering ambient backdrops. It's highly recommended as is the subsequent remix EP. Both are at Bandcamp. 

Michael's disgust with modern cities and 21st century lifestyles/ gentrification bleeds through on the track Glitches where he is flaneuring away in London and finds himself in a new part of the city, a re-developed hyper- capitalist shopping centre (Westfield in Stratford I think) surrounded by shops, flats and skyscrapers, glass and steel, cardboard cut out policemen in shop windows to ward off shoplifters, permanent bright lights and twenty four hour advertising selling a lifestyle that is for most people utterly unobtainable. Michael sees the city mutating in front of his/ our eyes into a megacity, people become permanent consumers, where the windows of shops selling suits promise that you are 'living the dream of a beautiful tomorrow'. As the track builds, Michael cuts to the chase, asking in his Hartlepudlian tones, 'What kind of a cunt's dream is this?'.

Indeed. 

* Flaneur- one who wanders aimlessly through city streets observing the surroundings and people with no specific direction or goal. I can quite easily slip into it myself.